How to set up a multilingual website for SEO
Multiregional ones are created for visitors from different countries. Most often, they are doing online shopping, selling products in all regions. For each country, their own platforms are created - it increases the chances of a quick and successful promotion. The ranking algorithm primarily generates a SERP from pages created for local users.
Multilingual ones are made for visitors who speak different languages, even if they live in the same country. For example, in Canada, a manufacturer can launch two versions of an online store - for French and English speaking customers. This is taken into account when ranking. The search engine first displays pages written in the same language as the query.
Please note: the same websites can be both multiregional and multilingual.
How to create a multilingual website: SEO methods and their differences
● use of different domain names;
● different subdomains;
● categories and folders.
On different domain names
As a result, in the address bar of the resource for each country will be prescribed a domain under which it was developed, for example:
● .de;
● .it;
● .pl;
● .com.
The name of the website may remain the same or also be translated to be better perceived. Since one more is added to the above-described disadvantages of this method — due to the independence of the sites, their overall reference weight and age, which would have been if they functioned as one resource, are lost, this option is usually refused.
On different subdomains

In categories and folders

Developers may offer other options, depending on the size of the budget. For example, to make the whole site in one language, and one or more of its pages on another. They will collect and redirect users to the main resource. Or use popular CMS, allowing to implement the site in several languages.
For example, multilingual in Joomla is installed using the extension FaLang, and the plugin WPML helps you create a multilingual WordPress site.
What errors occur when setting up a multilingual
It is important! You should not specify the country code - the search engine will not be able to determine it. At the same time, it is permissible to put a language code, and after it a country code, if you need to open access to the web page only for visitors from a particular region.
For example, fr-be is a page in French for readers from Belgium or nl-be for those readers in Dutch.

What else to look for when translating a site
Encoding
The problems arise in two cases: if the encodings are mixed or the project is converted - after a while the site was translated, adding another language version. As a result, errors may appear on the page - the words from another language that are incomprehensible to the user.

Content
There are also certain requirements for translation, especially if the site is highly specialized: texts should be written in a clear language, on different pages you should use the same terms to describe certain products. After translation, it is advisable to subtract content, since errors and unreadable sentences undermine the credibility of the site.
Pay special attention to the translation of documentation, in particular, legal texts, rules for using the service. They should be re-read by a lawyer to make sure that they do not contradict local legislation. As it is technically difficult to do this, the translation of the website pages with documents is not always done.
News and promotions
For example, if a project works in the USA and Europe, it is not necessary for Europeans to know about opening branches in one of the states - they will not be interested in the news. The same applies to stocks developed for buyers from a particular region.
Structure
Switch between language versions

System messages and external module messages
The inscriptions in the pictures, national currencies

Translation of the interface in a personal account
Conclusion
● register different URLs;
● set the hreflang attributes;
● embed the appropriate markup in the Sitemap;
● correctly translate meta tags.
To fully translate the site, you need to pay special attention to the content that is related to navigation. Then it will be possible to improve the position of the site and reach the right audience without undermining its credibility.
This article is a part of Serpstat's Checklist tool

Try Checklist now |
Speed up your search marketing growth with Serpstat!
Keyword and backlink opportunities, competitors' online strategy, daily rankings and SEO-related issues.
A pack of tools for reducing your time on SEO tasks.
Cases, life hacks, researches, and useful articles
Don’t you have time to follow the news? No worries! Our editor will choose articles that will definitely help you with your work. Join our cozy community :)
By clicking the button, you agree to our privacy policy.