What did you do before?
I fell in love with interpreting while I was still training to be a foreign language correspondent. And from then on, my path was clear: I set off for the north of England with a lot of socks and a dream in my luggage to study there.
First of all, I completed a bachelor’s degree in “English for International Corporate Communications” and followed that up with a master’s in “Interpreting and Translation”. My bachelor’s degree had a strong business focus, but that was also very important. After all, cultural differences really shape communication and decision-making.
How would you describe your job in three sentences – as a project manager and an SEO/GEO specialist?
It’s certainly very varied – no two days are the same. I’m in daily contact with clients and linguists, which allows me to give free rein to my creativity and put my technical knowledge to good use. We receive projects from all areas and I get quite excited when a new website comes along for translation.
You advise clients right from the moment they place an order with Apostroph. What’s the first thing you look out for to ensure that everything runs smoothly later on during implementation?
Completeness is the most important thing. Have we got all the details? Have we received all the files and are they complete? Is there anything else that needs to be clarified? My aim is to offer our clients a full service package for complete peace of mind. That’s why we clarify all outstanding issues at an early stage – so that everything runs smoothly later on.
SEO and multilingualism: What are the most common pitfalls when creating multilingual websites or content – and how can they be avoided from the outset?
I think three of the most common pitfalls are:
- Text length: Particularly when translating from German into French or Italian, texts tend to be around 10% longer than the source text. If you’re not aware of that at the beginning, it could mean that you have to change the layout of the website later on.
- Linguistic and cultural differences: When it comes to search engine optimisation (SEO), keywords often vary significantly from one language to another. Every culture and every language searches differently. That’s something you really have to be aware of.
- Implementation: Our clients use a wide variety of different content management systems (CMS) and each one has its own specific characteristics. Some export some very interesting formats which in turn raises the question as to how these formats, can be translated, but we can usually find a solution with plugins or interfaces. It’s important that these points are clarified and tested at an early stage.
I always recommend a kick-off meeting in the case of a website project. This gives us the opportunity to look at and discuss these pitfalls – and others – together.
You also support our project managers in the implementation of SEO. Can you tell us more about that?
I’m often involved right from the quotation stage. How much time will it take? How many websites are there? This is where I can apply my SEO knowledge and help the other project managers with their estimates.
As the project progresses, I also attend kick-off meetings and briefings with our clients. During these meetings, we clarify expectations and lay the groundwork for a bespoke implementation.
For SEO, that means I research keywords and create a structured overview with recommendations. Once the translation has been completed and approved, we move on to the implementation phase – this is where we work to clear guidelines, such as character limits (e.g. 50–60 characters including spaces for meta titles on desktop) or specific client requirements.
I would suggest that anyone working on a multilingual project should make sure they look at another language version – that often opens up new perspectives.
GEO is currently the new buzzword alongside SEO. You will be playing a much greater role here in the future. What fascinates you about this topic – and what are the most common questions you are likely to be asked?
Many clients will first ask themselves: What is GEO – and is it something that is relevant to our business? And the next question is usually: How can it be put into practice?
AI is a really exciting topic. There are new tools emerging all the time to support these processes. It’s important not to underestimate how these tools can enhance visibility. Some users no longer scroll down to the search results and instead find “their solution” right at the top of the search engine in the AI-generated answer. A key part of GEO is therefore to provide specific answers to potentially relevant questions on your own website (Where is the best place for me to get insurance? Which car sharing offer is best for me?), so that AI can take this information into account. I am really interested in this change – I’m curious to see what the future holds in this area.
Lea, please complete these sentences:
A good day for me starts with…
coffee and fresh air
and ideally ends with…
a starry night sky.
When I’m not at work, you’ll often find me…
in the woods or by the water.
My favourite book is…
“City of Glass” by Paul Auster.
If there was one language I could choose to speak perfectly straight away it would be…
Chinese.
I’ve got no time for...
socks with holes in them.
I’ve always got time for...
chocolate.
Three things I always have with me...
my mobile phone, headphones and sunglasses.
