When starting any business or even a blog, defining the target audience is of utmost importance. While it has been said repeatedly that knowing the target audience means knowing their stats, such as age, sex, occupation, etc. The importance of their language should be the first choice you make.
Questions To Ask Before Running an International WordPress Site
And while it is true that most blogs in the world are written in English, as the majority of Internet users know it to an extent, it is also very helpful to address the audience in their local language. In doing so, you may ask yourself a multitude of questions:
- How can my WordPress site benefit from going International?
- How to approach your audience’s target language?
- Should I localize or translate?
- How to translate the most important elements on the page, such as headings and hyperlinks?
- Is cultural adjustment necessary?
Localize, Do Not Simply Translate
It is best to find a professional translator for your target language and work closely with them to answer all these questions. TranslationReport offers advanced grading and reviews to help you find exactly the translator you need for the work to be done. Only by working with professional (even certified) translators can you communicate your message the way you intended it to.
Ways To Ensure Your Website Stands Out
There are several ways that you can make sure your international WordPress website or blog stands out in a myriad of others:
- Decide between multilingual or separate websites,
- Start your Blog,
- Utilize Social Media,
- Redo the SEO,
- Enable comments in the local language.
Decide Between Multilingual or Separate Website
When making a multilingual website, one of the most important decisions is whether you want to have a single multilingual website or multiple websites, each in its language. There are pros and cons to both, so let’s consider them without much further ado.
Single multilingual websites in general rank better on Google. The reason is that the one website you have will be drawing traffic from multiple locations and will rank better in this regard. However, multilingual websites, in general, have a higher bounce rate and longer load times. This is an issue that makes many decide on multiple websites.
Multiple websites, each in their language, have much faster loading times and a lower bounce rate. The reason behind the shorter loading time is that each page carries fewer data to be transmitted. If you enjoy a broadband connection, there are people (prospective visitors and customers) who do not.
The lower bounce rate is ensured by people seeing content in their language as soon as they load your website. Furthermore, making multiple websites is a piece of cake. All you need is to understand how to make WordPress websites. Once you know the basics, scale up.
Start Your Blog
Having your blog on the website is very important. Nowadays, even small businesses invest money and time into building good and reliable blogs. This is a great opportunity to rank better on search engines and always stay relevant. Make sure that a significant chunk of your content is evergreen.
Utilize Social Media
Social media in multiple languages may require separate social media accounts. Although this may present a significant strain on your web-presence team, it is usually much easier to manage than anticipated. Buffer, Zapier, and Later all offer social media post scheduling and save you tons of time.
Redo The SEO
SEO has to be redone for every language you want to post in. This is because people in different countries use different terms to look up the same thing. Being aware of this and making sure you use the services of SEO-optimized translation is of paramount importance.
Enable Commenting in the Local Language
Enabling comments in the blog section of the website and the social media accounts will boost your visits and ranking. The reason is that the comments may include additional phrases and keywords not included in your body. These rank as well, and they may also signal points of interest to the search engines.
Final Considerations
There are several factors to consider when coming up with an international WordPress website. The ability to approach your audience the right way, customize and localize their experience speaks volumes of the work you’ve put into building the website. The effort is always noticed, both by search engines and visitors.
