Local SEO In A Different Language

[DohenyDrones]

I am pretty new to web design and SEO, so I am sure I have completely done this wrong.  I work for a U.S. based equipment dealer and before I started working here my company incorporated in Canada under  "(our main product) of Canada".  Even before we had any SEO work done on our website, we ranked in the top 3 across Canada for our main product.

The one exception to this was Quebec where we rarely got any traffic due to the language barrier.  We started working to fix this last summer using the Montreal Consulate, our SEO company at the time and a translator.  They each gave me the same French translation of our Company name and I had them translate the 8 most visited pages on our existing site.  I then created a replica of our existing site, hosted it on the French translation of our name and started running inbound links to this site from our U.S. and Canada sites.

The first thing I am wondering is if there's any issue with this practice?  We have had good results so far and traffic from Quebec is way up across our three sites.

The second issue I have is we just hired our first employee in Quebec and found a partner there.  They are both adamant that the translation we are using is incorrect.  I own the domain for the correct translation they are suggesting but I have no idea how to go about it.  Any suggestions?

[PatrickDelehanty]

Hi Richard

One thing I would look into is hreflang if the content is the same. These attributes help Google and other search engines serve the correct translated content and URLs in the correct regions. Also, you should look into citations and listings in the different regions you are serving. This will help associate your brand with those products/services in that region. Try Whitespark.ca.

Hope this helps!

[renehansen]

I will recommend that you take a look at the Moz Guide on this topic: http://moz.com/learn/seo/international-seo

Google will differentiate content if it is served on a different domain in a different content. So a 1:1 relationship should in theory not create DC as long as it is not in the same language. However, I would take the time to make sure that the content is written properly in the right tongue and take into account local cultural aspects.

Which method are you using?

domain.com/fr/

fr.domain.com

or

domain.fr?