Keyword conflicts in multilingual websites

[jeffrey800]

Hi guys,

I have a multilingual website set up like this

domain.com/ = english homepage
domain.com/nl/ = dutch homepage

Now the problem is, both the dutch homepage and the english homepage have keywords that are partly the same. These are currently the target keywords I want to base my SEO on:

domain.com/ = "web development services"
domain.com/nl/ = "webdevelopment" (yes it's a dutch word imported from english)

As you can see, they both have the words "web" and "development". The question is:

If someone in the Netherlands searches for "webdevelopment", how will google know it should return the dutch homepage and NOT the english one?

Thank you.

Jeff

[tedster]

Hello jeffrey800 - welcome to the forums.

Google uses many signals beyond text matching. For instance they do OK at determining the language of an entire page. The webmaster can also set the meta language tag on a page.

Have you considered using Webmaster Tools to set geo-targeting for the /nl/ directory? That's another way that a webmaster can help the situation.

[jeffrey800]

Hi tedster,

Thank you so much for your tips. I geotargetted the /nl/ directory and put a meta language in my headers.

So links from dutch domains to my /nl/ directory will also improve my position in local SERPs? The two homepages won't be competing over each other for the same keywords, because google will recognize them as seperate languages?

Then, I guess the only thing I will miss out on is when people in the Netherlands use the international version of google and not the dutch version (because this will probably show the english version of my website?)

Thanks again for your help. :)