This is one of the questions Ive asked myself quite a bit and read quite a lot about it a long time ago (not necessarily with SEO, but with business in general): Does being able to speak a foreign language really help you make more money?

The common opinion seems to be yes, but then again people here think if someone studies business or law and can speak fluent Chinese he's about to be a billionaire (yet I know of people who've done just that and don't seem to get paid a ton).

I just wrote a long post about it, but deleted it, because I want to keep it readable, so I'll just ask the question : Are you guys making more money doing SEO in a language other than English than you'd likely make if you did SEO in English?

Or do you do multilingual SEO simply because you can do it anyway and because it is more fun to you?

Well, speaking other languages is certainly not going to get you a millionaire per se but it is undoubtedly going to make you more hirable (which given the current climate is good enough by itself).

Doing SEO in English is tough because you have a huge competition. The SEO companies in the US have evolved so much in comparison with European, Asian agencies that trying to compete in the same market is tough as hell. As a result, optimising for other languages proves to be easier if you know what you are doing, in order to have that knowledge you need both good SEO skills and a very thorough knowledge of the language/market you are trying to target. Additionally, if you diversify your portfolio and are able to target multiple markets you would be less exposed to the health of one specific markets and will have more opportunities to generate revenue from different sources.

In a more complex way, optimising for search engines other than Google seems to be arcane for most SEO agencies in the world unless they are local. Markets like Russia adn China end up being great opportunities because they have been less exposed to the financial turmoil and on the other hand the competition is minimal for the linguistic/algorithmich knowledge barriers.

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International Link Building Tips for Multilingual SEO

I really think it does as far as competition is concerned cause I heard about this guy whos half American and Spanish and hi blog was about SEO tips in spanish, and a lot o people say hes really earning big. I guess making blogs with other languages does do the trick.

I guess I have to learn something else now.

Thanks for the input Oskar.

Interesting to hear what you say about the level of competition, because the same thing seems to be true for Germany, too. It seems like a higher percentage of the market is still into reciprocal linking and directories.

@vsl:

You should never conclude something like that from a sample size of one, so to speak. I also know many highly unsuccessful german SEO blogs ;-)

I guess knowing a different language would make you more hire able but then have to consider that you also have to bargain here. It is the same thing as bargaining for a better rate doing SEO of your native language.Whether its SEO or other jobs, if you have created your credibility, delivered quality output and results then you are opening your doors for greater opportunity, just my two cents

i think if you can understand or speak multi language then you can optimize your web or get traffic from different regions person.

I think it would pay better because it has multiple languages forum posting