English has dominated the web since its start, with roughly 26% of all web content written in English as of January 2020. Yet only 17% of the world’s population speaks the language. That leaves almost 6.5 billion people by the wayside. So why miss out on capturing the attention of this massive audience with an seo-optimized multilingual blog?
When you create a blog, it’s easy to assume that you only need to write in one language. But as you grow your business, having a multilingual blog can expand your reach and capture even the tiniest sliver of the 6.5 billion people that don’t speak the internet’s most popular language.
In this guide, we’ll walk through five simple tips on creating an SEO-optimized multilingual blog so that people can find your content in their native language.
Let’s dive in.
Why is a multilingual blog important?
Have you ever dreamt of being able to reach the entire world with your blog? With a multilingual blog, you can do just that.
A multilingual blog is beneficial if your business has international clients or customers — or if your target audience speaks different languages.
And with internet penetration rates increasing around the world, especially in Asia, it’s essential to have a multilingual blog that can cater to readers worldwide.
Your brand will seem more trustworthy if you have multilingual content for everyone who needs it, from potential business partners to individual consumers.
When it comes to SEO, every language is an entirely separate entity. Each new language means reaching a whole new group of people that weren’t previously exposed to your content.
That can translate into more traffic for your site and new opportunities to convert visitors into paying customers.
So let’s take a closer look at how you can build an SEO-optimized multilingual blog to capitalize on these benefits.
1. Focus on URL structure
Duplicate content is a primary concern when running a multilingual blog.
Search engines don’t know which piece of content to show users if you have a Spanish and English version of the same blog post. And your content will fail to rank well on search engine results pages (SERPs).
For example, when Google sees the same content on multiple pages, it’ll ignore all duplicate pages and only show the first variation of content on the SERP.
To avoid this problem, create unique URL strings for each language version so that they’re always different from each other.
Samsara does an excellent job creating URLs with a language indicator. Since they offer products in different regions, they’ve adapted their informational content about telematics, fleet safety, compliance and DVIR to adhere to the native languages of their audiences worldwide.
For best practice, Google recommends the following URL structures:
- Country-specific domain: samsara.mx
- Subdomains: mx.samsara.com
- Subdirectories: samsara.com/mx/
In this example, Samsara uses subdirectories to indicate the URLs of the translated guides in the Spanish language.
Subdirectories are a great option because they are easy to set up and maintain. Plus, they’re cost-effective since you don’t need to purchase a separate domain. Even Apple uses the subdirectory URL structure.
2. Insert hreflang annotations
Hreflang annotations are a language targeting tool that helps search engines understand the relationship between your different page versions.
When translated versions exist, they can help you reach more users by showing them the correct version of your content in their language and country.
For example, suppose you want to show French-speaking users a version of your blog post in French instead of English. In that case, you’d add hreflang annotations to it so that Google The HTML code would look something like this:
<link rel=”alternate” hreflang=”fr” href=”homeandjet.com” />
Suppose you only want to show your French-speaking users in Canada to see this version of the blog post, then you can use this HTML code:
<link rel=”alternate” hreflang=”fr-ca” href=”homeandjet.com” />
3. Translate your metadata
Metadata is one of the best ways to improve your site’s technical SEO and make it easier for search engines to crawl and index your content.
There are three main areas where you need to translate your metadata:
- Meta description
- Meta title
- Meta keywords
Metadata also helps readers find your content. When you browse the results page on Google, you are looking at the meta title and meta description of the content.
So if you only translate your blog content without touching the metadata, you are only improving one aspect of your SEO strategy. Translating your metadata is the “secret sauce” to help improve your organic clickthrough rates in search results.
4. Conduct language-specific keyword research
Keyword research is the foundation of any good SEO strategy. In this process, you may consider using a keyword research tool that will help to discover the right keywords to optimize your content, so you can attract more readers to your website.
And every multilingual blog should start with keyword research. But remember, you don’t want to miss out on sizable audiences by only conducting keyword research for one language.
For example, the United States is home to 254 million native English speakers. But Spanish is the fastest-growing language in the country.
Since this blog post provides information on the cost of moving across the United States, it’d also benefit from a translated post in Spanish. But that doesn’t mean your keyword will be the same in the translation language.
You must conduct keyword research for the appropriate language and target market to get the most out of your multilingual blog post.
Thankfully, you can use Ahrefs, Semrush and other SEO tools to help you perform keyword research on the translations.
Ahrefs shows that “mudanzas baratas” and “camiones de mudanza” have decent search volume and low keyword difficulty on the moving topic. These are excellent keyword options when writing a translated Spanish post about moving costs in the United States.
However, having native speakers check your multilingual content and keywords is always a good idea. This control check will help avoid awkward mistakes and ensure your content is relevant to local audiences.
5. Don’t use an automatic translator
Google uses the content of your page to determine its language instead of any code-level information such as lang attributes or the URL.
To help Google detect the correct language, ensure all of the text on individual blog posts is in one language and avoid side-by-side translations.
Google also recommends avoiding automatic translators because they don’t always produce the most accurate word-for-word translations. They can generate a bad user experience, seem spammy and harm your website’s reputation.
Instead, consider hiring someone that speaks the native language to translate your blog content or outsource to a professional translation service.
Don’t jeopardize your blog content by running it through an automatic translator. Although you feel like it might have everything covered, it’ll do more harm than good.
Wrapping up
SEO is more than just a few keywords and fancy title tags. It’s a long-term process that requires consistent effort.
Use these tips and strategies to build multilingual blog with SEO-optimized content that’ll help you rank higher in multiple languages and drive long-term business success.
Happy blogging!
About the author
Kelly Moser is the co-founder and editor at Home & Jet, a digital magazine for the modern era. She’s also an expert in freelance writing and content marketing for SaaS, Fintech and ecommerce startups.