SEO and Multilingual Marketing

Marketing on a global scale takes consideration and planning. What needs to be done differently and how do you approach the global marketplace? Neil Spencer from Column Five Media offers us some SEO tips along with a great infographic on international SEO.

Multilingual marketing hard? Not if you follow these three great tips!

The digital age we live in has widened the scope for businesses looking for new revenue streams. With just one click of a mouse, companies can now reach almost every language and culture across the globe. On the other hand, customers can to the same by using a number of different search engines that can be located in their home country or in another one.

This means multilingual marketing, and optimising business websites for this concept, has become very important, especially if businesses wish to build a strong relationship with the country of the market they wish to enter.

Many large countries – the United States, Russia, China – use search engines and social media to satisfy their hunger for information. Optimising websites for multilingual marketing is challenging and intimidating, but according to Neil Spencer in his article Marketing in a Global World, there are three steps every company must take to achieve success in this field.

Use TLDS or Local Top-Level Domains

If you use a local TLDs, for example .nl for the Netherlands, this could very well improve your ranking. Compared a general .com address, a local TLD might increase the trustworthiness of your website.

Local Hosting is the key

If your domain is hosted on a localized IP address, for example on the previously mentioned .nl on a Dutch Web server, both search engines and users will think your website is from the region the hosting refers to.

Adjust the language your website is in

Using the right language is also necessary to achieve success. This does not just mean using the language used in a particular country, but also writing in the way locals would do.

Even though Facebook is the main social network in almost every country, country-specific media mustn’t be overlooked.

The Chinese Qzone, for example, has 560 million users, and Russians spend most of their time on the social media site Odnoklassnik. Using these localities will strengthen the place of your company on the foreign market you are targeting. If you, in addition, also know what topics are hot in a country and manage to incorporate those in your content, success is around the corner!

Have you read our blog post – 10 Tips on International SEO?