Learn how to do SEO for website translation with this ebook:
The Definitive Guide to SEO for Website Translation
Do you work in the translation industry?
Want to get more clients by differentiating yourself?
If you answered yes, I have a little secret for you: learning to do search engine optimization (SEO) for web translations with this guide will give you a massive advantage since SEO is still relatively obscure in the translation and localization world.
Publish year: 2015, 2020
ISBN 978-0-9963688-0-3
30 pages, 2.4 MB
Instant PDF download after purchase
[add_to_cart id=”6926″]While previously working for a top global translation agency, I learned two things about the industry:
1. Just a few top translation agencies were growing rapidly, and were dominating the entire industry.
2. It’s extremely difficult for the majority of translators to gain steady income. In fact, most of the project managers at the agency had prepared academically to become translators, but did other work at the agency because they couldn’t get a full-time job or because they couldn’t find enough clients to support a freelance lifestyle.
It is estimated that there are over 600,000 translators in the world. In such a competitive landscape, it’s vital that your offerings stand out, e.g., obscure language combinations or specialized subject matter such as medicine or heavy industry.
So here’s my suggestion: provide search engine optimized translations.
Not only is e-commerce and web content growing at an explosive pace, but most translators and translation agencies have no clue how to do SEO, even the ones that claim that they do. This observation is directly from my own experience while talking with account managers and senior management at three prestigious agencies. Everyone thought that SEO was just doing keyword research in the targeted languages, and including them somewhere in the translated text.
The need for web translations stems from the need for increased online visibility and/or sales. By integrating SEO with web translation, you’ll provide so much more value than your competitors.
With this book, get answers to questions like
How does Google understand the content of a webpage?
How should you perform keyword research?
Which elements of a website need to be translated?
Why learn from me?
I have provided SEO consulting for more than 30 clients, including for well-known Fortune 500 brands in the telecom, CPG, and automobile sectors.
Before my SEO career, I did vendor, project, and quality management within the translation and localization industry for clients such as Nikon, Thomson Reuters, and Caterpillar. I also have translation and proofreading experience from Korean to English for clients such as Google and Microsoft, and have spoken twice at ProZ conferences, receiving over 2,000 attendees for each talk.
[Some SEO clients I’ve worked with]
“I found [the book] easy to understand and I really like the fact that you had examples and not only a general explanation about SEO. I found a very useful book to understand SEO in a simple and direct way.”
– Gislene Kucker Arantes, translator English and Dutch to Brazilian Portuguese
“Jenn combines her knowledge of multiple languages and in-depth enterprise SEO experience to provide you with unparalleled information on how to best translate and optimize your web content.”
– Tom Whittam, SEO Consultant, Ayima
“An excellent introduction to SEO from Ms Prufer. Not just for those that are multilingual, but a thoroughly recommended read for anyone that has interest in how to increase website visits from search engines.”
– Dhanesh Shelat, Director of Digital Solutions & SEO at Loreal Group
Table of Contents
CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 WHY AM I WRITING THIS BOOK?
1.2 WHO WILL BENEFIT FROM THIS BOOK?
CHAPTER 2. SEO BASICS
2.1 WHAT IS SEO?
2.2 WHY IS SEO IMPORTANT?
2.3 HOW DOES SEO WORK?
2.4 WHAT ABOUT INTERNATIONAL SEARCH ENGINES?
CHAPTER 3. ON-PAGE SEO ELEMENTS
3.1 HOW DOES GOOGLE UNDERSTAND THE CONTENT OF A WEBPAGE?
3.2 HOW SHOULD YOU PERFORM KEYWORD RESEARCH?
3.3 WHICH ON-PAGE ELEMENTS ARE IMPORTANT FOR SEO?
SUMMARY
APPENDIX
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1.1 Why am I writing this book?
When this book was published in 2015, it was the only book that provided actionable details on how to integrate SEO with web translation. As you can imagine, things change quickly in the SEO world, and it was time to update the book.
However, what I had observed back then still holds true today: Almost all translation agencies and many freelancers claim that they can deliver search engine optimized translations, but many do not make their methods and processes transparent, leading me to doubt their SEO capabilities.
Any published thought piece from an agency that I’ve seen related to the subject just rehashes what everyone else says: not to use automated translations, and to perform keyword research.
Because of the lack of literature on website localization, I thought that I should use the knowledge I’ve acquired from working in both the translation and SEO industries to create a practical SEO guide for translators, end clients, and everyone else in the translation industry, including account managers, project managers, and engineers.
An introduction of SEO is included to provide an overall background for those interested in learning more about the field, but a comprehensive explanation of SEO would drastically enlarge the scope of this book. You can find plenty of free online resources that provide excellent information for that; I will provide some links in the appendix.
The main focus of this book is SEO techniques and know-how that are directly related to the translation process.
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1.2 Who will benefit from this book?
Translators: If you translate any public web content, whether related to heavy industry or fashion, you will help your client gain online visibility.
Also, learning SEO would be a great way to distinguish yourself and advance your career, especially since very few translators understand how it works. It could also open up new opportunities as an SEO content writer.
Account managers and salespeople: When speaking with clients, promise search engine optimized website localization with confidence, and charge significantly more for each project.
Localization project managers and engineers: How long should the meta title tag be? Should you translate image alt text? This guide goes over HTML and other web elements that are important for SEO so that you can plan web translations projects effectively.
End client: I witnessed first-hand a director at a prestigious global translation agency promising the client that she would prioritize SEO for the translation, but had no clue how SEO worked, and had asked the project manager with zero SEO experience to get it done.
That project manager was me before I made a career switch into marketing.
Read this guide to be able to gauge the SEO knowledge of your translators and account managers before signing a contract.
Additionally, translating web content with SEO in mind will significantly reduce your company’s budget and time in comparison to doing general translations, and then hiring an SEO agency to make adjustments afterwards.
Your goal for translating your webpages is to expand visibility and/or sales within different markets; SEO is the perfect complementary channel for that goal.
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