The backbone of any online or digital marketing company is its Search Engine Optimization (SEO). It is known to bring in a lot of traffic to a website. It is important to remember that English might be a universal language, but it isn’t spoken everywhere. Many people around the world do not speak English.

Therefore, if you are focusing only on targeting an English audience, then you are missing out on a significant audience. Writing your SEO content in different languages is an excellent way to attract a huge audience. In other words, you need to implement a “Vernacular SEO” strategy.

What is Vernacular SEO

Without SEO, it will be hard for customers to find your website on search engines. Vernacular SEO allows your website to prepare for the foreign market. Optimizing the website means the respective search engines will be able to pair up with your targeted SEO keywords. These are the same words that your potential customers usually use to find related products or services on the web.

Google, for example, uses over 250 ranking signals so that it can provide more accurate results to its users. Vernacular SEO is similar to local SEO services. Just like you optimize your website for your domestic customers, Vernacular SEO makes the service more searchable globally so that you can tap the foreign markets successfully.

Why is Vernacular SEO important?

Internet users continue to grow at the rate of about 1,000,000 per day. With the US ranking 14th out of 40 countries in the world for eCommerce adoption, vernacular content plays an increasingly significant role. Organizations must adopt these trends to best appeal to global audiences.

Here is what you can accomplish by implementing Vernacular SEO:

  Enhance brand awareness and credibility

  Increase website traffic and decrease bounce rates

  Enhance online visibility of your products and services

  Improve engagement and customer satisfaction

  Increase your conversions, leads, and revenue

  Edge out your competition

Using a vernacular approach to SEO helps you carry your own, authentic voice on the web. The best part is that anyone can learn to do it – without special skills or knowledge. Using SEO to rank well on search engines is very effective, simply because Google recognizes the relevance and value of your content, resulting in increased traffic.

A localized keyword is easier to rank in a search than a generic one because it is more specific. And because it is more likely for people to search for something they already know, you are more likely to be found by the right audience. You can use keywords in your URL and title tags to improve your ranking.

Strategies of Vernacular SEO

  Securing in-country domain names

Instead of creating a subdomain to target multiple countries, create an in-country domain name. This will prevent your audience from getting confused, and in-country domains are preferred by search engines as well, which will be a win-win for you.

  Always go for the right search engine

You can be at the top of search results in 2022 only by choosing the right search engine. Several countries utilize different search engines according to their comfort and familiarity. Choose the one which you are familiar with and which your target audience uses the most.

  Build high-quality in-country links

A key ranking factor of good SEO is link-building. Make sure your website has high-quality backlinks from other sources. You can achieve this by participating in local search engine submissions, local citations, classified ads, and from your social media channels.

  Create a Sitemap

Search engines use sitemaps to find your content. Create detailed sitemaps for your language content to help search engines identify your pages and display them at the right places.

Examples of Vernacular SEO

You might have read about things like mobile-friendliness or keyword integration before, but they do not provide a clear view of what vernacular SEO marketing really is. These examples of SEO will help you see how this actually works :

  Long-tail keyword integration

Keywords are essential to vernacular search engine optimization. Your written web content can be optimized for Google’s search results by incorporating keyword phrases that highlight the type of search for which your content is most relevant.

The key is to target long-tail keywords, i.e. keywords constituting several words. It is easier to reach a more relevant audience with longer keywords because they are more specific and face less competition.

A great example of the same is provided by Aireserv. When they published a blog post on cleaning air purifiers, they were not satisfied with targeting a short keyword like “air filter”. So they used the long-tail keyword “how to clean an air purifier,” which they added both to the title and the subheading.

  White space

Your website designs and visuals are important factors influencing the overall user experience. Users do not want to stay on a website with poor visuals, and when visitors leave the page in little time, Google lowers your ranking. Visual design is composed of many elements, from color schemes to page structure. White space, however, is one of the most essential of all.

White space is the empty space on a page i.e. not occupied by text, image, or any other visual element. It helps the visitors feel composed, collected, and relaxed, and it prevents your website from looking pushy.

Imagine the difference between a page packed with text and images and another broken down into individual blurbs and paragraphs. The former will be messy, and the latter will be a strong preference of readers and will be a lot more engaging.

Sun Auto Service incorporates this principle seamlessly into its written content on its website. It breaks up the text into informational pieces by dividing it into small sections. Text, images, and white space between paragraphs make things feel less cluttered and more organized, making the reading experience smooth and users happy.

  Compelling title tag and meta description

Vernacular SEO begins with ranking your content high on Google, but it doesn’t end there. Once your content ranks high, you need to convince users why they should click your site. If you don’t, your rankings will decline as Google will assume that your site isn’t valuable to users.

Create compelling title tags and meta descriptions for each of your pages, which together make up the blurb displayed in search results. Your title and meta description is the first thing people see about your website, and it should make clear what you are offering and why your business is worth clicking.

It is a great tactic that Wyoming Exterminator uses. The title tag makes it clear what the company does and where it is located. In contrast, its meta description offers a compelling call to action (CTA) that highlights its “years of experience”.

  Reputable backlinks

One of the factors Google takes into account when ranking your site is your level of reputation. Your site will rank higher if Google considers it as a high authority in your niche, and one of the best ways to appear more reputable is to obtain backlinks.

A backlink is simply a link from a website that is reputable in your field.

Search engines assume you as an authority and rank you higher if known authoritative sites link to you. You can earn backlinks by finding broken links on reputable sites in your industry and asking them to replace their broken links with links to your website. You can also talk to these websites and get your website featured.

Sweetwater provides one of the best examples of this. Their piece entitled “True Stereo” received a backlink from Wikipedia, which lists it on its page for stereophonic sound.  As Wikipedia links are NoFollow, they do not directly affect rankings as most backlinks do. However, since Google frequently ranks Wikipedia very high in search results, Sweetwater benefits from the same as visitors to the page might encounter the link. It is no coincidence that Sweetwater’s piece for “true stereo” ranks on the first page of a “true stereo” search.

  Fast page speeds

83% of users expect websites to load within three seconds. If your website does not load fast enough, users will bounce off from it quickly, telling Google that your site is not useful to them, which will affect its ranking.

You can optimize your page speed by implementing techniques like:

  Caching web pages

  Compressing images

  Limiting redirects

Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool will score your website between 0 and 100 based on its page speed. USA Flooring is one of the sites having achieved an impressive score. According to PageSpeed Insights, USA Flooring’s desktop site scores 93, so it is unlikely that many users abandon the site due to loading issues.

  Responsive design

Google’s algorithm prioritizes mobile-friendly websites as over 50% of all internet traffic comes from mobile devices. If your site is not mobile-friendly, mobile users will leave and Google will penalize you.

Keep your website responsive by implementing web designs in which the layout of a website changes based on the screen size of users. Ravensburger is a good example of the same.

Conclusion

Multilingual and Vernacular SEO is always evolving, and it will continue to do so. It is exciting to see this progress because it gives you new ideas to improve your online business if you pay attention to new search strategies. You can employ these strategies in other online performance channels as well to ensure that everything works together to drive results.