In order not to ask why to translate the site into Ukrainian, it is enough to familiarize yourself with the current legislation. It provides for the service of business customers in the state, that is, Ukrainian, if initially they did not indicate in any form the desire to choose another. Accordingly, all online - business in Ukraine should switch to using the Ukrainian version of the site, by setting it to download by default.

It is also necessary to pay attention to ordinary information resources that are partially covered by the law — initial communication with the client ( website visitor ) should be conducted in Ukrainian.

Content:

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Law on sites in Ukrainian: what you need to know from the point of view of SEO

It is important to understand that content in Ukrainian should be no less than in other languages. So absolutely all elements must be translated:

Sites should be in Ukrainian by default, that is when you visit, the Ukrainian language version is automatically downloaded.

To enable the business to prepare for such innovations, a delay in punishment for the absence of a Ukrainian version was provided. It expired on July 16, 2022. From this date, owners of sites where the appropriate settings have not been made may receive fines amounting to tens of thousands of hryvnia.

The amount of such penalties is small, especially for owners of large online businesses. At the same time the presence of the Ukrainian version of the site gives more benefits, and its creation allows you to get more advantages than just preventing a fine.

украинская версия сайта по умолчанию картинка

Fears SEO - Specialists regarding the fact that the translation of the site into Ukrainian may affect ranking, in vain. With the efficient and correct execution of the entire spectrum of work, such a step rather improve position than entail any negative consequences.

The second fear is the similarity of languages, which can be perceived by search robots as page takes. It is important to understand here that there are all language differences -, and bots have long been trained to recognize them. In addition, the correct implementation of Ukrainian-language pages will eliminate even a slight probability of a similar situation.

Advantages of adding the Ukrainian version of the site

When you need to translate the site into Ukrainian, do not forget about a number of benefits, which gives a similar step for the owner. Among them, one can distinguish such:

  • Increasing the reputation component and behavioral factors. Now more and more Ukrainians are switching to using the Ukrainian language in everyday life, including searching for information, services and goods on Google. The presence on the site of pages that meet the needs of people increases the level of trust and helps to improve the reputation. In the future, this leads to conversion increase.
  • Improving Organic Traffic. Users who have chosen the Ukrainian language for themselves are likely to switch to a site where to get everything you need on it. Adding a new language version will expand semantic core and will allow you to rank for more requests. With professional promotion, this will increase search traffic. In this case, you can always leave the choice by placing ( in the upper right corner of the ) button for switching the language.
    пример как выглядит переключатель языков на сайте
  • The default Ukrainian version of the site avoids violation of the law and will relieve unnecessary proceedings, probable problems with the functioning of the resource. Compliance with the legal framework — is an important factor in the business, its reputation, as well as customer confidence.

To get all these advantages, it is important to carefully consider the process of creating the Ukrainian language version and its SEO - promotion.

How to add the Ukrainian language version to the site

There are several ways to switch to the Ukrainian version of the site, adjust its correct operation and not harm the existing results of SEO - promotion. To prevent unnecessary problems and to perform a large amount of unnecessary work, we are ready to offer a simple but current scheme.

Start of work on the implementation of the Ukrainian version of the site

It’s better to develop a new language version of the resource using a separate test domain, which will be closed from scanning and indexing by robots of search engines. Thus, you exclude any risks of subsidence of the main resource during operation.

If you already have a website in Russian that brings customers and has some success in SEO, main rule — do not break it. Let this language version remain a source of traffic. Create a multilingual site, by adding a separate investment to the UA, rather than replacing content with the RU version. It looks like this:

https://site.com.ua/ — for RU.
https://site.com.ua/ua/ — for UA.

This approach allows you to save not only the Russian version of the resource, but also eliminates the need to change the URL - addresses, which is important for maintaining positions in the search issue. Links will remain clear to users and robots:

https://site.com.ua/catalog/kofevarky/ — in the Russian-language version of the store.
https://site.com.ua/ua/catalog/kofevarky/ — in the newly created Ukrainian version.

As a result of — you get an additional source of traffic, maintain a reputation and fully comply with the conditions of the legislative framework.

зачем переводить сайт на украинский язык картинка

The same rule applies to those who are only planning to create a site. If when compiling a semantic core, you see that your target audience uses Russian to search, then the best choice will be a bilingual web - resource. The attachment can be changed and implemented in this form:

https://site.com.ua/ — for UA.
https://site.com.ua/ru/ — for RU.

Consider one factor — not all CMSs support multilingualism, may have to look for an alternative solution. However, as popular engines with such functionality, you can distinguish: OpenCart, MODX, ocStore, WordPress.

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Translation of content into Ukrainian

The main difficulty is to create content in the Ukrainian language, since its volume, according to the requirements of the law, should be at least half of the total. Accordingly, it will not be possible to simply create new materials in the future in two languages at once. Previously, you need to translate and add existing materials to the site. For this, one of the options is used:

  • Application of online - translators. However, after that, the entire volume of the text needs to be re-read and edited, since a large number of errors and inaccuracies are possible. In addition, part of the text information will still have to be translated independently.
    пример как перевести сайт на украинский язык
  • Initially independent translation total textual content. This will take considerable time, especially in the case of the continued existence of the site with its gradual expansion.
  • Contacting professional translation studios, to freelancers, companies providing relevant services. The option is expensive, but allows you to get a quick result.

It is important that there are no errors in the translation or their number is minimal, and the semantic load corresponds to the original text.

Adding language attributes

You need to introduce language attributes so that the search engine can get information about which language the page was configured or what additional language versions are available. For this, in the < html > tag is added attribute < lang > with the code of the Ukrainian language — "uk" ( in the format of ISO 639 - 1 ). In addition, HTML - tag < link > indicates language versions of the site using attribute hreflang. On the example, it looks like this:

< link rel = ”alternate” hreflang = ”uk” href = ”https://site.com.ua/” / >
< link rel = ”alternate” hreflang = ”ru” href = ”https://site.com.ua/ru/” / >

It is important to make all the settings correctly so that in the future there are no problems with indexation.

Opening pages for indexes

After you translated all the content into Ukrainian, you need it transfer to the main domain and remove the tag meta "robots", which forbade search engine robots indexing. It is tentatively important to check the Ukrainian version of the site for bugs. This will eliminate possible problems with SEO - future progress.

Next step — adding all the pages of the Ukrainian language version to an existing one sitemap.xml file or creating a separate document for the version of UA. When creating new pages, they should automatically get into the XML - site map.

Default Ukrainian version download setup

By default, translation into Ukrainian can be configured using 302 redirect. It is important consider options such as IP and cookies. IP accounting will allow you to determine the geolocation with which the request occurs and redirect only visitors from Ukraine to the Ukrainian version of the site. The rest of the users will be sent to the version that they themselves switched from Google or another source of traffic.

как установить украинский язык по умолчанию

Using cookies allows you to “recognize” the user’s browser and adjust to his preferences. This means that upon initial call, the visitor will be sent to the Ukrainian version, and if after that he chooses another language design, then the corresponding settings will be saved in the cookies. Subsequently, the user will be sent to the language version of the site that was selected during the previous visit.

For search engine robots and their User - agent, it is important to exclude forced redirection to the default Ukrainian language version. For them all pages of the site should open with 200 OK status.

Conclusions

The correct translation of the site into Ukrainian and the introduction of multilingualism allows you to get a number of advantages. It is enough to follow a few simple recommendations that will avoid problems in the promotion process and get the most positive result.