Localizing achieved proper can ship critical worth. Accomplished fallacious, it turns into a black gap of sources with little to indicate for it.
That will help you get it proper, I turned to somebody who’s been deep within the trenches of localization: Erik Sarissky, Head of Worldwide Advertising and marketing and Product Localization at Ahrefs.
Erik has quadrupled natural visitors to Ahrefs’ Spanish weblog in 18 months, going from 5.4k visits to over 22k visits. Along with worldwide advertising actions, he oversees localization efforts throughout 14 languages and continuously evaluates new attainable languages.
One in all his most eye-opening wins? After switching from Continental Portuguese to Brazilian Portuguese, Ahrefs noticed an explosion in visitors to its native content material and touchdown pages.
So I requested Erik if he’d be prepared to share how he did it—and what he’s discovered alongside the approach.
Whether or not you’re contemplating increasing into neighboring markets or exploring development far-off, this information breaks down what really strikes the needle in localization website positioning and what’s simply noise.
Translation is a step. Localization is a system. Let’s break it down.
- Translation is about changing phrases from one language to a different, preserving which means and construction. Consider it like Google Translate, however achieved by a human. It’s correct, however literal.
- Localization adapts examples, references, idioms, visuals, and even the technique to really feel pure within the goal market. It’s the distinction between being a vacationer who memorized a phrasebook and somebody who really grew up there.
- Transcreation takes issues additional. It adapts the tone, emotion, and intent of a message so it hits residence in a special tradition. A intelligent English tagline may want utterly totally different wording to really feel intelligent in Spanish. It’s much less about constancy, extra about resonance.
In website positioning, this distinction issues. You’re not simply translating copy—you’re aligning with how folks search, what they care about, and the issues they’re making an attempt to clear up.
“We already had good content material in English,” Erik informed me, “however there was no clear technique. We have been simply translating the whole lot with out contemplating localization or key phrase analysis. I knew that by fixing this, visitors would develop.”
And it did. That’s why a translation-only strategy typically falls flat. It misses the nuance, and with it, the visitors.
We have to begin with a wake-up name: localization is now not non-compulsory, as a result of Google may do it for you.
Since early 2025, Google has been more and more translating English content material into native languages and serving it underneath a Google-owned subdomain (e.g., translate.google.com). This proxy translation reveals up in AI Overviews, Featured Snippets, and even the common 10 blue hyperlinks.
The consequence? Customers by no means land in your web site. As a substitute, they view a Google-hosted model of your content material, and any clicks or hyperlink fairness are attributed to Google, not you.
“For those who don’t localize your content material, Google may do it for you—and take the visitors.”
If you wish to see if Google is auto-translating your web site pages, you should use Search Console and Ahrefs to seek out out:
In Google Search Console, go to Search Look → Translated Pages.
In Ahrefs’ Website Explorer, open the highest pages report for translate.google.com and apply a “URL incorporates” filter, coming into your area identify.
The repair? Localize your content material—even minimally. A 300-word native-language model can typically be sufficient to interchange Google’s proxy web page within the SERPs.
Attempting to localize for everybody directly is a recipe for burnout. As a substitute, do what Erik did: select markets primarily based on metrics.
“We base selections on billing, interface language use, model searches, GDP, and tech adoption. Indonesia stunned us—it’s top-of-the-line by way of billing.”
Spanish was the pilot. We’ve been fairly energetic in Spanish-speaking international locations, organizing all types of meetups and collaborating in conferences in Spain and Latin America.
Then, Japan as a result of we have been already fairly common there (extra common than our rivals, if I’m not mistaken). Indonesia emerged as an sudden champion, so it’s going to be subsequent in line. If you let knowledge lead, you make investments smarter and develop quicker.
Take a look at historic demand and potential future upside. Markets with fast-growing tech ecosystems or altering search conduct (like South Korea’s transfer from Naver to Google) could also be extra ripe than they appear.
That brings us to native key phrase analysis.
What works in English received’t all the time work in Spanish, Japanese, or German. Localized website positioning begins with native intent.
“We examine visitors potential, enterprise potential, and assign priorities. Then we determine if it’s price adapting or writing from scratch.”
Right here’s what Erik’s referring to.
In Ahrefs’ Key phrases Explorer, you possibly can examine visitors potential individually for over 200 international locations. By the best way, visitors potential is the overall quantity of natural visitors that the #1 rating web page to your goal key phrase will get from all of the key phrases it ranks for.
For those who skip this step, you danger optimizing for key phrases nobody searches—or worse, competing on phrases you possibly can’t win.
To make issues simpler, you can begin together with your native language, add key phrases to an inventory, and let AI present related translations with website positioning metrics proper contained in the instrument.
Right here’s a pattern consequence that immediately dispels doubts concerning the right translation.
Subsequent, Erik makes use of Ahrefs’ enterprise potential framework to prioritize key phrases. We rating each advertising concept from 0 to three primarily based on how important our product is to the issue.
“For those who’re simply translating the whole lot, you’re losing time,” Erisk informed me bluntly. The smarter strategy is to decide on what deserves translation and determine when creating from scratch is a greater funding.
For instance, Erik’s crew begins by translating knowledge research instantly, as that is essentially the most environment friendly methodology. They then create supplementary micro-studies inside these translated items so as to add native relevance.
“We created a workflow to evaluate which articles to translate and when to jot down new ones. Generally translations don’t make an excessive amount of sense—it’s higher to jot down 100% new articles primarily based on native key phrase analysis.”
Earlier than you even begin localizing, step again and map your targets. Take into account content material age, market relevance, and search demand. Prioritize items that can carry out, not simply those you’ve not too long ago printed.
A very good start line would to have a look at the visitors and hyperlinks a chunk of content material will get. Simply plug within the URL of the web page in Ahrefs’ Website Explorer and take a look at these numbers within the Overview report.
To see which pages carry out the very best, head on to the High pages (you possibly can moreover filter by nation) and Greatest by hyperlink report.
In case your localized content material reads like a slipshod translation, it received’t join. To really resonate, it must really feel prefer it was written by somebody who lives in that market.
“Once I took over the Spanish weblog, we began utilizing extra examples from the Spanish market and created our personal case research.”
So, the recommendation right here is: use native case research, adapt examples to suit regional norms, and reference the platforms your viewers really makes use of.
Right here’s Erik displaying the outcomes of localizing a information to online marketing by utilizing native examples:
And that is an instance of how they created a wholly new article about advertising e-book suggestions by asking Spanish audio system for his or her favorites, quite than merely translating the present English model.
The outcomes:
Erik’s crew not too long ago began utilizing this strategy in Japan as nicely. Right here’s an instance of a case examine they created that includes a Japanese company’s success with Ahrefs.
However content material relevance isn’t nearly utilizing native examples; it’s additionally about voice and opinion. In accordance with Erik:
“Sooner or later this will likely be absolutely changed by AI, and what is going to matter will likely be opinionated content material by native authors.”
That includes native authors not solely boosts authenticity but additionally social attain.
And right here’s the bonus: content material like this naturally earns hyperlinks.
“We don’t observe any particular strategy [to link building]. These native hyperlinks come naturally, and Website Explorer reveals regular development.”
When your weblog content material feels prefer it was created for the native viewers—not simply translated at them—it builds belief. That belief turns into shares, mentions, and backlinks. Spend money on content material high quality and cultural connection. Native hyperlinks will come, as you possibly can see within the screenshot under.
Erik shared a case examine displaying how republishing articles can restore and even enhance search efficiency, particularly when rankings have plateaued or declined over time.
Serps typically favor freshness, and updating indicators that your content material continues to be related.
What to give attention to when republishing:
- Replace outdated data. Evaluate stats, examples, screenshots, and hyperlinks. Bringing the whole lot updated reveals Google (and customers) that the article continues to be related and reliable.
- Enhance inside linking. Use Ahrefs’ inside hyperlink alternatives characteristic to attach your up to date article to related content material throughout your web site. This helps distribute hyperlink fairness and improves crawlability.
- Use Folks Additionally Ask as a content material information. Examine Google’s “Folks Additionally Ask” part to seek out frequent associated questions and add solutions to your article. This makes it extra complete and aligned with search intent.
- Improve with visuals and knowledge. Add infographics, charts, or up to date statistics to help your factors. This makes content material extra partaking and might enhance dwell time and backlink potential.
AI can pace up the fundamentals, but it surely nonetheless stumbles on nuance. You’ll want people to iron out the small print.
We applied an AI pre-translation system primarily based on a longtime glossary, prompts, and translation reminiscence, since AI has the aptitude to be taught and self-improve.
He added:
“The [Spanish] Weblog is run by people for now, however we’re additionally testing AI pulling articles, translating them, and importing to blogs.”
Begin with automation the place it helps most—bulk translation, glossary administration. However all the time depart room for human QA.
You want editors who can spot structure glitches, catch damaged hyperlinks, and flag mistranslations or cultural mismatches that AI may miss. Construct in clear suggestions loops between translators, reviewers, and content material homeowners to verify high quality improves with each iteration.
By the best way, this is applicable to all kinds of content material localization, together with product UI. For instance, we had a humorous mistranslation in Ahrefs’ interface for fairly a while. As a substitute of “don’t examine”, it stated “don’t purchase”.
Fashion guides and glossaries are essentially the most thrilling, however they’re your finest protection in opposition to inconsistency.
“Glossary, model information, SOPs… that’s how we guarantee consistency.”
That is additionally the right time to assume extra strategically and determine issues like whether or not we need to translate product names and unique ideas.
To take care of high quality throughout languages, doc the whole lot. Create a shared glossary of key phrases, set up tone and formatting guidelines, and construct an editorial model information that translators and native writers can depend on. Erik shared how each of these paperwork search for Ahrefs.
Conserving each model aligned with the supply? That’s a significant ache. However there’s hope.
Erik discovered a cool use case for the Content material modifications characteristic in Ahrefs’ Website Explorer (you will discover it within the Overview report). If the English weblog has made any modifications to the content material that resulted in additional visitors, he’ll see precisely what it was. Then he can simply repeat the identical factor for localized variations.
Behind each profitable localization technique is a stable technical basis. That features getting hreflang tags proper, adjusting inside linking constructions, and making certain localized media information don’t break the consumer expertise.
- Select your URL construction correctly: Subfolders like “instance.com/fr/” are sometimes higher for website positioning as a result of they consolidate all of your area authority in a single place. Nation-code top-level domains (ccTLDs) like “instance.fr” can really feel extra native and reliable to customers in that nation, however break up your website positioning efforts throughout a number of domains, making it more durable to rank globally.
Don’t redirect customers by IP: Mechanically sending guests to a localized model of your web site primarily based on their IP can confuse Googlebot, which crawls largely from the US. Which means your localized content material won’t even get listed. As a substitute, present a language or area switcher so customers can select their most popular model with out being compelled to do so. - Take into account a CDN: A content material supply community helps serve your web site from servers nearer to the consumer, which reduces loading occasions—particularly vital for worldwide audiences. Quick ship higher consumer experiences and this counts for Google, so this small infrastructure change can have large efficiency impacts.
- Implement hreflang correctly: The hreflang tag tells Google which model of your content material is supposed for which language or area. If it’s misconfigured, Google may serve the fallacious model in search outcomes. Ahrefs’ Website Audit instrument helps you catch points right here by visually mapping your hreflang construction and flagging damaged hyperlinks between language variations.
We’ve obtained a full information on the technical points right here: 10 Worldwide website positioning Greatest Practices + Guidelines.
Closing ideas
One of the best methods are born from expertise, particularly errors.
“I wouldn’t redo something, as a result of if I didn’t strive, I wouldn’t know. Principally, FAFO.”
Don’t goal for perfection from day one. Check. Study. Adapt. Each market will educate you one thing new. Monitor what works, double down on wins, and let go of approaches that stall.
Obtained questions or feedback? Let me know on LinkedIn.
