29 Aug 2023
Best International SEO Guide for 2021
In the time of the pandemic, businesses all over the world have changed drastically & turned more digital to compete in the world market. To compete in the global market, we need to succeed in international SEO by checking the issues of page experience, URL structure, keywords, SERPs, and more from a global perspective & lot more. By building & expanding the digital presence, we need to grab the audience across the areas where we want to want to do business.
Let’s a have a look at the some of the international SEO strategy checklists we need to focus:
1. Set up Hreflang as the International Setup
Hreflang is a tag attribute that tells search engines the language the pages need to be displayed on your website & the geolocation of the reader.
The HTML tail “en-uk” will tell search engines like Google the language and location you want to target your content. This is important if you’re approaching a certain market and language in Google, but not for Baidu or Bing.
2. Proper URL restructuring
To target the audience we need to restructure our URL based on ccTLDs (country code top-level domains), subdomains, and subdirectories. Though URL restructuring depends on a number of resources, the best way is to manage several domains at the same time. Subdomain or subdirectory can be the next good option for URL restructuring.
3. Make better On-page SEO experience
For better international SEO marketing we need to focus on On-page SEO. Make your webpage mobile-first index (or mobile-only index). We need to our webpage mobile-first indexed (or mobile-only index) in any country we operate.
4. Abort Machine translation & opt multilingual SEO
While translating one language & dialect to another, there are language nuances that machine won’t find. A bad translation will decrease rankings. Try to use local translator & maintain a reputation with local consumers who search for your brand in search engines.
We need to focus on multilingual SEO & multi-regional SEO by restructuring the URLs on basis of ccTLDs(Country code Top-level domain) (e.g., example.de, example.fr), Subdomains With gTLDs (e.g., de.site.com, fr.site.com, etc.), Subdirectories With gTLDs (e.g., site.com/de/, site.com/fr/, etc.), Generic Country Code Top Level Domains (gccTLDs)
5. Keywords & SERPs will vary from country to country
Even though Google algorithm will be same universally, specific keywords & SERPs will vary on a local level. Search Volume & meaning of the terms to the locals for your keywords will vary from region to region.
Search volume for a given product & service in the UK will vary in Spain. “Football Streaming” in US will vary in meaning from “Football Streaming” in the UK.
6. Focus on E-A-T content
We need to focus on creating “Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness” content & follow Google’s Search Quality Raters Guidelines.
Few topics we need to create EAT content
- Put Author names and biographies in editorial content
- Remove low E-A-T content
- Create a personal brand
- Optimize technical security
- Change User Generated Content (important in YMYL “your money or your life” websites)
7. Focus on quality backlinks
We need to focus on quality of backlinks over quantity of backlinks. Try to get backlinks from site with a domain rating of 50. Few outgoing links will earn you better rankings than ten irrelevant links from sites with less than 10 ratings for domain authority. Avoid buying the links.
For proper international SEO strategy, focus on ranking the business website accordingly to local SERPs. Local backlinks will have highest impact on SERP. If sites gets a lot of backlinks from URLs ending with “.ae” it gives Google the idea that your site has audience from UAE and it can therefore rank accordingly on those local SERPs.
8. Focus International & Local Search Trends
2020 made a huge in search volume and search behaviour due to the pandemic COvid-19 as our search preferences varies from country to country.
For example, the word “working remotely,” has increased in search volume from 22,200 to 40,500 in monthly searches in the U.S. which is an 82% increase, from October 2019 to 2020. In UK it has increased by 175% from 4,400 to 12,100 in monthly searches.
Focus on tools like SEOmonitor & Google Trends to get the update on volume & upcoming trends in the market.
More Tips & tricks for International SEO
- Create a plan, a roadmap in SEO and start executing plans. Focus on technical SEO, content, and link building, creation of your own optimization calendar.
- Create new blog post, update the old one & start focus on link building that grows your domain rating.
- Focus on creating user-friendly taxonomy & implement more local or region-based keywords.
- Try creating auto-generating content like product descriptions and meta descriptions.
- It is important to connect with marketers with fellow industry professionals, colleagues all around the international markets.
Every country has its own market. Main purpose of SEO is to have a better share of voice, increased revenue, and more/higher quality leads. We need to follow the best practices for an international approach with overall unique strategy.
Connect to the best-in-market international SEO specialist or international SEO agency to increase your business across the globe. Connect Digistart today.
