Two of the most important pieces of your international marketing are distinctly different, but closely related: Localization and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Translation. It’s possible to Localize your website without SEO translation to make its content more “attractive” to search engine algorithms. But if you use text not tweaked to win search engine results, it’s likely that fewer people will ever have a chance to see your marketing.
Localization is the creative process of preparing your marketing content for a new, foreign audience by incorporating knowledge of the following issues.
1. Cultural preferences such as colors, symbols, and music.
2. Country-specific rules, laws, time, and monetary details.
3. Language and dialect accuracy.
4. Language nuances in humor, slogans, emotional appeal, tag lines, and customer interaction.
5. Awareness of product features and how they relate to your new audience.
6. Most popular devices, platforms, and social media in your target country.
7. Localization of software at the code level, for a seamless website experience.
SEO, on the other hand, is the creation of text that appeals not only to human customers, but also to Search Engine algorithms. Directly translating your original-language key words and phrases to attempt SEO for a new language can be useless and even counterproductive. Searches by your target audience in a foreign country are likely to include different words and phrases, and even slight variations in wording make a difference in search engine results. All of the work required in the seven areas listed above is essential and can precisely communicate to your intended audience – but none of it ensures that they will be able to find your website in the first place.
That’s where SEO comes in. The first step in SEO translation is research to discover the keywords and phrases that customers in your target market usually use to search for products like yours. The best keywords are then integrated into your online marketing texts, and if they don’t fit well, new text is created. Metadata descriptions and title tags (title of the page that appears when your website is searched) must be Search Engine Optimized as well. Creating catchy, SEO titles for your texts is also helpful. These text choices and other text and technical adjustments that are part of SEO are designed mostly to win high search engine rankings. SEO and Localization work together to engage both search engines and human readers.
Successful marketing of your product in a new country is not a matter of luck or magic. Accurate, compelling websites that are masterfully Localized for your human audience and SEO-enhanced for search engine algorithms, are the product of careful, knowledgeable work. Skrivanek can localize and SEO translate your marketing for dozens of international audiences.
J. V. McShulskis
