Implementing International SEO

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Implementing International SEO

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If you want to make your company global then you should optimise your website with international SEO. International SEO is optimising your website for users across countries and languages. It helps you to reach an international audience through organic search.

Nearly 40% of global consumers do not buy products listed in a language other than their native language. This is one of the good reasons to optimise your website for international visitors in the markets you want to target.

International SEO helps search engines identify which countries your company wants to target. It also tells the search engines which languages you use to attract customers in different countries or those who speak different languages.

An international SEO approach that is working fine in one country may not work in another country due to cultural and language differences. Strong International SEO strategies help you to adapt to various regions and countries.

Strategies used in International SEO

  • The ability to operate in a specific market decides if you want to target it. Though it is important to understand the markets that hold the strongest potential for your business. To get an idea about the markets by using a tool like Ahrefs.
Ahrefs
  • Do keyword research and find which audiences are interested in your products and services. This will have to be done for each country separately.
  • Perform competitor research to find your future competitors and check their performance in SEO. You will be able to find different opportunities for your business if your competitors are not targetting a country or language.
  • You should make sure you have an excellent technical foundation for your website. Google recommends using dedicated URLs as it allows the crawlers to efficiently discover all versions of your pages. Decide the URL structure from the several choices available.

    The ccTLD (Country Code Top-Level Domain) is the most popular choice and helps to make the target country clear to the users.

    The subfolder option is not very popular because all the content is contained in one domain. This is easier to set up.

    Subdomains provide unique features and are less popular. It gives you the ability to use localised hostings and customisable naming.

    The parameterised URLs should be avoided at all costs as they can confuse the users.
  • If you are targetting a country that has many users' first languages, then you will need to provide content in multiple languages per country.
  • You can even target users by only languages. You can take a language-first approach though you should find the top keywords.
  • Using a country-specific approach is more optimal. This approach allows you to create content around the country you want to target. This will allow you to provide your services in the right currency.
  • Use the ‘Hreflang’ attribute to indicate to the search engines the language your content is written in and which geographical region it is targetting. This attribute can avoid issues like duplicate content with different website versions.
  • One of the best ways to optimise the content is to find the relevant keywords for your chosen markets. You should not just translate the keywords but transcreate them. identify what your local searchers are looking for and use keywords to fit the local patterns. You can utilise SEO professionals who are native speakers for this. Use tools like Google Keyword Planner and find the search volume of all the keywords.
Google keyword planner
  • You have decided to serve multiple countries therefore you should implement a Content Delivery Network (CDN). This will ensure that the users can load a page from a localised server rather than a single centralised server.
  • Do not automatically redirect users to a different language based on location. You can let the visitors and the search engines know about the other versions of a page by using a banner on your page.
  • Create content for the users in designated countries that is valuable to the local audience. To create localised content you can employ a professional in the target country. Not understanding the local search terms can be costly.
  • You should build a backlink to help you gain authority in the new market. Local links can make the highest impact on your rankings in the search results.
  • You can consider other methods to tell the search engine that you are targetting another country. You can try linking to local content, hosting your website through local IPs or ranking on other search engines. For example, Yandex in Russia and more.