Selecting Keywords in Non-English Languages

Lori Mendel

As you're developing your keyword strategy, you might ask, "Does 6sense accept keywords in non-English languages?" The answer is yes.

Here are some helpful tips and guidelines I picked up from 6sense Product Manager Justin Dielmann.

Overview

We don’t translate keywords; however, we do support keywords that are entered in a non-English language. The 6sense platform accepts keywords in all languages that consist of single- and double-byte characters. (Examples of double-byte character languages include Japanese and Chinese.)

Non-English keywords follow the same data matching and normalization guidelines as English keywords.

English language websites account for a little over 60% of existing web content. Russian is the second most prevalent language on the internet accounting for only 5.5% of web content (according to a 2022 analysis of the top 10 million websites by W3Tech). 6sense’s B2B Network consists of signals from all major languages, but you should expect a lower volume on non-English keywords and still enter the nearest English equivalent! In fact, it is common to see English-language keyword signals coming from international regions.

Tips

Here are some useful tips to help optimize keyword selection and intent tracking.

To maximize potential coverage, we recommend that you enter both the English version and other relevant language versions of a keyword. This provides extra coverage since foreign sites often encode pages in English to help search engines and social media pick them up. 

For words that are commonly misspelled, be sure to include variants as separate keywords (e.g., 6sense, 6cents, Six-sence). This ensures intent signals aren’t missed due to misspellings.

Cast a net for the things that really matter but don't go overboard. You don’t want to overload your keywords with 800 variants of German keywords (or some other language).

Finally, group related English and non-English keywords together by topic. Keyword groups make it easier for those who are not bilingual to build intent-based segments leveraging non-English keywords. It's also a great time saver because you can filter on a group rather than filtering on 5, 10, or 20+ keywords (you're welcome).

Summary

So now you know… 6sense does support keywords entered in both English and non-English languages. Data matching and normalization guidelines are the same, and English intent signals are most common – even in foreign countries. Follow the tips outlined above to optimize keyword selection and intent tracking.

Lori Mendel

Thanks for your help pulling this together @Justin Dielmann!

EricD

👏

Simon Torres

With my team, we have been adding Spanish and Portuguese keywords to 6sense, but when have seen they are limited in the accounts reach, and when we use the keywords groups for creating segments they show a limited amount of accounts, is there any limitation to using other languages on 6sense? What are the best practices for other languages keywords?

Lori Mendel

👋 Hi @Simon Torres!

6sense’s B2B Network is made up of signals from all major languages. Adding keywords in Spanish and Portuguese extends your coverage and lets you capture intent signals from multilingual and non-English speakers. 

However, over 60% of written content on the internet is in English. Also, non-English sites often encode pages in English to help search engines and social media sites pick them up. Because of this, it’s actually normal to see a lower volume of non-English keyword activity, as well as English keyword signals from international regions. 

To optimize intent signals, be sure to include the English equivalent for all of your Spanish and Portuguese keywords. This helps you capture intent even if a foreign site is encoded in English. For commonly misspelled words (in any language), include variants as separate keywords (e.g., 6sense, 6cents, Six-sence). You can also include those English keyword equivalents in your keyword groups — so group by topic and include relevant keywords in English, Spanish, and Portuguese. 

Simon Torres

Is it a good practice to have different keyword groups for every language? or is it better to have it in the same keyword group?

Lori Mendel

It would be simpler to combine them into the same group. As you're building segments that leverage intent, you'll want to include keywords in both English and your preferred non-English languages. This helps you capture intent signals whether the content or site encoding is in English or another language. But, if you prefer to split them up by language, just be sure to include all of the groups in your segment filters. Otherwise, the number of accounts in your segments may be limited.