How to create multi lingual website

How to Create Multi-lingual Websites

Tweet  Many hucksters sell some translational cross-language search engine submission products that are complete bunk. Essentially you pay them to accept your check and nothing more. Search engines typically do not translate text on the fly when people search-it is too computationally expensive, and text in another language often comes with a different set of cultures, a different monetary system, and different shipping standards. Even when they can translate on the fly, it is generally not preferential for all those cultural reasons.

If you use automated software to copy your text into a different language, it is likely to read clumsily and turn people off. That model may work for putting up a low end made-for-AdSense site, but if you want people to buy something from you then you are better off not having the text on the web if you do not have a person fluent in the language proof the final page copy.

If you have significant content and target audiences in different languages, then at a minimum you will want to have a different subdomain or site for each language or major market. This will make it easier to get links from the different geographic or ethnic communities you are interested in without the losing focus of your site. It also makes it easy for engines to understand the clear divisions in your site amongst what lanaguages and markets your site serves. Inside of Google Webmaster Tools you can also set each subdomain to a different target market.

Subdomains are an easy minimal solution, but as search has become increasingly local, the best practice for localization is to create a local domain name for each major market you serve. For example, if your business does significant turnover in the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom it would make sense to set up sites at yourname.com, yourname.de, and yourname.co.uk. One downside of unique websites for different markets is that you will have to build some links into each, but when you do it puts you in a far stronger position. Local domain names state that you are local and relevant, both to search engines and end users.

If possible, you should buy the local variations of your domain name in major markets, even if you do not plan on using them right away. If your business might extend to other areas down the road it makes sense to buy as many of the domains as you might practically use at any point in the future. The folks who run Groupon didn't pick up the .com.au & their entry to that market was slowed because the people who are squatting on the domain name want over $286,000 for it! If Groupon would have bought that domain a couple years ago and then waited to launch it whenever they were ready they would be over a quarter million Dollars ahead.

In terms of the best strategy for localization, (from best to worst) it would be:

* local domain name for each country
* subdomains for each major market or language
* folders on your root domain