1. Pick Humans Over Machines

The pressure to produce a successful, multilingual pay-per-click (PPC) campaign is exponentially greater now, since company budgets are often limited and conversions are closely monitored. Machine translation can be tempting given financial constraints, but its ability to support revenue goals is questionable.

Even with adequate time for review and planning, machines can make small errors in translation and localization that can have major ramifications in terms of lead generation and conversion rates. Because the machine has no ability to capture context, the translation, while literal and accurate, may have nothing to do with the intended message.

The most common example of the machine missing the mark is the word “love.” One can write the message, “Love your car,” but without context, a machine gets creative and makes this a very different kind of love.

From a keyword standpoint, think of the word “operator.” The machine might give you the proper translation for a person who operates machinery, but perhaps we’re talking about a phone operator, or a type of tag in a coded file. The machine is none-the-wiser and could spit out the wrong keyword.

2. Optimize Your In-Language Keywords

Just because an English keyword has a high search volume on Google does not mean that the translation of that keyword will have a high search volume in another language or market.

For this reason, you must adapt your English keywords to reflect the in-language version that will likely be used for the same search. You should also perform search engine research and validation to determine whether or not the term actually has a high search volume in another market. Research and optimization do not transfer automatically to translated terms.

As an example, the keyword “cell phone” might have the highest search volume in English, but its translation in another language may receive a lower volume of search terms than perhaps a slang word commonly used in the foreign culture.

3. Focus On The Right Search Engines For Each Market

No two search engines use the exact same algorithm. The optimization techniques required for the Chinese search engine Baidu, for example, are vastly different from those needed to optimize for Google. Businesses that want to reach targeted users need expertise not only in language, but also in culture and technology.

This is one reason why enterprises must adopt an integrated approach to international SEM to determine the proper wording and create consistent, relevant messages in ads, landing pages and social media posts.

4. Adapt Your PPC Ad Copy & Choose Each Character Carefully

Adapting, researching and validating your keywords are only part of the equation. Your pool of optimized keywords will only help get your ad displayed when someone searches and you bid on and purchase the keyword.

The hard part is getting the user to click on the PPC ad. If the messaging is not properly adapted, it may not resonate in a foreign market, leading to the failure of your international SEM campaign.

You should also note that most search engines limit the number of characters you can use on each line of your PPC ad. Unfortunately, if you try to translate an English ad, the resulting translation will likely exceed the limitations imposed by the search engine because the number of words and length of the words are often longer in other languages.

Therefore, it is important that you edit the adapted ad to fit within the character length limitations without sacrificing your message.

5. Define Your Success Criteria

In order to determine whether or not a campaign is successful, you must define your goals.

• Are you trying to lower your cost per action?
• Are you trying to lower your cost per click?
• How are you defining a conversion?
• Do you want more people to submit a quote request?

Make sure you have defined goals in advance of your campaign to prove that what you are doing is valuable.

6. Content Is King

Even if you have a great set of adapted ads and keywords, you will not have success with your international search engine marketing if the landing pages tied to your ads do not provide relevant information for your visitor.

You must make sure that your copy on the landing page is rich, relevant and exciting. Proper localization tied with international search engine optimization is key for ensuring your content is useful to visitors.

7.  Make Conversions Easy

If your goals have anything to do with a conversion (and they should), then you need to do everything in your power to make it easy for visitors to convert. On a custom landing page tied to your campaign, you should give the customer the opportunity to register, get a quote, contact you or make a purchase. The easier you can make it for a visitor to convert, the greater the likelihood that you will have success with your international search engine marketing campaigns.

8. Monitor & Manage The Campaign

Just as with an English-language SEM campaign, businesses should continually monitor campaigns to identify which ads perform the best for the lowest possible spending. Ads that are not performing should be discarded and replaced with new ads, and the keywords should be continually refreshed.

Just like domestic SEM, international SEM is an iterative process.

Just like domestic SEO, the international version boosts the likelihood that a particular website will rise to the top of search results, thereby enabling increased conversion rates.

The challenge internationally is to select the right SEO strategies for an enormous number of locales, cultural norms and languages. For those creating and implementing an international SEO program, it’s helpful to adhere to five key principles.

1. Plan international SEO needs before launching websites abroad

International SEO is instrumental in helping businesses get found online and ensuring visitors stick around once they land on your site. Don’t make your international SEO strategy an afterthought. It should be part of your planning process from the moment you decide to expand internationally.

That planning process begins with keyword research. Determine what keywords your target customers are likely to use. Will they search for your products using the exact translation, or are there local slang terms you need to know?

This information is essential to developing an international website that is optimized for the key factors evaluated by search engine algorithms: meaningful, fresh content that is keyword-specific; descriptive tagging; rich media; social media distribution plans; and internal and external links.

Don’t make global SEO a follow-up item on your globalization to-do list. It should be embedded in every step of the marketing and sales strategy.

 2.  For authenticity’s sake, avoid completely automated translation

Particularly as you enter a new market or attempt to engage with prospects on social media, an authentic voice is critical. Consumers can easily and widely share any mistakes you make in this area, staining your reputation abroad before you ever gain a foothold in the market.

Multilingual brand messaging can be difficult, and companies should not leave this work to machine translation. Businesses need human experts who can quickly identify faults in automated translations and repair them before damage occurs in important markets.

 3.  Scrutinize your images as well as your words

The 1,000 words your pictures convey need to be as carefully chosen as the actual text you put on your website. An image can rapidly signal your company’s knowledge or ignorance of a target market.

Localization experts can be helpful here, too, as they are conversant not only in languages, but in cultural norms. For example, a company that fills its pages with images of structures around the world might face unexpected difficulties if one of its photo selections carries a negative connotation locally.

 4.  Let your prospects make choices regarding language preference

In many countries today, there are enough residents from other regions that it pays to give visitors a choice of language on your website. In Canada, a target might speak English, French, or any number of other languages. In Switzerland, a consumer might prefer to read your content in French, German or English.

Don’t presume to choose the “best” language option for your international websites. Instead, offer a dropdown menu with a wide range of language choices.

 5.  Monitor and update your content regularly

Just as with English-language search algorithms, pay close attention to content that is changing regularly and to keywords used on the site. If you’re not seeing results, consider updating your keywords and track the impact the changes have on your rankings. Make sure you re-submit your website for indexing every time you make a change to ensure your changes are captured by the relevant search engines.

Why International SEO Matters

A staggering 90-plus percent of today’s Web users live outside the United States, and many of them speak languages other than English.

To break into promising regions in the Americas, the Middle East, Europe and Asia, enterprises are applying the above principles to all of their electronic communication points with customers and therefore maximizing their prospects for success. Earning new business abroad starts with careful translation guided by localization experts and enhanced by smart technology.

In some respects, there has never been an easier time to reach an international customer base. And yet, there are complexities to optimizing international efforts.

A foundation of strategic international SEO removes many of those hurdles by building online outreach on deep awareness of language preferences, cultural norms and search habits of each prospective market.