If you’ve ever thought you’d like your website to show up on the first page of search results in Google when you type in terms relevant to your services, then you already have some understanding of what SEO is. Perhaps you know even more about it than you realise.
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation – meaning incorporating practices and methods into your online strategy that can help you rank better in relevant search results. Much of Google’s guidelines for SEO emphasise how important it is to have a great website and provide a great service that customers are happy with and return to. Manipulating your site purely to improve SEO can even result in penalties. But one thing is for certain, having an awareness of the words that your customers may use to try to find you and ensuring those terms are someone where on site can begin to SEO process is a healthy way.
Still not making sense to you? Think about it this way. If you want to look for a dry cleaners, near you, in a certain area of Dublin, let’s say Swords as an example, how would you look for it? It’s pretty likely that if you decide to use a search engine, you’ll type in something like ‘Dry cleaners Swords’, or ‘Dry cleaners Swords, Dublin.’
Customers seeking out services or products that you provide will probably search in a similar way.
So in order for search engines to know that you are indeed a dry cleaners, located in Swords, Dublin, those words should exist somewhere on your site. If you sell an unusual or rare product, make sure to use the name of that product on your site.
So where does translation come into it all?
It’s going to be relatively easy to figure out what words and phrases you should be using within your website and blog posts in your native language – maybe even in a second language your fluent in. But are there other markets you’d ideally like to be targeting online who don’t speak either of these languages?
Localisation of your site can mean having multiple sites, or multiple versions of a site that each contain content professionally translated into local languages. You’ll be more likely to be incorporating phrases and terms that people whose native tongue that is actually use. ‘Broken’ versions of other languages could even damage your site’s rankings.
Launching a website may seem like you can suddenly sell your products to the whole world, but if customers can’t find you, they can’t buy. Ensure your site communicates with a broad customer base all over the world, and make sure Google.de, Google.ru and all of the other global Googles take your site and your business seriously by having it translated professionally.
Contact us for a professional translation consultation or quote for your business.
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