How Can Machine Translation Affect Your SEO/SERPs?

When it comes to SEO translation, no matter what your website is about, the first rule of thumb is that you should never utilise machine translation. Why is this? To cut a long story short, contracting the services of a professional SEO translator is simply incomparable to utilising the translation services of any machine or software program. The results you will get are worlds apart.

No matter how advanced technology has become, it is simply impossible for any machine or software to determine cultural nuances when it comes to language. There are words, phrases, conjugations, acronyms and shortcuts that a professional SEO translator would know how to use. In fact, a machine would be more likely to achieve exactly the opposite of what you are looking for. If you are serious about getting traffic to your website and attracting more readers, it is absolutely essential that the work undertaken on it be as professional as possible. Readers and customers have become smarter than ever, and it is important not to underestimate their ability to gauge whether a site is legitimate and credible or not. This will make all the difference to drawing visitors to your website.

If you are serious about getting traffic to your website and attracting more readers, it is absolutely essential that the work undertaken on it be as professional as possible.

Another disadvantage of machine translation is that websites that utilise this method are generally flagged by Google as ‘non-quality’ sites. Therefore, this implies a certain penalty in the SERPs or search engine results pages. In other words, if Google considers the wording of your website to be of inferior quality, your website falls lower in the results page rankings. This means a lower chance of people visiting your website.

Contracting the services of a real person, who is familiar with the ins and outs of a particular language, will be of great benefit to your goal of penetrating your target market.

Again, using a machine to translate your website's copy also jeopardises its integrity. The meaning of certain ideas can easily be lost or mistranslated. Contracting the services of a real person, who is familiar with the ins and outs of a particular language, will be of great benefit to your goal of penetrating your target market. With machine translation, you also run the risk of saying more or less than needs to be said. And in a world where time is gold, and there are countless other websites that could give your reader the information they want in half the time yours would, you could instantly lose a potential customer or reader due to carelessness or laxity when it comes to translating your copy. All in all, when deciding between machine translation and hiring a professional SEO translator, don't hesitate for a second—think about the long-term benefits for your website. You may have to shell out a few pounds more, but the trade off is definitely worth it.

10 Comments

• 
  Hermes 07/11/2011 at 19:20

  I agree. In fact, Google advises NOT to use automatic translations for your SEO/SERP efforts. We’ve discussed it a few months ago at our blog http://translate-translations.com/2011/03/google-automated-translations-bad-website-ranking/ , for your reference.

  There are just too many variables at the application of an automated translation to an effective SEO to be of any help, in fact, it may have nothing but the opposite effect.

  Great post.

  Reply
  • 
    Translations Lisko 08/11/2011 at 12:34

    Thank you for your comment Hermes!

    In the words of a Google employee: “…using automated translation tools to directly create content for your site could be seen as creating auto-generated content, which would be against our Webmaster Guidelines.”

    I’ve noticed some clients believe machine translation to be nearly perfect and, therefore, aren’t even aware of the negative impact it can have in their SEO/SERPs; not only the readers will notice the content has been translated using automated translation software but their site will be penalised in Google’s SERPs…

    Reply
• 
  Debbie Kenyon-Jackson 08/11/2011 at 11:17

  Couldn’t agree with you more. We often also finetune the original text with SEO in mind, as part of the translation process.

  Reply
  • 
    Translations Lisko 08/11/2011 at 12:45

    Thank you for commenting Debbie!

    Yes, that’s a service we also offer to our clients. It’s also advisable to make a keyword research for every language involved in the project.

    Reply
• 
  Fresh Translation 09/11/2011 at 15:39

  Great post with some useful information!

  Reply
  • 
    Translations Lisko 09/11/2011 at 16:37

    Thank you for your comment! I’m glad you liked the article

    Reply
• Weekly favorites (Nov 7-13) | Adventures in Freelance Translation 14/11/2011 at 13:31

  [...] guide to speaking British If You Can’t Afford Me, Could You Please Stop Bothering Me? How Can Machine Translation Affect Your SEO/SERPs? The Global Language Monitor » Top Words of 2011 Alexa’s Top 10 Translation Services Websites [...]

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• 
  Translation services 23/03/2012 at 13:10

  The Process of Search Engine Optimization (known as SEO) is the positioning of a website in the path of existing high quality targeted traffic. Precise manipulation of the “on-page” attributes of a website, combined with a sustained, targeted link management program to increase the sites perceived popularity.

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• 
  Laura Forryan - Veritas 17/07/2012 at 11:46

  Really good article! Yet more proof that machine translation just cannot beat human professionals.

  Reply
  • 
    Sergio Guillen Rodriguez 03/10/2012 at 17:52

    Thank you for dropping by, Laura! Soon I’ll be publishing another post related to machine translation.

    Reply