Icelandic and Google: inflection, special characters and how people really search
Why SEO in Icelandic is a craft of its own, and what you do differently from what English speaking consultants tell you.
In short
- Google handles Icelandic inflection reasonably well but not perfectly. Write naturally instead of forcing the nominative everywhere.
- Use Icelandic characters in your text and titles. In URLs it is safer to transliterate them.
- Plenty of Icelanders search in English for technical subjects. That means two audiences for the same service.
- Search volume is small, so one good answer can bring real business even when the numbers look tiny.
- Icelandic copy translated straight from English ranks worse and reads worse.
Most SEO advice is written for an English speaking market with millions of searches. The Icelandic reality is different: few keywords, complicated inflection, and users who search in two languages.
Inflection
Google understands that vefsíða, vefsíðu and vefsíðum are the same word. That understanding is still not perfect in Icelandic, because the amount of data is small compared to English.
The practical rule: write natural text where the word appears in whatever case belongs there. Do not force the nominative into sentences where it does not fit. Clumsy copy loses both readers and trust, and it wins nothing back in ranking.
Icelandic characters
- In body text, headings and titles: always use ð, þ, æ and ö. That is what people write and what they search for.
- In URLs: transliterate. gervigreind stays gervigreind, þjónusta becomes thjonusta. URLs with Icelandic characters break in links, in email and in older systems.
- In image files and file names: same rule, transliterate.
Two languages, the same customer
An Icelander looking for an everyday service searches in Icelandic. The same person often searches in English about technical subjects, because they are used to finding better answers there.
In practice that means you can have two audiences for the same service. If you do run an English version, have it properly translated rather than machine translated, and give it its own URLs.
Low search volume is not a problem
Keyword tools often show zero or ten searches a month for Icelandic terms, which scares people off. Those numbers are unreliable for small languages and they do not tell the whole story.
Thirty searches a month on a term that describes exactly what you sell are far more valuable than three thousand general ones. If half of those thirty are people ready to buy, that is a real business.
Copy translated word for word
The most common flaw on Icelandic company websites is English rhythm in Icelandic words. Sentences that open with "Við erum stolt af því að bjóða" or "Í heimi þar sem". That is marketing English in translation and you hear it immediately.
Try reading it out loud. If you would never say the sentence to a customer, it does not belong on your website.
Frequently asked questions
Should I have the site in English too?
If you sell to tourists or outside Iceland, yes. Otherwise one good Icelandic version beats two half finished ones.
Does a .is domain matter?
Yes, for Icelandic search it is a clear signal of location. It is not a requirement though. A .com site with Icelandic content and an Icelandic business profile ranks too.
What about machine translation?
It has got decent, but it is not good enough for a page that has to sell. It misses rhythm, idiom and trade vocabulary. Use it for a first draft and let a person finish it.
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ReadAbout the author
Kristján Gilbert is co-founder of galdrasmiðjan. He builds websites and online stores for Icelandic companies and writes here about what actually works: speed, search, visibility in AI answers and automation.
Questions about this article go to hallo@galdrasmidjan.is.
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