Adding content in different languages
-
I have a site which offers free printable greeting cards in English. I have noticed that many people find the site from other countries with keywords in foreign languages. The bounce rate from these countries is high since presumably they leave when they realize that all cards are in English only. I was thinking of providing some greeting cards in different languages. I was thinking of offering each language in a subfolder which is only have the cards in that language but the content will either be in English or an automatic translation per IP. I do not plan to translate the content into different languages only the cards. What is the best way to do this?
-
Hi Nicole,
Your situation adds an interesting twist. First let me share I do not have personal experience with this particular situation where the images contain translated text and the only text which is being auto-translated is the alt tags and page title. If anyone else has experience with a similar situation please jump in!
If I am understanding you correctly, the main site might be NicolesGreetingCards.com, and you may offer a Spanish folder such as NicolesGreetingCards.com/es for your Spanish cards.
On the main site you would have a "Merry Christmas" greeting card, where your /es folder would have a "Feliz Navidad" greeting card. Assuming my understanding is correct I would share the following feedback:
-
Google focuses on country-specific content rather moreso then language specific. Spanish in Mexico (/mx) is not the same as Spanish in Spain (/es). The same is true for English as US English is not the same as UK English. I would recommend offering a folder for each country rather then each language.
-
Your country folders should not only adjust for language but for all local factors. For example currency, measurement systems, laws, customs, etc.
-
My inexperienced guess is since you are performing very little translating it would be safe to use the automatic translations, but I would recommend using Mechanical Turk or a similar outsource worker approach for translations. It is exceptionally cheap and easy to use.
-
It seems you really should have some actual text as content. Whatever images you offer should ideally be searchable. Some types of cards I have seen are "Happy Birthday", "Happy Birthday from Son", "Happy Birthday from Wife", "Happy Birthday from Father", etc. The addition of those categories or minimal amount of text would help users locate the cards they seek. This text would require translation as well.
-
Be sure to use the language meta tags for translated content. Google should mostly pick up that /es is for Spain, but you want to provide all the proper signals to be certain they handle your content properly.
Good luck!
-
-
Thanks for your reply.
I realize that I didn't explain my question clearly. In the language folders I won't have any text but only images. Each image contains text (birthday wishes) in the language of that folder which is why I can't use the regular images. My goal is to get traffic for these languages via Google images only. The only translation that I plan to do is for the alt tags and page title. There will be no other text besides a link to the other languages.
Does that make a difference at all or anything I should be aware of regarding seo for google images in different countries?
-
I was thinking of offering each language in a subfolder which is only have the cards in that language but the content will either be in English or an automatic translation per IP. I do not plan to translate the content into different languages only the cards.
Based on your wishes, the proper method would be simply to add a translate widget to your web page. You would NOT want to add additional folders for content which is translated by any form of automatic translator as that violates Google's guidelines.
If you wish to have a human translate the content, then you are welcome to add language folders. The content would then be viewed as unique by Google and shared in their search results. If you attempt to display automatic translate in the same manner, you would likely incur a Google penalty.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Correct Hreflang & Canonical Tags for Multi-Regional Website English Language Only having URL Parameters
Dear friends, We have a multi-regional website in English language only having the country selector on the top of each page and it adds countrycode parameters on each url. Website is built in Magento 1.8 and having 1 store with multiple store views. There is no default store set in Magento as I discussed with developer. Content is same for all the countries and only currency is changed. In navigation there are urls without url parameters but when we change store from any page it add parameters in the url for same page hence there are total 7 URLs. 6 URLs for each page (with country parameters) and 1 master url (without parameters) and making content duplicity. We have implemented hreflang tags on each page with url parameters but for canonical we have implemented master page url as per navigation without url parameters Example on this page. I think this is correct for master page but we should use URL parameters in canonical tags for each counry url too and there should be only 1 canonical tag on each country page url. Currently all the country urls are having master page canoncial tag as per the example. Please correct me if I am wrong and **in this case what has to be done for master page? **as google is indexing the pages without parameters too. We are also using GEOIP redirection for each store with country IP detection and for rest of the countries which are not listed on the website we are redirecting to USA store. Earlier it was 301 but we changed it to 302. Hreflang tags are showing errors in SEMRush due to redirection but in GWT it's OK for some pages it's showing no return tags only. Should I use **x-default tags for hreflang and country selector only on home page like this or should I remove the redirection? **However some of the website like this using redirection but header check tool doesn't show the redirection for this and for our website it shows 302 redirection. Sorry for the long post but looking for your support, please.
International SEO | | spjain810 -
Duplicate Content Regarding Translated Pages
If we have one page in English, and another that is translated into Spanish, does google consider that duplicate content? I don't know if having something in a different language makes it different or if it will get flagged. Thanks, Ruben
International SEO | | KempRugeLawGroup1 -
How should I handle hreflang tags if it's the same language in all targeting countries?
My company is creating an international version of our site at international.example.com. We are located in the US with our main site at www.example.com targeting US & Canada but offering slightly different products elsewhere internationally. Ideally, we would have hreflang tags for different versions in different languages, however, it's going to be an almost duplicate site besides a few different SKUs. All language and content on the site is going to be in English. Again, the only content changing is slightly different SKUs, they are almost identical sites. The subdomain is our only option right now. Should we implement hreflang tags even if both languages are English and only some of the content is different? Or will having just canonicals be fine? How should we handle this? Would it make sense to use hreflang this way and include it on both versions? I believe this would be signaling for US & Canda visitors to visit our main site and all other users go to the international site. Am I thinking this correctly or should we be doing this a different way?
International SEO | | tcope250 -
International SEO - Mixing country targeting and language targeting in GWT.
Hi all! I want to start with International SEO process for my ecommerce. We sell worldwide with a .com domain, although the business is mainly focused in Spain. We maintain three languages, spanish, english and french with a non suitable structure. Now, after read a lot about it, I'm considering to use subdirectories for each language, /es/, /en/ and /fr/. And heres it's my first doubt: Could I avoid /es/ from spanish language as it's the default one? I've understood from recents Q&A that it's not needed although more user friendly. I'm trying to avoid tons of 301 from old urls for my main language. Anyway I want to know the best approach regardless complexity. My second doubt is about country targeting. After some research, I consider that it'd be interesting target country for /fr/ subdomain but language for /en/. Do you see any problem mixing both strategies? I know I also need to add the hreflang tag to guide googlebot. But I prefer to clarify these points first. Thanks a lot! Best regards.
International SEO | | footd1 -
Help! A never before asked query about using a ccTLD but hosting in a different country
Hi Guys, I've a website that has a India specific domain ending with .org.in. The website has ALL the traffic from India (as mentioned earlier, it's a website meant only for audience from India). Currently this _.org.in_domainis hosted on a server located in India. I'm thinking of hosting this website in Singapore. Do you think that will negatively affect the current rankings of the website (i.e. changing the server location of my website from India to Singapore)?
International SEO | | seotoseo0 -
Website Domains, Geographical targeting and Duplicate Content
My colleagues in Holland have 2 websites. I've copied and pasted their question - my comments are at the bottom "www.ancoferwaldram.nl with NL, EN and FR language www.ancoferwaldram.com with only EN language The EN versions Google sees as “duplicate content” so we have to get rid of that. I think we better use 1 website: www.ancoferwaldram.com with NL, EN, FR and maybe other languages and deactivate www.ancoferwaldram.nl Or keep the www.ancoferwaldram.nl with only the NL language? Or keep the www.ancoferwaldram.nl with direct links to www.ancoferwaldram.com and no content?" The focus is to get the site to rank in Non-eu countries for export. So given the .nl has higher DA (though only about 15) would it be better to have seperate .fr, .be, .com sites for specific languages and geo targeting. Or would it be better to keep everything on the same site? If so which domain? i assume that the duplicate content can be resolved by stating which is the canonical version, once the domain strategy is resolved welcome any thoughts here. 🙂
International SEO | | Zippy-Bungle0 -
Duplicate content on .co.uk and .com TLDs with different domain authority
What's the best approach to take for a site that has identical content on the .co.uk and .com versions of the root domain? The .co.uk version has a significantly higher domain authority (54 vs 32 according to Open Site Explorer - see attached screenshot). But it's an international company with its largest customer base in North America and customers in over 60 countries. The company does not intend to localize content. My initial thought before seeing the domain authority was to 301 redirect the .co.uk to the .com domain to consolidate all the link equity under one international TLD. However, I wondered if the higher domain authority for .co.uk would be passed on if we did this. I figured that a non-UK audience would be more likely to trust a .com site. I still think 301 redirecting .co.uk to .com might be the best strategy in the long term. But is there likely to be a dip in rankings and organic search volume in the short term until .co.uk is replaced in the index by .com? I'd really appreciate your thoughts on this. CbVnfSO.png
International SEO | | Torchbox0 -
E-commerce : 1 site per country or 1 site per language?
I'm working with an European e-commerce; they already have a French website with a .fr domain. They want to target the Belgium with a .be domain and the Nederland with a .nl domain. Belgium = 50% dutch, 50% French. Is it better to do 3 websites, one per country, or 2 websites, one per language ? Thinking to SEO, costs, VAT management, what is your opinion?
International SEO | | johnny1220
