18 Nov International SEO: 7 strategies for expanding your website
Have you ever thought about exporting your website abroad, to open up new markets and make your products and services known to thousands of other users? If yes, you’ve come to the right place: in this article we’ll discuss International SEO and give you some useful tips to make localising your website as uncomplicated as possible.
Beyond expectations, your website has been getting outstanding results lately: visits are constantly increasing, as are recurring users, sales are doing great, and revenue has never been higher.
In short, everything seems to point in one direction: an international version of your website translated into another language.
Yet at first glance, such a process might seem extremely complicated: how do you actually leverage International SEO and create a localised version of your website that can attract foreign users and increase sales?
If you’re considering going for it but are worried it may be too complex, fear not: we at Creative Words have accumulated experience in this field over the years, and we’ve gathered 7 strategies to expand your website and make the most of International SEO in this article.
To translate or retranslate…
If you’re thinking of expanding to a new market through International SEO, you may have made attempts to translate your website in the past, perhaps relying on a non-professional translator or – heaven forbid – Google Translate.
Once you decide to get back to work in earnest on the International version of your site, then you may be tempted to simply fix the past translation, trying to salvage what you can and thus lighten the load.
However, in cases like these it’s often advisable to decide to completely eliminate any previous translations, creating a new one that is based on a proper SEO strategy and done by industry professionals who can tell your story in another language with maximum effectiveness.
In other words, although it might seem the opposite, in many cases it’s often better to (re)start from scratch!
…or perhaps localise?
In the process of translating your website, especially following the rules of International SEO, it’s crucial to create a version that is not only faithful to the original, but is also adapted (and tailored) to the new target market.
As you have probably read in one of our many articles on the subject, no one will feel emotionally involved by an anecdote related to a lifestyle that’s different from their own or a cultural reference that’s completely incomprehensible.
Simply put, expanding your website not only means translating phrases and words into another language, but more importantly adapting your content to the sensivities and expectations of a different audience. In a word, localising it.
Never neglect preparation
Before you begin the real work of translating/localising your website and taking advantage of International SEO, you need to think about several things: are there specific terms that it’s important to translate in a certain way, or concepts and ideas that you should keep in mind when transposing to another language?
These two questions can be a great starting point for creating translation guides and glossaries. Imagine you have four translators working on your website and each of them asks how you prefer to translate the same word… all multiplied by a hundred or a thousand words. Sounds like a nightmare, doesn’t it?
But fortunately, the solution is easier than it seems: the only thing you really need to do is ensure that the translation work begins after having thoroughly clarified any problematic elements or specific terms, so as to minimise questions during the work and, of course, the need for corrections.
You’ll be needed
Although glossaries and translation guides help solve many problems during the work, they will certainly not be able to answer everything. So most likely, the translators working on your website with International SEO will need to directly discuss any perplexities with you.
So it will be important to always be available to the team of linguists so that any concerns can be resolved in a short time. Imagine that your translators need to talk to you urgently in order to proceed with the translation of a sentence: in this case, a delay in response could even cause a delay in delivery! It’s clear how being present at all times is critical in ensuring that deadlines can be met.
Don’t forget a calendar
If you’ve been reading our articles for a while, you’ll have realised by now that the process of website translation is extremely complex, and that it takes time to be able to achieve a good result.
Assuming this, it’s important to give your translators generous time frames and not rush them, so as to avoid mistakes or inaccuracies.
Once you’ve decided to expand your website using International SEO, create a roadmap taking into account the work of the translators and the time they need – we guarantee that the end result will be worth the wait!
Take advantage of integrations to facilitate the work
The most important moment comes once your chosen linguists have finished the localised version of your site: putting the translation on your website and launching your new, improved version with International SEO.
What if we told you that there’s a way to automate this process so that you can instantly transport the translation from the translators’ CAT tool to your site’s CMS?
Ever heard of connectors? They are an extremely practical solution to facilitate the process of implementing the translation directly on your site. If you’d like to learn more about it, we talked about it in depth a few weeks ago.
Choose the right team
Of course, we can only conclude our brief guide to International SEO with the most important advice: choose the professionals you entrust with the task of expanding your website very carefully.
It’s surely clear by now that localising online content is a long and complex process requiring knowledge in various fields and the right amount of experience.
We at Creative Words are regularly involved in translating and localising websites. If you’d like more information about our work, please download our free case study in which we present some of the results we are most proud of. If you are thinking of expanding your business abroad and would like more information, please fill out the contact form to learn more about how we can help you.
