Improve Your International SEO for Better Ranking & Traffic!

Are you an aspiring business? Given the many opportunities for international business growth, do you feel you can take your brand abroad?   

Then it’s your turn to notice the potential of International SEO.   

What does International SEO do for you?  

It ensures that your brand site gets organic traffic from various geographical locations and linguistic groups.   

Challenges and differences compared to local SEO

The reach and scale are the two main differences between International SEO and local SEO.   

The keywords of local SEO suit the needs and interests of the regional audience. It also keeps the regional linguistic traits in focus.   

So, we can understand that the span and reach of International SEO will be much more than local SEO. Certainly, the cost will be higher as well.   

Speaking of challenges, I feel that the volume of content repertoire will be another one. You need a leviathan of a content library for International SEO.   

Moreover, International SEO requires more avid research on each target audience. You need to study their intrinsic interests and depict the rationale behind them.   

So, the effort involved, resources needed, and costs incurred by International SEO are pretty high.   

In international SEO one must understand that in many language areas, it is best to have a local partner optimizing the content for the language. For example, Finnish that is spoken in Finland is a very complicated language and only a local SEO consultant can make keyword research and content optimisation. Also, the high-quality links are easier to obtain for a local partner. For the Finnish market for example SEOlinkit.fi is a good go-to service for obtaining links from Finland.

Target Market and Audience

You may consider International SEO to be something like geotargeting. Therefore, you must know who your international customers are!  

Importance of defining target market and audience

You need to attract traffic from a particular city or region. So, choose your target market wisely.   

If you choose a market without affinity towards a product or service, your international seo strategies would be pointless.  

Strategies for targeting specific regions and audiences

There are three high priority strategies to fine point a region and particular audiences from there:  

• Choose your target country wisely (for instance, The Posse mainly targets the US upmarket audience through seo internationalization)  
• You may use an internationally compatible URL structure to target a country SEO-wise.
• Secondly, you must select specific language tags to target people with specific vernacular bases.
• Focus more on creating content in the regional language to entice maximum customers.

Hiring an International SEO Agency

If you can’t bear the burden of International SEO by yourself, I don’t blame you. You can also hire an international SEO agency.

Benefits of outsourcing international SEO efforts

There are two main benefits of contacting an International SEO agency. The skilled professional at the agency understands the local preferences better. Therefore, they can create a more engaging SEO strategy.   

Considerations when choosing an agency

Again, there are two KPIs to consider when choosing an international SEO agency.   

Firstly, choose an agency with enough experience working with companies in your industry. Secondly, define a budget you can pull off in the long run.   

Conducting International Keyword Research

You need the best tools to search for the best-ranking keywords in a foreign language.   

Importance of relevant keywords in international SEO

Let’s understand the importance of relevant keywords for International SEO.   

You want to sell baggy tees in the Spanish market. So, you set a keyword strategy that produces relevant Spanish-language keywords.   

What did you miss?  

There are 21 nations that use Spanish as their formal language. There are different demographics of citizens in each country. Hence, their taste and preferences would differ as well. So long as you don’t consider it, you can’t find relevant keywords while setting the SEO strategy.   

Transcreation vs. translation of keywords

Translated keywords don’t reflect the tastes and interests of the target customers. Let’s say you use the keyword ‘cool oversized NY printed tees’ to sell your brand in the US.   

Now you want to expand your brand in Spain and follow the translation strategy.   

Hence, your keyword would be “camisetas extragrandes con estampado de NY.”  

But have you wondered if “NY” printed or oversized tees might not be popular in the Spanish market now?  

That’s why transcreation is the best strategy for you. How is it different from translation?  

Transcreation allows you to create the same content, including the essence of local tastes and preferences.   

Tools for researching and analyzing international keywords

You can access multiple tools to analyze international keywords. However, experts say that paid tools like Google Keyword Planner, Moz, Semrush, Ahrefs, Serpstat, and others can fetch the best results for you.   

Choosing the Right Domain Structure

SEO experts may use a few domain structures. The proper domain structure helps you target audiences from select countries.   

Different domain options for international SEO (ccTLD, gTLD, subdomains, subdirectories)

How are the domain options divided?  

Based on the country code, you can use a ccTLD or a top-level domain. Then, you may select the subdomain. Maybe you can use the language preferences as your gTLD or subdomain.   

Impact of domain structure on search engine visibility

Search engines interpret each domain differently. So, each domain structure says a great deal.   

By using different domain structures, you can ensure that the search engine visibility of your domain remains high.

Optimizing Content for Region and Language

To attract traffic from different locations, you should optimize the content according to the region and languages used by the audience.   

Importance of regional and language-specific content optimization

If you want to target a specific niche from a foreign market, then content optimization is your thing.   

Use of rel= “noopener” target= “_blank” hreflang tag to differentiate web pages for different audiences

You can open a linked page on a new tab using this link. At the same time, the new page won’t interfere with the main page.   

So, different audiences can access various pages based on their interests.

Analyzing Competition

When you target International SEO, your prime goal is organic traffic. It helps you to get a grab on the market.   

Significance of analyzing organic competition in international SEO

Tools like SemRush can evaluate your search strategy. It may help you check out what organic keywords competitors use.   

International SEO tools also help you define your keyword strategy against organic competition.   

Tools for competitor analysis and keyword research

We already know what is international seo. But do we have a clear idea about the international seo tools?   

Well, experts say that these are the best ones for your international seo strategy:  

• Ahrefs  
• SemRush  
• BuzzSumo  
• Moz  

……………and others alike.   

Creating Content

Successful seo internationalization depends on your ability to optimize the content according to local preferences.   

Strategies for creating localized content in target languages

Research says that your top priority should be making country or locale-specific pages. But your keyword optimizing strategy is the key here. Without relevant local keywords, your content won’t stand out.   

Considerations for keyword variations and translations

I found that transcreation is better than keyword translation, by all means.   

But if you want to stick to keyword translation, be careful about the semantic variations.   

Importance of original content creation for international SEO

You can continually improve the positioning and relevance of keywords if you make organic content.   

Besides, you must aim to retain the audience on your pages for as long as possible.   

You are not running any PPC campaigns.   

But you need fresh content ideas and an engaging content appeal to do that.   

Technical Aspects of International SEO

The technical aspects of your International SEO strategy are of grave importance.   

Defining technical aspects of international SEO strategy

There are two key technical aspects that you must keep an eye for:  

• Choosing an appropriate website structure   
• Ensuring perfect implementation of Hreflang  

Considerations for server location, site structure, and Hreflang implementation

Experts recommend that you must sort a server location, as per the demand criteria of audiences in your preferred territories.   

At the same time, you must align your site structure with your country segmentation.   

For that, the easiest route is ccTLD.   

I cannot undermine the importance of Hreflang implementation in international SEO as well.  

The Hreflang helps Google to spot the domains that your audience must see.  

Conclusion

Your International SEO strategy starts with the choice of a suitable market. Then, choose the language in which you want to make content.   

However, it is worth remembering that you need relevant keywords too.   

If your keywords are irrelevant, you will lose site traffic easily. And your brand would become redundant.   

The right combination of content, technical, and keyword optimization for successful international SEO efforts is paramount.