insights | 18.02.2016

SEO translation 2

SEO Translation 2

This is the second SEO translation blog as we have just completed such a project for another client, this time into French, German, Latin American Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese and Japanese. The brief was to translate keywords and Google ads (headline and descriptions) for our software solutions client.


Preparation is key with a project like this and so, having discussed it with the client, we first combined the two description lines. The reason for this was that, in a previous project, the translators had struggled to stick to the character restrictions of 35 per line of the description (the criteria may not have been set with the different languages in mind, even though these often turn out to be lengthier than English). By combining the two lines, the limit was increased to 70 characters, which allowed translators more flexibility, as a longer first half could be compensated by a shorter second half, or vice versa.

Having done this, we then inserted a column in Excel, containing the maximum character lengths of 25 for the headlines and 70 for the descriptions. This was so we could use Memsource’s multilingual Excel file import settings, which allow information to be entered in each column. The result being that when the translator exceeds that length in any given cell in Memsource, the text is highlighted in green and red.

This would also appear as an error in the QA report if the translator or proof-reader were to run this during the project. With this particular file, it was important to ensure the translation retained the marketing tone of the source with its punchy sentences and calls-to-action.

Whilst the translators had some flexibility in this, they did have to keep certain client-specific terminology, which made their task trickier. They often had to search for synonyms of words in order to find more concise alternatives.

Another element of the project was the keyword translation. The CAT tool continued to play an important here by ensuring consistency of terms. Creating similar combinations of words allows the client to increase keyword density on their site and therefore improve potential search engine ratings. There weren’t any character restrictions for the keywords but we still tried to keep them compact so that they would match how people search and would therefore yield a higher search volume.

The translators had to take care to mirror the exact spelling and capitalisation of the source so that it would be a faithful representation of what the average user would actually enter into Google. This meant that, even when the company name was spelt incorrectly, we reflected this in our translations, thus enabling the client to perform keyword research and get a more accurate idea of how people search for them and their products.

As we have experience with keyword research, it may be that next time, we can carry out this task for the client, helping them understand how to structure their online information in such a way that it generates a higher number of hits, i.e. it is optimised for search.

Contact us today if you want to make use of our SEO translation experience and get your business noticed on an international scale.

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