International SEO Guide to Expand Your Global Reach
Have you ever thought of reaching your target audience globally with International SEO? Earlier, it was logistically challenging and expensive to promote your products and services across the world through traditional marketing. Now, everything has changed, and all thanks to the Internet and digital marketing strategies.
According to the latest statistics, around 6.4 billion individuals use internet worldwide, contributing to 73.2 percent of the global population. China ranked as the leading country with over one billion internet users, followed by India with 700 million internet users. This makes Asia as one of the most dominant regions in the world when it comes to internet usage.
The icing on the cake is that you can reach all of these users in the most cost effective and efficient manner. That’s where International SEO comes in. It makes it possible to promote your business, products and services to global search results. Now, you may be wondering how one could engage internet with different language. So, here in this guide, we’ll discover everything about International SEO, and its tactics and how to reach target audience globally for sustained profits and growth.
What Does International SEO Mean?
International SEO is a proven digital marketing strategy to boost the visibility of your website on search engine result pages (SERPs) for different countries and languages. Unlike basic SEO that focus on optimising visibility for a specific location, International SEO targets multiple countries and different language groups to reach wider audience and promote businesses globally.
Under this, International SEO experts focus on getting links from reliable websites in target countries to create localized content and optimising your website to effectively reach different regions with precision. Remember that quality, informative and good content always gain visibility and importance regardless of the fact that the user is from India, the U.S or Australia. It is all about the best International SEO strategies and right intent.
Why Is International SEO Important for Businesses
Did you know that millions of businesses in the United States sell their products and services globally? Generating revenues from the international sales is huge and play a critical role in the success of any business. Big giants and large scale ventures have massive budgets for international marketing and promotions depending on their specific requirements but small businesses often struggle due to lack of financial resources.
Fortunately, an international SEO makes it possible for small ventures to reach global audience and sell their products and services in different countries in the most efficient manner. Whether it’s Eastern Asia or Northern Europe, matching user intent with your content should be your topmost priority. Even, Google, Yahoo and other search engines promote those websites or content that meet user’s needs. This strategy enables you to pinpoint different user requirements with ease.
However, it is always good to analyze your current web traffic to track where your visitors are coming from, like which country or region. If a lot of web traffic is coming from Australia, you might want to optimise your website for Australian web audience.
When is the Right Time to Begin Your International SEO Campaign?
If you want to stay consistent in the ever expanding international e-commerce market, you need to think beyond local or basic SEO. Exploring and adapting the horizons of international SEO can make a world of difference. Though it requires a lot of time, energy and skills to optimise your site’s visibility for different countries and languages, but its worth your blood, sweat and luck. However, it is always good to ask yourself a few important questions before jumping into international SEO:
Does your business sell products or services to international customers? Do marketing research via Google Analytics to track the location of your web traffic.
What is the language setting in your users’ browsers? You’ll discover this information in the audience section of Google Analytics.
What is the ranking of your close competitors? Here, you may need to use a VPN to change your virtual location and see what keywords people are seeing in different countries.
What are web users searching for on search engine platforms? Try Ubersuggest to see keywords people are using to search in multiple locations.
Key Strategies to Integrate Best International SEO Practices
Below are some of the best ways you can implement International SEO to boost your website’s ranking:
Conduct a Thorough International SEO Marketing Research
There is no denying that every business has different parameters to set marketing budget. You should never waste your money on irrelevant marketing strategies to reduce your profits. Therefore, it is important to do a thorough due diligence and marketing research entire you are using funds with a relevant SEO strategy to support your substantial business growth with global audience. Let’s focus on finding key targets, website structure, keyword choices and other key aspects. You may also need to target other factors as well for a result-oriented international SEO campaign.
- Know your financial potential for international marketing
- Track your expected search volumes using Ubersuggest like tools
- Analyze user intent by conducting manual Google searches and overviewing SERP results for targeted keywords.
- Jot down cultural differences like languages, slangs, British/US English preference, and other minor details.
- Understand potential challenges faced during international sales and find solutions.
Google introduced the Google International Growth Program (IGAP) to help Google Partner companies and their clients resolve issues they may face while outreaching international audience. The program comes with necessary resources, exclusive tools and data to help with international SEO campaign.
The Right Choice of URL Structure Makes a Difference
See More: What is a Vanity URL?
One of the key factors in international SEO Ranking is the content origin. From where it is actually coming from!
For instance, if a French user wants a recipe for croissants, would they prefer a French website or an Australian that’s been translated into French? The answer is pretty clear – web users often trust a website that comes from their local region.
If your website is www.croissantrecipe.com – here’s what your options may look like:
- A domain with a different ccTLD like an area code: www.croissantrecipe.fr
- A subdomain of your existing domain: www.fr.croissantrecipe.com
- A subdirectory on your existing domain: www.croissantrecipe.com/fr
- Content on your existing domain targeted at a particular language using a gTLD with language settings: www.croissantrecipe.com/?lang=fr-fr
Of course, a separate domain is crucial to determine the content is targeted at a particular region, but it also requires a completely new and separate website. On the contrary, using a gTLD with language settings can be the most reasonable way but may not encourage Google and other search engines to boost your site’s ranking.
Optimize Your Website for Specific Languages
Google focus on delivering accurate information to the web users. The platform prefers showing results in user’s local language. Thus, it is imperative to evaluate your site and optimise it for different languages for international SEO.
Make sure the content and everything in your site is in the required language, ranging from the menu to the blogs and contact us content. Many experts prefer using language tags to guide Google.
For instance, an “hreflang tag” can tell Google that there is an alternative page available in French, allowing them to rank the correct page for native web audience.
<link rel=”alternate” href=”http://croissantrecipe.com/fr” hreflang=”fr-fr”/>
Make sure your hreflang tags are set up accurately to generate optimal results from international SEO. Also, provide the option to change the language in on click when web users visit your site.
Customise Your Web Page Content
In International SEO, your focus is not only on providing webpage content in the specific language but also provide relevant information that matches their preference. However, do not make a mistake of translating an English keyword into another foreign language. Plus, word-for-word translations provided by various online tools can also do more harm than good. To determine the user intent for other countries than the U.S. consider the following ways:
- Use a VPN to Google key terms from a specific location in the country you are creating SEO campaign. This helps you overview the search results as they come in front of users in that area.
- Use Ubersuggest. You just need to enter a keyword and set the country you are targeting. You can view key metrics like keywords and search volume in the region.
Identify and Prioritize Target Countries
International SEO is all about identifying specific regions and countries where you want to promote your business and sell products and services. So, track the location of your web traffic and evaluate the market potential by understanding factors like population, internet usage, and basic economic conditions.
It is also good to do research on competitors who have already created a unique reputation in the same countries to see high ranking keywords. Make sure you have enough resources to sell products and services in those countries because the ultimate goal is to drive higher sales. So, having enough funds for sales.
Recruit Your Talented International SEO Team
You’ll need a highly credible and daring an international SEO strategy:
- Software developers that can set up either separate domains, subdirectors and subdomains or gTLD tags for your web page content.
- Content writers and editors who have cultural skills, such as idioms, language, brands, etc.
- SEO professionals who have experience in international SEO.
Understanding Difference between Global Vs. International SE
Global SEO optimizes a website and its content for search engine results in multiple countries around the globe. It requires a single strategy to boost the visibility of your web business on a global scale, considering diverse markets. On the other hand, International SEO focuses on specific countries and language regions by optimising content, keywords, local domains and hreflang tags.
International SEO targets localized optimization for each market, while global SEO emphasizes on wider worldwide reach. In simple words, international SEO is just a part of global SEO, customized to boost visibility and engagement in targeted regions.
What Are the best International SEO Practices?
Best strategies are listed below when performing an international SEO to grow your business globally:
- Use Country Specific Language:
Do not make a mistake of writing web page content in one language and the rest of the site such as a subdomain or subfolder in another. Maintain the language consistenty and serve the web user with their native language to boost your visibility.
- Conduct Country Specific Keyword Research
This will help you optimize the content of your website for that specific country and its users. Make sure you conduct keyword research from scratch for each country or region to create a unique brand image.
- International Backlinking Plan:
Align your backlinking strategy to each region you are trying to target. Make sure you access local publishers and focus on getting backlinks from authoritative websites in that region.
- Stop redirecting users by their IP address or Cookies:
It ruins the user experience when you tries to visit a site for a specific language but end up at the default language due to IP address.
- Keep a Track on Your SEO Strategies:
SEO strategies and target keywords keep on changing with time. Thus, it is good to conduct an international SEO audit regularly to ensure your strategy shows current usage and hottest trends.
Creating unique strategy for each country can help you reach globally while boosting your search engine ranking across multiple regions.
FAQs
Is an International SEO Result Driven?
The final outcome depends on the size and quality of audience you are targeting in a specific region and your ability to drive international sales. If you can drive wider audience globally and have enough funds, you must invest in International SEO to grow your business worldwide.
Is International SEO Affordable or Expensive?
There is no denying that international SEO is an expensive strategy. The budget may exceed depending on the level you want to scale your efforts. If you are targeting on multiple countries, the cost will add up. However, if you want to focus on targeted countries, the expenses can be manageable.
Q: How much time it takes for an International Seo to show results?
Time is money but sometimes it is worthwhile to wait to see the results of international SEO. While there is no estimated time, many companies usually takes four to six months to boost your site’s ranking. However, the duration may differ depending on your strategies.
Q: What is the difference between international Seo and Basic SEO?
Regular SEO targets your local area or country or a selected international country while international SEO boosts your traffic outside of your target country. In short, optimizing websites for multiple countries and languages.
Are global SEO interchangeable with International SEO?
No. Global SEO is more diverse and expensive. It focused on unified strategy to target audiences in several countries or all over the world while international SEO aims at optimising your website for a few countries and region.
Conclusion
It is a dream come true for every business owner to promote and sell their products and services across the globe. You can save time, money and energy by integrating international SEO strategy into your existing digital marketing campaign. It is one of the best practices that optimizes your website and content for multiple countries and languages around the globe. Make sure you do proper market research with Google Analytics and Ubersuggest to tailor made your strategies and grow your business globally.
