International SEO is essential if you want to expand your business globally and can open a huge number of opportunities for brands. However, the process is more complex than just translating your website into another language. It’s important to understand the differences between normal SEO and international SEO to ensure success.
What is International SEO?
International SEO is the process of optimising your website so you can be found in the search engines in the countries and languages you are targeting. If your products and services have the potential to be marketed globally, then international SEO can significantly boost your reach and is a great way to grow your business.
How is International SEO Different?
There are a couple of ways in which international SEO is different to regular SEO.
Firstly, you must consider the languages and cultural preferences of different countries. Localised keyword research needs to be conducted to ensure that keywords are relevant to the local audience, culture, and match the local search intent. Each market also needs its own SEO strategy aimed at the unique search intent for each local language, as people want content that’s optimised for them. You have a better chance of success internationally if you treat every country as unique with its own tailored goals and strategy.
Secondly, it’s critical that translations are accurate as native speakers will notice straight away if they’re not correct and it’s not a professional look. If you’re only using direct translations then there can be misinterpretations, the most common example is the classic “Come alive with Pepsi” slogan translated as “Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the dead” in Chinese markets. This is why using native speakers and SEO specialists is a critical part of a successful international SEO strategy.
You need to understand different search engines, as Google is not the most popular search engine in every country. As an example, Baidu is the most popular search engine in China, and Naver is the most popular in South Korea. How you approach this will be different depending on the country you are targeting.
Brands wanting to target audiences internationally need to decide what domain strategy works best for their goals. In order to be discovered internationally, country coded top-level-domains, subdomains, or subdirectories need to be implemented. This can be complicated to set up and manage, especially if you have a high number of international visitors.
Another consideration is the content as you’ll not only need to create significantly more content, but you will also need to create engaging content that uses the right language and tone of voice for your audience. This is also an important part of an international backlink strategy as it’s essential that you gain backlinks from authoritative publishers in your targeted countries.
Why is International SEO Important?
The ability to market products and services internationally is a huge business opportunity, and it’s especially important for those with products and services that have universal demand. You’re able to increase brand awareness and reputation, allowing you to build a global customer base and research a wider target audience. It can put you ahead of your competitors and allow you to gain valuable marketing insights to grow your business further.
Why Should I Use Professional SEO Services?
It can be a challenge managing strategies across multiple languages and countries, understanding what keywords to target and how to effectively track performance. If you don’t understand the cultural differences of your target audience, it can be hard to create engaging content that has the right tone of voice and is tailored to the local language and culture. Expanding internationally requires a lot of planning, preparation, research and understanding. However, there’s a huge audience that could benefit from your content that you’re missing out on if you are only targeting those in your country. If your products and services could succeed with an international audience, then it’s the right time to start optimising for international SEO.
GA Agency is an international SEO agency with an in-house multilingual team covering 14+ languages with projects in 15+ countries. They understand the importance of using in-house native speakers for translation as they have an excellent understanding of the language and culture, ensuring that global marketing strategies are defined and targeted to specific countries and audiences.
Professional international SEO services can be extremely beneficial for any business with an online presence wanting to expand, so working with an international SEO agency is a great option to take the next step.
