Greek Translation and the Web

Tagged: Keyword Density RSS Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

• Dimitris 11:46 on 17/11/2010 Permalink
  Tags: Keyword Density, keyword translation, SEO ( 12 ), SEO Translation ( 8 )   

  SEO Translation: Can you please translate my keywords? 

  Lately I have been coming across many projects with this or a similar description: “Translation of keywords”, “Translation of meta-data”, some even describe it as “SEO Translation”. Is it pure ignorance on the topic or just another sign of the economic crisis? It’s true that companies strive to reduce or even consolidate their expenses on services such as translation and Search Engine Optimization. What these corporations fail to realise is that having their keywords or meta-descriptions translated, along with the translation of their website text, is highly unlikely to improve the Google rankings of their localized website.

  The real problem in this case is that translation agencies and language professionals fail to communicate this fundamental difference to their clients: Localized SEO is not achieved by simply translating the main text and some web elements, but it involves a series of time-consuming, planned, and specialized techniques. The new trend of  ”SEO Translation” is yet another ‘newcomer’ to our profession but it seems like some of us have “misunderstood” it. First, a translator who is partially familiar with SEO can provide only on-page SEO services, which means he/she will not deal with backlink building, directory submitting, blog commenting and so on. On the other hand, an SEO expert/translator can provide an all-around service.

  Let’s concentrate on the first case: On-page SEO Translation has to do with two different but complementary tasks: translating the content of the website AND taking into account the SEO aspect during the process (intended readership, appropriate keywords, keyword density, meta-data, variations of keywords in the text, titles, H1 elements, alt descriptions etc.). Localized content has to be present in both the visible and the non visible (code) part of the website. A simple translation of keywords, for example, will get you a good text but not necessarily the text that local users would use to search for a specific product or service.

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• Dimitris 22:45 on 11/11/2010 Permalink
  Tags: Keyword Density, SEO ( 12 ), SEO tool ( 7 ), SEO Translation ( 8 )   

  SEO and Translation: Friends or enemies? 

  Localising a website does not necessarily have to do ONLY with translating the source content into the target language, but sometimes it calls for making a website more visible in order for it to achieve higher rankings in search engines. As we know, higher rankings guarantee increased traffic which, in turn, yields higher revenues.

  Search engine optimization (SEO) and website globalization/localization services are usually promoted and sold separately. Is this really necessary? With the help of tools such as Google’s Keyword Tool, a localizer can translate the content taking into account the optimal keywords and their required density in the text. For example, If one had to SEO-localize Raulph Loren’s website into Greek, he/she could use Google’s tool and try out different keywords relevant to the brand’s business activities. In this case, he/she could try (roughly) the following keywords:

  γυναικεία ρούχα

  πουκάμισα

  polo

  παντελόνια

  πουλόβερ

  And Google’s keyword tool would present the following results (click to enlarge):

  

  These results basically give as a good idea on what people are searching for in Google when they want to buy new clothes/shoes/accessories. Hence, optimizing the translation of a website based on these keywords will (hopefully) enhance its presence on the search giant. Of course this procedure has many more aspects (which I will try to cover in separate posts) and involves, among other things, studying keywords used by competitive brands.

  However, in this simplified scenario the translator would have to use the proposed keywords (γυναίκα, ρούχα, παπούτσια, γυναικεία, polo, αξεσουάρ) in several instances in his/her translation, being careful not to be “spammy”. This is a very thin line but many SEO web sources suggest that the optimal keyword density for most search engines is somewhere between 2 and 5 percent (1). This of course covers only one aspect of the SEO process, but it’s clear that it can easily be incorporated to the everyday work of a web localizer with very good results.

  (1) http://ist.mit.edu/services/web/reference/code/search-engine-optimization