The Spanish language is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world and its users have a huge market to choose from. If your website is in Spanish, you should know what you’re getting into when it comes to SEO. Whether or not you read this article now, it’s worth spending some time thinking about what your strategy will be like before launching a new language onto the web.
Here are 7 tips to help you get the most out of marketing your Spanish website:
1. Localize Content Beyond just Translation.
Although it’s important to translate your site and content into Spanish SEO, it’s not simply a matter of copying and pasting everything over into another language. This can promote bad SEO, as Google will view this type of work as a purely mechanical, low-quality effort at getting high search engine rankings. You need to localize Spanish content to truly connect with potential customers and rank higher in search engines on the strength of the information you provide, not how good it looks in another language.
2. Use Titles and Subheadings with words that people will Actually Search for
Spanish SEO is different from English SEO in that search engine users in Spanish-speaking countries have different topics and interests than those on Google.com. Since you’re targeting a different market, you should be sure to include these words in your title tags and subheadings to make sure that you’re talking directly to them. Think about what they would say, rather than just copy/pasting the same thing over into Spanish language versions of the same content.
3. Make the Translation as Close to the Source Content as Possible (but not Plagiarizing!)
Spanning the language barrier is a difficult one to achieve, especially since many companies use human translators for this purpose. The best way to make sure that you’re not plagiarizing is to find people who can write in both languages and make sure that the translation of your written content is as close to their original work as possible (but not plagiarizing!).
4. Keep the SEO Strategies in line with the SEO Strategies used for your non-Spanish Language Sites
Since Google has made it clear that it does not index Spanish-language sites the same way that it indexes English-language sites, you should be aware of these changes and be prepared to report any wrong rankings or penalties accordingly. In addition, you should be using the same strategies for your Spanish language site as you do for your other sites. For example, add a rel=canonical tag to allow people to find the latest version of a page on a different domain.
5. Use keywords like “content” and ” informative” in all of Your Titles (and use them Often!).
Don’t just force words like “content” into every title you create, but also make sure that they’re used as often as they would be at home! Even more significantly, don’t try to slap the keywords “informative” into every title – this can get overused and makes it seem like you’re trying too hard. Your written content should be informative and you should use active keywords to ensure that people are finding valuable information on your site.
6. Be sure to Include Specific Keywords in your headings and subheadings!
Many companies will put the same words in their titles or headings as they would do in their home language. Although this can be a good idea, it’s not really effective if you’re using the same words on a website with a different language than your home language. Instead, try to include specific words that work well with the context of your page, such as “content” or “tips” when they’re relevant.
7. Make sure your Website is Easy to Read and Use
Even if your website looks good, it’s not going to rank well in Spanish if it’s hard to read and use. Make sure that the font, colors, and images all make sense in relation to the Spanish language! This will help you rank higher on Google as well as connect with more people that are looking for a Spanish-speaking audience online.
Conclusion
As you can see, SEO is a challenge that requires as much research and strategy as it does translation. Although Google is working hard to index Spanish-language websites, they’re not doing it in the same way they do for English or German-language sites. This means that you need to be very careful when doing SEO for a site in Spanish!
