Grow your business with multilingual SEO and SEO translation


Imagine selling your products or services in the top international marketplaces. Imagine potential customers in foreign countries who seek exactly what you offer – and being the first stop on their buyer’s journey. With multilingual SEO, international sales success is just a few clicks away. The key: unique, optimized content in the language of your target audiences.

Did you know that more than 70% of consumers are more likely to buy products in their native language. What is more, 60% rarely or never buy from English-only websites. To compete on the global market, you must translate your web content. However, that is only part of the equation. If you want to show up in local online searches, you need translations that follow multilingual SEO best practices.

iTi will help you develop an international SEO strategy to improve your search ranking in foreign markets. Our international SEO specialists and experienced SEO translators deliver more than simple translations. They provide you with optimized multilingual web content that puts your business ahead of the competition – literally.

SEO Translation brain graphic. Left side seo structure, right side creativity

What is multilingual SEO?


SEO (short for search engine optimization) is the art and science of making a webpage attractive to search engines. A higher search ranking results in more traffic for your website. But just because your site performs well in your home country does not mean it will be effective in foreign markets.

To ensure visibility in online searches abroad, you need international or multilingual SEO. What’s the difference?

  • Multilingual SEO involves the translation of SEO copy and keywords into other languages. This can be beneficial both on an international and on a national level. For example, a US company could use SEO translations to reach Spanish-speaking customers abroad, but also optimize its Spanish copy to target the large number of Spanish speakers within the United States.
  • International SEO can be monolingual. A US company may target potential customers in other English-speaking markets, such as England, Canada, Australia, etc. While they all speak a common language, search preferences may vary by region and affect relevant keywords.

Here’s an example: The term “gas grill” has 74,000 monthly searches in the United States. In the United Kingdom, however, less than 1,000 people search for this term each month. “Gas barbecue,” on the other hand, has more than 8,000 monthly searches in the UK, making it a much better keyword option in that market.

If you are interested in SEO for multilingual sites, iTi is your one-stop shop. Our experienced SEO translators weave the optimization part seamlessly into the translation process. The result is a native-level content that captures the attention of readers and search engines alike. Save time and money by placing your translation and optimization needs into the hands of our international SEO specialists.

What makes SEO translations different?

In the past, SEO copy writing involved placing as many keywords as possible on a web page. This led to websites that were crowded with keywords, which appealed to search engines but not human readers.This type of keyword stuffing is a red flag for modern search algorithms. Their goal is to provide users with the most relevant, helpful results – and that does not always mean the pages with the most keywords. While keywords still play their part in SEO, other aspects such as readability and page structure are now important ranking criteria.

SEO translators are also copywriters

Good, unique content is arguably the most important ranking factor for any website. This applies to translations as well. In fact, your SEO translations need to be at least as good as your original, native language content.Multilingual SEO requires more than sprinkling localized keywords across the page. Specialized SEO translators have the linguistic skills to relay your message and the writing skills to do so in the context of international content marketing. The SEO translation process is comparable to a transcreation. Resonance with the reader and cultural nuances need to be taken into account. Why? If a text doesn‘t capture the reader’s attention, he or she quickly clicks away. This sends a signal that negatively affects your search ranking.

How does machine translation fit in your international SEO strategy?


The short answer is: it doesn’t. Machine translation is still far from producing results that even approach the linguistic level required to vow modern search algorithms. Google not only recognizes web pages that have been translated using MT – it may even penalize them. Google’s quality guidelines clearly warn against using automated content, including “text translated by an automated tool without human review or curation before publishing.”

What about translating single words or short phrases? This may seem like an easy job for AI, but don’t entrust your keyword localization process to Google Translate just yet. Context matters, and the results will be hit-and-miss – and in some cases can be downright disastrous. Keyword research requires cultural insight and linguistic finesse and is best left to human hands.

What results can you expect from multilingual SEO?


A SEO strategy for multilingual sites won’t produce immediate results. The more foreign language content you create, the better your ranking in the target market will become.

Producing multilingual SEO content is time- and labor-intensive, but it promises to pay off in the long term. Each time Google finds your content in answer to a search query, your site’s relevancy score goes up. The more relevant your website is in Google’s eyes, the higher your content will rank. The result: more traffic, higher conversion rates, and better profit margins.

Contact iTi to discuss how our multilingual SEO specialists can help your business grow internationally. Whether you need help with local keyword research or are looking to make your content more widely accessible with SEO translations, our team is here to support you with your international SEO strategy.

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