Il Traduttore Intemperante: Geotargeting: language versus country

One thing we’ve been asked recently is how effective it would be to target global audiences by simply having alternate translated language variations of website content. Would an approach to targeting that focused on providing translated content in core languages - as opposed to targeting by country - suffice in extending the visibility of the website internationally?

Providing alternate language versions of site content obviously means that your content can be understood by anyone that speaks those languages, no matter where they are located geographically – so from a pure translation and user perspective, it’s great.

For example, having your content available in Spanish not only makes your content accessible to users in Spain, but it can also be understood by visitors in other Spanish speaking countries across the world such as Mexico.

From a search perspective though, for most sites a language-only approach to geotargeting is less than ideal.

Firstly, it is difficult to geotarget broad level language content effectively at a granular level. A website just providing globalised language variations of content may therefore struggle to compete against websites that are actively targeting specific geographic markets, engaging in country-focused search engine optimisation campaigns, and that are providing a greater range of geotargeting signals to search engines.

That isn’t to say that a site just providing language variations can’t be successful across the international search landscape. Highly authoritative brands and companies, or sites offering particularly niche products or services may still do well, but most sites relying on language as a means of targeting will struggle to gain penetration across localised versions of search engines.

Adopting a country focused approach

The advantage of using a country-focused approach is that it enables a range of geotargeting signals to be implemented that assist search engines in determining the intended target audience for site content, and thus return relevant content to users in localised search engines results pages (SERPs).

These signals could include hreflang implementation via XML Sitemaps, markup or HTTP headers; HTTP header content-language declarations, country-specific XML and HTML sitemaps, the use of country code top level domains (ccTLDs), such as .fr for France) or granular targeting for sub-domains or country specific sub-directories through Google Webmaster Tools for instance.

The benefits of using ccTLDs for geographic targeting have been well documented. Not only do ccTLDs provide the strongest signal of all with regard to intended target audience, but users tend to trust them, which in turn impacts positively on click-through rates.

A country-focused approach also means that localised search engine optimisation can be undertaken and links acquired from trusted and relevant sources from within target countries. This may not only assist in influencing ranking, but also provides positive relevancy signals to search engines as they look to serve the most appropriate results in response to user search queries.

It should be noted though, that although a language-focused approach might lessen the opportunities for link building at a more granular localised level, a site might benefit from all links being consolidated to one language variation in contrast to being diluted over several country variations.

Secondly, a language-focused approach does not take into account nuances in language. Differences in regional usage of language and dialect mean that even if users share the same basic language, they may use distinctly different terms when searching for products or services. For example, obvious differences in English language usage could include the British use of “trousers” versus the American “pants”, or “petrol” versus “gas” for instance.

The absence of language nuances in generic core language translations may therefore impact upon the relevancy of content, and thereby limit the visibility of the website in localised results.

A country-focused approach means that targeting can be implemented on a country and language basis, meaning that compelling and localised content can be created that takes into account language nuances and on-page elements can be optimised accordingly to increase the chance for success within localised SERPs. A country-focused approach also allows a greater ease with regard to supporting local currencies within content than that afforded by a language centric method.

Additionally, creating truly localised content can also help position the website as an authority within target markets, with obvious positive effects on search visibility.

In short therefore, a language only approach might still provide some success for highly authoritative sites or those operating within a particularly niche marketplace, but it does not offer the flexibility in terms of geotargeting and localised SEO that a country-focused approach can provide.