When considering developing a presence on foreign search engines for a website which is only featured in one language, there are different options available to become eligible for priority rankings on foreign search engines:
Option 1: Translating the whole website.
A full website translation grants optimal content relevancy and gives strong SEO leverage. However, when using qualified educated native translators, the cost of translating a whole website is in most cases very pricey. The upkeep of a fully translated version is equally costly and demanding. In fact, when featuring a website translated in various languages, every time an update is made to the main site, the translated pages need to be updated accordingly.
Option 2: Creating foreign language mini versions of a website.
Creating a mini version of a website by featuring its key sections is usually what we recommend to do when initially considering developing an online presence on multilingual search engines.
As long as the mini version of a website features at least 3 to 5 pages and approximately 1500 words minimum, when well optimized, this translated content can be made fully eligible for top ranking eligibility on foreign search engines. Of course, the main version of a website needs to feature a healthy SEO profile in order for its translated versions to rank properly.
Option 3: Translated blog posts.
When featuring a blog on a website, translating various posts in targeted languages allows a website to rank on foreign search engines.
When a website creates single doorway pages in foreign languages, such pages are considered insufficient content from an SEO perspective and can not become eligible for priority rankings.
However, when a blog post (usually 500 words minimum) is published in several languages, as long as the translated versions are well coded and optimized, such pages become eligible for top rankings on multilingual search engines. Like doorway landing pages, the translation of a post is technically a standalone entry page as well. Regardless, Google technology looks at translated posts completely differently. In fact, a regular doorway page is meant to be static while a blog is part of a platform posting content regularly. As a result, when translating & optimizing a blog post, a website can develop a strong presence on geo-targeted online markets (while a translated single doorway page is not eligible for priority rankings due to its perceived lack of content relevancy).
To our knowledge, multilingual blog posts are the most efficient way to land priority rankings on foreign search engines without having to translate a website.
Blog posts can be articles that are keyword enriched aiming to promote specific services/products. They can be important FAQs posted as a blog post and translated into foreign languages.
Basically, any content offering keyword relevancy can be translated and optimized. Regular posts are necessary to fuel the SEO juice of a blog on multilingual online platforms. Posting a 500-word article every week is better than posting a 2000-word article per month. In fact, regular content updates showed that the website is alive and therefore it enhances its SEO profile in the eyes of Google technology.