"Going international" unfortunately isn't easy. Translating the corporate website is not enough.
Based on extensive experience helping companies enter the Italian market, XXX this 3 SEO and SEM tips on non-english site versions.
1. Professional Translation
Hire a professional translator, preferably from the targeted country, for your content and strategy. Don't use Google Translate
It's very important that when you design your new international strategy you get advice from professionals from that market. You need it for:
- Translations
You don't want to use tools like Google Translate to generate your new content. You should write content for your target audience, which will be completely different from the one you are using in your local strategy. Needless to say, you don't want to have errors and misprints on your content.
- Keyword strategy
You'll need help to figure it out. Google Keyword suggestion tool is useless without the expertise of someone that can tell the difference with a keyword and another one. It's not just a matter of translations.
- Search engines to target
Google is the major search engine in most countries, but not in all of them. You need to know in which search engines you need to be to be visible.
- Ad copy, meta descriptions, claims and so on
In other words marketing communications; you can't get those wrong! To create an effective ad you need someone that knows local expressions, traditions and so on.
The worst thing you can do is to have errors in your Ads. Even Google sometimes does it wrong and here is an example:
2. Local Domain & Brand
Try to use local TLDs. It helps your local SEO and in many cases will enhance trust.
If you can't use a new domain, use a subfolder, for instance /es or a subdomain, es.yourdomain.com .
If you are not using a local TLDs domain but still use a dedicated site, set your target country on webmaster tools .
- Log-in to https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools and select your website.
- Click on "Site configuration" and "Settings".
- On Geographic target select the country you want to target.
3. Link Building - Build Local
You need to build "local" links on your new domain or folder. Your old links will be almost useless. You will need to start from scratch and achieve links from trusted local websites in the same language.