The decision to focus your website on an international audience has many logistic and technical complexities to work through. If you happen to have an international target market, it is critical to ensure that your website is fully accessible to reach those many, varied consumers. We’re here to help you get started.
What is International SEO Strategy?
International SEO is the practice of optimizing a website to help it rank on international search engines. One complicating factor is that some countries do not allow the use of Google or other U.S.-based search engines. Other search engines have different ranking factors which you can still optimize for.
The practice of general international SEO is often used by eCommerce websites that sell their products to international markets. If you’ve ever been browsing an online retailer and noticed a language pop-up in the corner for English, Spanish, French, German, and more languages, you’ve witnessed international SEO optimization at work.
You, too, can optimize your website to be accessible to multiple languages and in your target countries. This will allow you to increase your visibility and chances of being seen by potential international customers.
International SEO efforts must account for content, language, and local keywords. Additionally, international SEO involves technical elements such as setting up href lang tags—used to indicate the language of a page—and using the correct subdomain for particular countries.
4 ways to account for international SEO
1. Domain extensions
Depending on where you are located, you can use different domain extensions or subdirectories for international SEO purposes. Country-code top-level domain (ccTLD) use is a recommended optimization.
For example, if you are targeting the United Kingdom, your domain would look like domain.co.uk (UK being the domain extension). ccTLD ranks even higher than geo-targeting settings according to Google. However, purchasing multiple global domains can get quite expensive; one reason why companies may forgo a ccTLD strategy, despite the ranking benefits.
2. Leverage foreign search engines
Believe it or not, Google doesn’t dominate in some countries. China, North Korea, South Korea, and Russia all have alternative search engines. By optimizing for foreign search engines, businesses can expand their reach and tap into new markets, which can lead to more conversions and sales. These search engines also have slightly different ranking factors than Google.
Ultimately, the level of optimization for a foreign search engine should be determined by how many of your targets are located in that county. For example, if most of your targets are located in China, it is important to take into account ranking factors for China’s most popular search engine, Baidu.
Baidu
Baidu is a Chinese search engine and web services company that provides internet-related products and services, most notably a Chinese language search engine for websites and images. It is the fourth largest search engine in the world by net income.
Marketers can use Baidu to target Chinese consumers who may be searching for products, services, or information in their native language. Marketers can create localized (Chinese) versions of their website content and build backlinks to their site from Chinese websites.
Yandex
Yandex is a major search engine in Russia that has a lot of resources with search engine optimization. In early 2023, Yandex code was leaked and many of its ranking factors were made public.
Naver
The most used search engine in South Korea is Naver. Marketers looking to target the Korean market should create localized (Korean) versions of their content on Naver.
3. Href lang
Href lang is a tag that is used to indicate the language of a page. This tag falls under the scope of technical SEO and is an important part of optimizing for a global audience.
Href lang code is used to help search engines understand which language a page is written in, so it can serve the correct language version of a page to users. It is also used to ensure that pages are not competing against each other in search results for the same keywords in different languages. Marketers should engage their development team to implement these tags in your site structure for international SEO purposes.
4. International Keyword research
Keyword spelling in local languages is important for SEO keyword research. In addition to optimizing for entirely different languages, when doing keyword research on an international level, it is important to recognize that different countries (even though they may speak the same language) have different spellings for the same word.
For example, in the United States, color is spelled without a u but in the United Kingdom, it is spelled colour. Knowing the difference between these spellings in a target language can help a website rank higher in search results for both countries.
Knowing which words are used in specific countries’ version of a language can help ensure that a website is accurately indexed in all relevant countries. Be sure to use the correct spelling for each target audience to avoid confusion and ensure that the website is easily accessible and relevant.
Additionally, some keywords may have completely different meanings in different languages, and it’s essential to understand these differences to avoid cultural miscommunication, hinder user experience, and negatively impact rankings in the SERPs.
Effective international SEO requires careful consideration of cultural and linguistic nuances, as well as a thorough understanding of the target market.
Optimizing your website for international SEO is essential to reach intended targets
Domain extensions, foreign search engines, international code signals, and thoughtful keyword research are all big factors that global brands should consider when crafting an international SEO plan. Start slowly and proceed thoughtfully—and just as with domestic SEO, always evaluate, refine, and optimize as needed.
Reach out to a top-rated SEO agency for help implementing international SEO best practices on your website.