Our international professionals translate your SEO texts

Working at the interface of multiple disciplines

What makes SEO translations so complex?

Have your SEO texts professionally translated by SEO project teams for multilingual websites

When it comes to professional SEO translations, success is governed by a wide range of factors. Different demands are placed on the content – and thus also on the translation – depending on the industry, product and target group. Background knowledge in the subject area and a specialist vocabulary are as essential as a natural, native-level feel for the language. To ensure that your website is optimally tailored for the target language and country, it is helpful to establish separate project teams to cover different requirements. In our translation agency, these project teams work at the interface of several disciplines – from technical translation, terminology and proofreading to search engine optimization and online marketing.

Translation of SEO texts and localization of metadata

In addition to the SEO texts – i.e., the content that is visible to users – each website also contains hidden text elements, or ‘metadata’. Metadata provide search engines and visitors with valuable information about the content of a website, which in turn helps to influence click behavior. For this reason, a good SEO translation must incorporate the adaptation of all SEO-relevant meta elements – such as page titles, meta descriptions and alt tags – for the target market in question. URLs, file names, image captions and keywords should also be localized.

Different countries, different search terms

International keyword research forms the basis for optimal SEO translations

Which terms are googled in different countries?

Regional search behavior differs from market to market and does not always give the results you might expect. For example, ‘Brexit’ did not make it into the top ten most frequent searches in the UK in 2019. Instead, sport led the way, with the users searching most often for ‘rugby world cup’ and ‘cricket world cup’. In Germany, the search term ’30 Jahre Mauerfall’ (’30 years since the fall of the Berlin wall’) achieved eighth place, while its equivalent ‘the fall of the Berlin wall’ reached a very commendable ninth place in Australia. ‘Notre Dame’ took the top position in France and Norway, though only the French searched for the full name ‘Notre Dame de Paris’.

Cultural nuances in search queries

Even where users are searching for the same topics, it is clear that the exact formulation of search queries differs widely across local markets. Users in the DACH region tended to refer specifically to the ‘anniversary’ of the fall of the Berlin Wall, while more distant markets such as Australia simply googled the event itself. French users entered the full name ‘Notre Dame de Paris’, while searchers in neighbouring countries entered only the commonly known shortened version ‘Notre Dame’. A good SEO text must reflect these types of subtleties, since it is precisely these cultural nuances that determine a translation’s ability to rank well in search engines. Thus, in addition to upstream keyword research for the local market, the SEO expertise of the native translator plays a decisive role.

Find the right keywords for each target market

To ensure that content is optimally adapted to the search behavior of target groups in markets around the globe, MONDIS compiles interdisciplinary project teams consisting of SEO experts, online marketing specialists and specialist translators. Thanks to this expertise and to an extensive set of tools, we are able to determine the relevant keywords for your target market, apply them to your translated content and differentiate your website from competitors. A keyword and competition analysis forms the basis for an SEO translation concept with long-term effectiveness, helping to increase visibility over time.

Different markets – different search engines?

In the first instance, search engine optimization means optimizing content for Google. With a more than 90 %¹ market share worldwide, Google is the clear industry leader. But there are interesting exceptions: in Russia, only just under half of all search queries are made via Google, while the other half² are processed by Yandex. In China, Google is as good as irrelevant: with a less than 5% market share, the market leader lags behind not only internet search giant Baidu but cross-language search service Sogou and mobile-first search engine Shenma.

¹ https://gs.statcounter.com/search-engine-market-share/all/europe, eingesehen am 27.02.2020
² https://gs.statcounter.com/search-engine-market-share/all/russian-federation

Man versus machine

What about automated translations?

Can tools, not translators, be the path to an effective SEO translation?

In the age of digitalization, it is tempting to use translation tools to convert texts into different languages automatically. However, tools such as Google Translate cannot replace professional human translators. The technology of machine translations is based on algorithms, which means that your text will be translated in the same way it has been translated on other websites. This can not only lead to unnatural-sounding content, but may generate duplicate content, too.

The importance of country-specific differences in the translation of SEO texts

Depending on the language, translation tools have access to different amounts of data. For English or Spanish, the data pool is larger than for Icelandic or Estonian. This means that it is not always possible to generate accurate translations for all languages. Country- or region-specific terms, such as proper names and holidays, may be translated incorrectly or not translated at all. Homonyms or polysemes may be misinterpreted because the machine cannot comprehend the full context. Information involving units of measurement, such as temperatures, are translated literally by artificial intelligence (AI) translators instead of being converted appropriately for the target market.

Assured quality, free from cultural translation errors

As a result of this, automated translation quickly reaches its limits – not least when it comes to the creation of specialist SEO translations. The AI does not have the necessary background knowledge – or the ability to transfer this knowledge to new contexts – to apply specialist terminology reliably and reproduce logical threads of argument. This poses various risks, particularly for complex or legally sensitive topics. Accurately translating these details in SEO texts requires a cultural background and a native feel for the language – a quality standard that no machine can (yet) meet.

An important trend

Voice search SEO

How voice assistants are changing search behavior

Whether “Hey Siri”, “Ok Google” or “Hello Alexa”, virtual voice assistants are enjoying increasing popularity. Thanks to their ability to recognize and understand spoken language, they are also changing search behavior. Traditionally, searches have been carried out by text input, with users entering a number of loosely-strung-together keywords in the search field. Most written search queries consist of proper names and nouns, sometimes in combination with the basic form of verbs. Speech search, on the other hand, imitates natural dialogue and is able to deal with Wh-questions. In practice, this means that while ‘conventional’ searches might take the form of “winner of the European Handball Championship” or “apply for a passport”, we ask Siri and Alexa: “Who won the last European Handball Championship?” or “How do I apply for a new passport?”

Natural-sounding SEO translations

In contrast to ‘conventional SEO’, where a ranking anywhere in the top ten can bring sufficient traffic, the only content that ‘ranks’ in voice search SEO is that which is read aloud by the search engine. For SEO translations, the implication of this is that texts must more closely resemble the spoken language. This is another reason why it is best to use native translators for each target language. It is through this exclusive use of native speakers that we, as a translation agency, are able to offer natural-sounding, professional SEO translations.