SEO for websites in Italian, Spanish, German, ...

[dunker]

Hi there, fellow Warriors and SEO gurus!

It has just so happened that I have been 'blessed' with a project to do some serious SEO for websites in various foreign languages. The thing is that our client is a large international company with specific websites for US, UK (no problem here), German, Italian, Spanish etc. markets.

I would certainly be able to do some serious SEO for websites in English (a good article distribution system, blog commenting, link exchanges, social networks, 'viral' campaigns, ...), but I have no idea how to start a SEO project for other languages.

Are there article directories and such in Spanish, Italian, German, ... language? What other approaches can I use for those websites?

Thank you very much in advance,

yours truly

[bravo75]

Not to sure about that, but if you need someone to help with german translations, I am your man. PM me if you need anything translated to german

Originally Posted by dunker

Hi there, fellow Warriors and SEO gurus!

It has just so happened that I have been 'blessed' with a project to do some serious SEO for websites in various foreign languages. The thing is that our client is a large international company with specific websites for US, UK (no problem here), German, Italian, Spanish etc. markets.

I would certainly be able to do some serious SEO for websites in English (a good article distribution system, blog commenting, link exchanges, social networks, 'viral' campaigns, ...), but I have no idea how to start a SEO project for other languages.

Are there article directories and such in Spanish, Italian, German, ... language? What other approaches can I use for those websites?

Thank you very much in advance,

yours truly

[7reach]

yes, there are directories in all languages. Just use the appropriate google country search and you'll find a ton.

[7reach]

example, I searched for link directory in spanish "directorio de link" in google mexico.

Google

[McBrett]

Dunker, I've actually been grappling with international SEO myself issues myself.

1.) I've found that the latest update of the Google Keyword Tool is much more powerful than before. If you click advanced and target Germany for instance, it will actually suggest German translations of English keywords now. Of course, you'll still want to run these through a translator tool or even better have someone like Bravo 75 proof them. A good translation can make improve your click-throughs and profits dramatically. I've had some poor translations in the past that have resulted in almost zero click-throughs on my PPC campaigns. Very frustrating.

2.) If you're company spends a fair amount of money in PPC advertising, try to get in contact with a representative from Yahoo or Google that specializes in serving one of those countries. It might take a few weeks to get to the right person, but they can help provide you with some basic info about what works and what doesn't per country.

3.) Back links wise, ask around to find out who the competition is in your niche within that country. Then do typical competitive analysis to learn where they are getting their backlinks. I'm willing to bet you'll find a few local link hubs and you can go from there.

4.) If you can try to set up international looking websites. So for germany either pick up yourbrand.de. Or you could do it the easy way and set up a subdomain for international countries. i.e. de.yourbrand if you can get a local address even better.

5.) Also if you can host it or set up a proxy server the local country, even better.

Please pass on any tips you learn along the way with these international sites. It's def a great opportunity for you. A lot of companies are trying to figure out the international SEO.