Branching out your business internationally can generate a huge profit in no time. But this expansion requires plenty of technical steps and a logistics approach to optimize international SEO. In addition, setting up the site for unfamiliar countries with regional, linguistic and cultural differences is not a piece of cake. It is entirely different from setting up a local website.
You must know the unique aspects of international SEO; otherwise, an incorrect SEO can cost you a lot of expenses and even prove fatal for your business. So, here we are to help you with 6 Must-Know International SEO Tips that can bring you unmitigated success in international markets.
Select a Domain structure for International SEO
A “.com” is a favored choice for a generic domain to attract international customers; a “.com” is a favored choice. However, to target customers worldwide and attract the audience of your choice, pick an effective domain strategy beyond .com.
You should purchase country code top-level domains for each country that your business will target. A ccTLD, for example, www.website.de (Germany), airbnb.fr(France), or cococola.fr, is a great choice. It specifies the target country to both users and search engines.
For easier setup and to make search engines recognize the geo-targeting signals, you can select subdomains, like fr.airbnb.com, https://de.website.com, etc. You can add another localized folder to your domain using a generic top-level domain (gTLD) with a language or country-specific subdirectory—for instance, https://website.com/de.
Use Technical Signals-Hreflang And Xdefault Tags
HreFlang tags help Google direct the audience to those pages that are more appropriate for them in terms of their language and location. So, for example, if a person searches a query in language A, the search engine would direct him to a page with the content in language A and not to the page with the same content in language B.
You can add both language and regional HreFlang tags to target the users as accurately as possible. For instance, you can add tags like en-de for English speakers of Germany or de-be for German speakers of Belgium.
XDefault tags can be used where HreFlang tags cannot be used. For instance, a person from the US searches for Chinese-related terms, then he would be XDefaulted to the preferred version and not the English version page of the US.
Target More Than One Search Engines
To expand your business internationally, you should prioritize major search engines worldwide. All the major search engines, not just Google, must crawl and index your site in the country you are marketing in. For example, China is a big international market, and 80% of its mobile searches go to Baidu, and Yandex holds 56% market share in Russia.
Indexing on search engines other than Google is particularly slow, but it can benefit you in the long run. Similarly, paid search and meta keywords are other metrics that make these search engines different from Google.
Keyword Research For International SEO
The search habits of people with a different language, location, and culture vary widely across the globe. For example, a US-based search query would be “football,” but in the UK or Latin America and most of Europe, the term “soccer” is used frequently instead of football.
Therefore, you should conduct localized keyword research to judge the online queries for each region where you want to expand your business. For this purpose, you can use a reputable and dependable local agency like an SEO agency in Ireland that will help you maximize your online visibility to optimize sales through organic and local SEO.
Local Link Building
Like local keyword usage, local SEO and source linking from local platforms are essential for expanding your business in a target community or region. For instance, If you want to run a travel agency in Munich, use the source links from travel platforms, hotels, or restaurants in Munich and not from Berlin. Again, guest posting and journalistic and social approaches with local businesses can help in this regard.
Translation Of Website Content
If you are not targeting just English speakers in international business, you must translate your web content into languages of all other markets where you want to expand your business. Machine language translators are not trustworthy and accurate. You must hire native speakers to translate your website content into different languages. They must know which services or products you are offering and optimize SEO.
