Figuring out the right keywords to optimize your site is a tricky science, involving a balance between putting yourself in the shoes of your potential consumer to figure out what phrases they’re likely to use to search for your products, and researching the frequency of keyword usage with tools like Google Keyword to see which are best to push through the competition to the top of the rankings.

But when it comes to deciding on the best keywords in other languages, the whole game changes. Different languages and cultures will approach the expression of their desires in different ways.

Simply taking your English keywords and then looking up their dictionary translations in each of your target languages won’t yield effective results. Indeed, the most effective keyword for a product or service could be anything from a direct translation of the term into the target language, to a colloquialism, a synonym, or an adopted term from English or another language.

See: Search Engine  Watch