SEO in foreign languages
-
Hi everyone,
I currently run a website called Barquitos www.barquitos.com
The site is an extension of a shop that is based here in Spain. Though because the town is particularly touristy we built the website to offer English and Spanish as language options on the site. English on Barquitos.com and Spanish through a sub domain es.barquitos.com.
In an ideal world I want to rank the English version for English phrases on Google.co.uk, and the Spanish sub domain on es.barquitos.com. However, my Spanish is only at a reasonable standard, probably not good enough to look at writing quality content in Spanish.
Is building up the Page Authority and Domain authority for the English main domain enough to rank the Spanish sub domain or do we need a focussed approach for both languages?
Any tips or advice for helping to rank sub domains in foreign languages would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks everyone
Stu
-
Hi Stu, as the root domain and sub-domain are targeting different geo-locations, moreoever Google treats the sub-domains a little more like a stand alone website, it is highly recommended to earn links for both of them individually, by all possible means from their respective geographies, I mean from the web properties operating or targeting audience in those geo-locations. For example, it would be odd for me to earn links for a Japanese website, targeting Japanese audience from web properties operating or targeting USA audience. Though this is not uncommon, it will not serve the purpose. Over and above this, fetching quality back links from any where is always recommended especially if those links are from authority web properties with high DA, PA and other SEO goodies like good Google PageRank etc..
I would conclude by addressing your question that fetching links to the root domain will not help much to make the sub-domain rank high in search results for many obvious reasons. Just like we do deep link promotions for promoting pages other than the home page so that they can rank high for their respective target terms, we should be promoting the sub-domains also as if they were standalone websites so as to get maximum benefit from an off-page promotional campaign.
Hope it helps my friend.
Best,
Devanur Rafi
-
Thanks Devanur, appreciate the response.
Yeah I have read that before, and took everything into account when setting up the site. My only issue now is really pushing the SEO ongoing. Would you say pushing the link building on the main domain (English site and English SEO) would in turn rank the sub domain as well?
Many thanks
Stu
-
Hi Stu, here is a quick link from Google that can guide you in this regard:
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/182192?hl=en
Once you go through it, please feel free to get back with further queries.
Best,
Devanur Rafi
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
-
International SEO - Targeting US and UK markets
Hi folks, i have a client who is based in italy and they set up a site that sells travel experiences in the sout of Italy (the site currently sit on a server in Italy). The site has been set up as gTLDs: www.example.com They only want to target the US and the UK market to promote their travel experiences and the site has only the english version (the site does not currently offer an italian version). If they decide to go for the gTLDs and not actually change to a ccTLDs (which would be ideal from my point of view) how are the steps to be taken to set this up correctly on GSC? They currently only have one property registered on GSC: www.exapmple.com therefore i guess the next steps are: Add new property - www.example.com/uk and and set up geo targeting for UK Existing property - www.example.com/ set up geo targeting for US In case the client does not have the budget to optimise the content for american and british languages, would still make sense to have 2 separate property in GSC (example.com for US market and example.com/uk for UK market)? Few considerations: Add canonical tag to avoid duplicate content across the two versions of the site (in the event there is no budget to optimise the content for US and UK market)? Thank you all in advance for looking into this David
International SEO | | Davide19840 -
International SEO Question: Using hreflang tags across two different TLDs.
Hi! My UK based company just recently made the decision to let the US market operate their ecommerce business independently. Initially, both markets were operating off the same domain using sub-directories (i.e: www.brandname.com/en-us/ , www.brandname.com/en-gb/ ) Now that the US team have broken away from the domain - they are now using www.brandnameUSA.com while the UK continues to use www.brandname.com/en-gb/. The content is similar across both domains - however, the new US website has been able to consolidate several product variations onto single product pages where the UK website is using individual product pages for each variation. We have placed a geo-filter on the main domain which is 301 redirecting North American traffic looking for www.brandname.com to www.brandnameUSA.com However, since the domain change has taken place, product pages from the original domain are now indexing alongside the new US websites product pages in US search results. The UK website wants to be the default destination for all international traffic. My question is - how do we correctly setup hrlang tags across two separate TLDs and how do we handle a situation where multiple product pages on the "default" domain have been consolidated into one product page on the new USA domain? This is how we are currently handling it: "en-us" href="https://www.BRANDNAMEUSA.com/All-Variations" /> href="https://www.BRANDNAMEUSA.com/All-Variations" />
International SEO | | alexcbrands0 -
Will website with tag hreflang pass link juice to other country/language version of website?
For example, I have a website XXX.com and I made hreflang tags to other country/language versions of website: ru.XXX.com (for Russia/Russian) XXX.com.ua (for Ukraine/Russian) ua.XXX.com (for Ukraine/Ukraine) Then I will acquire links to XXX.com. The question is: will XXX.com pass link juice to websites ru.XXX.com, XXX.com.ua and ua.XXX.com. Will these websites rank in their countries if I will acquire links ONLY to XXX.com? I looked at https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/189077?hl=en, but haven't found what google think about that. Thank you in advance. I will appreciate your help.
International SEO | | Kabanchik0 -
Subdomains or subfolders for language specific sites?
We're launching an .org.hk site with English and Traditional Chinese variants. As the local population speaks both languages we would prefer not to have separate domains and are deciding between subdomains and subfolders. We're aware of the reasons behind generally preferring folders, but many people, including moz.com, suggest preferring subfolders to subdomains with the notable exception of language-specific sites. Does this mean subdomains should be preferred for language specific sites, or just that they are okay? I can't find any rationale to this other than administrative simplification (e.g. easier to set up different analytics / hosting), which in our case is not an issue. Can anyone point me in the right direction?
International SEO | | SOS_Children0 -
SEO Company in Asia
Hi All. I have a client looking to expand their industrial services to southeast Asia (Vietnam and Indonesia specifically right now). Does anyone know of an SEO/Online Marketing firm local to that region that may be able to help them network with businesses and industries there? I've gone through the SEOmoz member database and reached out to a couple people with agencies in that area but never heard back from them. I personally thought a local firm would be more beneficial to the client but I'm also open to suggestions on ways that we might be able to help them market their services online from the US. Thanks so much! Megan
International SEO | | ILM_Marketing0 -
SEO difficulty between languages?
Hello, I would like to know if there are certain factors that determine SEO difficulty between different languages or countries. Is doing SEO more difficult in Japan than in the United States? What would be some factors that could help determine the above? Thanks in advance,
International SEO | | SS-ose0 -
The case of the attempted server hacking and it's effect on SEO
Since relaunch earlier this year, we've had patches where our site has failed to load. It's happened every so often, but, until I receive the server logs from the company who hosts the site, I won't know exactly when this issue has occurred. Until now, we've only noticed it when someone in the company has tried, and failed, to access the site. Again, it happened today. After hassling our developers/hosting firm for a conclusive answer as to why, it emerged that their server (perhaps our site in particular because of the nature of our business) had been the target of an attempted hacking. We've now concluded that every time our site has messed around like this, it's because of a possible hack. Would anyone in SEOmoz Land be able to tell me if this is going to have a negative impact for our SEO and site performance? Would search engines be able to tell if a potential hack is, or was, occurring? Would we then be penalised? Please feel free to elaborate on the hacking process in general, too, if you can because this is the first time I've encountered it. Thanks
International SEO | | Martin_S0 -
Australia specific SEO tips?
For those who are conducting SEO here in Australia: A lot of the info I read, and there is a lot, is generally from the States or UK it seems. Are there any things in particular I should look out for when doing SEO in Australia? Are there any SEO tips that are particular to Australia only? What directories are a must in Australia?
International SEO | | iSenseWebSolutions0