If you have invested time and money in having a multilingual website that does not generate contacts abroad, you are better off investing 5 minutes and reading the article; if you are an expert marketer, you probably already know the contents of this article (and can avoid reading it).
5 minutes – reading
The question that often arises in relation to digital internationalisation is: how can I find new contacts abroad through the multilingual website that I’m going to translate, or why, despite having invested a lot of money, my translated website is currently not working in this direction?
Target localization and marketing strategy
Let’s see if you have correctly carried out the following 3 phases: planning – localisation – SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) activities.
Below you can find the next 3 steps, which must be implemented to have any chance of achieving interesting results.
The first step is to define an internationalisation marketing plan, which identifies the economic resources to be allocated in offline and online marketing, i.e., the money you have available for offline (trade fairs, offline advertising, catalogues, etc.) and for online activities. To obtain money to invest, as well as drawing on company liquidity, you may resort to tenders that finance marketing activities for the internationalisation of the company (regional tenders, Simest tenders, etc.).
Once the total ceiling and the related investment plan have been defined, you have a reasonable quantification of the budget available for the digital activity, which you will have to invest in the various online activities.
The second step regards the professional translation of the website in relation to the geographical area you want to reach, only after having ensured that your multilingual site has been created correctly from a technical point of view, both in terms of security and efficiency. This means that you have spent the right amount for the creation of a professional and graphically attractive multilingual website.
At this point you should resort to a professional translation agency that will carry out the localisation of your website based on the geographical area and on the customers you want to be found by (therefore on their language).
I have bad news for you: to do this, a traditional translation agency, even if competent, is unfortunately not enough. It is necessary to ask for help to an agency that has one or more specialists in SEO techniques who, in collaboration with native translators, are able to identify the keywords used by your potential foreign customers, in the various languages, to search for the product they need. This step is crucial, as otherwise your competitors will reach customers.
It is necessary that the translation (or rather the localisation) of your website is carried out focusing on SEO aspects, i.e., that your translation agency uses the appropriate keywords. To learn more, click here.
Let’s consider the third step, the most complex and which requires time, patience, and in-depth SEO knowledge.
To make your site appear on the first page of results of a search engine (essentially Google) you need to improve the organic positioning of your site in the search results. Organic positioning is advantageous compared to paid positioning (Google ADV) because it is more credible and continuous over time. I recommend the former to companies.
To achieve this result, as all marketers know, your website must be continuously enriched with content, through:
- a company blog that makes your site interesting for search engine and its users. Therefore, it is necessary to pay maximum attention in translating the contents of your blog into all languages and in developing interesting topics, planned in an editorial plan, based on the geographical area in which you are focusing your digital efforts.
- link building, i.e., by having your site linked in websites of interest for the products or services you offer (which are items of e-commerce or services of any kind). To do this you need a consultant who knows how to properly size the investment in relation to the benefits obtained. If you manage to produce interesting content in relation to the sector you deal with, other websites will soon contact you to carry out cross link building actions. To learn more, click here
- email outreach activities, in order to create links to support your SEO strategy, which means planning to send emails to the target audience to induce them to visit and connect to your website.
Professional translations and multilingual SEO
Naturally, these multilingual SEO activities will need to be supported and coordinated by Social Media Management activities on multilingual social media, but this is a topic that deserves dedicated coverage.
Here’s some good news: if you are looking for a company that will follow you in the 3 crucial steps presented in this short article, we at Qontent Group are here for you. We have wide-ranging skills and know-how both in multilingual website translations and in international digital marketing consultancy, and will be able to offer you solutions suited to your needs and budgets.
Nicola Pansini
Head of Marketing – Qontent Group
Qontent Group – words and languages for your business
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