09 November 2022
5 ways to boost your international sales via multilingual digital optimization
It’s a well known fact that internationalization is one of the most effective ways of growing a business. The key to effective internationalization? High level content localization. Note the use of the word localization, instead of translation. A proper international content strategy requires multilingual digital optimization – the standard translation workflow is not enough.
Drawing on its extensive knowledge of international SEO projects, Alpha CRC has compiled a list of the 5 most effective ways to increase sales through multilingual digital optimization.
Companies wanting to connect with audiences outside their country of origin will need to understand the nuances of their target languages and cultures. This is why just having content in the right language isn’t good enough: it needs to be fully adapted to your local audience.
As an example, if a company were to localize their Christmas content for a Spanish audience, they would have to translate it by taking into account the locale (which will be different from other Spanish speaking countries) and the cultural specificities of the audience. Did you know that, in Spain, it is the Three Wise Men who traditionally give presents to children, instead of Santa?
Once content has been suitable adapted for its new audience, it will need to be made search engine-friendly. Doing this effectively requires thorough keyword research. This will give content creators an idea of the specific queries that an audience is looking for. By taking audience intent into consideration, its easier to provide more targeted content for the audience.
It is also important to note that not all traffic is equal. By considering search intent when selecting keywords, businesses can identify the traffic that will generate sales and business leads.
Traditional search intents are commercial, transactional, informational, and navigational. Alpha CRC’s international linguists are very aware of the different needs that a user might have and they optimize the content to answer the relevant queries.
The end goal is for all digital content to be optimized, yes, but time is limited and tasks should be prioritized. This is why Alpha CRC advises optimizing the best-ranked pages first in order to see the fastest results.
There are two main ways to do this. Although there are tools online that can help, the ultimate place to get your traffic insights from is Google Analytics and Google Search Console.
After identifying the best-performing pages, focus on content optimization for those. Measure the results and repeat for the rest of the pages. This is how business can see the best results from their digital marketing efforts.
Once the customer journey has been mapped out, try to analyze the stages where content can be optimized and how. Ensure that SEO is aligned with the overall marketing strategy.
As a practical example, if a company is in e-commerce, they shouldn’t just optimize end-of-funnel pages such as product pages for search engines. They should also optimize digital content to attract leads in the awareness phase.
Make sure not to forget about secondary languages when optimizing digital marketing content. Any agency or SEO firm that is given the task of website optimization should be aware of the localization needs and challenges of multilingual sites, from the awareness stage to the final ‘thank you’ page in the sales funnel. Some parts of the funnel will need to be adapted to multilingual audiences.
Content optimization and SEO is a continuous journey. After completing the first multilingual digital optimization campaign, make sure to analyse the input and the results. Try to learn from the successes and the challenges and implement them into the next campaign.
The more companies understand their businesses and how their content performs, the more confident they will be on their next SEO campaigns.
It’s clear that multilingual digital optimization is more than just translating content word-for-word and throwing a few new keywords at it. As Alpha Creative sees it, digital content optimization is about crafting messages that are unique to a place, to a culture and adapted to your customer while using data and analytics to be able to take data-based decisions. By implementing this strategy correctly, businesses will see clear results in their international sales.
