If your business is selling products in different countries and looking to rank your website on the top in search engines for different countries? Then for that, you need an effective and result-driven international SEO strategy that can help your business to rank the website on the top in SERP.
Most of the businesses out there who have already gained a good customer base nationally, look to target international clients or customers. But many of them fail to build an SEO strategy that can target their international customer or target audiences. Because your website and business will be competing with other local businesses which means you need a strong international SEO strategy to rank your website.
Now you will be thinking, how can you create an international SEO strategy that can give you desired results? If you are looking at your company from a global perspective and expecting to drive more traffic and customers from different countries then make sure you go through each and every point which we are going to highlight in the coming paragraphs.
In this article, we are going to highlight some important tips that can help you to rank your website internationally. Using the below-mentioned tips you can build an effective international SEO strategy for your business
If you are looking to build links for your website then make sure to check our blog on 5 Effective Link Building Techniques Through Content Marketing In 2020
Tips to build your website international SEO strategy:
1. Analyzing your potential competitors in the targeted country
Whether you are doing SEO to target a local audience or international audience competitors analysis is a must to carry out the process. Without competitor analysis, you will never realize the right set of potential customers for your products, potential customers problems in different countries, and more.
Mainly when you create your international SEO strategy you should have a clear idea about where your potential competitor in that particular country is lacking and how you can separate your business form them. Once you are aware of the localized keywords then it becomes easy for you to find a competitor for international SEO strategy.
After identifying your competitor you can look into their business functioning. By looking at then you can identify where they are lacking, what their customers are complaining about, and how you can bridge those gaps.
Competitor analysis will also offer you an in-depth idea about what is already working in the market and the product that is frequently brought and liked by the customer. You can check their website structure, URL structure, content, images, and more. To identify your competitors you can type phrases that relate with you [product and services.
Once you have the list of your competitors you can identify answers for:
- What is making them rank for that particular keyword on the top in SERP
- What kind of URL structure they are using on their website?
- How much traffic are they generating for them?
- How many calls to the actions button are present on their web page?
- What kind of content they are producing?
- What type of LSI keywords they have used in the content?
2. Conduct Localized keyword research depending on the country
Keywords are one of the important aspects that help the website to rank on the top in the search engine result page. And keyword research helps you to identify a list of phrases that can help your website to rank on the top for that particular keyword. If you are looking to expand your business by ranking your website on the top globally then you need to conduct localized keyword research for a specific country.
Localized keyword research will help you to identify a list of keywords that can help you to rank on the top in SERP to drive more traffic and sales. There are various tools available like ubersuggest, SEMRush, and more that can offer you a list of keywords that are frequently searched by your potential customers in different countries.
You can also take the help of your competitor to identify keywords they are using to rank their website. Well, it will be difficult for you to rank for the competitive keyword but again it all depends on how effectively you are creating your website and business authority.
Remember it’s not necessary that the keyword that is working in one country will work effectively in other countries as well. So make sure if you are planning to rank your website in different countries then you need a different list of localized keywords for your business.
3. Identify and Select International SEO Friendly URL Structure
When we talk about international SEO strategy first and foremost thing you need to look into is your URL structure. Having the right International SEO optimized URL structure helps google to understand and display the right web page (geo-targeting) to searchers in different countries. If you have a separate web page that you want to display in different countries then you need to have the right URL structure.
Due to ongoing debate still, it’s hard to identify which URL structure is best for international SEO. Google also stated that there are different strategies for deciding the URL and site structure for your international SEO strategy and which work better is not yet discovered.
There are many businesses out there who create a separate website for different countries. But if you are using your main website to create subdirectories then you need to have different pages that will work as a part of geo-targeting which means location-based targeting. Your web page success in different countries will totally depend on your URL and site structure.
Create Subdirectories for each country
If you want to target different countries from your main website then we always recommend you create a subdirectory for each country on your main website. To do that you can create different folders that will represent different subdirectories for different countries on your main website. You can label those folders with countries’ two-letter ISO codes.
If you are aiming to target territories having more than one language then you can create a structure that includes both language and country ISO code labeled subdirectories. Subdirectories are very easy to set up and maintain that’s why it is preferred by most of the websites around the world. Within a few steps, you can add subdirectories in your website cost-effectively.
If you are looking to install wordpress in the subdirectory then you can the blog on How to Install WordPress in a Subdirectory (Step by Step)
4. Make changes in your website content
Undoubtedly your website content plays a crucial role in making your web page eligible to rank on top in a particular country. If your content is talking about Singapore and you are looking to rank it in San Francisco then obviously you are not going to get the desired results. That’s why after creating your URL structure next you need to prepare your new content.
So now you might be wondering how much new content do you need for your international SEO strategy? Can you duplicate the content from your main page or not? Well, we always recommend you to be unique. That means if you are creating content for your website try to be as unique as possible.
But somehow if you think you need to include a few important paragraphs which are already present on your web page then you can duplicate content to some extent but make sure it includes the localized keyword. If you have blog content or long-form content present on your website then we recommend redoing the on-page optimization considering the results you got form localized keyword research. For example, if you are working in London but you want to build your web page for San Francisco then you can use words like bay area, Los Angeles, and many more.
You can also target a country by their language choices like most of the popular sites like eBay, Air Canada, and more do by making their content available in the local language for better results. It offers the visitor a personal touch and makes them feel connected with the website. You can add a pop up that allows site visitors to select their preferred language.
Conclusion
By now you might be having a list of tips and techniques that you can use to create your international SEO strategy. Today in the competitive market space it has become difficult to rank a website internationally. To do that you need to have an effective and result-driven international SEO strategy for your business.
For that, you need to identify and evaluate your potential customer’s behavior in different countries, understand your competitive space, create a list of profitable keywords for different countries, and many more. You can start with localized keyword research and content planning for your website. All the tips and techniques that we have mentioned above are practical and you can make use of it to create a results-driven strategy for your business.
If you are looking to build an international SEO strategy that drives more sales and traffic on your website then make sure you hire an experienced SEO agency that can help you to create a results-driven strategy for your business.
Frequently Asked Questions:
1. How does my website rank in a certain country?
Below we are listing some important tips that can help your website to drive traffic from different countries:
- Domain name extension (URL structure)
- Geo-targeting (search console)
- Your hosting server location
- Getting backlinks from dedicated country-specific website
- Using the country-specific word in your content
- Listing your business in the google my business
- Adding your location on the web page
- Submit your website and business to local search engine & directories
- Make use of google trends to identify trending topic 8 the particular country
Looking to create an effective and result-driven SEO strategy for your website, if then make sure you hire the right SEO agency that can help you to optimize your website and rank it on the top page in SERP.
2. How do you do Multilingual SEO?
There are two different approaches that can help you to do multilingual SEO:
- Firstly you can translate your website content then you can optimize your website content ensuring that it targets the right keyword and
- Make sure Google can easily understand and crawl each language
- Select the right URL structure for your multilingual website
- Add the hreflang attribute so they search engine can identify the primary language of the content
- Create multilingual XML Sitemap
If you are having a multilingual and multilingual website then make sure you hire an SEO agency that is experienced in managing this type of website for better results.
3. How do you target international customers?
- If you are new then we recommend you to start with countries you already have connections
- Create a country-specific website for your business
- Craft an office and result-driven international SEO strategy for your website
- Get in touch with a local vendor
- Create a plan for international shipping
- Optimize your website design
- Identify your competitor and take a look at their work
- Create a buzz about your business existence through social media
4. How to use Keyword Planner for free?
Firstly Google keyword planner is not a separate tool like SEMRush, Ubersuggest, Ahrefs, and more. If you want to access Google keyword plan then you need to have a Google Ads account and run a campaign to access Google keyword planner.