Te Kete o Karaitiana Taiuru (Blog)

Multilingual web site tip – Don’t forget the Search Engines.

It is not uncommon for web sites to be bi or multilingual considering our international relationships and use of native languages on the Internet. But often there is little or no consideration for Search Engine Optimisation in the non English languages as they are not viewable upon reading the site.

By following the above practice it makes it a difficult task to ascertain which languages are being used on web sites and even more difficult to find them in conventional manners such as search engines. In terms of language revitalisation and promotion for endangered languages this is a huge detriment only using the non English language on the front of the site.

To gain maximum advantage of multilingual sites you should:
1. Create Meta Description and key words in the non English pages.
2. Use the lang and dir attributes in your Mark Up.
3. Use non English words in all Mark Up where possible including “comments, ALT, email links, etc”
4. Use key words in the body of your text as you would with English language pages.

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DISCLAIMER: This post is the personal opinion of Dr Karaitiana Taiuru and is not reflective of the opinions of any organisation that Dr Karaitiana Taiuru is a member of or associates with, unless explicitly stated otherwise.

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