Couple of questions regarding Google & foreign languages

I've just got a couple of queries with regards to Google and foreign language content.

Firstly I am thinking about adding a translation plugin to my site, which adds translated pages to my site rather than just sending the user to a translation service.

There are two things I am concerned about, 1) that Google will recognise that it's the same articles in a different language and rather than treating it as the useful service I am trying to provide my readers they'll treat it as duplicate/spun content; and 2) that they won't like the number of new pages created overnight - the translations will be adding about 3.5k new pages & I currently have 86k indexed pages on Google. If anyone can enlighten me as to whether these are issues to worry about it would be much appreciated.

The other query I have is regarding adding a link to a foreign language site. I would assume that it's best practice to use the same language for your anchor text rather than just having a couple of words in English in the middle of a foreign article. Is there any benefit though to using the translation of the keyword I wanted to target, for example if my keyword was 'buy shoes' would it be worth me using 'comprar zapatos' as my anchor text on a Spanish site?

EddieC123 said:

Firstly I am thinking about adding a translation plugin to my site, which adds translated pages to my site rather than just sending the user to a translation service.

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Are these of any real use to the end user really? I mean, the automatic translation tools are decent in the very best case scenario, utter garbage in the worst case scenario. I get that you should be using the local language for your content, but is it really worth cutting corners like this?

1) that Google will recognise that it's the same articles in a different language and rather than treating it as the useful service I am trying to provide my readers they'll treat it as duplicate/spun content;

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Can't really say anything definite about that as I've never even thought about automatically translated content, but if the content is basically ran through the plugin every time it's loaded and not saved in a static file, wouldn't this be a moot point?

AFAIK there's no systems in place to trace any translated content to the original, and personally I've been translating stuff from English to my target language basically as longs as I've been doing IM with no ill effects. That being said, I do it manually to make sure the quality is there - automatically translated stuff might come up as real garbage and thus get penalised either now or down the road. This will most likely have an effect to your whole domain, especially if you have thousands of pages of crappy content there.

2) that they won't like the number of new pages created overnight - the translations will be adding about 3.5k new pages & I currently have 86k indexed pages on Google.

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Don't think that it really matters, but if you want to play it safe then just do it in smaller batches.

Is there any benefit though to using the translation of the keyword I wanted to target, for example if my keyword was 'buy shoes' would it be worth me using 'comprar zapatos' as my anchor text on a Spanish site?

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Which would you think the Spanish use to Google stuff up; English or Spanish?

Thanks for your reply, have quoted a couple of bits that I didn't make myself too clear on in the OP.

Oukast said:

Are these of any real use to the end user really? I mean, the automatic translation tools are decent in the very best case scenario, utter garbage in the worst case scenario. I get that you should be using the local language for your content, but is it really worth cutting corners like this?

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The plugin I've found produces very high quality translations, and I am going to have an editor for each language that will check for translation errors. I am also going to have foreign-language social media accounts promoting the content, so I am confident it's a positive addition - as long as I don't get slapped for doing so.

Oukast said:

Can't really say anything definite about that as I've never even thought about automatically translated content, but if the content is basically ran through the plugin every time it's loaded and not saved in a static file, wouldn't this be a moot point?

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The content will be saved in a static file.

Oukast said:

Which would you think the Spanish use to Google stuff up; English or Spanish?

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There are almost zero searches for my keyword in the language in question, and it's not one of the ones I will be translating to either. I wouldn't normally go for a link on a foreign language site but it's in an identical niche to mine & has a strong backlink profile. If using a translation of my keyword doesn't offer any boost for the English variant I'll probably just use the brand name.