Writing a blog post for different language versions is a great way to expand your online influence and attract readers worldwide. However, it can also be a voluminous process that requires special skills and abilities.
In this article, you’ll learn how to write a blog post for different language versions using tools such as artificial intelligence, SEO localization, and cultural and religious language features.
Decide how you want to publish your content
Before creating a multilingual blog strategy, determine exactly how you plan to publish your content. To answer this question, analyze the platform on which you write, for example:
- You write on your website. In that case, the best solution is to create a separate language version for each page in different languages.
- You write on social networks. In this situation, you can publish language versions of your articles in one or several posts at once. Or create separate accounts for specific language versions.
In addition, it is possible to create thematic articles. Instead of translating the same content into different languages, you can write different articles, depending on the version you choose.
Usually, this strategy is used by authors whose content is aimed at covering local news and events that require readers’ attention from specific countries.
Are you translating or writing?
The next step after you’ve figured out how to publish your content is how you write your articles. How you approach this question will determine the success of your multilingual blog. You only have two options:
- Translation. In this case, you create content in the language that you understand best and then translate it manually or with special programs.
- Writing separate articles for the chosen language. This method is complicated and requires a high level of concentration and understanding of the languages in which you write.
Choosing the principle of writing is a completely unique process. You have to soberly assess your knowledge and understand the chosen language’s culture, phraseology, and other features.
In addition, you always have the option to turn to specialized companies like Essay Tigers writing service, where professionals can create the best language versions of articles on any topic for you.
Tips:
One of the translation tools which you can use is to add GTranslate to your site, so it would translate the entire website for you.
Here is one of the examples of the perfect AI-translated site: AhaSlides works perfectly in all languages, and it’s also very convenient for local writers to go back and edit single page, based on the brand or campaign needs.
Know your audience
To create an effective language version of your blog, you need to clearly understand who your readers are. From gender to hobbies, you need to get a complete picture of your audience.
Here are some practical tips to help you figure this out:
- Use specialized services. Today, there are a large number of analytics sites that can give you a complete picture of who is visiting your resources.
- Collect feedback. If your platform allows you to leave comments, encourage readers to write them. Ask questions about their preferences, hobbies, and interests.
- Analyze your competitors’ audience. If you’re just building your blog, the best solution is to analyze your competitors in-depth. Find out who likes and responds to their posts, who reposts, etc.
The most crucial parameter in this question is the location of your readers. In creating a language version of your blog, the countries your resources are viewed from will determine the list of languages chosen.
Keep in mind that in some countries, people speak different languages. For example, you may hear German, English, and even French in Switzerland. Keep this in mind during your analysis.
Define goals
Any strategy must have a clear and understandable goal. Creating a multilingual version of the blog is no exception. This makes it easier to plan your actions and create a content plan for future articles and translations.
We’ve prepared a list of questions you can ask yourself to determine a clear goal, namely:
- What country audience do you want to attract?
- How many new readers should visit your site?
- What role should your writing language play?
Set SMART goals. Create a decomposition of your actions, and keep track of your progress. This way, you’ll know if you’re heading in the right direction.
Localize your content
The translation of the text must fully reflect its ideas. It is not enough to simply paste the original article into a translator and upload the result to the site. In this way, your business blog or other industry-focused resource center will be less appealing to users of another language group.
When creating a multilingual blog, study the culture, religion, and local characteristics of the region in which the language you are writing is spoken. Before publishing, check to see if your content offends any members of a religion or minority group.
Here are the key aspects of writing different language versions of a blog that you should pay attention to:
- Culture. Describe situations in a specific region, mention opinion leaders, and refer to things that might interest a reader from a specific region.
- Language specifics. When translating, you must accurately convey all the ideas you put into the content. Consider language features such as phraseology, grammar, meanings of different words, etc.
- Religion. Most of the world’s population practices one religion or another. Sometimes when translating, content creators can hurt the feelings of believers without even noticing it. Keep that in mind when writing articles.
Images are also an essential part of localization. If you use images, for example, in English, the best solution is to translate their text content into the language of the article.
If you use statistics or graphs, try to find separate indicators depending on the language you write. For example, if you’re talking about soccer, mention the local clubs for each language version.
Don’t rely just on machine translation
Translators are clearly of great value to content creators in different languages, but you should not rely solely on machine translation. Often, you need to do your research on word meanings before including them in your articles.
As it happens, one word can have multiple meanings in different languages, depending on the context. After you’ve used machine translation, give the text to professional translators for revision, or seek their services initially. When working with remote translators, using Zoom to discuss all the details outside of messengers is best.
There have been cases where companies have mistranslated their slogan for lack of editing when expanding into other markets. Be careful when using translators to avoid such situations.
Optimize SEO localization
Perhaps the most significant part of your work in creating a multilingual version of your blog will be the SEO localization of your web page. No matter how good your text is, users need to see it.
Before we start exploring the practical steps to improve your SEO, let’s understand the benefits of such an approach, namely:
- Scalability. Search engines pay attention to quality-optimized sites. You come one step closer to increasing your online presence by improving each web page.
- Opportunity to conquer new markets. Using local SEO, you can attract the attention of users of one language group and readers from different regions.
- Greater reach to readers. The higher a web page is in search engine rankings, the more likely the reader will click through to it. By improving your SEO, you increase the number of clicks to your site, creating more user reach.
Remember that SEO localization is as essential in creating a multilingual website as translating the text directly. You can do it yourself or turn to specialized promotion companies.
Create a separate URL for each website
The appropriate URL allows the search engine to crawl, rank and index your web page. This is where the SEO localization process begins.
Specify a language indicator in the URL of your web page. For example, a website with no language affiliation looks like “www.example.com” and the English version of the web page looks like “www.example.com/en/.”
There are several types of how you specify the language indicator, namely:
- Top-level domain – “www.example.en”
- Subdomain – “www.en.example.com”
- Subdirectory – “www.example.com/en/”
Each has its advantages and disadvantages. Choosing the right one is a unique process that depends on your overall SEO strategy.
Add the tag “hreflang”
Use the hreflang tag to let Google know what language your web page is written in. If you have multiple language versions, include as many hreflang tags.
The more language versions your website contains, the more complicated this process can be. It would be appropriate to consider contacting an SEO specialist to improve the search engine performance of the web page.
Use location-based keywords
Users often create a query by specifying a particular location. For example, U.S. residents are more likely to write “buy something in California” or another state.
In addition, readers from different countries may form the same queries differently. You should thoroughly research your audience and the product you’re providing to create keywords based on location.
Use AI
Artificial Intelligence allows you to simplify the writing of texts and their translation. Most AIs have a large database of linguistic features and phrases and understand slang and cultural differences.
With the correct query, AI can help you translate small sections of text and an entire article. However attractive the benefits of AI may be, remember that it is a machine program susceptible to error.
There are experts in the job market today for creating prompts. They know how to properly create an AI query to get the most effective results. You can try to figure out how to interact with AI yourself or find similar specialists.
Conclusion
Writing blog posts in different language versions requires a high level of language proficiency and experience, as well as the ability to analyze your audience’s various cultural and religious backgrounds. Be individual, and test multiple writing options to find the most effective one.
Keep in mind the SEO optimization of each language version. Whether or not users find out about your site depends entirely on it. Use the tips in this article to create the best multilingual blog on the Internet!
