Any business owner’s dream, when they start, is to become as successful as possible, having their mission and vision clearly understood and gaining as much attention and revenue as possible while they’re in the market.
Part of becoming as successful as you can is branching out, becoming nationally recognised, rather than just locally, and then finally reaching the international stage where your products and services can shine abroad.
Although international SEO can get you to that level, it isn’t as simple as carrying out the same strategy as you do locally, as culture, lifestyle differences, market changes, and many more factors impact worldwide decisions.
However, if you feel as though your business is to be recognised internationally, fear not. Today, we will be providing you with the ultimate guide to creating a killer strategy in order to succeed internationally on Google using SEO. Let’s get into it!
What is International SEO?
International SEO, also known as global SEO, is the process of optimising your website to increase your visibility and rankings in search engine results pages (SERPs) for users in different countries and languages.
In a more practical sense, as a native English speaker from the UK, you may at first think that because the US and almost every country in the world can speak parts of English, they will react the same to your website, information, and products/services and this couldn’t be further from the truth.
The point of international SEO is to obviously make sure your language and regions are visible but to also send indications to Google and the search engines that you can effectively reach and provide help for people within that country or region.
This is not a straightforward process, as every business has its own quirks and a different market to enter, but there are best practices that every business that needs international SEO should consider, which we’ll run through in detail later in this post.
Who is International SEO For?
As for who international SEO is for, there is no right or wrong answer here, as everyone could do it if they wanted to. However, if you can only offer your products or services locally or internationally at the moment, it won’t be time for you to move into the international market.
If you’re an eCommerce company or online-service-based business that can provide your products and services internationally, then an international SEO strategy will be a powerful marketing tool in order to gain visibility and notoriety globally, if performed correctly.
Therefore, if you feel as though you’re prepared to align multiple individual strategies for each country and begin selling worldwide to make substantial profits, then international SEO could be for you.
What Are the Main International SEO Best Practices?
Although every international SEO strategy looks different for each company, some core best practices should always be followed within everyone’s international marketing efforts:
- Define your international market
- Look at the languages spoken in each region
- Note the language habits in each country
- Complete keyword research in each region
- Build a backlink profile for each region
1. Define Your International Market
As a company, you may know what countries you want to target, but it is always worth looking at the parts of each country that may be worth targeting more frequently. There may be a specific region that highly demands your product or service, so by using SEO tools such as SEMrush or Ahrefs, you can find out what countries and regions are suited to your offerings.
2. Look at the Languages Spoken in Each Country
Although this may sound like a given, there are many countries where there are two (or more) primary languages. Therefore, you have to consider providing content in different languages in the same country, so ensuring that you check the primary languages is vital before implementing an international SEO in a specific country.
A quick example: As you can see from the illustration below, Belgium has three official languages, so if you were to target Belgium, you would have to target all three languages to obtain the best results.
3. Note the Language Habits in Each Country
This is where you have to take the initiative and understand that other countries and regions are going to have different slang and keyword habits they type into Google to get the results they want. For example, in England, you can probably recall the last time you typed something in Google that had British-related slang intertwined with it.
Although it will be a long-winded process to understand the regions you want to target, if you can begin to get a feel for how people express themselves in different languages, you’ll be miles ahead of companies in your niche trying to target them internationally.
4. Complete Keyword Research in Each Region
This carries over from the last point, but if you carry out keyword research in each country and region you target, you will find that what gets lots of search volume in one country may not in another country. Therefore, building your pages optimised on keywords that, one, are relevant to your niche, and two, get a good amount of traffic in your country, is paramount.
Using SEO tools such as SEMrush, Ahrefs and then searching Google.X for the region you want to target will be the most effective way to complete thorough keyword research.
5. Build a Backlink Profile For Each Region
Original, quality, and useful content that is responsive on multiple devices and targets relevant and worthy keyword terms is the key to creating a presence in multiple countries.
However, suppose you do not have E-E-A-T (experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness) in place with a solid backlink profile in each region. In that case, you won’t be as successful on the SERPs as you’d like to be. Therefore, planning how you’re going to get high-quality backlinks from the countries you’re trying to target needs to be a priority.
Benefits of Using an International SEO Strategy
Becoming internationally recognised by your target audience isn’t an easy task by any means, and it takes time, patience and a killer SEO strategy to get there. However, when you start seeing results come in, here are some benefits you can expect to notice:
- You can tap into more diverse markets, reaching more potential customers worldwide
- As you rank higher in different countries, your overall organic traffic will skyrocket
- It will boost your credibility by appearing in local searches
- User experience will be massively improved
- You can create a deep cultural connection with many countries/regions
- You will always have a better chance of raising awareness of your brand among new audiences
- You’re not limited to local or national markets
- You can establish a solid international presence for sustained business growth
What Are the Biggest Challenges When It Comes to International SEO?
On the flip side, there are always downsides to any strategy you put in place, and often, there are many roadblocks that prevent businesses from reaching their full potential globally. Here are some of the most common challenges businesses face when it comes to international SEO:
- Creating content for multiple languages and cultures
- Having a solid link-building plan in place for international reach
- Duplicate content for the same page in a different language
- The increased role of communication could become overwhelming
- Potential slow growth at first
Yes, we get it.
They are rather big challenges and potentially time-consuming, but if you’re a business owner who is willing to work hard in unison with specialists to go all in on international SEO, step by step, you will begin to build a solid base for your international SEO strategy.
Patience and dedication are definitely required when building an international SEO infrastructure.
How to Succeed With an International SEO Strategy
Of course, we could get seriously technical within this section of the blog, but to break it down simply, to succeed with an international SEO strategy, you need a great content strategy and technical SEO fundamentals.
1: Content Strategy
Firstly, with your content strategy, you will need to:
- Define Your Target Market: You need to create personas for each country you aim to target using tools like Google Analytics, etc., to understand trends and preferences.
- Look at Your Competition: You need to look at the organic competition in your target markets to understand challenges and opportunities.
- Are You Going to Hire?: With a project this big, it may be worth looking at hiring an international SEO agency to help speed up and improve your results.
- Do Your Keyword Research: As we said earlier, completing keyword research specific for each country will make sure your content aligns with local search behaviours and language nuances.
- Create Localised Content: If you create original content in the native language, considering cultural differences and preferences, you will see incredible results.
2: Technical SEO Strategy
Secondly, with your technical SEO strategy (once understood and implemented), you must:
- Choosing the right international domain and URL structure: Whether it’s ccTLDs (country code top-level domains), subdirectories, subdomains, gTLDs (generic top-level domains), or parameters, it must align with your goals.
- Make sure your content actually qualifies: This involves thoroughly verifying all top-level domains (TLDs), translations, and content elements to guarantee they meet local standards. Also, remember to implement the rel=”noopener” target=”_blank” hreflang tag. If not, it won’t show the geographical area and language of the page.
Other International SEO FAQs
Oftentimes, we have a series of frequently asked questions when we speak to other business owners about international SEO services. Here are some of the most common queries we deal with:
What is International SEO vs Local SEO?
In short, the main difference between international and local SEO is that for international SEO, you’re targeting a country, or multiple countries at once. Whereas, local SEO, you’re only targeting your local area. For example, if your business is in Liverpool, you will target the people of Liverpool and surrounding areas.
| International SEO | Local SEO |
|---|---|
| The website is made to target multiple languages, cultures, and markets worldwide. | Your website is built around targeting people in your local area who reside nearby. |
| Suitable for larger businesses that feel as though they can cater to a wider audience and provide products/services internationally. | Suitable for businesses operating in smaller markets (upcoming or flourishing businesses in your area). |
| You will be targeting keywords in a global market, for many different terms, as searches will differ in each country for your product/services. | Your content will be tailored to local-specific keywords, including the names of towns or cities nearby, along with the products/services you provide. |
How Much Does International SEO Cost?
In regards to how much international SEO costs, there is no exact figure on how much you’re going to be billed by every SEO company, freelancer, or in-house team. However, on average, costs are typically from £1,500 to £6,500 a month, depending on the size of your project/website, the niche of your business, and where you intend to target.
