Google Translate Usage Can Be Search Spam

Mar 23, 2011 - 8:58 am 7 by

Google TranslateYesterday, Google's Matt Cutts posted a video named How should I handle localized content? and 1 minute and 45 seconds in, Matt addressed a topic on can you use Google Translate to auto-translate your content into languages and then use that content as new domains for those country extensions?

For example, if I want to translate rustybrick.com into Hebrew and place it on rustybrick.co.il, can I use Google Translate to do so?

Here is the video, it should start in the proper place:

This is nothing new. I covered this back in August with my post named Google Says Using Google Translate Can Be Against Google's Webmaster Guidelines.

In short, Google wants your content to be human readable and often, even with Google Translate, using Google Translate for this purpose can be against Google's guidelines.

If you are going to translate your site, use real humans who can do it. If not, then use a solution that won't be indexed by Google. Never use software for translation and if you do, do not let Google index it.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

 

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