Multilingual SEO

With multilingual SEO, content is optimized for more than 1 language. This can be for a website with a presence in one country or multiple countries, depending on the languages spoken.

If your services are basically the same no matter where the user is, and if you target users who speak different languages, you only have to worry about multilingual content. Facebook does this because the service is the same no matter where it’s accessed, but the user base speaks different languages:

1. Your Website May Not Require Multilingual or International SEO

You have to decide if you need to go through the trouble of setting up multilingual SEO and/or international SEO. It’s not a must for every website owner. If it’s not necessary right now — if it won’t bring in conversions or a profit — your SEO efforts may be better elsewhere, since this is a big undertaking with a lot of room for error.

Multilingual and international SEO are especially important factors for e-commerce. Here’s why:

• You have to take into account national currencies, export duties, and shipping fees.
• Your available products need to meet the needs of different markets.
• The product descriptions may need to be different to cater to the interests of the customer base.

Google Analytics can help you determine where your website traffic is coming from. If you’re already reaching some people in multilingual or international markets, you can decide how to optimize your site to attract even more traffic. If you currently have a big international audience in one specific country, start there. Maybe 10% of your traffic comes from Germany and other countries 1-3%. That’s definitely worth focusing on German-language SEO first.