A very well written elaborate (PDF) whitepaper by Huiping Iler explains in great detail what’s involved, and most of the difficulties, with search engine rankings outside English. Consider that users are faced with filters, radio buttons and other obstacles during the search process, and you can picture what must be done to establish visibility with your target audience.
Consider the facts pointed out by Iler, such as 60% of searches are performed in languages other than English, English has approximately 500,000 words, compared with French having approximately 300,000 and all forms of Chinese combined characters amount to approximately 50,000. One can surmise the increasing difficulty of optimization with the decrease in available words.
Although the optimization tips are pretty straight forward, special attention is given to detail such as language specific character encoding sets, and examples of what it looks like for users when they’re incorrect. Other good advice includes hosting and top-level domain issues for search engines to get your site properly categorized and served in the region of interest.
Related reading
How to optimize Google My Business listings for multi-location businesses
Being listed on Google My Business (GMB) is an essential part of any local SEO strategy. But how can businesses with multiple locations make sure they aren’t penalized in search rankings?
Should Google be more transparent with its updates?
Most of Google's algorithm updates nowadays are unconfirmed and unannounced, leaving website owners and SEOs guessing as to what caused a change in ranking and what they can do to fix it. Does Google owe it to its users to be more transparent?
8 technical issues holding your content back
Failure to properly audit and resolve technical concerns can disconnect your content efforts from the benefits it should be bringing to your website. Here are eight issues you should be considering before committing to any major campaign.
How to identify and fix indexation bloat issues
Indexation bloat is when a website has pages within a search engine “index” and can cause issues if not monitored and policed properly. It is an extremely common SEO problem and affects websites of all sizes. So how can you identify and fix it?
