The difference between SEO localisation, website translation, international SEO strategy and localised SEO content can sometimes be difficult to understand. What are the best practices to translate a web page or a website? Should you hire a native SEO translator? Do you need language switchers for your content?
- What is SEO localisation?
- The difference between SEO localisation and SEO translation
- SEO localisation best practices
- 1. Use one language per page
- 2. Localise meta data
- 3. Use hreflang tags
- 4. Stick to the same URL structure
- 5. Identify relevant keywords
- 6. Hire a native SEO translator
- 7. Don’t forget to localise your media
- 8. Use language switchers (avoid flags)
- 9. Adapt time and date formats, and currency
- 10. Start SEO localisation early
- Hire an SEO translator for your multilingual business
Reading time: 15 minutes
Today, it’s time for you to learn the difference between SEO localisation and SEO translation, alongside some SEO localisation best practices.
We created this blog article to help international and multilingual business owners like you with their website localisation strategy.
Let start with the basics: what is SEO localisation and how is it different from SEO translation?
What is SEO localisation?
SEO localisation is the process of optimising a web page or a website for different languages,cultures, countries, regions or audiences. The goal of SEO localisation is to rank as high as possible in SERPs in order to drive more local traffic.
SEO localisation is performed by native SEO translators. These SEO experts combine their experience in SEO and translation to boost the ranking of web pages for their clients. SEO translators usually work as freelancers or for LSPs (Language Service Providers).
It’s crucial to hire native or local translators with SEO expertise for website localisation projects. Native SEO translators are able to adapt the wording, keywords, media, idioms, authorities… to their culture. It’s really important if you don’t want to confuse or offend your audience (by using certain words or colours, for example).
What are SERPs?
The SERP acronym means Search Engine Result Page. SERPs are the pages where Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, Yahoo, or other search engines list search results.
The primary goal of SEO is to get a high ranking on SERPs in order to drive more organic traffic towards a specific web page or web content (a video, for example). With SEO localisation, website owners can boost their ranking in SERPs for different languages and for different regions or countries.
The difference between SEO localisation and SEO translation
Now that you know what SEO localisation means, it’s time for us to explain SEO translation, the difference between these two language services, and to share some examples of SEO localisation vs SEO translation.
The goal of SEO translation is to translate a web page, a website or its content into another language to help a wider audience understand your content: e-book, app, text, audio, instructions, podcast, etc.
The cultural aspect, idioms, the tone of the content, CTA buttons… are usually skipped during SEO translation (vs SEO localisation). Consider SEO localisation as the premium version of SEO translation.
For you to better understand the difference between SEO localisation vs translation, here are some examples.
SEO localisation vs translation – Examples
Imagine that you sell gardening tools for beginners in the US. You noticed that a lot of French-speaking users are visiting your website; great news because you can deliver your gardening tools to France and Canada! Unfortunately, these users don’t buy any items despite the high number of visits on your website. The bounce rate is also high.
You want to translate your content from English to French to increase your sales and lower the bounce rate.
The title of your American English web page is: How to Have a Green Thumb – 7 Tools for Beginners
SEO translation: Comment Avoir la Main Verte – 7 Outils pour Débutants (“how to have a green hand”)
SEO localisation: Comment Avoir la Main Verte – 7 Outils pour Débutants (“how to have a green hand”) for France, Comment Avoir le Pouce Vert – 7 Outils pour Débutants (“how to have a green thumb”) for Canada.
All results are correct and would be understood by French speakers, whether they live in France or in Canada. But one title would work better than the other, depending on the country.
With SEO translation, the result is a direct translation and is based on search global volume: “avoir la main verte” is globally more searched (1,200 times per month) vs “avoir le pouce vert” (180 times per month).
With SEO localisation, cultural aspects and countries have been taken into account. The keyword “avoir la main verte” has been specifically selected for France, while “avoir le pouce vert” is the localised keyword for Canada: this is localised SEO.
As you can see below, about 590 users search for “avoir la main verte” vs 20 users for “avoir le pouce vert” each month in France. In Canada, French speakers use the idiom “avoir le pouce vert” more often than “avoir la main verte”: 40 searches per month vs 20 searches per month.
The idiom “avoir le pouce vert” (“to have a green thumb”) is rarely used by French people. Only a native SEO translator would know that. Hiring a native SEO translator saves time… and money.
“75% of consumers prefer to buy products from websites in their native language”
Now, imagine that you’re a French online retailer selling casual winter wear: beanies, jumpers, sweaters, scarfs, gloves, etc.
With SEO translation, the English word for “pull” could be “jumper” or “sweater”. Both words are correct.
With SEO localisation, the country where your customers are based would be taken into consideration. If your website targets customers based in Ireland or in the UK, the SEO translator will pick “jumper”. If your customers live in the US, it’s better to use “sweater”.
| US | Ireland | UK | |
| Sweater | 246,000 | 2,400 | 22,000 |
| Jumper | 110,000 | 5,400 | 74,000 |
Another example of SEO localisation vs translation could be, in a blog article about rugby, the use of a picture of Johnny Sexton for the Irish market vs a picture of Antoine Dupont or Sébastien Chabal for the French market. This is SEO localisation.
With SEO translation, the original picture would not be localised.
The difference between SEO localisation and translation is also noticeable with emojis, images, CTAs, UI (user interface), backlinks, etc.
SEO localisation best practices
Follow these 10 tips if you want a smooth and successful SEO localisation experience. You’ll thank us later!
1. Use one language per page
When localising a website, use only one language per page. Don’t mix a graph with English elements with French content, for example. If your page is in French, localise the graph too!
You should localise everything that can be localised on a page: it helps crawlers discover and index your page quicker. Visitors also appreciate reading clear content. You don’t want to confuse potential customers with non-uniform content or information.
Create one page per market and per language.
For example, if you target Switzerland, create four pages: one German page, one Italian page, one French page and one Romansh page.
Your goal and search engines’ is to serve content that is relevant for each user.
2. Localise meta data
With SEO localisation, don’t forget to translate your web page’s meta data! Meta data plays a huge part in SEO success: ranking, CTR, number of visits, etc.
Meta data and tags provide information about a web page to search engines. These key elements help search engines and users understand not only your content, but also the most important information about your web page.
Meta data includes meta title, meta description, canonical URL, etc.
3. Use hreflang tags
Hreflang tags help search engines understand a web page’s language. Hreflang attributes should go in the <head> section of a web page or/and in a sitemap, and must include all alternate pages. These HTML tags must be added on each version of a web page: on each localised web page and on the source page.
Depending on users’ browsing preferences, search engines know which version of a page is the most relevant for each user.
For example, if you have an English web page and a localised version of it in French, search engines like Google may choose to show the French version to people using web browsers in French. Know that hreflang attributes are just an indication; search engines don’t always rely on these tags.
Hreflang is an important factor in SEO localisation.
The x-default hreflang tag is not mandatory but is useful. It indicates which version of a page to show in case search engines don’t know which language is used on a browser.
We’ll talk more about hreflang in another blog post. Join our newsletter not to miss it!
4. Stick to the same URL structure
Before localising your website, choose the international URL structure you will use across your domains and subdomains:
- Country Code Top-Level Domains (ccTLDs)
- Subdomains
- Subfolders
Don’t use www.domain.ie and www.de.domain.com: this will confuse users and potential customers. Stick to the same URL structure.
If possible, use country language locale codes or country codes: ie-EN for English content in Ireland, for example.
5. Identify relevant keywords
Identify relevant SEO keywords for each market you target: check their volume, the number of results on SERPs, adapt your keywords to the targeted audience (per country, per region, per age, etc.). If you don’t know where to start, ask an SEO translator for help.
If language is a key criterion, hire a native SEO translator from the country or region you are targeting. If your audience is of a certain age or gender, most of the SEO experts working as freelancers or for an LSP should be able to help you.
Search volume and results can also differ between search engines: people using Alexa vs Google Search don’t search the same way. With voice assistants, keywords sound more natural and conversational.
6. Hire a native SEO translator
An SEO localisation project can only be done with the help of a native SEO translator. Without the help of an expert in international SEO and translation, the risk of mistakes is pretty high. It would also imply a loss of time and money, which business owners want to avoid.
SEO localisation takes time and effort, but if you hire a professional, the investment is more than worth it. Also, it’s a long-term investment. Once a web page is localised, you just need to optimise it over time, with the help of a native SEO expert.
7. Don’t forget to localise your media
Media like images or videos are important in SEO. It’s essential that you localise their content, but also their titles and alt text elements.
For example, if your content includes text, a celebrity, a landmark building, a specific colour… make sure it is appropriate for the target market. Some colours don’t have the same significance across cultures; some countries don’t allow pictures with bare shoulders; some references in a country may be unknown to others, etc.
In this example, there are two simple images showcasing Happy New Year messages: one in English and one in French. This is the work of a native SEO translator; this is SEO localisation.
Not only the content of the image has been localised, but the image title and alt text too!
Many people skip this step because it can be time-consuming. Know that search engines scan this data and some users too: alt text is often used by visually impaired users, for example.
8. Use language switchers (avoid flags)
Implement language switchers on your website when you cover various markets, languages and countries. Language switchers must be easily accessible for users to have a good experience when they visit your website.
We recommend that you use ISO language codes (FR, EN, ES…), ISO country codes (IE, FR, CA, BE…), the localised name of the language (English, Français…) or the localised name of the country (Ireland, France, Canada…) as language switchers.
Imagine that you are on holiday in a foreign country: France, for example. You are in your hotel room and are using the Wi-Fi to browse the internet. You are searching for nearby activities to do with the kids… but you end up on a French website. You don’t speak French. Fortunately, you spot a language switcher with the term “English”: you click it, the web page content is now in English, you’re happy.
If “English” had been written in French (“Anglais”), you would have missed it and would have left the website.
Language and country switchers are also important to display the correct currency, for example.
Do not use flags as language switchers because you could offend website visitors and potential customers. Imagine that you use the flag of England as a language switcher for “English”: this is wrong. This would exclude people living in other UK countries and Ireland, for example. They do speak English too!
9. Adapt time and date formats, and currency
When localising your website for SEO, remember to adapt your content to each culture, each language and each country. Adapt the currency and time and date formats.
For example, with dates:
- American date format: 12/06/2025 means 6 December 2025.
- British date format: 12/06/2025 means 12 June 2025.
- French date format: 12/06/2025 means 12 June 2025.
10. Start SEO localisation early
To save money and time, start SEO localisation early. As often, it’s quicker to create a multilingual website than changing its URL structure. The impact on the SEO is also quite important.
SEO takes time; it’s an investment. It’s the same with SEO localisation, and you don’t want to ruin your previous SEO efforts by making massive changes.
Connect with a local or native SEO translator early to reinforce your SEO localisation strategy. This expert will share some best practices and tips, and will create a custom plan for your project.
Hire an SEO translator for your multilingual business
Now that you know the difference between SEO localisation and translation, that you have learned the meaning of SERPs, and that you are aware of some SEO localisation best practices and tips, it’s time for you to think strategy.
Have a clear idea of what your goal is, why you want to localise your website, which markets are the best for your business, and what could be your budget for this project.
If you need help budgeting an SEO localisation project, contact us now. Our French SEO translator will be happy to answer your questions.