Contents8
In short
A translated keyword is often the dictionary word, not the one customers in the country type: vocabulary, volume and intent change.
The research is redone by country and language: real queries, words from the field, tools set to the market, a reading of the top results, and sometimes a search engine other than Google.
Its results come before the translation: in the glossary, titles, URLs and ads.
The reflex is understandable: you have a keyword list that works in your home market, you translate it, and you optimise the translated pages for those words. The result almost always disappoints. The pages rank for phrases nobody types, or for phrases that do not mean the same thing in the other country.
This article explains why a translated list misleads, how the research is redone market by market, and what it changes in the translation itself. It extends our articles on website translation and opening new markets.
Why a translated list misleads
Three gaps separate a translated keyword from a searched one.
The common word is not the dictionary word. A German looking for a mobile phone types “Handy”, not a literal translation. A Briton looks for an “estate agent”, an American for a “real estate agent”. A Spaniard says “ordenador”, a Mexican “computadora”. A translation tool often picks the correct term, rarely the most searched one.
Volume does not travel. A phrase in high demand in one country may see little demand in the target country, because the need is expressed differently there, or does not exist in that form.
Intent changes. The same word can call for different pages: an “agenda” is a diary in French, the order of business of a meeting in English. False friends are the extreme case, but the gap is often subtler: an informational query in one country becomes a buying query in another.
A translated list
The dictionary word
Home-market volumes, assumed to hold elsewhere
A guessed intent
Google, out of habit
Research redone
The word customers in the country type
Volumes measured for the country and language
Intent read from the top results
The search engine the country actually uses
The search engine is not always Google
In most European countries, Google dominates. Elsewhere, another engine holds a large share, or even first place: Seznam in Czechia, Naver in South Korea, Yandex in Russia, Baidu in China.
Google’s share of visits from search engines, September 2026
Each engine has its own tools and habits. Keyword research for South Korea that looks only at Google leaves out a large share of searches. For China, there is also the question of whether the site can be reached from the country at all, to check before any keyword work.
Redoing the research, market by market
The research follows the same steps as at home, but set to the target country and language.
- Start from real queries.
Search Console already shows the searches typed from each country, in their language: the method is in our article on international SEO.
- Gather words from the field.
Customer messages, distributors’ questions, the country’s forums: the words people use to describe their need.
- Measure by country and language.
Keyword tools are set to a market: Google’s historical metrics, for example, are calculated for a given location and language.
- Read the top results.
Product pages, guides, comparisons, marketplaces: what ranks first says how the engine understands the intent.
- Choose one page per intent.
One phrase, one target page, in each language: two pages on the same intent compete for the same spot.
Tools give volumes; a person who lives in the language gives meaning. A translator, copywriter or SEO specialist from the country spots the word that sounds right, the false friend and the outdated term. It is a few hours of work per market, and it avoids translating pages around words nobody searches for.
What the research changes in the translation
Once the phrases are chosen, they enter the translation workflow before the first translated page.
- The glossary: the chosen terms become required terms, which the tool applies to every page. See brand glossary: keeping translations consistent.
- Titles, descriptions and subheadings: written in the language of the search, not translated from those of the home page.
- Visible content: Google’s documentation states that the engine determines a page’s language from its visible content, ignoring the
langattribute and the URL. A half-translated page stays half in the other language. - URLs: a slug in the page’s language, set from the first publication.
- Product pages: the attributes and names buyers in the country search for, following product pages for export.
From the field
Our SEO engine, running since August 2026, reads this site’s Search Console every day and cross-checks it with a keyword register where each query has a single target page, in French as in English, and where no volume is recorded without its source. A client learned the URL lesson the hard way: on Palmora Property, English articles published with French URLs left a debt that became too costly to fix.
The translation tool receives the glossary with each text, which means choosing it on your content (see DeepL, Google or an LLM) and reviewing the pages that sell (see translating your website with AI: automatic or reviewed?). The rest of the adaptation, from prices to forms, is in localize, don’t just translate, and validated terms are kept in a translation memory.
Advertising follows the same rule
For Google Ads, the question has become more pressing since a change announced in Google’s help:
Starting in September 2026, the way language targeting works is changing for Search campaigns. The campaign-level language targeting setting will be removed. Search ads will automatically match based on the language of your ads.
The language of ads and keywords therefore carries the targeting. A campaign built on a translated list pays for clicks on dictionary terms, or gets none. A market’s keywords and ads are built from the redone research, just like the pages. Choosing between ad platforms is covered in Google Ads or Meta for a B2B SME.
What redone research costs
Keyword research is counted in hours per market, not per page. It costs far less than translating a whole site, and it decides what is worth translating first. The full budget for a language is in website translation cost: per word, per page, per market.
It also helps choose the market: a country where searches for your offer already exist can be tested faster than one where demand has to be created. See German, Spanish or Italian: which market to open first and opening an English-speaking market: beyond language. Messages received by support, once translated, feed the research, as explained in translating customer support emails without hiring. For an app, the store listing has its own keywords per language, which we cover in translating software or an app: strings, context, updates.
Where to start
Take your ten most useful home-market keywords and, for the first target country, ask someone who lives in the language how they would search for the same thing. Compare their answers with a machine translation of your list: each gap is a page that would have ranked for the wrong word.
To redo this research with us, market by market, tell us about your offer and target countries: we start from real queries, never from a translated list.
Frequently asked questions
Can I translate my keywords with AI?
You can use it to suggest leads, not to decide. An AI model gives plausible phrasings, but it does not know the country’s search volumes and may choose a correct term that nobody types. Leads are checked with a tool set to the country and language, and with someone who lives in the language.
Do I need to redo the research for each country sharing a language?
Yes, as soon as vocabulary or the offer changes. The UK and the US, Spain and Mexico, France and Quebec do not always use the same words for the same need. Shared research can serve as a base, but every country with a separate version deserves its own checks on volume and intent.
Which tools should I use for keyword research abroad?
Search Console for the queries your site already receives, a keyword tool set to the country and language for volumes, and the top results of the country’s dominant search engine for intent. In countries where Google is not alone, the local engine’s tools complete the research.
Should keywords appear in the page URL?
A URL in the page’s language, with the words from the research, helps the reader and stays consistent with the content. It is set from the first publication: changing the URLs of a site already indexed requires redirects and costs time. Visible content and titles remain what matters most.
Sources
- Google Ads API, Generate Historical Metrics (new tab)developers.google.com
- Google Search Central, managing multi-regional and multilingual sites (new tab)developers.google.com
Google Search Central, managing multi-regional and multilingual sites
Read on developers.google.com(new tab)Jim · founder of Brain Plus AI
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