The One Where We Discuss Multilingual SEO With Isaline Muelhauser

In this week's episode, Isaline, content strategist and self-confessed SEO nerd, discusses all things multilingual SEO. We also find out what inspires Isaline and what empowers her to be the brilliant women she is today.

Where to find Isaline

Twitter: https://twitter.com/isaline_margot

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/isaline-muelhauser/

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Episode Sponsor

Massive shout out to MediaSesh for supporting the WTSPodcast and sponsoring this episode.

MediaSesh is an SEO consulting and training firm located in Denver, Colorado. They help businesses to be found by their customers on search engines. Their newest initiative is to help bridge the gaps between SEO and accessibility. 

Where to find MediaSesh:

Website: https://www.mediasesh.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/mediasesh

Christina Brodzky (Founder) Twitter: https://twitter.com/cbrodzky

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Episode Transcript:

Episode 2 - Isaline M

Sarah: Hello and a very warm welcome to the Women in Tech SEO podcast, where your hosts are myself, Sarah McDowell, SEO content executive at Holland and Barrett and the wonderful Areej AbuAli, SEO consultant and founder of the Women in Tech SEO community. 

This week, we are joined by the wonderfully amazing Isaline Muelhauser who is a SEO nerd and content strategist, and also host of community SEO Nerd Switzerland and Content Strategy Lausanne. And she's a lover of cats and the outdoors. Hello!

Isaline: Hello. Hello Sarah. Hello Areej.

Sarah: This episode is sponsored by MediaSesh. Medaisesh is an SEO consulting and training firm located in Denver, Colorado. They help businesses to be found by their customers on search engines. Their newest initiative is to help bridge the gaps between SEO and accessibility. Their founder most recently conducted a webinar where she spoke with three brilliant women in the accessibility space to discuss how there's a discrepancy between how SEO is optimize images using the alt text field and how they should. You can learn more about that on their Twitter handle, which is @mediasesh or their website mediasesh.com. You can also follow their founder, Christina Brodsky on Twitter @cbrodzky

How are we both doing?

Areej: Really good over here. Super excited to have Isaline on with us. She is one of my favorite people in the community. And I know, I probably say that about a lot of people, but I mean it.

Sarah: You can have multiple favourites, that's okay.

Areej: Tell us more about you Isaline. I'm so excited that we've got you here and you do so much with  your meetups. You have a lot of different things that you host locally as well. So we'd love to learn a little bit more about you.

Isaline: Yes, thank you for welcoming me today I'm really happy to nearly meet you in person, at least get to talk to you instead of writing. And so usually on Saturday mornings, I would be at my rowing training on the Lake. So I'm not unhappy to be here inside because the weather is not that good. So. It was a beautiful excuse not to go and sleep a little longer. So, so I'm really happy to join you this morning. And yes, I, I co-host two communities, one of them with my, one of my best friends, it's SEO, nerd Switzerlands and we just felt that it was really important to bring some knowledge about SEO to the Swiss people and also crate the contents that we find interesting. And the articles that we find worth reading and good sources. Because very often when people look for information and internet, it can be overwhelming with all of the articles. And when one is the beginner, it's difficult to know. What article is a good article and can be trusted. And what is a good source? Yup.

Areej: Yup. I love your meetup and I love that you continued doing it during the lockdown world we're in right now, which meant that you managed to get a lot of awesome people that you normally wouldn't have managed to get to if you were based locally. I know that you recently had one with Ruth on accessibility, which was absolutely brilliant. So yeah, I love that. You've continued doing that even in the current lockdown world we're in.

Isaline: I suppose this is one of the good thing of the COVID situation. If, I mean, if we can say it's, it's , uh, there are good things in the situation. It's a geography. Doesn't not matter anymore when you do things online. So indeed it was really. A huge privilege for Sarah and I to get to, to invite and welcome people that we look up to. And we've been stalking and on Twitter and reading every articles. So it was a wonderful feeling for, for Sarah and me too, to welcome them and get the chance to sort of share. Share the speaker with the community, you know?

Areej: Yeah. And for those who don't know, it's Sarah Moccand and she's absolutely brilliant. She recently spoke at Brighton SEO and just kicked us with her talk. So, yeah. Thanks so much for mentioning her and she's definitely a valued member of the community. Awesome. And can you just tell us a little bit more about how you set up your own business?

Isaline: I started my own business about a little bit over a year ago, I was working in a wonderful , um, web development agency with very inspiring people, but I felt that it was time for me to step on my own and be able to provide that. Type of service , um, to maybe smaller clients that I couldn't work with in a big agency. So there was a very important and very interesting step. So I don't regret it in minutes.

Sarah: I would now like to do a sort of like quick, fun, quick fire, round questions if you're up for that. So just stupid questions. And I just want you to answer with the first thing that comes into your head.

Isaline: Let's do this.

Sarah: Okay. Question number one. Why are frogs so good at jumping?

Isaline: They have long legs.

Sarah: Yes. That would help wouldn't it. With their being able to jump at favorite color

Isaline: Green.

Sarah: Ah, I like the theme frogs to green. What'd you say you are good at DIY?

Isaline: Depends. What kind of DIY, if it includes a machine that makes noises, I get scared. So I can't, I can't like make a hole in my wall to suspend my posters, for example.

Sarah: Okay. So you're more with manual tools and the power tools. Exactly. You were at a restaurant or you owed, I mean, yeah, pre COVID or after COVID, you're sat at a restaurant. Are you having a starter or dessert?

Isaline: It depends. On what time you eat the cheese? Um, some people eat it sort of as a dessert after the meal or at the Apple before the meal. So I suppose both, if it's cheese

Sarah: Okay, cool. And your last quick fire question, what is the last thing that you made bread? Anything like food wise or creative wise or anything last thing that you made?

Isaline: I think it was bread

Sarah: What kind?

Isaline: A gluten-free bread. I have to make my own because I'm celiac. So, and I have a, boat's a Dutch oven, so it makes everything different.

Sarah: Ah, wonderful, wonderful. I mean, I've never made bread, so maybe, maybe I can get some tips

Areej: you. Yeah, I've never made bread either. And I think people should have both starters on desserts. Like there's no room to only have one of them. You should definitely have both every time.

Isaline: Yes, indeed.

Areej: Awesome. Well, I think before we kind of kick into our main topic and talk all things multilingual , um, I really want to learn a little bit more about, you know, what empowers you as a woman in our industry. And what, what do you feel has been one of the things that empowered you the most , um, to reach where you are right now?

Isaline: It is watching all the women that I admire. I only very recently understood what role model is as when I was younger, I used to stay, Oh, no role model. What is it? I don't need that. I don't care. But today I'm a little older and I realized that it's very inspiring to see how. All the women behave. And for example, in the webinar , um, SEO nerd Switzerland's it's, it was very interesting to see , uh, how Roxanna answered people's questions even when they were tricky and just, you know, generally speaking res see how other people behave and have sort of a new.

New standards of what is good and what is, okay. It's reassuring to do something when I've seen someone doing it.

Areej: Yup. I absolutely love that. And for those who don't know that strokes out a Stinko and absolutely brilliant technical SEO. Um, and yeah, I completely agree. And I think that's why representation matters, right?

Because , uh, if we, if we don't see ourselves represented on stage, or if we don't see ourselves represented in the workplace, then we're going to struggle to, to get inspired them, to get empowered.

Isaline: Yes. And I think this is one of the wonderful thing that this community provides. I mean, women in tech, SEO community is that it provides a whole range of representations.

And I believe that I can find someone I can relate to, but someone also very different from me can find someone else. And so this. Wide range of different people. This is that's truly amazing.

Areej: Yeah, I got off that and isn't it. So for women who are just starting off in the industry, let's say they're in their first year of what advice would you give them?

Isaline: If you want to be a business, behave like a business. And when I say that's, I mean, one of the things that's helped me is getting , uh, someone who, who does my bookkeeping getting a lawyer to help me write contracts in terms of agreements. So it means if you want to be a business, just be as reliable as someone you would like to start a business with.

I think it sets healthy work relationships for any clients that meets you.

Sarah: So we invited you today to chat about multilingual SCA. Um, so yes, I'm very excited about this topic , um, because it's something that I don't know that much about. Um, so I want to start off with the basics here. Um, so can you explain to. Our audience, what multi-lingual SEO is, and maybe give some examples.

Isaline: So multilingual as you is when you create and try to improve a website that is in more than one languages. So namely you are trying to attract traffic for more than one. One speaking languages. And you have to imagine that in Switzerland, we speak three, nearly four languages, and this is only the national languages, but, and we have every household projects in several languages.

But imagine someone who's even , um, like who has another mother tongue, like. Comes from Albania, for instance, and you have to make your websites in the national language, but also available to someone who has a different level of language than yours. So one of the things that I would like people to remember is that multilingual languages, as it's not only for the people who have this mother tongue, but also for the people who live in the country and I have another mother talk.

Sarah: Mm, I for languages in Switzerland, that that must be, I mean, yeah, that, that must be quite into what, what are the languages?

Isaline: So we have eight, about 80% is Swiss German about , um, think 12 to 15% is French like me. Um, another. I suppose another small percentage is a to Chino Italian, like Salmaco and then we have a few people talking romance, but this is a really, really small market share.

Areej: Wow. That's and everyone is, or the majority of people are fluent in English as well, right?

Isaline: Uh, yes, I say, I think that. I would say that English is second language more than another national language. Yeah.

Areej: Yeah. That's I, I think, I think that's amazing. And that explains so much about why a lot of Swiss people are extremely smart people.

Um, because from the very young age, they're trained on having a lot of languages that they, that they speak. Um, I wanted to touch in a little bit about if someone is talking about internationalization and internationalization CEO, Versus multi-lingual SEO, but what is one way that we can differentiate between those two?

Isaline: Um, that's a really good question. What are you. What would be internationalization SEO if it's not multilingual,

Areej: right? Yeah. I find it extremely interesting because I think there are a lot of, there are some websites, at least that, for example, if they tackle , um, let's say the U S and the UK market. Um, and in both cases, it's English.

So it's not specifically a different language. Oh,

Isaline: yes. Yeah. So that would be, yes. I understand. That would be like Swiss, German and German. Yes. Something I can relate to. Um, so I think this is where SEO , um, comes, closes to branding , um, because you can write a website that's how's that sounds, if I go back to what I know that sounds German of a website, that sounds which Swiss German, for instance, I had a client in the rental , um, fields and we were disgusting.

So. I was doing the keyword search and clustering things in, in French. And of course the markets being 80% Swiss German, one needs to translate, which means that I was looking for alternatives for project page ends, project names. That's where German. Right. And so I translated my keyword search, but the thing is.

The kind of words, aheads that the dictionary could give me were not the words that were actually used by the people. So in this case scenario, it means that using the dictionary words will make the website not sounds Swiss. Yup. And we'll change the level of trust that people would have in the service or products.

And so in such a scenario, I just talked to someone whose first language is Swiss German, who is living in the Swiss German part of Switzerland, because it could send me for instance. Oh, yes. For , which is rental guarantee, I suppose. Um, I was like, Oh, well I found mid-county and Mitson in scanty. And it was like, no, nobody uses that everybody uses

So it's the type of things when cannot know if. If one, doesn't talk with someone who's local. Yeah.

Areej: Yeah. We have that all the time with Arabic. So I'm, I'm fluent in Arabic, but I'm, I'm Egyptian. So that's subjection Arabic. And even though we have a lot of the same words, the Arabic that we speak in Egypt versus the one they speak in Jordan or Lebanon or Saudi Arabia or so forth, there's a lot of difference in the actual context of the words and meanings and people who are local would notice that right away.

If they go into a website and they read. You know, a specific article or, or so on. So w would you say that's definitely one of the challenges of multi-lingual SEO and if so, what other challenges are there?

Isaline: Hmm, I think another. Challenge is. So the challenge is, is choosing the right words in terms of SEO and in terms of branding, because it, as I say, it, it would have a different, it gives words, gives a different impression to people like on the sort of emotional level.

And the other thing it's , um, Confusing translating and copywriting. So lots of people are like, Oh yes, I'm going to translate the websites. And most of the time, I'm like, no, you don't need someone to translate. You need some right to copyright because you wants to have the same feeling that you're giving.

And so one of the. The mistake would be to just translate on a very, just in a very descriptive way. Whereas you need to transfer your brands.

Sarah: That's a very interesting point because I'm guessing some people, when they think about , um, different languages in multi-lingual SCA, they probably think, cool, surely this is just like air translating, but you have to make sure that , um, the words and not just the words that you're picking, but they're how you're putting words together is in fits in with your brand.

And that's very key. Isn't it. And do you think that's. That's sometimes what people sort of forget about and they just think are we just need to translate it word for word, and they sort of forget about what they're feeling or the characterization of the business.

Isaline: Yes. I think someone who, who might not have experienced this multilingual specifics, because when one learns a language, you know, sometimes you say words and you don't know the sort of seconds meaning, and it turns out what you said is a joke.

And you don't know, and you don't know why is it a joke, but you've just made a joke. And I think if you've never been in that situation, it would be difficult to understand this sort of second meaning and. I thought that one of the last BASCA, but CA podcasts , uh, sorry, SEO, SCSU recorded with the GMF montane.

She also pointed out with the example of Spanish that you have to think about the cultural reality of the people and the time of the year, like the season might be different from one continent to another, even if it's the same language. So. And I thought that was another very interesting point to , um, to say this is something I don't experience because Swiss German, the have winter at the same time that we have winter.

Um, but with the example of Spanish, so that's , uh, Very interesting. I mean,

there's

Sarah: a lot at stake, right? Barely isn't there. So yeah, not only have you got to think about using the right words and making sure that they're right for your brand, but you've also got to think, okay. Seasonality and what also what's happening in that country that you're writing for as well.

Um, so. So, what are the sort of , um, are there any lights or tips that you can give us about how to like successfully tackle this?

Isaline: Yes. I think the first tip , um, as manage the client's expected expectation. If you do a keyword search in my case, in French, and I'll say, okay, I'll just translate it. To German to see if there's no nothing that goes completely against my finding.

However, if you wants to have the real targeting and attract the traffic, you need someone who has this mother tongue to actually do the keyword search. So really managing expectation about if you don't hire the people who speak the language to do the keyword search, you are not going to have the same types of results in terms of traffic.

So. That would be one thing. And also the best is to hire a copywriter that comes from the place that are local. Because if you have a copy writer from France, writing something for Swiss people, even though it's in French, it's going to sound. French and which is not necessarily what you want, if you markets is the Swiss markets.

So I think again, it's about client's expectation. You have to precise that one language has to be priorized over the others because the original language, what...