Search Engine Optimisation For Websites Targeting Non-English Speaking Markets
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Optimisation for Non-English Websites
Return to the articles' index. Create Search Engine Success With a Google-Friendly Website was first published in the New Zealand Tourism Guide's September 2011 newsletter. It was aimed primarily at owners of small and medium-sized tourism businesses in New Zealand.
Website Search Engine Optimisation For Specific Countries
The wonderful thing about the World Wide Web is exactly that of course: its 'worldwide-ness'. However, going for the global market invariably brings with it some challenges. For example, your target audience may not be English speakers and will most likely be using the local language and geographic version of the major search engines (e.g. in Germany, users will be using google.de using German search terms).
You can still target a specific overseas, non-English speaking market through your website optimisation (as opposed to search engine advertising). However, before you publish or edit anything, consider: domain, hosting and website content.
Domains
Google recognises global positioning and serves up results to searchers based on their location. One factor in explaining where you are is your domain extension (.com for US/generically based global markets, .de for Germany, .fr for France and so on). Although your .co.nz or .com domain name will fare reasonably well overseas (especially if the search phrase includes 'nz' or 'new zealand'), the local domain extension may have more power (and better search results) in that country.
Hosting
Current opinion suggests the hosting of your website should be based in the target market you want to focus on as the IP address of the server will be recognised providing search engines with further information and 'proof' that you are based in that area.
Language
If your target market is France, then it is likely that a search query will be made in French on a search engine such as http://www.google.fr/ (Google France). Although search results appear with an option to translate, French speakers are more likely to view sites whose results display in French. Therefore it would be wise to write your website copy in French (including of course the Meta Data used in the search engine results pages).
Of these three, you may find that creating a new domain extension and hosting plan is not viable or worth the extra spend. However, publishing pages on your existing website in the primary language of your target market seems to be a good tactic, as pages will get picked up by search queries made in that language. (Do make sure that you include all the basic information in any second language pages: Product/service information, booking engine, booking confirmation and any relevant small print.)
Glossary
If any of these terms sound like a foreign language to you, please don't stew about it. You can refer to the (easy-to-understand) glossary of terms for more information.
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