Employ Localization to Best Serve Global Customers

Loading...

Del curso dictado por University of California, Davis

Advanced Search Engine Optimization Strategies

286 calificaciones

Explore Related Videos

At Coursera, you will find the best lectures in the world. Here are some of our personalized recommendations for you

University of California, Davis

Advanced Search Engine Optimization Strategies

286 calificaciones

Curso 5 de 6 en SpecializationSearch Engine Optimization (SEO)

This course focuses on technical, mobile and social strategies for increasing site traffic. Learn how to build SEO for international audiences through content localization, global team alignment and optimizing for local search engines. Discover techniques to optimize mobile-friendly websites, get mobile apps discovered, and leverage social media to drive organic SEO traffic. You will also learn how to identify key SEO metrics and collect, interpret, validate, and report success to your clients and stakeholders.

De la lección

Take Your Website Global

In this module, you will examine what you need to take your website global. You will prepare for global expansion and grasp tremendous opportunities to reach the world. You will be introduced to tested principles and best practices to optimize your website for global expansion. You will align your site with international audiences following guidance from search engines. You will explore how to structure URLs and employ localization to serve global customers, as well as develop engaging strategies to launch a global web marketing campaign. You will work with a budget for external or in-house localization teams and empower stakeholders to fulfill their roles in a global marketplace.

Introduction to Take Your Website Global2:20

Prepare Your Framework for Global Expansion9:08

Strategize to Grasp Global Opportunities8:48

Use Principles and Practices to Win on a Global Level7:13

Align with Search Engines’ Global Guidance8:57

Structure Your URLs for Greatest Global Impact5:35

Employ Localization to Best Serve Global Customers9:52

Engage Launch Strategies for Global Web Marketing9:50

Validate Global SEO and Empower Stakeholders for Global Roles6:20

Conoce a los instructores

Dave Lloyd
Senior Manager, Global Search Marketing
Adobe Systems

Hello, again.

This lesson is on localization workflow.

Localization is a key part of the global web marketing process.

Without having a localization team or agencies in place,

there is no way to scale and be relevant.

Certainly you could use tools like Google Translate, but for

most users those will not be an effective way to receive their content.

In order to do localization well, you need to have a strategy and

process in place and vendors that you work with who make things much easier.

It also requires ongoing training and

an understanding of how to do the operational work well.

You'll learn knowledge about how to do translation effectively,

the steps required in the localization process, and how to work

effectively with localization agencies who can help you make these implementations.

In essence, localization is about understanding your audience.

It's not merely translation where you take a word and

translate it into another language.

Localization takes into account culture, context, and relevance.

You must become culturally aware.

This extends beyond words to include images and videos.

Various cultures respond differently to different messages.

Some images will resonate more depending on country of origin and

cultural relevance.

If a culture is new to you, consider testing to see whether a message or

visual on the website will truly resonate or if it might offend this audience.

Let's walk through a simple example.

Suppose you have three popular English keywords that you know deliver results and

have sufficient search demand.

You're thinking about how to translate English content into other languages.

Suppose you've taken that English content, those three keywords, and

translated them into German, French, and Spanish.

You're looking at the demand, or relevance, or

some of the other keyword measures we discussed earlier.

Often that keyword you thought was ideal for English shows either very little

demand, is culturally irrelevant, or just doesn't resonate in another language.

If your SEO lens reveals a lack of demand, not enough people are looking for

that content, then you must get creative determining other keywords

that will prompt strong responses in those languages.

Or agree that this choice of keywords is the best you can do,

all other things being equal.

This is an inherent challenge, it's common.

It comes up anytime you talk to those with a translation or localization background.

For example, say you're looking at digital marketing, but

you want to translate that into French.

In English, it has 1600 monthly searches, but

when you translate that exact phrase into French, it gets only 70.

It can go the other direction as well, where a keyword that has great resonance

in another language is not the term your team wants to use for

your primary English content.

The point here is that you won't automatically get keywords exactly right

when it comes to having the highest demand.

Just do the right thing for your audience.

Write in such a way that the content makes sense culturally for

each language you translate into.

This is why it's important to consider native speakers to help with your

translation efforts.

It can be challenging to justify localization because there is an expense

required.

You need to pay for services, either at a localization agency or

through a competent internal team you train or hire.

It's important to let your current traffic or

marketing focus guide how you prioritize localization.

Clearly, one major purpose of hosting different sites or

sections in other languages is to provide information in those various countries,

but nothing irritates customers more than poorly translated copy.

If it were as simple as using something like Google Translate,

they'd do it themselves.

Therefore, you need to have copywriters who speak the target language intimately

to capture the nuances of what you're trying to say.

There are ways to scale localization by thinking through levels of engagement.

This is not a boil the ocean exercise.

Start with the simplest deliverable, keyword research by a native speaker.

After that, maybe you'd use a documented localization process.

Once that's in place, if business continues to justify moving forward,

maybe consider localization agencies, training, and reviews.

I'm going to walk through each of these in more detail.

Here's level one.

Suppose you're starting with content in English or

your native language and you want it translated into a few

other languages because there's a business case for it.

You could hire a native speaking person

who has a basic understanding of keyword research.

You can find translators on UpWork or Fiverr.

You may need to train them in SEO basics related to the desired language, but

you can start simply by using the Google Keyword Planner or

another keyword research tool.

Then demonstrate how you want keyword research done for another language.

You might consider other options for translation.

You can take the path of lower quality and lower commitment, which is crowdsourcing

or machine learning translation utilizing Google Translate or

another automated translation tool.

But I recommend that you consider localized keyword research where quality

increases in proportion to the training and skill of your translation team.

The highest quality comes by working with a local translator.

This incurs a higher cost and requires greater commitment.

Some situations call for a localization process that's documented, for example,

in a multinational enterprise.

You may want to put in place a step-by-step documented repeatable

process, or ask for it if you're working with,

team with something already established.

This might include number one, in-country keyword research.

Two, map keywords to a preferred landing page for

the languages you're translating into.

Three, localizing those keywords in content

while being culturally sensitive regarding video and images.

Number four, you could establish a review process where the editorial, SEO,

and web teams collaborate regarding the kind of localization you're doing.

Involving many perspectives in content review increases accuracy.

Number 5, finally, that localized content then goes live in a launch.

This is a mature way of thinking about localization because it emphasizes quality

control, requires communication among teams to ensure that nothing is missed,

and it ensures that the process is as efficient as possible.

Most multinational companies eventually hire a vendor, or

vendors, to handle localization.

If you go this route,

a vendor strategy becomes a partnership where you're choosing translators well by

picking freelancers or agencies with experience in your countries.

And ultimately, you should give these teams some freedom.

Encourage them to capture the central idea of your message and

adapt that into native written content to best capture your audience's attention.

Here are a few things to keep in mind if you go this route.

Make assignments by language, not by product, so

that you capture the linguistic expertise of your workers.

This creates consistency across a single language.

Ultimately, your search needs can complement other websites or collateral or

copy needs that you have for localization, so that you have the same

vendors working on multiple deliverables for a launch or a product release.

You might consider a translation guide for a more sophisticated organization.

This brief document covers the tone of voice in writing style.

You could even do this in video or

some other visual way to help your workers better understand expectations.

In this way, you're sharing with your translation provider or

partner the best practices so that expectations are clear.

You might also build a glossary or dictionary of common terms and

phrases that require particular translation.

Here's where you'd include brand terms that you don't want translated or

specific criteria for how phrases that are pertinent to your industry are translated.

And make assessments at a per language level of how you think through your

industry terms, what that means for content on your site.

One final step I recommend is to develop a review process.

Building a review process provides needed quality control to

ensure the effectiveness of your localized marketing copy.

Typically, you'll have linguistic reviewers for targeted regions.

They may sit in-country or have native language speaking ability, but they won't

have the same level of buy-in as employees or clients you work with directly.

Having your regional or

geographically-based team sign off on the content engenders further buy-in and

ownership of the content that's going live.

You also increase ownership by setting up a long-term engagement with your chosen

vendor or partner, increasing accountability and

quality through a coordinated review process.

Explora nuestro catálogo

Inscríbete de manera gratuita y obtén recomendaciones personalizadas, actualizaciones y ofertas.

Coursera brinda acceso universal a la mejor educación del mundo, al asociarse con las mejores universidades y organizaciones, para ofrecer cursos en línea.

© 2019 Coursera Inc. Todos los derechos reservados.

Descargar en la App Store

Consíguelo en Google Play