Food and drink brands aren’t just selling sustenance—they’re selling stories and experiences and for those looking to earn more international customers, SEO-driven translation can play a huge role.
This is especially the case in high-demand niches of food and drink that chime with consumer trends from low-sugar and alcohol-free products, to plant-based and nutrition-focused offerings…or the products that hit a critical mass of interest after going viral on TikTok or with particularly powerful influencers.
Whatever your product, how well it's marketed internationally will shape how audiences experience, understand and value your offerings and these days, the disciplines of translation and SEO are closer than ever.
In this short (ish!) blog we share three key principles for aligning your SEO and localisation strategies around the main pillars of food and drink product content so you can stand out, stay compliant, and grow your customer base internationally.
Packaging must walk the line between compliance and creativity. Beyond translating ingredients and instructions, you need to maintain visual appeal and cultural resonance.
Our starting point for packaging localisation is to consider transcreation for taglines and claims, and research the cultural impact of packaging visuals. Combining translation and desktop publishing can make sense where more fundamental changes are needed - for example where text changes from left to right to right to left, and so on.
For brands with the budget to do so, it makes sense to test packaging visuals wherever possible with online panels or local focus groups if launching in high-context cultures like Japan, Korea, or the UAE.
Once brand and packaging materials have been translated/adapted, meaningful translation of functional content like ingredients and allergens can feel less exciting but shortcuts here can fuel underperformance.
Particularly for those selling online via retail partners, there’s limited scope to turn a browser into a buyer and local audiences are less likely to take a chance on an unfamiliar product, if fundamental information is missing, unclear or (even worse) mistranslated.
One example we like to cite (and which never gets less amusing for those with an immature sense of humour like myself) is the potential for the phrase "无防腐剂 (wú fángfǔjì), meaning “no preservatives,” to be mistranslated as “no condom” on English labels of certain Chinese food product exports.
This may be due to automated translation tools making mistakes but once seen, this type of mistranslation is never forgotten…and for UK audiences, this example has a closer-to-home parallel, as one Reddit commenter notes -
I was talking to someone, and they said something along the lines of "Je ne mange jamais de malbouffe. Ces nourritures contiennent trop de préservatifs."
I imagine what they were trying to say was "I don’t eat junk food. Those foods have too many preservatives." What they actually said was "I don’t eat junk food. Those foods contain too many condoms."
While some mistranslations err on the side of amusing rather than dangerous, any mistranslation that creates uncertainty among customers is a concern.
This is particularly the case when it comes to allergens and ingredients - such errors are an unnecessary and unacceptable risk that is even more likely in this age of AI.
Those with a more diligent approach have the potential to edge ahead of more careless competitors, and bring customers closer - but commitment to detail is required.
When it comes to food - and anything else we consume - clarity builds trust but the specifics of translation may differ based on local laws and regulations.
While in some regions, a product with vague terms like “spices” or “natural flavouring” may need further clarification depending on local rules so it’s important to think beyond ‘translation of ingredients’ and instead think of how to translate ingredients to maximise search visibility, build trust *and* use terminology that is required by local laws.
To remove stress from this process it is important to work with translators who specialise in food regulations—they'll know if (for example) “sunflower lecithin” or “monk fruit extract” needs additional description or local equivalents.
Finally, if working with multilingual SEO professionals, they’ll be able to guide on how these ingredients might be searched for colloquially, to bring customers closer - a key aspect of our second tip:
To capitalise on rising customer interest in evolving categories it’s important to make the buying decision as seamless as possible for consumers.
The most SEO-savvy brands with new plant-based, low-sugar, and functional food offerings in particular are adept at customising their content based on how local customers think and search.
Different countries use different search terms and buying logic. Translation alone won’t help you rank on Google—SEO localisation will.
There’s no shortage of examples where literal translation can result in a mismatch between onsite content, and the likely search terms of local customers -
Whether the brand itself requires consideration based on the preferences of global audiences, or if product descriptions and selling points need to be refined, taking the step to carry out SEO-guided translation makes sense for exporters.
A starting point for these teams is to look beyond literal translation and factor in local keyword trends to optimise product descriptions, category pages and the underlying technical SEO info that helps search engines to rank pages effectively.
From meta descriptions, page titles and image alt text to structured data more generally, aligning translation and technical SEO can be a winning combination - but it takes discipline, and commitment to international customers.
Adapting and prioritising content for different markets doesn’t mean abandoning brand principles or changing everything.
From technical SEO to public facing content, you can customise tone, imagery,messaging and underlying SEO-driven content for target countries, while keeping a consistent global brand more generally.
To give an example, a low-sugar energy drink may highlight its athletic edge in the US, but focus on clean ingredients and mental clarity in Germany, where consumers are said to value holistic wellness over high performance.
In order to keep a clear view of differences in emphasis between countries - particularly as part of a wider SEO, content and translation plan, it helps to create a brand localisation guide with region-specific do’s and don’ts—covering tone of voice, approved phrases, SEO hot button topics, visual preferences, and compliance notes.
Sometimes, translation isn’t the way to go if search trends between markets are very significantly different.
In these cases it makes more sense to prioritise multilingual content from scratch if adapting and ‘transcreating’ original content would take more time and effort.
Taking this approach to food and drink content can be freeing as blogs, FAQs, how-to videos, or social posts can be crafted with a market-specific strategy that helps and educates audiences, while earning rankings…particularly if your product is new to the market.
To give a hypothetical example, if launching a kombucha brand in Spain, it makes sense to prioritise content based on search trends in the country related to wider topics where the brand is still relevant.
In this specific case, that might include gut health, fermentation benefits, nutrition benefits and recipes and pairing ideas that chime with local tastes.
In such a case, translating base content would be less of a ‘fit’ for local audiences than this more committed and customer-first approach.
Whether this approach makes commercial sense or not will hinge on the markets your brand is prioritising and the scale of the SEO opportunity - another case for multilingual SEO to be the starting point for brand launches rather than an afterthought.
The ICS-translate and ICS-digital teams can help you translate, localise, and optimise your food and drink products for international success. From ingredient compliance to multilingual SEO, let’s make your brand taste like home—wherever it goes.
Contact us to learn more about our food and beverage localisation services.
