Even though it’s business 101, it is crucial to your business growth to expand your customer reach to international markets. It is a tale as old as time that global business visibility is a fast track to competitive advantage and more sales! So, how does one go about doing that in the modern digital era? International SEO! What is international SEO you may ask? Well, let’s look into that, shall we?
What Is International SEO?
Simply put, international SEO is the process of optimising your business’s website in such a manner that it shows up in SERPs based on a geo-targeted search query.
Say you want your business to show up in SERPs when someone searches “locally harvested honey,” what do you do? Well, this is where international SEO comes in. Through the power of international targeting, you can reach audiences located in another country!
Now that you have a basic idea of what international SEO is, you might be wondering why your business needs it.
Why Do You Need An International SEO Strategy?
Your business needs an effective international SEO strategy in order to capture international markets. Without international expansion, your brand is going to have a tough time competing in the industry and gaining a competitive advantage. Let’s take a look at the various benefits the right international SEO strategy can provide your business:
- Reach the world by implementing a global SEO strategy!
- Enhanced SEO rankings
- Improved brand credibility and reputation by partnering with high-authority international websites
- Influence the right audience for your products and services.
- Get more leads with international brand visibility!
- Gain a competitive advantage in the industry
- Build relationships with international communities!
International SEO is critical for your business’s growth; you can’t skip out on implementing a strategy that allows you to reach global audiences. This guide includes everything there is to know about global SEO and implementing international SEO best practices! Let’s get into some details.
International SEO Best Practices!
To design and implement an effective international SEO strategy, there are a lot of aspects you need to consider. But there’s nothing to worry about because we will go over everything! Here’s a checklist that you should always go over when working on international SEO:
- Content Strategy (Region, Language & Culture)
- Keyword Integration
- Global link-Building
- URL structuring
Let’s take a look at each one of these points.
Appropriate Content Strategy
Your content strategy is the first and the most important thing you need to address. There are various aspects which you have to ensure are satisfied before you publish content for an international audience. Implementing the right content strategy is actually one of the challenges of global SEO, but we will go over them one by one!
Region
The first thing you need to make sure is that your content is appropriate for the targeted country.
Different trends, practices regarding content writing, and anything that relates to that specific country has to be reflected in your content. Not taking this aspect into consideration can not only fail your international SEO strategy, but it might damage your brand’s reputation if your audience is offended!
Thus, ensure that your content strategy is appropriate for the country you’re hoping to expand into. You can’t afford not to!
Language
This is related to the above-mentioned factor, but it deserves a section of its own because of how important it is! You need to ensure that you’re reaching your desired audience in their language.
This may be marketing 101, but talking to your audience in their language makes your marketing strategy so much more personalised and engaging that you have a real shot at attracting your desired audience and earning their trust! So, your website’s content, guest posts, and any other marketing content have to be in the right language.
Your content has to clearly communicate with the audience, and for that, you need native content writers to write in your audience’s language. Most brands opt for an international SEO agency that has a team of in-house content writers, and TheDigitalXperts has the best one! We are experienced in delivering exceptional content for brands of all niches in 50+ languages. Our content writers are highly experienced and creative individuals who have native-level proficiency in the language they write in! Our multilingual content writing service is second to none!
Culture
The language and the country are not the only aspects you need to consider when writing appropriate content for your desired international audience. When you expand into another country, you have to be considerate of the culture and norms that they believe in.
This is an incredibly sensitive aspect of your international SEO strategy, and you have to ensure that you’re taking care of it. Otherwise, this may really hurt your brand!
So, that’s the content side of things sorted; what else?
International Keyword Research
If you know anything about SEO, you might be familiar with keyword research. This is no different, except for the fact that you have to specifically look for geo-targeted keywords to optimise your website.
Your keyword research should be targeted towards the country you’re looking to expand into, and based on that, you have to efficiently integrate the most appropriate keywords into your web pages.
Global Link-Building!
An important aspect of effective international SEO strategies is building country-specific backlinks with high-traffic reputable brands. What this does, is boost your SEO in that specific market and allow audiences to trust your site more.
Just make sure that you follow the right link-building properties; if you need a refresher course on how to build quality backlinks in 2023, check out our backlink-building guide for 2023.
You can also order international link-building services that make the entire process hassle-free and so much more effective! We have years of experience in building country-specific and multilingual backlinks for brands of all niches.
Let’s keep moving.
Appropriate URL Structuring
Your website’s URL structuring should be a part of your international SEO strategy. This is because search engines consider this as a ranking signal. There are three ways you can structure your URL for international SEO growth., these are:
- ccTLD (sample.uk, sample.us, etc.)
- Subdomain (uk.sample.com, us.sample.com, etc.)
- Subdirectory (sample.com/uk, sample.com/us, etc.)
- gTLD with language tags (sample.com/?lang=en-uk, sample.com/?lang=en-us)
- A separate domain (sample.uksite.com, sample.ussite.com)
You could utilise any of these URL structuring techniques to prep your site for an international SEO strategy!
Conclusion
Every business needs an effective international SEO strategy that allows it to reach audiences on a global scale. It is essential for business growth because you have to tap into every possible market to gain a competitive advantage. This in-depth guide to international SEO has everything you need to know about international targeting! We started from the basics, answering what is international SEO, and worked our way up to international SEO best practices.
If you want experienced professionals to handle your international SEO growth, you can order our multilingual link-building services to get quality content in 50+ languages! Or our country-specific guest posting services that allow you to publish guest posts in 100+ countries.
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