International SEO is the process of optimising your website so that search engines can easily identify which countries and languages your content is intended for. For example, you would need to deploy an international SEO strategy if you have a business that wants to sell to customers in the UK and the US with one website. This approach enables your website to rank well in search engine results pages across different countries and even languages, sometimes, even multiple language searches within the same country, thereby attracting relevant international traffic and expanding your global reach. International SEO is generally more relevant to larger companies as it requires a much larger budget to execute correctly.
Main Elements of International SEO
Multilingual Content: Creating content in multiple languages that cater to the linguistic preferences of your target audience in different countries. Or, multiple language searches within the same country. An example of multilingual local search would be Canada, where there are two national languages; French & English.
Hreflang Tags: Implementing hreflang tags in your website’s HTML to specify language and regional targeting, helping search engines serve the correct language or regional version of your content to users.
Country-Targeted Domain Structure: Choosing between different domain structures for example:
- Country-code top-level domains ccTLDs (like amazon.ca, where ca is the CCTLD for Canada)
- Subdomains (like uk.trip.com, where uk is targeting the United Kingdom)
- Subfolder or subdirectory (like Apple.com/fr/, where fr is targeting France)
- Parameters or parameter-based URLs (https://www.example.com/?locale=en)
Localised Keywords: Doing in-depth keyword research specific to each target market to understand search behavior and preferences in different languages and regions.
International Backlinking: Building backlinks from reputable websites in different countries to improve your website’s authority and relevance in international search results.
The Importance of International SEO
- Global Market Expansion: Reach potential customers in different countries who are searching for products or services related to your business.
- Enhanced User Experience: Provide an intuitive user experience by serving content in the user’s preferred language and region, helping improve engagement and potentially reducing bounce rates.
- Competitive Advantage: Outrank competitors in international markets by optimising your website for local search engines and adapting to local SEO best practices.
Best Practices for International SEO
- Localised Content: Translate content accurately and culturally adapt it to resonate with local audiences. This is so important in 2024 and with all the recent algorithm updates. Please refrain from Google’s translator tool as your source of translated content – it’s rubbish!
- Technical Optimisation: Ensure your website is accessible to search engines worldwide, or at least in your target countries by addressing technical SEO aspects such as site speed, mobile-friendliness, and structured data markup, but most importantly, check that you have the correct hreflang implementation to give your website the highest chance of success.
- Consistent Branding: Maintain consistent branding across different languages and regions while adapting to local cultural norms and preferences.
- Optimise Locally & Globally: When implementing your international strategy, it’s really important to also focus on specific areas and it’s localisation. You need to start treating your international SEO strategy as small pieces of a biiig pie.
- Don’t focus on all countries at once: If you’re going for more than 2 at a time, I’d suggest starting with the highest traffic potential countries, meaning the ones with the highest search volumes for your product or service.
What to do with this information!
International SEO is essential for businesses looking to expand their online presence globally. By optimising your website for international audiences through multilingual content, hreflang tags, and localised SEO strategies, you can improve visibility in international search results and effectively reach your target markets worldwide. The biggest nugget of wisdom is to dedicate time to understand each culture that you are trying to sell to before embarking on your international SEO journey.
June 18, 2024
