Multilingual SEO

No, and this is the most expensive misunderstanding in the category. Translation is one component. Without correct hreflang, a decided URL structure, translated metadata and slugs, native keyword research and local link building, a translated site typically ranks for nothing in the new market — Google often treats the versions as duplicates and shows only the original.

For most brands, subdirectories — yoursite.com/de/ — because they inherit the authority your main domain has already earned. Separate country domains send the strongest local signal but start from zero authority and multiply cost.

We use subdirectories on this site for exactly that reason. The decision is hard to reverse later, so it is worth settling before anything is built.

As a first draft, yes. As published content, no. Unreviewed machine translation reads as foreign to native speakers, which damages conversion before it affects rankings, and Google has been explicit that it does not want to surface it.

The workable approach is machine translation as a base, then native-speaker review, then keyword research done in the target language rather than translated from your English list.

Typically three to six months for the first meaningful movement, and nine to twelve for competitive commercial terms. A new language section starts with a head start from your domain authority, but market authority — local links, local proof — is earned separately and takes time.

The leading indicator to watch in the first quarter is the number of distinct queries you appear for in that market, not sessions.

Whichever market already sends you enquiries or traffic you are not serving properly. Search Console will usually tell you — most brands find impressions from countries they have never targeted.

Failing that, start with one market, prove the model, then expand. Four languages done shallow performs worse than one done properly.

Both, in different places. Service and product pages usually translate well because the offer is the same. Content marketing rarely does — the questions buyers ask, the regulations that apply and the competitors they compare you against all differ by market.

Our own German, Spanish, Italian and Japanese sections carry market-specific content rather than translated copies of the English site.

Yes, and it is frequently under-exploited. Vernacular search has grown faster than English search in India for years, and regional-language terms are usually far less competitive than the English equivalent for the same commercial intent — which often means faster returns for the same effort.

Three quick checks: view the page source and confirm the lang attribute matches the content language; confirm hreflang tags exist, are reciprocal and self-referencing; and filter Search Console by country to see whether the translated URLs get impressions at all.

If they do not appear, the problem is almost always technical rather than the quality of the translation.