Wondering How to Implement SEO on a Multilingual Website?
If you have a website and plan to provide your products and services in different countries and regions, implementing an SEO strategy is key to ensuring your site gains visibility across your target markets. But you already know that* – that’s why you’re here. So, let’s dive into how to implement SEO on a multilingual website! *(if you don’t, check out this blog post)
The Benefits of Implementing SEO on a Multilingual Website
Website building can be compared to brick-and-mortar building; check it out:
- The bricks and mortar are the website hosting platform
- The images are the shop window
- The domain is the address
- The CTA's are the door
- The menu is the aisles
- The branding… well, businesses have always needed that…
And the SEO strategy?
The SEO is the lights – an interconnected system running through the entire structure that, when working effectively, draws attention to the shop. Wondering about the benefits of implementing SEO on a multilingual website? It provides the same benefit as a shop having lights, which, we think you’ll agree, are pretty beneficial to any business.
What does SEO actually consist of in 2025?
Let’s stick with the SEO/lights analogy. Think about the systems that have to be in place for the lights to come on: you need electrical systems, a power supply, light fixtures, bulbs, and a switch.
SEO is comparable – lots of systems and components come together to produce a working strategy, and, much like a lighting system, it is woven throughout a website, built into its very structure. Many of these factors are technical – from website speed to the number of backlinks and domain authority score – but on the whole, they can be boiled down to one key idea: a focus on the user experience.
The Mechanisms Behind a Search Engine
Here's where our analogy falls short, because there’s an extra component to websites that isn’t as applicable to brick-and-mortar shops: the mechanism behind a search engine.
How a Search Engine Operates
Whereas a person walking down a high street lined with shops may or may not walk into a shop with dim (or no) lights because they happen to be walking past, picture what a search engine does. It stops you at the start of the street, asks you what you’re in search of, and lines up the shops in the order it believes to be most applicable to your needs, ignoring any shops with no lighting because it can’t see them.
You’re most likely to walk into the first shop – after all, it’s the closest and looks most likely to stock the item you’re after. You go in, browse for a few minutes, find the checkout easily, buy it, and go home, satisfied. You’re unlikely to stroll down the rest of the street, so you won’t walk past the shop with no lights, completely eliminating the possibility of you coming across it by chance, even if it does sell what you’re looking for.
Search Engines are Businesses
Search engines are businesses, and they want users to keep coming back again and again. As such, it’s in their interest to provide the best customer service possible: providing the right shop to meet customer needs.
In the instance described above, the user was happy with their experience of the first shop, so the search engine is likely to keep displaying that option to customers searching for similar items. However, that’s not always the case. Imagine a user reaches the start of the high street and states what they’re looking for. The search engine reorganises the shops to meet that need, and the user walks into the first shop. The shop door is stiff – they have to make an effort to get in. They glance around but can’t see what they’re looking for. They try to get the attention of the assistant, but they’re on their phone. They look around for a minute but then leave and try another shop, completely unaware that the first business did, in fact, stock what they were looking for.
A website where the texts are stiff or oddly worded, stuffed with keywords but with no substance, that is slow to load, unclear in what it offers, and badly structured will provide a negative customer experience – often reflected in its bounce rate - and so won’t be presented to the next user who searches for a similar product, because the search engine will believe it doesn’t provide what the user wanted.
The Essence of SEO
The essence of SEO is user experience - directing users to where they want to go and ensuring their need is met.
Beyond a single practice or tweak, SEO encompasses a whole host of metrics that:
- work together to optimise user experience and
- allow a search engine to find a website.
So, how do you make sure your website is both providing a good user experience and winning points with search engines? (A virtuous cycle). Well, it always helps to have experts on your side who are experienced in what you want to achieve - here’s an idea of what they’ll do.
Key Practices for Implementing SEO on a Multilingual Website
Yes, we’re back to our analogy. See, a multilingual website can be compared to brick-and-mortar stores in that each language should be seen as a different store – each requiring its own power circuit, cables, light fixtures and switches. Sure, your store in the UK may have a great lighting system, great footfall, and steady revenue, but if your store in Spain has no lighting system whatsoever, no one’s walking through the door, and that store’s going to fall flat.
Picture the set-up of a store in different countries – you would expect it to take around the same amount of time to set up different branches, right? After all, all the same processes have to be repeated, just in a different country. It’s the same for a website, so if you’re setting up SEO on a multilingual website, expect it to take just as long for every language.
But let’s get into the nitty-gritty: how do you get your lighting systems set up flawlessly so that every store is shining just as brightly?
Keywords – the make-or-break of an SEO strategy
In an SEO system, keywords are the switch.
The entire system could be set up perfectly (your website could be expertly written, indexed, its links crawlable, it could be quick to load, and have loads of backlinks and optimised images), but if no one flips that switch, the lights simply don’t go on. They’re what tell search engines what a text is about, so in short: no keyword, no ranking whatsoever.
However, while switches in different countries don’t differ all that much (although sure, we have pull, twist, and two-way switches, differing standard heights for switches, and various small differences), keywords certainly do vary greatly from country to country.
Keyword Research
This makes unique keyword research, tailored to each market, a vital first step to creating any online content, no matter the language. During this research (which must be carried out by a native speaker of the language to ensure each word is understood in context), keywords are picked out, and their search intent cross-referenced, ensuring that the page they’re applied to meets the expectation of the user who searched for it (the search intent). See, whereas high street goers are usually looking only to buy products, people search the internet for all manner of reasons, though there are four main types of intent: informational, commercial, navigational, and transactional.
In one country, for example, users may search for “best outdoor lamps”, hoping for a blog post reviewing various outdoor lamps so that they can choose the one that best applies to their circumstances. In another, users may simply want to be directed to a sales page. You won’t know what the users of each country want until that keyword is typed in, and if you’re matching the wrong type of content to a keyword, it’s unlikely to be ranked.
Keyword Implementation
Then there’s the systematic planning and installation of the switches: keyword mapping and implementation in the right locations:
- On the right pages, according to search intent
And slotted naturally into text in the:
- Titles
- Headings
- Body text
- Image tags
- URL
- Meta texts,
and at the right densities: one, maximum two, keywords per page at a rate of about 1% - not too many, not too few, just as you wouldn’t fill a room in a store with endless light switches.
Quality Content
Once the keyword is determined, it’s all about creating high-quality content. Content that’s genuinely helpful, insightful, accurate, and designed to be read by real people, not machines.
As search engines have developed, they’ve got better and better at knowing what real people want to read, which means we’re way past the days of keyword stuffing in the hopes of getting ranked. In fact, search engines actually penalise websites believed to be engaging in dubious practices, so you’re certainly better off aiming for quality: investing in well-researched, expertly written content that means your message doesn’t just reach your audience—it truly illuminates what you have to offer.
Tailor your Content to your Audience
Then, once you have your high-quality content in one language, you’re faced with the task of ensuring it works just as effectively in another language and culture.
We’ll start with an often-overlooked yet obvious point: when working between markets, finding out about each market is the very first step. Back to lighting systems: before installing a lighting system in Spain, it would make a lot of sense to find out what the standard voltage in Spain is and which wiring colour codes apply. To know that lighting systems need to handle higher temperatures and more sunlight than in the UK, for example, where systems are designed for colder, damper conditions – you get the idea.
Localisation Vs. Translation
This is where the importance of working with professionals who will expertly localise your content comes in - rather than directly translating it - ensuring it will truly work in the target market. Sure, the wires you used in Spain may work in the UK, but they’re the wrong colours, which could, very likely, cause a very nasty accident.
Ensuring your target text is adapted to the reality of your target market - from the content itself to currencies and date forms to cultural norms, idioms, and expressions - will make sure it lands and works in the new market. If you’re talking about ensuring your outdoor lighting will withstand long, hot summers and direct sunshine, your UK audience is going to assume you’re not talking to them and, therefore, look elsewhere. In this instance, the content needs to be reworked so that it speaks to their circumstances and requirements. In other instances, the tone may need to be adapted, depending on how friendly or formal it would be natural to sound in each culture. A hard sell may be the only way to make a sale in one country, whereas in another, it would completely put potential customers off – it all comes down to knowing what works where and how to implement it.
Going Ahead with Implementing SEO on a Multilingual Website
To round off our analogy, consider the number of experts pulled in for any construction job. You’ve got the architects, the builders, the plasterers, the window fitters, electricians, plumbers, interior designers, and decorators, to name but a few – each with their own expertise and expected only to do their own job.
So why wouldn’t website building be the same?
Sure, you’ve got someone to build your website in one language, but now you need the electrics done for an entirely different language - the sockets fitted, switches installed and bulbs screwed in to ensure that the lights come on and that your clients can find you, no matter the market.
When successfully implementing SEO on your multilingual website, it all comes down to finding a reliable partner with expertise in the various tasks relating to SEO for your target market. From expert keyword research and implementation to the complete localisation of texts so that they resonate in their target markets, Diskusija is well-versed in setting websites up for success, so if you’re in need of an SEO partner, drop us a line – we’d love to support you in (finally) getting the visibility you deserve.