How can I optimize my site to show up in English AND German speaking countries?

My site (germanglish.org) is for German and English speakers to help each other. The primary purpose would be for people, mostly students, who are taking a course, but it would also be for people needing to learn for work, travel, etc.

So the content is going to be about half German and half English, and I'm going to need my forum to show up in search results for German and English speaking countries.

Are there any special considerations for my site when it comes to SEO?

 

Then you better have two versions of your site.

 

I will have it available in English and German, but the content of threads will be a mixture of German and English.

For example, someone might create a thread to ask "How do I say you're pulling my leg in German?"

And someone would answer "du nimmst mich auf den Arm."

It's basically a labor exchange. Students in Germany and America would help each other by answering each others' questions.

 

Ditto have two versions of your site.

 

Hello,

In my opinion, you have to build 2 diferent pages ( one in ENG and other in GER with content/keywords optimized for your target. in other words, think of 2 diferents pages to 2 diferent audience

 

I understand your requirements, but I just don't think it's a good idea to have a page in two different languages and expect it to rank well for both languages.

If you combine two languages on the same page, that page will probably rank better for the value specified in the TITLE and H1 HTML tags.

From what I know, there's no way of optimizing a single page for two different languages.

 

You should use GEO - plugins for each language. Pages will be switch by user IP. Such plugins usually allow to SEO pages for each language. As I can see, your site using JQuery -try jQuery Geo (it's open source)

 

Try to follow Google instructions. Everything is described at https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/189077?hl=en