As the nature of SEO and e-commerce both continue to change, so do the tactics and methods through which webmasters and business owners reach their audiences. In the past, it was pretty easy to throw together a website and include several different languages – usually improperly translated – as a way to attract business from all over the world. These days, however, you can no longer expect such results with the same effort, so it is important to know how to handle any endeavor that reaches out to people in multiple languages. If you currently operate a website that uses multiple languages to market its content and offerings, then continue reading to find out ways you can increase performance in search engines and ensure visitors can still find what they seek.

Use Multiple Domains

While you can still incorporate all of your website’s languages in one easy to access place, the reality is that search engines would much prefer a compartmentalization of these languages. Why is this the case? Search engines have a propensity to assess the content’s language whenever it is pinging URLs on your website, and likewise classifies it accordingly. While some may assume that performance is increased if you have multiple languages on the same domain, the exact opposite is the case. By using top-level domains for each country serviced, you can rank better in multiple countries’ search results while still having the ability to integrate all of these sites through one set of links at the top of each page.

Alert Search Engines to Different Languages

While the above tactic is the best method for solving any SEO-related issues with multi-language websites, you can choose to keep one domain and utilize it for multiple languages. If you choose this path, then you will still need to create various subdomains for each language and provide clarification to search engines of their existence in your robots.txt file. Whenever a search engine indexes your site, it will note this and ensure that the relevant version of the site is displayed in results whenever a user searches for a keyword or phrase you have targeted. This allows for more seamless integration of a user’s home language in their experience, as they will not have to specify or search for a version of your site in their language; they’ll simply land on the corresponding page via search results.

Procure Content Services

Last but not least, you need content in each language to make these sites be fully functional and effective in SERPs. There are a variety of affordable content solutions available on the web for those who need to be pinging URLs to search engines in different languages. Many people check out sites such as Fiverr for affordable work in dozens of different languages. If you do not have quality content for each section, domain or subdomain, then your rankings in search engines will not be beneficial. Ultimately, there has to be a dedication to quality content in order for any website – with one language or fifty – to succeed.