In line with Google, the standard of your languages ​​can have an effect on one another in your multilingual web site

Google’s John Mueller confirmed in the SEO hangout on December 31st that if you have multiple versions of your website (on the same domain name) and one version is rated as good quality by Google and the other version is rated as poor quality by Google, the bad one Quality is version can have a negative impact on the high quality version. And yes, we should all know that by now Quality is at the location level and substantial parts of your site can affect other parts of the same site.

That came with 6:52 mark where an SEO asked: “Do you consider the language quality of each language version on the same domain independently or can there be a negative or bad neighborhood effect so that if one language version is of poor quality, all other language versions on the same domain suffer too?”

John Mueller said the short answer is yes, and it doesn’t necessarily mean that the site has multiple languages, but that the site as a whole has poor quality sections. John said, “The main problem here is less that these are translated versions of the content, but more that for some things we are looking at the overall quality of the site. And when we look at the quality of the site as a whole, if you’ve got significant chunks of it being of lesser quality, it doesn’t matter so much to us why they should be of lesser quality if it’s all about poor translations or awful content or what whatever. But if we see that they are essential parts that are of lower quality then we may think that overall this website is not as fantastic as we thought it was. And that can have an impact in different places on the website. “

John added, “In short, I think if you have a very poor quality translation that is also indexed and that is also highly visible in the search, it can definitely affect the good translation or the high quality original content that you are too also have. “

Here he said that, the back and forth goes a lot more so it’s worth checking out:

This is how Glenn Gabe summed it up from his perspective:

Google on the importance of the overall quality of the website -> Via @johnmu: For some things, we look at * overall * site quality. So if you have significant, low quality pieces, this can drag down your original, higher quality content as well: https://t.co/MHrZN1P56Q pic.twitter.com/BrkGTMdCIX

– Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) January 2, 2022

What’s more, it’s smart to look at quality from the perspective of * real people * who visit the site, read the content, etc. John recommends doing user studies (with an objective panel of users) to really understand how real Users on your opinion are page? ˅: https://t.co/eR34yMgGH9 pic.twitter.com/tJrytnrrtN

– Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) January 2, 2022

Here is the transcript:

ASK:

I wonder if a bad translation of a new language version can negatively impact SEO for domains with more established main language versions. So let’s take an example, let’s say I have an established French language website that has been around for a few years and has had reasonable SEO success. And then I want to add a German language version on the same domain, so not the unique domain, but the same domain and the website owner unfortunately uses an automatic translation for the G user interface and the German content.

So I know that automated translations are considered auto-generated content and Google doesn’t like that, so it seems normal that Google probably doesn’t appreciate the new German version that much. But my question is mostly aimed at the mainstream French version which has worked quite well so far.

I wonder if this poor German language version can negatively affect the success of the more established French version? In other words, do you consider the language quality of each language version on the same domain independently or can there be a negative or bad neighborhood effect so that if one language version is of poor quality, all other language versions on the same domain suffer too?

ANSWER:

I think the short answer is yes.

The main problem here is less that they are translated versions of the content, but more that for some things we are looking at the overall quality of the website. And when we look at the quality of the site as a whole, it doesn’t matter so much to us why they are lower quality if it’s all about bad translations or if it’s terrible content or whatever. But if we find that they are essential parts of lower quality, we might think that overall this website is not as fantastic as we thought it was. And that can have an impact in different places on the website.

In a nutshell, I think if you have a very poor quality translation that is also indexed and that is also highly visible in the search it can definitely also detract from the good translation or the high quality original content that you have as well.

Forum discussion at Twitter.