Localising content for global markets is essential for businesses aiming to reach audiences in different regions. However, localising content goes beyond translation—it requires the comprehension of language, culture, and local SEO to ensure your message resonates with users and ranks well in search engines.
This blog will explore the key challenges of content localisation, including adapting content for cultural relevance, grasping language nuances, ensuring compliance with local laws, and the components of multilingual SEO. We’ll also highlight how to tackle the technical components involved in building a successful international presence.
If you're looking for a deeper insight into international SEO and how it supports your localisation efforts, check out our International SEO blog. For guidance on localised content strategies, contact us today.
What is Content Localisation & Why is it Important?
Content localisation refers to the process of adapting content to meet the language, cultural, and functional needs of a specific target market. This goes beyond translation, encompassing changes to images, currency, cultural references, and even formatting to ensure the content resonates with local audiences.
From an SEO perspective, content localisation is more than just converting text. It’s about optimising content to align with local search behaviours, language variations, and regional preferences, which significantly improves your chances of ranking higher in search engine results pages (SERPs). For example, Australian audiences may search for different terms or phrases compared to users in the UK or the US—take 'thongs' for example; in Australia this refers to footwear, however in the US it refers to female underwear—so it’s essential to adjust your content to meet those needs.
Incorporating localisation into your SEO strategy is vital for engaging local users and boosting organic traffic. Without localisation, your content risks feeling foreign and disconnected, which could lead to lower engagement and trust. For Australian businesses looking to expand globally, content localisation isn’t just nice to have—it’s a pivotal aspect of a successful digital strategy.
Ensuring Content is Refined for Cultural Relevance
For content localisation to be efficacious, it’s crucial that the content resonates with local customs, values, and preferences. What appeals to consumers in one country may fall flat in another due to differences in culture, language nuances, or societal norms. For instance, a marketing campaign that works well in the US might be considered offensive or irrelevant in Australia or Asia.
Failure to properly align content with local expectations can harm your brand perception, causing engagement to plummet. A multilingual website SEO strategy is essential here, as it ensures your localised content doesn’t just translate words, but connects emotionally with the audience, we’ll touch on this further a bit later.
By tailoring content to local tastes and avoiding potential cultural missteps, you strengthen brand trust and foster meaningful relationships with diverse audiences.
Localisation vs Translation
What’s the Difference?
While often used interchangeably, localisation and translation are not the same. Translation refers to converting text from one language to another, focusing purely on linguistic accuracy. On the other hand, localisation involves adapting content not only linguistically but also culturally—adjusting elements like images, currency, and tone to suit local customs, values, and preferences.
In short, when it comes to localisation vs translation, translation is a linguistic process, while localisation takes a more panoramic approach, ensuring content resonates with local audiences on a deeper level.
Language Nuances
Following on from the definition of content localisation, language nuances refer to the subtle differences in how people express themselves across regions, even within the same language. When localising content, it’s essential to adjust SEO keywords to align with the search intent in each market. This includes considering regional slang, local search habits, and variations in spelling or phrasing. For example, what might be a common term in the UK—“crisps” with reference to potato chips—could be less familiar or even confusing in Australia. By accounting for these differences, you ensure that your localised content is more likely to rank and resonate with the target audience.
Multilingual SEO
The Technical Considerations
When it comes to multilingual SEO, there are several key technical aspects to consider. These elements help ensure that your localised content is effectively indexed by search engines and reaches the right audience in each market.
- Implementing hreflang Tags: One of the most critical steps in international SEO is adding hreflang tags to your website. These HTML attributes inform search engines about the language and regional targeting of specific pages. For example, if you have both Australian and UK versions of a page, the hreflang tag helps search engines understand which version to serve to users in each country. Without it, you risk showing the wrong version to users in different regions.
If you’d like to know more about hreflang tags, including their structure, syntax, and how to embed them, check out our simple guide. - Structuring Content for Multiple Languages: Structuring your site to accommodate different languages and regions is vital. Whether you're using subdirectories (e.g., example.com/au), subdomains (e.g., au.example.com), or ccTLDs (e.g., example.com.au), each approach has its advantages and technical considerations. Making sure that content is clearly segmented for each locale, is key as this allows search engines to crawl and index the right pages without confusion.
- Ensuring Search Engines Index the Right Versions: It's crucial that search engines index the correct version of your website for each target region. This means properly configuring your XML sitemaps, ensuring the appropriate hreflang tags are present, and preventing issues with duplicate content. If misconfigured, search engines might index content that’s not intended for a specific locale, leading to poor rankings and poor user experience.
These technical aspects of multilingual SEO can be complex, and mistakes can result in duplicate content issues or poor indexing, which can harm your search rankings. To get it right, it’s often best to consult with an expert who understands the nuances of international SEO.
If you need help with the technical side of multilingual SEO, check out our Technical SEO Services page.
Redirects for International SEO
Getting redirects right is another constituent of international SEO and, like the aspects aforementioned, can also be tricky to set-up seamlessly, especially when managing multiple language versions of a site. Incorrectly configured redirects can lead to poor user experience, broken links, and search engine crawling issues. For more guidance on setting up proper redirects, check out our Redirects for International SEO blog.
Local Search Engines & Algorithms
Different countries have dominant search engines that may not be Google, which most businesses are familiar with. For example, Baidu leads in China, while Yandex dominates in Russia. Each search engine has its own algorithms and ranking factors, which can differ significantly from Google’s. Recognising these local algorithms is crucial when optimising your localised content. What works for Google in Australia may not yield the same results on Baidu or Yandex, where local preferences, search habits, and algorithm priorities vary.
By tailoring your SEO strategy to each region’s specific search engine, you ensure that your content ranks well and reaches the intended audience. Optimising for local search engines helps improve your global reach and visibility, making it a critical aspect of multilingual SEO.
How Global Content Marketing Plays a Part
When discussing international SEO, global content marketing plays a vital role in shaping the overall strategy. Global content marketing is the process of creating and distributing content that resonates with audiences across multiple countries and cultures. The goal is to drive engagement, build brand awareness, and drive conversions in different regions, all while maintaining a consistent brand message.
International SEO directly informs and enhances global content marketing strategies by ensuring that content is discoverable for, and to the liking of, local search engines, languages, and user behaviours. For example, being aware of regional keyword variations, cultural preferences, and search habits is critical to creating content that will rank in different markets.
Without international SEO, a global content strategy can miss the mark, as content might not be indexed correctly or improved for local search intent. Successful global content marketing strategies rely on SEO insights to ensure the right content reaches the right audience at the right time, no matter where they are in the world.
StudioHawk offers both Content Marketing and International SEO services. By combining these efforts we can produce a global content marketing strategy that has the potential to reach corners of the globe that you may have previously thought intangible.
Bondi Sands Case Study
An excellent example of how we were able to identify and resolve issues relating to both international SEO and a lack of content was Bondi Sands’ campaign.
Renowned for their quality self-tanning products, Bondi Sands saw a 94, 105, and 54% increase in keywords across AU, UK, and US markets respectively after front-loading content creation for 20 top traffic-driving pages, and rectifying international SEO issues that were diluting UK and EU websites.
The campaign is a telltale example of how resolving international SEO issues from a technical perspective and content perspective—keeping content/language localisation, translation, and nuances in mind—can reap significant reward.
Legal and Regulatory Considerations and Constraints
When expanding into international markets, you need to be aware of the varying laws and regulations that govern online content, privacy, and advertising. Different countries have different requirements regarding what can and cannot be published online. For example, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the European Union imposes strict rules on how businesses collect, store, and use customer data. Similarly, China has specific restrictions on online content, particularly in terms of censorship and data privacy, which affect what businesses can post or promote.
Failure to comply with these regulations can result in hefty fines, legal actions, and reputational damage. For this reason, businesses need to ensure that their localised content adheres to local laws and regulations in each market they enter. This includes adjusting privacy policies, complying with local advertising standards, and ensuring content does not violate cultural or legal norms.
Being aware of these legal frameworks is essential when developing an international SEO strategy. By ensuring that all content complies with local regulations, you protect your brand from potential legal repercussions and ensure smooth operations in global markets.
Want Localising your Content Taken Care of For You?
If you're looking to improve your international SEO and ensure your content is maximised for global markets, our team is here to help. Discover how we can enhance your strategy with our International SEO Services.
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