Non English Website Promotion
I am seasoned in search engine optimisation, but I was recently asked a question that I couldn't find an answer to.
Basically, I have been asked to promote a group of websites that are not written in English. They vary in country, but I am being asked to promote sites written in French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Swedish, Danish... well the list goes on for another 15 languages or so.
They are for one company operating in multiple countries throughout the world. The content is the same, just translated to suit the native speakers.
What they want is for their keyphrases - in the native language - to show up in google in the top spot (or as close to it as possible) in the country specific google search engine, so google.fr, google.es etc.
I have access to people who can translate these keyphrases into local phrases (so that they make sense to the relative country, I understand that English doesn't always translate exactly right into a foreign tongue), but then I get to a grey area.
If I want to optimise for the phrase 'frying pan' in English (for sake of example, plus I have just cooked sausages...), I just write about frying pans/food/kitchen etc and anchor text my links accordingly, then go and follow my submission strategy.
If I want to optimise for the French translation of 'frying pan' - 'poêle à frire', but do not have any articles written in French about frying pans, can I just use English articles, and use the French translation as my anchor?!
As additional info:
I am not looking for traffic from my submissions. I want to gain backlinks in order to rank highly for non English keyphrases. Traffic would just be a bonus.
I do not have the resources to pay for English articles to be rewritten into 15+ other languages.
I have noticed that during my time submitting to various services, I have found that my articles end up on Chinese/Japanese/Indian/etc websites. I am still attributed a link for these sites, even though they may make no sense to the people of that country.
So what are your experiences, if any? Can/have you been submitting English articles/blog posts/comments/any other type of submission, and anchored the links in those submissions with a non English phrase? If you have, then what were your results? Were you able to get a French keyword to the top of the French google search results for example?!
I would love to know, as it would either save me a load of time by saying I can't do it without additional investment, or it will mean I can take on the project!
Appreciate your views and experiences,
San
Available as writer and translator (english --> italian)