Maintaining the "long tail" of a search engine optimization (SEO) campaign conducted in multiple languages is frequently trickier than a simple use of Google Translate, according to SEO experts.

Andy Atkins-Krüger, writing for Search Engine Watch, says that international search engine optimization (SEO) can depend on seemingly minor details, like properly placed accents or understanding the grammatical differences between a pair of languages. He warns that Google Translate is frequently a highly imprecise tool, missing idiomatic meanings and colloquialism.

Atkins-Krüger uses the example of an English-to-German translation of a search engine optimization (SEO) campaign to get results for cheap air fares. In addition to different accents, Atkins-Krüger says that German is one of the most frequently misspelled languages on the internet, further complicating the SEO task at hand. As well, extensive compounding of German words – "Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz" is supposedly the longest word in the language – can make SEO more difficult.

International search engine optimization (SEO) is likely to see further changes in the near future, as the effects of the non-English character implementation by ICANN become more widely felt.

Katherine Griwert is Brafton's Marketing Director. She's practiced content marketing, SEO and social marketing for over five years, and her enthusiasm for new media has even deeper roots. Katherine holds a degree in American Studies from Boston College, and her writing is featured in a number of web publications.