How can I rank using translated content?

[kikocherman]

My friend has a website with similar content to mine, in a different language however. He has allowed me to translate his content if I link to it every post (can be nofollow).

Does Google penalize me for clearly translated content? How can I make sure it ranks well?

BTW, if I convince him that I don't link to him, is it better SEO-wise?

Best,
Cherman

[RyanKent]

The first item we need to know: is this human translated content? Or is Google Translate or another similar tool being used?

If you are using auto-translated content, it wont rank. It is a violation of search engine guidelines. If you are using human translated content, ensure the translations are high quality. A few items to check:

• the translation should target a specific country rather then a specific language. Search engines results are provided by country such as Google France, Google UK, etc. Dialects of the same language also vary greatly by country such as Spanish from Mexico and Spain are quite different.

• the translation should account for the targeted countries monetary units and systems of measurement

• the translation should account for local customs, traditions, politics, etc.

• the page should use the proper language meta tags

• you will need to make a decision regarding content presentation. Will you use a unique subdomain? Or present the translated content in a folder?

There are numerous articles related to providing duplicate content in translated form. I suggest a quick site search will yield lots of results.

[kikocherman]

What if my translator first use a translating software but then adjusts the text for specific language and locality stuff?