For many companies, having a global website is one of the best ways to reach a wider audience to grow their business.
With the advent of faster and easier website design services, even individuals can Start a business Target foreign countries through global websites.
The issue is, Have a global website won’t make you successful in other countries.
Also, following standard SEO best practices will not make your global website competitive in all target countries. While there seems to be an infinite amount of information available about international SEO, the truth is that much of it is either outdated or incorrect.
In this article, I’ll cover some key areas of international SEO.
What is the difference between international and regular SEO?
Standard SEO best practices are of course the basis for international SEO, since search engine algorithms in different countries are very similar, if not identical.
I would say that international SEO is built on standard SEO knowledge and skills.
So, what makes international SEO different? The main reason is:
- language.
- multiple websites.
- Popular search engine.
- local audience.
- local competitors.
While focusing on each site, when you have a global website, you have to focus on overall performance. Otherwise, your local market sites may compete with each other, or in the worst case, may not be indexed at all.
For example, if you have a different website designed for Spain, the website designed for Mexico should not overtake or appear in search results for Spain.
if you abuse canonical tag or hreflang tag, some sites may not be indexed by search engines or create duplicate indexes.
Should I go global? Where is my market?
Before you jump into international SEO, it’s always a good idea to look at some market reports, statistics or even your own website data to help make a decision.
This is especially important if you are unsure about opportunities in different countries or have some convincing with your boss.
Here are some sources of information you can use to decide or prioritize which countries/markets to pursue:
- Government and trade organization websites, like trade website and WTO Provides the latest international business and trade news and statistics.
- many The company provides Internet-related reports and statistics, like Internet World Statistics, consult, and McKinsey & Company. There are also many websites that provide country-specific information.
- Your own analytics data. Do you see people visiting your site from other countries? Are there any countries that send more traffic to your website than others? It’s worth keeping an eye on these markets, especially if any of them are already converting.
One global site or multiple sites?
If the market is big enough for you to invest, be sure to have a separate site for each target country.
Not only for SEO reasons, but also to provide a better user experience to local visitors, it is best to have a dedicated site for each target country. It also allows you to use different designs and content on each site if needed.
However, this may not be a viable option for you, at least not at first. In this case, you would create a site for each language used in the target country.
This is fine because you may want to test the waters before diving too deep.
Fortunately, we can Use the hreflang tag to tell Google Create the language and country for each site.
Which domain to own: ccTLD or gTLD?
If you asked me this question in 2008, my answer was always ccTLD. The reality is that not everyone can choose this option for different reasons.
Fortunately, it doesn’t affect your SEO as much as search engines have come a long way.we now have other Option to geolocate the site, especially Google.
Note that some search engines such as Baidu Still prefer sites with local ccTLDs.
Also, people outside the US tend to click on sites with local TLDs rather than sites with .com or other generic TLDs.
Does hosting location matter?
The location of the website host is one of the important signals for international SEO related to geolocation.
However, now that we have other ways to properly indicate to search engines your website’s target market and territorial management, it doesn’t really matter CDN.
Still, host location has a big impact on page speed. Make sure your website is quickly accessible in the target country.
How should I do alternate geolocation?
Perhaps, geolocation is one of the easiest things to do, and many sites make mistakes when site owners move from ccTLD and local market hosting.
There are various ways to geolocate your website and pages. Here are some popular methods:
- Geographical distribution google search console.
- Google’s Hreflang markup.
- Bing language meta tag information.
Side note: Google now generates search results based on the searcher’s location, regardless of which local version of Google the searcher is using.
For example, the search results you used to get from Google.com were not the same as Google UK (google.co.uk) or Google Australia (google.com.au), even for the same keywords.
But now, unless you’re searching in three different countries, you’ll get the same results on all three Google searches.
Google or not Google?
While Google is by far the most widely used search engine in the world, there are local search engines that are more popular than Google in some countries.
If your target country is one of the following countries, you will need to pay special attention to monitoring these local sites and do additional optimization work.
- China (Mainland, Simplified Chinese).
- Russia and Eastern European countries.
- South Korea.
Do I need to care about other search engines?
While Google is by far the most widely used search engine in the world, locally grown search engines are very popular in some countries.
By ignoring these search engines, you are ignoring the huge business opportunities in these countries.
If your target country is one of the following countries, you will need to pay special attention to monitoring these local sites and do additional optimization work.
- China (Mainland, Simplified Chinese) – Baidu.
- Russia and Eastern European countries— Yandex.
- South Korea– Naver.
Of course, even in countries where Google is most popular, ignoring other popular search engines, including Bing, will limit your business potential.
Translation and localization
Your global website shouldn’t be a copy and paste version of your country’s website in different languages, although I’ve seen this happen with many websites.
Yes, translation and localization of website content is the first step. However, you need to optimize your website for the local audience in each country, from messaging and products to the overall user experience of the website.
Sites with popular and well-performing content in the US market may not perform well in Asia or South America, and may require additional content editing and optimization work.
For these reasons, it is important to conduct Keyword research for each target country From the point of view of understanding local interests and the words they use.
Keep in mind that although translators or translation agencies provide properly translated documents, they may not use the same words that people use to search for information.
Do I need to create links for every website?
It’s hard, “Yes.”
Even if you have a global site with all country or language sites under the same domain, you still want Build links to each site Even if you already have tons of links pointing to your domain.
This is because your country’s website may contain links to external websites from the same country.
In order for your global website to be competitive in every country, you need country-specific links to your website.
For example, you want to get links from Indian websites or target India to your Indian website. Having a link from a local site is a great way to show search engines that your site is designed and appropriate for that country.
What else should I consider before I go global?
One of the biggest challenges facing most companies with global websites, even multinational Fortune 100 companies, is local sourcing.
No one has the luxury of having unlimited resources in each target country, and this can become a major bottleneck, especially since SEO is not a one-time project but an ongoing effort.
The key is to plan the distribution of tasks and responsibilities between headquarters and local offices, such as:
Right now, you may not have any offices or representatives in other countries, or have no resources available at your local office.
In these cases, you need to consider whether to hire one or more external resources.
Conclusion and main points
International SEO is built on standard SEO best practices.
An optimized website, even after translation, does not always result in an optimized global website, there are several key points to consider when it comes to technical and content optimization.
In fact, adding more languages and content creates more work due to duplicate content and geolocation issues and link building.
A global website is a great way to expand your market reach, but it also requires additional resources and budget to get international SEO right.
You don’t need to target multiple languages and countries.
Research your opportunities using your own data and market reports from trusted authorities to determine where you want to be visible in search results.
More resources:
Featured image: Sozina Kseniia/Shutterstock
