Multilingual Optimization Tactics

[dominating_seo]

Hiya Mates,

I have taken a Multilingual SEO project for which I am trying hard to optimize. The website is offering accommodation in Italy. It has different geo-targeted domains for different language like .it for Italy, .de for Dutch/Germany, .eu for france, etc.

Currently I am trying to optimize German/Dutch domain (example: www.mysite.de). Not to mentioned but I am not familiar with German language.

Can anyone recommend me tactics to optimize this domain for www.google.de?

Thanks in advance.

-DS

[A.N.Onym]

On-page optimization is the first thing that comes to mind. It is not language specific:
- unique titles for pages
- h2-4 tags
- good interlinking
- meta description

Unfortunately, to do keyword research you'll need to learn German. Or hire someone, who knows it.

Same with link building and anchor text optimization.

[dominating_seo]

On-page optimization is the first thing that comes to mind. It is not language specific:
- unique titles for pages
- h2-4 tags
- good interlinking
- meta description

Unfortunately, to do keyword research you'll need to learn German. Or hire someone, who knows it.

Same with link building and anchor text optimization.

I did the keyword analysis with the help of my client and with the help of that analysis I did some on page optimization but the keywords we are targeting are bit competitive, so I cannot rank well with only on page optimization. On other hand, I am unable to do off page optimization properly as I am not familiar with German.

Still I am trying to submit sites to geo-targeted directories with the help of Google Translate but its very time consuming, still not accurate.

-DS

[A.N.Onym]

Well, you can try writing link-worthy content that interest Germans in English and promote them on social sites, etc. Hopefully, they'll write about it with German anchor text.

That being said, I haven't tested it and I really think that, if you need to achieve good results, faster, esp in a competitive industry, you need to know the language.

Why did you take up the task not knowing German in the first place?.

[A.N.Onym]

In my experience, learning a German topic for someone remotely versed in German (as in, 2-3 years of uni studying), it takes 2-3 weeks. To do learn the topic to do SEO well, it'd take 3-4 weeks.

For you to become versed in German, it'll take months, if not a year or two, if you spend 3-4 hours a day studying and practicing it. Take it from someone with 4 years of studying to be a teacher of English and German as a foreign language

Good luck, I guess.

[jabo]

^^well, do think that using some tools like Google translator is ok? I mean you can make an article or press release in english and have it translated in the tool. if you're not sure with the grammar or something, get someone to check it first. someone who knows German

[A.N.Onym]

Using software to translate your articles is the same as outsourcing article writing for $1/500 words: same quality.

Asking someone efficient in German might help, but it depends on the person and, most likely, it'd still require sometime to fix the errors. For a person fluent with languages, it's easier to translate from scratch, than to fix grammatical, semantic and spelling errors.

[dominating_seo]

For a person fluent with languages, it's easier to translate from scratch, than to fix grammatical, semantic and spelling errors.

I would agree with this that its very tough to correct article in Germany, rather it will consume very less time to write brand new article. My client knows German well, so I'll need to ask them to help me out with this but then I think that telling them to write article from scratch will be bit awkward... don't you think so?

-DS

[A.N.Onym]

It was your choice to take up a project in a language you are not fluent in. The awkward situation you are in is the result of such a decision.

If you really don't want to make your client do the work for you, you'll probably need to get help from a freelancer, who knows German.

I am not sure about the relationships with your client, but:
- if the German part is only a small part of your job, then hiring a freelancer to do it or educating the client on how to do it, if he has free time, is good enough
- if the German part of the project is noticeable, then hiring a more reputable freelancer/company may be required.

Alternatively, you can hire a [copy]writer, not a SEO, to write articles for you. I believe you can look up relevant words in the German dictionary/thesaurus and keyword research from there. Then again, it all depends on you, your client and the project.

[prof.stan]

- meta description

Do you think meta description is effect our ranking