Optimizing terms with accents/tildes in Spanish
-
Hello all, quick question. We are optimizing for a keyword that includes an accent in Spanish. Is it better to use the accented or regular form (i.e. inglés vs. ingles)? Also, is there any distinction between accents (áéí...) and the ene (ñ) in terms of strategy/best practices? Does this accent issue have a huge impact on ranking?
-
That all sounds about right.
Google will try it's best to deliver to the user what Google thinks the user is searching for since that will keep them as a customer.
Assuming you can do it with accuracy it is better to aim for what the user was intending rather than what their actions depict.
You really should just hire a mind reader
-
Thank you for the helpful response Charles, I will definitely run the experiments you suggest.
Even though the correct spelling would have an accent, many native speakers of Spanish search for the keywords we're targeting without the accents. Sometimes it can be hard to type the correct characters for the average user or they just want to save a few seconds by skipping the extra keystrokes.
It seems to me this is like misspelling strategy in English-language SEO. While there many be a big market for "Sapnish" instead of "Spanish", Google's auto-correct and contextual clues compensate for the slight advantage of having the exact query which is misspelled (the "Did you mean Spanish?" tool tip will bring them to your properly spelled page). Proper spellings make your brand look good and are ultimately what Google is shooting to deliver. I just wanted to make sure this was the case in Spanish language SEO (I know changes to Google's international properties can sometimes lag behind its U.S. page).
Another benefit of having the accents, I would think, would be local relevancy. I'm guessing Google.mx in Mexico or Google.es in Spain would prefer a site with the proper accents for users in those countries than it might in the U.S.
Does this sound right? Thanks for your help!
-
I don't have a lot of experience with this, but here is my 2 cents for what it is worth.
Obviously if you are running a multi-lingual site you would want to use the correct characters for the corresponding language on that version of the site.
If you are however running an english site, and writing an article on why it is important to learn to say "Donde esta el baño" then I suggest doing some quick research.
Going to google I can see that the suggested searches it shows as I type in the query don't use the "ñ" character. If you look at the results for the search without the "ñ" character the first set of results do have that character in them. This suggests to me that Google will recognize either as the same thing for this specific word.
I recommend doing research like this for your specific situation as you might have a conflicting word (e.g. the word changes meaning depending on the use of the character). In which case hopefully the engine can pick up on the context of its use.
Also try multiple engines and match up your strategy to what engines your market tends to use.
Sorry I couldn't be more specific as I haven't had this problem.
This is how I would go about testing, and planning for a solution though
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Multiregional / Multilingual SEO - Subfolders Question
Hello all, I wonder if you can help me... I have a question about subfolders in multi-regional / multi-lingual SEO - more specifically in reference to targeting the UK and the US. Having looked at some global websites these are the types of implementations I've most commonly seen: UK subfolders .com/uk .com/gb .com/gb/en-gb | .com/en-GB .com/gb-en .com/en-gb .com/uk/en US subfolders .com/us .com/us/en-us | .com/en-US .com/us-en .com/en-us .com/us/en Are any of these approaches better than others or is it all a matter of personal preference? What's the reason for using .com/gb over .com/uk (or vice versa) for example? Secondly, my assumption is that the examples above which include language subfolders do so because these companies are targeting different speaking users within these countries. Would I be right to think that since the organisation I work for is only targeting the American speakers in the US, we wouldn't need to go so far as to have language subfolders in addition to location subfolders? Would be great to get some feedback / suggestions! Thanks!
International SEO | | SEOCT0 -
International website sharing with .com/.au/.uk
I have a small business in the United States and would like to copy our main website for my international partners. My website is a .com. I think that their domains will end in their country codes: .au and .uk. We are open to using different domains. We plan to share blog articles and other content, but do not wish to be penalized for duplication. I have tried to read articles on this topic, but am unfamiliar with a lot of the terms. Is there any way to do this simply? Many thanks, Steph
International SEO | | essential_steph0 -
Help: Newbie trying to optimize for several international domains
We have three domain names co.nz, com.au and com. We are very new and have been told to optimize for co.nz first before going into com.au and com. Having said that, we have outsourced an seo company to optimize our co.nz site, however I would like to optimize the com.au and the com based on the information we currently receive for co.nz. Any suggestions on how to go about doing this? I looked at our competition and it seems they have the same content across all 3 domains, but they have changed the meta tags for each domain and that's about it. Any tips or ideas on how we could possibly do better? I know its early stages.... but as a newbie some advice around this would be great! Thanks
International SEO | | edward-may0 -
Direct traffic is up 2100% (due to a bot/crawler I believe)
Hi, The direct traffic to website www.webgain.dk has increased by over 2100% recently. I can see that most of it is from US (my target audience is in Denmark and the website is in danish).
International SEO | | WebGain
What can I do about this? All this traffic gives my website a bounce rate of 99.91% for direct traffic. I believe it is some sort of bot/crawler. 2100percentboost.png0 -
Shall I automatically redirect international visitors from www.domain.com to e.g. www.domain.com/es? What is best SEO practice?
We have chosen the one domain approach with our international site having different language versions in subdirectory of main domain:
International SEO | | lcourse
www.domain.com/es
www.domain.com/it
etc. What is SEO-wise best practice for implementing international index pages. I see following options: entering www.domain.com will display without redirection the index page in language of user (e.g based on IP or browser) in www.domain.com
Example: www.booking.com entering www.domain.com will always show English index page.
Additionally one may display a message in the header if IP from other country with link to other language version.
Example: www.apple.com entering www.domain.com will always redirect automatically to country specific subdirectory based on IP
Example: www.samsung.com Any thoughts/suggestions on what may be best solution from a SEO perspective? For a user I believe options 1) & 3) are preferable.0 -
Link Builder Freelance/Agency in Italy_
Hi! We are looking for a link builder freelance or an SEO agency specialized in link building for the Italian market. Could you recommend any? Did anyone have any experience with a good Italian agency/freelance? Thanks!
International SEO | | jorgediaz0 -
SEO for Subdomains for different languages .com/fr, .com/es
Hi All, I was wondering how best to to approach optimisation of a site that exists on a single .com domain, but has different subfolders for different languages. The site is a .com and it has subfolders for French, Spanish, Russian and English. The business is situated in France and the vast majority of clients are French and English speakers. I've read that it's possible to geo target these subfolders using webmaster tools however I believe this is an inferior method of optimisation than having tld's. Just wondered if anyone had experience of htis and could provide any advice ? As they won't be rebuilding the site for another year or so I wondered if there were any quick wins? My second question is to do with how best to set these campaigns up within SEO Moz. would it be better to track at a subdomain or subfolder leverl (for different languages)? If someone could advise I would greatly appreciate it! Thanks, vantresca
International SEO | | vanvallejo0 -
Does it matter whether you use /en vs /uk
I have a global site targeting many countries including the UK which is the only English language site. Does it matter whether I use /en or /uk for the UK sub-folder? If I already have /en in place, but my Google UK listings are struggling, will it benefit me to switch to /uk? I honestly don't think it matters too much, but given the choice would've gone for the /uk I'm trying to weigh up whether it is worth the effort of changing it.
International SEO | | Red_Mud_Rookie0