Start your international SEO strategy with research. Doing this, you will recognize the perspective of every targeted area in the world. You will need to find your languages market and the trends of the international visitors.
Keywords are the basis of SEO strategy. Getting the right keywords for international SEO is even more important than for traditional SEO. You need to conduct thorough keyword research with local demand. Use the Google Keyword Planner for estimating the topmost keywords for attracting international visitors. It is best to choose keywords with the highest search volume. Here are some other great amazing tools you can use for this purpose:
Use geographic keywords. You need to pick keywords that suggest your location or the one you wish to target, besides picking keywords that reflect the content. Thus, instead of keyword phrase like “luxury hotels”, choose a keyword like “luxury hotels Spain”.
Using geographic keywords frequently will show to Google you have a business in that location or that you offer services or products to clients in that particular location. In both ways, when people in Spain search for “luxury hotels”, your website will rank highest in the search results. Obviously, you need to optimize your website appropriately.
Now, you can target the countries in which the keyword phrases have enough organic search volume. You need to make sure the keywords are competitive besides being relevant.
If this is insufficient to target one particular country, you can start targeting the spoken language in the particular region.
This strategy allows you to gather first the conversion traction and the perfect traffic. Then, you can progress to target the country to connect with the international audience.
After you discovered the international web target, the final step is to optimize your website appropriately. Therefore, make sure that the content is unique and relevant. Matching content is an issue that can filter you out of the appropriate index. This happens when you duplicate a single language across many pages with diverse country code domains.
If you use content in the same language across various websites, you will need to map every website to its planned country in your Google Webmaster Tools account. By following the strategies of Google Webmaster for multilingual and multi-regional websites, you will manage to get good visibility.
Use directory URLs and unique page titles in the particular language of every country you are targeting. Unique titles and URLs, which precisely define the specific content to every page, help people find, index, and rank the content. Additionally, they will attract clicks from traffic looking for it. Your website must provide the perfect targeting signals for you to avoid search results alignment.
One of the international SEO best practices is to use the proper URL structure founded on your targets. There are the three main URL structures for international websites.
It is for a specific country or region. This structure uses two-letter codes to show to search engines and users in which country, independent state, or dependent territory the website is registered. Therefore, this is the perfect structure for geo-location due to its specific country addition. Using the ccTLD URL structure means you will make a country-specific, independent website.
Using this URL structure is the simplest way to rank locally. You are giving Google message that all sites are for a country-specific audience. Thus, you divide your content and offers by country, making the targeting easier.
However, you will need to put an extra effort to gain popularity since you start as a new, separate domain. This means you will have to contest for rankings with the primary website. ccTLD URL structure is for brands with a solid online presence that will effortlessly attract new visitors.
Benefits of ccTLD:
If you want to use a sub-domain URL structure, you will need to create a new site. A sub-domain is a separate website joined with your principal URL. The internationalized content is located on a different “third-level domain”. This is a perfect option for those with a Generic Top-Level Domain. It enables you to prevent adding further depth into the web structure.
This structure has significant content indexing, but it is recommended to use it when you have a rare product or service. As with ccTLD, you divide the content and offers by country. The sub-domain is easier to maintain than a ccTLD, however, the flow of the link equity from and to the primary domain may not go smoothly.
Benefits of Sub-Domain:
It is a directory inside another directory. This URL structure is best when you want to maintain the reputation of your existing domain and have a gTLD. The internationalized content is located in a specific sub-folder or subdirectory on your root domain.
This allows you to have a folder for various targeted languages. It suits best for a business with limited content or resources.
Benefits of Sub-Directory:
If you want to make country-specific signals for Google, translate the pages into the local language. Using a translation tool will not work when it comes to an international SEO mainly because there is no assurance the translation will be correct.
It is true that the automatic translations are improving, but they are not good enough. They are not safe to use on your website and they will not satisfy the customers. Furthermore, Google recognizes automatically translated content easily and quickly marks it as spam.
Writing content in the targeted language is the best solution since original content always takes priority in search. Nevertheless, if you do not have the resources or time or for that, then hiring a translator can get you the desired results as well. An insightful translation is one of the vital international SEO best practices. It is even better to connect with native speakers who will deliver qualitative and invaluable feedback on the keyword list.
Tips to overcome translation challenges:
Some sites determine the visitors’ location by detecting their IP address and redirect them to a translated page into the spoken language in that particular location. Keep in mind that some countries are multilingual.
Furthermore, determining the users’ location and IP detection can be mistaken. The visitor might not speak the automatically selected language even if the location and the IP address are correct. In addition, redirecting enlarges the page loading time. If you need to detect the country, give your visitors a choice to switch languages instead.
Once the pages on your site are translated, you can easily tell the search engines which languages you use by applying the hreflang attribute in the code. When you make an hreflang tag, start with the language and then the location.
The hreflang attribute recognizes the language and optionally the area of an alternative URL. Thus, the area is not obligatory. That is why you cannot identify a location without the language. Choose what suits you best from the list of language codes and of region codes and then ensure the combination is valid.
Creating an international SEO strategy is a complex process. However, the main parts are keyword research and URL structure. You should put sufficient effort into your content planning and keyword research as you did for your principal website. Then, finish by realizing the plan for the URL structure.
These strategies will help rank your website for a particular country through chosen keywords in different languages. The content will be relevant for users in different targeted areas. You will gain new customers, thus more feedback, greater profits, higher rankings for the website, and more traffic.
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