Understanding International SEO

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Understanding International SEO

By Rohit Vedantwar on Mon, 02/27/2023 - 12:28
Understanding International SEO - feature image
optimise your website for people

An international SEO (ISEO) is different from SEO as it helps you to optimise your website for people in different countries and those who speak different languages. ISEO helps to optimise your website for international search engines.

ISEO helps your website to appear in the search results in the languages and locations of your global audience allowing them to engage with your website. This will increase the international traffic to your website.

Your audiences should be able to access the right version of your website. It involves all the optimisations that you do in SEO but it is done at a global level. You can hire an International SEO Agency and take professional help if you want to grow your business and reach customers around the world.




ISEO key areas

ISEO key areas

  • ISEO cannot be based on assumptions therefore you should first do research. You should access your current business position and traffic performance to identify growth opportunities.

  • You should check your visibility and volume of search traffic from other countries and languages. What content and keywords are used to drive traffic in these countries and why. Finally, you should check the conversion volume.


optimise your website for different languages
  • Decide whether you need a separate website for each country and should target a country or a specific language. The two different ways to rank on international search engines are as follows:
    • Multilingual website
      In this, you optimise your website for different languages. You can have different versions of your website for users around the world irrespective of their location. For example, you can have an Emirati and English version of your website.

    • Multiregional website
      In this, you optimsie your website for different countries and regions. If you want to operate your business in specific countries then you can make your website accessible to users in those countries.



Country code top-level domain
  • Select the right domain structure for your website and there are different options available. The different options are as follows:
    • Country code top-level domain (ccTLD)
      This is expensive but ideal for geo-targetting. It provides power signals to the search engine and the visitors in the target countries. It offers better SEO results and is best for big companies.

    • Subdirectories
      This is cost-effective and easy to set up. It uses one website domain and is easy to maintain. It maintains the authority of one website domain sitewide. It is ideal for companies that want to operate in different countries from one website.

    • Subdomains
      This is easy to set up and you can have multiple subdomains for each country. It requires extra effort to grow but the independent subdomains can become popular.


localised content for multiple language versions
  • If you decide to create a multilingual website then you will have to create localised content for multiple language versions. Use the ‘Hreflang’ tags to tell the foreign search engines to show the relevant content to the user searching in that language.

    The tags can include ISO 639-1 codes and ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country codes. For example, to use the language code you can add hreflang=”hi” for Hindi-speaking audiences. You can use hreflang=”hi-In” to target Hindi-speaking audiences in India.

  • You will have to understand how the local audience searches to find your products. You should carry out local keyword research. You will have to create content in different languages and optimsie it. The process should not be just translating the words but include the cultural and linguistic words of the target markets.