One of our most in-demand services at Upstream Connections is multilingual SEO work.

Our office has always been a multicultural place, with native German, Spanish and English speakers among the full time staff and a raft of nationalities working with us on a part-time basis.

We currently offer internet marketing and SEO services in Spanish, German, French, Italian and Swedish. The work is all based in our Hove office, which means that we can maintain the high level of quality control that clients expect.

We do not outsource and we will not take on work that we cannot fully understand. Your brand is worth more than that.

One of the most interesting aspects of multilingual work is gaining insight into the way that different markets work. There is no substitute for genuine local knowledge, which is why we work closely with our clients and staff to find the right approach for multilingual campaigns.

Some important things to remember when planning a multilingual SEO campaign:

Do market research.

There is no substitute for local knowledge. This is true for every step of the multilingual SEO process, from website translation through to link building and content promotion work.

Don’t assume that your keywords will translate directly.

…and be aware of local differences within a language. I learnt Spanish in Buenos Aires, which has left me with a different vocabulary to the Spanish staff in our office. An ordenador to them is una computadora to me.

We have the same quirks in English. Our US travel clients provide vacations while our UK clients offer holidays. The same is true of cell phones and mobile phones (in Spanish too, with celular and telefono movil). These are significant differences that need to be addressed before you start promoting your site.

Get a translator that really understands your business.

When translating a site, there is a risk of the dreaded literal translation. This problem can arise if a translator is not fully briefed or does not understand what your website and business are really about.

It always makes sense to have a trusted native speaker check over your translated site before it goes live.

At enterprise level, literal site translation is not usually a problem, because there are (usually) native speakers within the organisation who a) understand the business and b) speak the relevant language.

Don’t underestimate the power of images

Images transcend language barriers. Be sure to translate the ALT tags and, where appropriate, image names on your translated website.

If you want to rank well in overseas search results, create a great resource for your target markets.

While the idea of translating a couple of pages of your website into foreign languages and hoping that this will “do the trick” can be appealing, it is highly unlikely to actually “do the trick”. Foreign language search markets are less competitive than English language markets, but the rules of SEO are just the same – a great site deserves visibility.

There is a balance to strike. For some less-spoken languages, translating a couple of pages of content can be a great “easy win”, especially if you are offering a location-based service. If you offer something niche and are the only website with relevant content in a specific language, you have a good chance of gaining some easy results.

Do you have someone who can handle enquiries in foreign languages?

Again, this isn’t a problem at enterprise level, because foreign language enquiries are likely to go to the relevant office/department, but it can be a real issue for smaller businesses.

Depending on your industry, it could be that enquiries will arrive in English, whatever the language used to find your site. However, in many cases you will receive enquiries in your targeted language and need to find a way to manage these.

Appreciate different business cultures.

While the EU has made international trade relatively easy within Europe, be aware that different customers will be used to different treatment.

There’s a wide world out there waiting to do business with you. With our experience in planning and executing multilingual campaigns, we can help them find you.

If you’d like to discuss our multilingual SEO service, email alex@upstreamconnections.com or give us a call in the office on +44 (0) 1273 773 616.

Admit it. On the news, in the office, in your favourite program… you have heard that your workmates are using Twitter, that famous chefs, singers and tv presenters have been tweeting?  Has the world gone crazy? Many answers come to my mind here.

Put in simple words, Twitter is the way of letting the world know what you are up to (or what your business is up to). It is a free social networking and micro-blogging service but if you are new to tweeting here is the very basic information you need to start familiarising with Twitter:

- Tweets: Messages (known as tweets) which you can post in your Twitter account. At the same time, you will have access to millions of tweets posted by other users which might interest you or your business.
- Twitter followers: Other Twitter users who have decided to follow your tweets (because your messages are original, because they know you/your company, because company/user x follows you, etc.)

Remember: the more interesting and original your tweets are, the higher the chances of increasing the number of followers. If you tweet for business, having a Twitter account and keeping it up-to-date can be key to move your business forward but it is also important to choose carefully who you are going to follow.

Attracting quality followers will add value to your Twitter account as well as to the social network you are starting to expand. Let´s try the following formula:

If company/user x is being followed by company/user xx then their tweets/messages have got to be interesting and it is worth checking out their products. For this reason I, company/user w, I want to follow company/user x too.

Does the above formula sound too complicated? Then simply keep in mind that Twitter is the current version of a very old way of advertising: word of mouth (but online!). If your product is good, if your message is original, say it loud!… but if you want to increase the number of followers ask yourself the following questions:  why should people be interested in what you have got to say? How are you adding value to other companies/users?

If you are thinking business, Twitter may or may not be the best service for you but the best way to find out is trying it out yourself. Do you want to explore its possibilities? You can start now: create an account and start tweeting today.

Whether you like it or not you are living a new era of communications and you are being part of the fast-growing social media phenomenon (Twitter, Facebook, Blogging, Photo-sharing, Video-sharing, etc.). You have joined communities, groups, forums…

Being part of so many communities is giving you the opportunity to increase your business, family and even old friends network but at a price: how are you going to keep up? On one hand you’ve got the possibilities of a great social network you are already involved in (in most cases not very well organised, let’s face it) and on the other hand you are literally holding a “smart” phone you are not using very smartly… yet. Let’s go mobile and let’s do it the smart way.

Organise your contacts

Have you started to count your contacts in hundreds? It doesn´t matter anymore if your social network is spread across different communities (Facebook, Messenger, Skype, Google Talk, etc.). Everybody is trying to keep up with the latest ways of communications and so are you. Now it’s time to organise your social network.

I love testing applications that are going to help us being in contact and in a very simple way. This is why I recommend Nimbuzz Mobile. Nimbuzz is a new-generation mobile service that allows you to combine all your buddies from Skype, Messenger, Facebook, ICQ, Yahoo, Google Talk, etc. into one contact list. It allows you to chat, make phone calls, send messages and files… and it´s free

In your growing social community an important step is being able to communicate, keeping up-to-date. The concept of being in touch adopts a new meaning and goes further with applications like Nimbuzz.

Try it out and don´t forget to let us know what you think! We appreciate your comments.

Download Nimbuzz and start to really enjoy being in contact.