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International SEO Guide: Tips for Optimizing Your Website for a Global Audience
This article will include the steps you can take to optimize your website for international visitors, including those worldwide. So, let’s dive right in!
1.1 What Are the Differences Between International & Regular SEO?
1.2 Does Your Business Need to Go International?
2. What Does the International Strategy Include?
2.1 Country-Specific Domains
2.2 Content Localization
2.3 Language Targeting
2.4 Analysis and Strategy of Keyword Research
3. International SEO vs. Local SEO
4. How to Monitor Your International SEO Progress?
4.1 International SEO Checklist for Evaluating the Effectiveness of Optimization
4.2 SEO Measurement Tools
5. Final Thoughts
Three sets of questions immediately arise. Is your site an e-commerce site or one for getting potential clients? Do you want to translate or localize content? Do you want to target a language or country? A proper plan for promotion outside the country requires an effective international SEO strategy and technical skills.
The following experts from the Twitter chat will add commentary to today's article:
- Montse CanoInternational SEO & Digital Strategy for Marketing, Product & E-Commerce Growth
- Simon CoxTechnical SEO Consultant, Website Optimiser & Digital Explorer. Founder of SimonCox.com
- Olena ProkhodaSocial Media and Community
Specialist at Serpstat
1. What Is International SEO?
International SEO shows the search algorithms which countries you want to reach or which languages you should use in your business for the page’s content. SEO for international markets is site optimization for different countries, languages, and audiences. Such adaptation attracts targeted traffic from several regions.
1.1 What Are the Differences Between International & Regular SEO?
- In addition to Google algorithms, a specialist must familiarize how to work with other search engines. Although Google is the most popular search engine in the world, a significant percentage of the target audience can use Yahoo!, Bing, etc.
- International SEO expands the target market, so a specialist should conduct deep research to ensure that the brand meets potential clients’ expectations.
- Large markets = more serious competitors, such as, for example, SEO International ltd, a transnational corporation. Therefore, the SEO specialist will have to spend much effort to compete with such giants.
- Internationally targeted SEO requires more specific and quality content than regular local SEO.
1.2 Does Your Business Need to Go International?
For example, a webmaster lives in Germany, but for some reason, he decided to sell products in Spain. SEO also needs to be adjusted so that search engines understand that the content is intended for Spanish-speaking users.
An online store is just one example of a website. It can be a landing page, a blog, a showcase site, or a forum. With the help of the international search system, users search for the things they need from any country.
It’s highly recommended that dates and times be displayed in the preferred local format to avoid ambiguity or confusion. The same is true for numeric formats, weights, and measurements.
2. What Does the International Strategy Include?
2.1 Country-Specific Domains
We decided to ask our main speaker Montse Cano, an all-around digital marketer and project manager, which domain to select regarding SEO optimization.
- Regional Domains
Regional domains (ccTLDs) are top-level domains and include the country code. For example, .de for Germany, .fr for France, or .uk for Great Britain. Due to automatic localization, regional domains are perfect for attracting users from a specific country.
However, you plan to develop a business in several regions. In that case, each country will require additional costs separately (domain registration, content, links, technical optimization).
- International Domain
An international domain is a top-level domain that targets users from different countries. For example, .org, .com, .net. If you plan to offer your services worldwide, you will most likely prefer an international domain.
A regional domain, such as .uk, can give users the impression that the site is intended only for Great Britain, which will limit your business.
2.2 Content Localization
People in different areas perceive colors, numbers, and humor differently. If you adopt an article from one locale to another, do not forget to change the illustrations and links so that the content is in the user’s language.
- Geotargeting
How to do international SEO by targeting a specific location? If you want to expand your business in another country, and you are going to create entirely new content for your new users, geotargeting is the way to go.
This is a method of targeted information, considering the user’s exact geographic location. Any marketing campaign with accurate geotargeting attracts more conversions.
2.3 Language Targeting
At first glance, language targeting requires much less effort than geotargeting since you don’t need to develop new content. All you need to do is translate an existing page into any language and set language tags for Google and Bing, respectively.
The big problem with language tags is that, when done incorrectly, it is likely to prevent search engines from correctly indexing most of your content. It can have a significant impact on your traffic.
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2.4 Analysis and Strategy of Keyword Research
International SEO keyword research takes into account the linguistic features of each region.
- Hosting
Does hosting your site on a local IP address give you any benefit in ranking and indexing in search engines? For successful site promotion, it is necessary to approach the choice of international SEO hosting responsibly.
Before starting SEO work, do not forget to check the following:
- Uptime shows the percentage of uninterrupted site operation time from the total time.
- Server response time: according to Google, using a national domain makes hosting a site on a local server inappropriate.
- Sites on the same IP: SEO specialists often recommend hosting a site on a dedicated IP address for good positions.
- Server location: for sites in a standard domain zone, the server’s location can signal your site’s target audience, which is very convenient when you use subdomains for geotargeting. Keep in mind that the further the server is from your target audience, the longer your site will load, negatively affecting behavioral factors.
- Hreflang from Google
International SEO hreflang is a mandatory attribute for the technical SEO optimization of a multilingual site. With the help of the hreflang attribute, we indicate the language version of the site for Google. Google uses this information to display your content in the most appropriate language. However, the main benefit of hreflang in SEO is the solution to the problem of duplicated content risks.
Duplicate is when the same content is presented on several site pages.
Let’s imagine a situation where one site sells on several markets in different currencies in one language. You will receive several product cards, which will differ only in delivery and price. For Google, this will be interpreted as duplicate content, but if you specify hreflang in specific language versions, this question will be resolved.
3. International SEO vs. Local SEO
In contrast to international, we will mention local SEO. This is when you focus on local search, specifying a location. For example, you are advertising a coffee shop. Local SEO is aimed at a particular geo and requests such as “near me.”
- The basis of local SEO is geo-dependent requests and map searches.
- In America, local search is popular. People often search for stores and services using the query “near me.”
- Local SEO is more suitable for companies with physical offices (shops, cafés, bars, beauty salons, auto repair shops, etc.).
- International and Local SEO Trends
Among the leading trends in SEO promotion, the following can be distinguished:
- Voice search is gaining momentum. More and more users use this function instead of manual input in the search engine.
- Videos are becoming more and more popular. Therefore, use YouTube and other video resources for promotion.
- Content adaptation for mobile devices is even more demanding. Your site should quickly adapt to mobile devices and tablets. So carefully study and analyze the market, and use Google Trends to keep up with competitors and preferred target audience.
- Don’t forget about social media. Does it matter for international SEO?
So, identify the most trending keywords and use them on a site, increasing traffic.
Surprisingly few brands are genuinely worldwide – only a handful, despite what you may think! Social media is the cheapest way to infiltrate new regions.
4. How to Monitor Your International SEO Progress?
Learn how to track SEO and start measuring your SEO progress so you can identify what’s working and what’s not.
Promotion of the site abroad is a process that requires constant monitoring of statistics and prompt response to them. It is impossible to achieve a top position and stop the process – the competitive environment in the online space needs to be more dynamic.
Analytics allows you to assess the success of the chosen SEO strategy – traffic, conversion, visitor statistics, geolocation, and many other metrics. Based on the data, the promotion strategy is optimized.
4.1 International SEO Checklist for Evaluating the Effectiveness of Optimization
- Dynamics of organic traffic – you can trace apparent changes compared to previous periods.
- Positions of the site in search results – active growth is observed for all keywords (high-frequency, medium-frequency, low-frequency requests).
- High conversion is essential to achieve active users’ attention to the resource and increase the number of applications and orders and the average check size.
- Improvement of behavioral factors: the number of rejections, the average time spent on the site, etc. For indicators to grow, it is necessary to improve usability, improve the text, graphics, and video content, giving a complete response to user requests.
4.2 SEO Measurement Tools
Google Search Console helps you understand how users find your site and which pages drive the most traffic. It also gives insight into the following:
- Performance in search results;
- Click-through rate;
- Page indexing.
Google Analytics is a free and powerful tool for measuring visitors’ actions after landing on your website and is excellent for tracking your conversion metrics. Google Analytics has over 100 unique reports and extensive customization options.
You can use Google Analytics to isolate organic traffic for analysis or track SEO campaign activity using Urchin Tracking Module (UTM) codes. Month-over-month and year-over-year reports can show your progress over the long term.
The common use cases are: competitors and backlinks research, keywords analysis and grouping for content optimization, organic and paid positions tracking, website issues analysis, and resolution.
→ sales from the site: getting to the top in search results does not guarantee sales growth since they consist not only of the quality of the Internet resource but also of the company’s pricing policy, delivery conditions, politeness of operators, etc.
5. Final Thoughts
Optimizing your website internationally can initially seem overwhelming, but like most things in SEO, it gets easier with time and a little practice.
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