A multilingual SEO audit is an essential step in optimizing your website for international audiences. It helps identify issues that may be affecting your website’s visibility in local search engines, ensures that your content is properly indexed in different languages, and highlights areas for improvement across multiple regions. Conducting a thorough SEO audit for each language version of your site is key to ensuring your global SEO strategy is effective and that your website performs well in all target markets.

In this article, we will explore how to conduct a multilingual SEO audit, including key areas to focus on, tools to use, and best practices to follow for optimizing your multilingual website.

Why a Multilingual SEO Audit is Important

A multilingual SEO audit helps you identify and fix technical, content, and performance issues that may be holding back your website’s international search performance. These audits can reveal areas where your site’s language versions are not optimized, allowing you to address specific challenges related to local search engines, cultural differences, and user behavior in different regions.

Regular multilingual SEO audits help you stay competitive by:

• Ensuring Proper Indexation: Verifying that all language versions are indexed correctly and are accessible to search engines.
• Avoiding Duplicate Content Issues: Identifying potential duplicate content issues across language versions and ensuring search engines are served the correct version of your content.
• Improving User Experience: Detecting localization problems that could be affecting user engagement and conversions.
• Enhancing Local SEO: Optimizing on-page and off-page factors that improve rankings in local search engines for each target market.

Steps to Conduct a Multilingual SEO Audit

1. Check Hreflang Tag Implementation

Hreflang tags are essential for managing multilingual websites, as they tell search engines which language version of a page to serve to users based on their location and language preferences. Proper hreflang tag implementation ensures that users see the correct version of your content and prevents duplicate content issues.

During your audit:

• Verify that hreflang tags are correctly implemented on all language versions of your pages.
• Ensure that each hreflang tag includes the correct language and country codes (e.g., hreflang="en-us" for the English (US) version).
• Check for missing or incorrect hreflang tags that could cause indexing issues or serve the wrong version to users.
• Use tools like Google Search Console or Screaming Frog to audit your hreflang tags and spot any errors.

2. Review Language-Specific URLs

Each language version of your website should have a unique URL structure that clearly indicates the language and, if applicable, the region. This helps search engines and users understand which version of the page they are accessing.

During your audit:

• Verify that your URL structures follow best practices for multilingual websites. For example:
  • Country code top-level domains (ccTLDs): example.fr for France
  • Subdomains: fr.example.com for French content
  • Subdirectories: example.com/fr/ for French content
• Ensure that each URL is correctly associated with the right language and region.
• Make sure that users can easily switch between language versions through clear and intuitive navigation elements, such as a language switcher.

3. Evaluate Indexation of Language Versions

Ensuring that all language versions of your website are properly indexed by search engines is a crucial part of any multilingual SEO audit. This allows search engines to discover and serve the correct version of your site to users.

During your audit:

• Use Google Search Console to check the indexation status of each language version.
• Submit separate sitemaps for each language version to Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools, ensuring that all localized pages are included.
• Check for any pages that are not indexed, especially important content like key landing pages, product pages, or blog posts.

4. Analyze Duplicate Content Issues

Duplicate content is a common issue on multilingual websites, especially if content is directly translated from one language to another. This can lead to indexing problems and negatively impact your SEO performance.

During your audit:

• Check for duplicate content across different language versions using tools like Siteliner or Copyscape.
• Ensure that hreflang tags are properly implemented to help search engines differentiate between language versions and avoid treating them as duplicates.
• If necessary, use canonical tags to indicate the primary version of a page when similar content exists across languages.

5. Assess On-Page SEO Elements

On-page SEO is critical for ranking well in local search engines. Each language version of your site should be optimized with localized keywords, meta tags, headers, and content that resonate with the target audience.

During your audit:

• Title Tags and Meta Descriptions: Review title tags and meta descriptions for each language version, ensuring that they are unique, localized, and include relevant keywords.
• Headings: Ensure that headings (H1, H2, etc.) are properly localized and optimized for search engines.
• Alt Text: Check that image alt text is localized and descriptive in each language.
• Localized Keywords: Conduct keyword research for each target market and review the use of these keywords in your on-page content.

6. Audit Technical SEO

Technical SEO issues can negatively affect your website’s performance in search engines, particularly for multilingual sites. Ensure that your website is technically sound across all language versions.

During your audit:

• Page Load Speed: Test page speed for each language version using tools like Google PageSpeed Insights or GTmetrix. Slow load times can hurt your rankings, especially for users in distant regions.
• Mobile Friendliness: Check that all language versions are mobile-friendly using Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test.
• Canonical Tags: Review canonical tags to ensure that they are correctly implemented and point to the primary version of each page to prevent duplicate content issues.
• XML Sitemaps: Ensure that XML sitemaps are updated and submitted for each language version. The sitemaps should reflect the structure and content of the multilingual site.

7. Review Backlinks and Off-Page SEO

Backlinks are a crucial ranking factor, and having quality backlinks from local websites can significantly improve your rankings in local search engines.

During your audit:

• Use tools like Ahrefs or SEMrush to analyze the backlink profiles for each language version.
• Look for opportunities to build backlinks from reputable websites in each target market.
• Ensure that each language version has a balanced backlink profile that includes links from local domains (e.g., example.fr for the French version).

8. Monitor User Experience and Engagement

User experience (UX) plays a significant role in both SEO and conversions. Ensuring that each language version of your website provides a seamless experience is key to retaining users and encouraging engagement.

During your audit:

• Bounce Rate: Check bounce rates for each language version in Google Analytics to identify potential user experience issues.
• Session Duration and Pages Per Session: Analyze how long users in different regions are staying on your site and how many pages they are visiting.
• Conversion Rates: Evaluate conversion rates for each language version. Low conversion rates could signal that the content or design is not resonating with users.

Tools to Use for a Multilingual SEO Audit

• Google Search Console: Track indexing, monitor search performance, and identify hreflang and technical issues for multilingual websites.
• Screaming Frog: Crawl your website to audit hreflang tags, indexation, duplicate content, and more.
• Ahrefs/SEMrush: Analyze backlinks, keyword performance, and technical SEO issues.
• Google Analytics: Monitor user behavior, bounce rates, conversion rates, and traffic sources by language and region.
• Copyscape/Siteliner: Identify duplicate content issues across different language versions.
• PageSpeed Insights/GTmetrix: Test page speed and load times for each language version to ensure a fast, optimized user experience.

Case Study: Multilingual SEO Audit for a Global SaaS Company

A global SaaS company with websites in English, German, and Spanish was experiencing low traffic and poor rankings in non-English-speaking markets. After conducting a multilingual SEO audit, the company discovered several key issues:

• Hreflang tags were missing, leading to duplicate content issues.
• The Spanish and German versions of the site were not properly indexed by Google due to errors in the XML sitemaps.
• The content was directly translated from English without localization, resulting in poor user engagement and low conversion rates.

To address these issues, the company:

• Implemented hreflang tags across all language versions.
• Resubmitted accurate sitemaps for each language version.
• Invested in localized content for each market, focusing on culturally relevant messaging and keywords.

As a result, the company saw a 35% increase in organic traffic from Germany and Spain within six months, along with improved rankings in local search engines.

Conclusion

Conducting a multilingual SEO audit is essential for ensuring that your website performs well across all target markets. By thoroughly reviewing hreflang tags, URL structures, indexation, content, and technical factors, you can identify and resolve issues that may be hindering your website’s visibility and performance in local search engines.

For businesses expanding into international markets, Web Zodiac’s SEO Services offer comprehensive multilingual SEO solutions, including white-label SEO services and enterprise SEO services. By following the steps outlined in this guide, you can ensure that your multilingual SEO efforts are optimized for success across all regions and languages.