Hello,

I started to major in business management (because I was so into languages and was told 'only languages' is a bad choice/translator marketer super competitive, etc.), but then decided to drop out, because a)I had a thyroid inflammation at the time (its okay again) b)I was less than sure, if that was what I wanted to do with my life.

So now I've been learning about SEO for a while and am about to go back to school, but I'm not sure if I should major in business again or in foreign languages.

Thus, I'm wondering:

Does being a translator help with multilingual SEO? I assume as one works only in their mother tongue, translation skills wouldn't be that important, really?

I have been told by someone else had SEW, that there was a good market for translators with a solid background in SEO. Is there any truth to this?
What would a translator with a background in SEO do and why would they need SEO skills if they do mostly translation work (I assume mostly for KW research?). Maybe somebody here works in such a role?

But most of all: Andy - how did you get into the field of SEO with a degree in languages? I assume your degree in languages doesn't have much to do with this, but you were mostly a self starter?

How did everyone else here get their SEO career started?

thx!!

Good translators with the ability to write fluently for the target audience may offer seo/translation services in more than one language

Yes.
Content translated properly is highly important but you should also take into consideration other factors like link building, Technical issues, kw research, structure etc.
A good SEO translator will write a title, a page description and page content (call to action) as good as a native copywriter + help with the log/stat analysis (a great one would do more).
I do some SEO in foreign languages and doing it in a language I know nothing about is hard. The difference between working with someone who is fluent with the language and the target audience and someone who isn't may be enormous.

1999. managed a big Israeli web site and saw a lot of free traffic from an anonymous referral - AltaVista.com, hunting organic results ever since.

As you have specifically asked me how I got imto multilingual SEO, I'll answer that - but I'll also consider how to do that today because it won't be the same answer!

I became interested in languages at around age 3 because my father was working for an Italian company and Italian boss. I took every opportunity to learn everything I could about languages and it would have been the most natural thing for me to study a languages degree - but I was advised to study something more useful and applied to the Universities for law. It was only at the last minute I switched back to languages because I decided to follow what I was interested in regardless of the advice. Best thing I ever did and I ended up studying French. German and Russian.

After university I became a journalist, then moved into international advertising before becoming director of a European public relations network. Then I moved into corporate marketing and launched a multilingual website (1996) before looking for someone to promote it - couldn't find anyone so a web design friemd launched Web Certain which I later bought into - the rest is history.

To get into multilingual SEO today (with an agency like ours), you should have a good level of education, good English, ideally another language, an aptitude for things internet, an ability to work as part of a team and a positive attitude.

I hope that helps?

Hi,
I was an aerospace engineer before I started with the web and just a few years later with SEO. As you can see SEOs are coming from all over the place (=with sooo different backgrounds) - I think what the others are basically saying is that your language skills are a great starting point that has to be beefed up with good SEO knowledge, especially when it comes to copy (=writing for the web) that is significantly different to printed matter.

Another very important issue is the culture that goes with a language. Much of a successful multilingual campaign depends on the ability to migrate content from a language to another in a significant manner, with a meaning and a local market ...

__________________

Sante J. Achille
Search Engines & Web Marketing Consultant
skype: rifardo

thanks @everyone for your replies.

I can speak fluent English & almost fluent French (and my mother tongue is German). I've been learning about the web (&marketing) for 7 months now (and plan on continuing to do so, no matter what my major will be). I think I also have the ability to work as part of a team and a positive attitude. However, the good level of education piece is what I still need to be able to put the puzzle together .

By a good level of education, do you mean a bachelor's degree (or a master's), whereas the actual major wouldn't be the main criteria?

thx

An interesting thread and not one we come across very often. To me a good multilingual SEO goes beyond the ability to natively write good titles/meta tags but extends to gaining an exposure to the idiosyncrasies of languages and using it to your advantage in marketing online campaigns.

Beyond acquiring fluency in a language, what is of real value is being able to transfer the social fluid that drives local culture at a country/regional level. Once you understand how a particular population's intents in search differ between cultures; let's say between german speaking austrians and those that originate from germany per se, that arms you with true insight into their patterns of intent online.

I don't believe that you need a degree in languages to be successful in multilingual SEO, what you do need is a passion for languages, but your most important asset is what other skills you bring to the job. The stark reality of successful SEO's is that they are multi-skilled, you need a good understanding of usability, marketing, common business sense, persuasion and technical aptitude in order to really have that all encompassing view on digital marketing.

Don't forfeit your business management degree quite yet, if you love languages its with you regardless.

For the record I began my SEO career with Andy on the technical front where I'd spend countless hours debating and admiring the splendor of the SEO minds there. (Johann you are mainly responsible for this, and any gray hairs that will result of it!!!!) In a true web development mindset the initial temptation was to resist but the up-side was all too evident and it still tickles me to this day when i am driven up the wall by the incomprehension of some web developers out there. Did i mention digg? ;-)
Since i was fortunate enough to have grown up in cosmopolitan Belgium in a family that i lovingly describe as a mix bag i've acquired a command of French, Dutch, Spanish, Italian, a smidgen of Arabic and that boring olde English. I'm now living it up in New York's SEO mecca scratching my head at Microsoft, and in part embracing it.

Good Luck!