How to Reach a Global Audience using International SEO
The internet is what facilitates connecting the entire world under one network. More than half of the world’s population is known to use the internet to fulfil their daily tasks. It is true that the content you upload onto your websites can be navigated from anywhere in the world at any time. However, if you are creating content to reach an international audience, you need to keenly focus on international SEO practices in order to bring in organic traffic as what ranks high in one country may not have the same rankings in another.
Suppose you are running a business in Singapore and expanding your market to several other countries. To be visible to your target audience living abroad, your business’s web content needs to be well-optimised according to the SEO strategies practised in those particular destinations. Simply, the keywords, the languages, and other SEO-driven factors that help rank your content high in Singapore may not work the same in other countries like India, Australia, or America. To give your international audiences the best user experience, you need to alter your SEO strategies based on them. To drive your web content up in the international rankings, now you can easily seek help from an agency that provides services related to International SEO in Singapore.
What is International SEO?
The process of improving the organic presence of your website on the international market through search engine optimization is called ‘international SEO’. Quality content ranks anywhere despite the country’s specifications. You can use a tool such as Ubersuggest to track your content rankings in other countries. However, when it comes to receiving business leads, you cannot publish content and leave it to fate and wait. To strengthen your organic presence and obtain sufficient traffic, you need to accurately identify the information that your audience requires and create and optimise your content accordingly. Here are the best practices to follow to stabilise your website’s international search engine optimization.
1. Identify Your International SEO Strategy
It is a common fact that over 70% of small businesses do not follow any SEO strategy. Even though they have websites and other online platforms, they do not receive enough traffic due to this reason. If you are aiming to popularise your content overseas, first, you need to understand your capabilities. To make a long-term SEO plan, you may use tools like Google Analytics or Ubersuggest to gauge potential search volumes. Once you determine the keywords trending at your targeted destinations, you may create your content following the cultural differences as well. In the process, you may highlight challenges to your international sales and identify ways to overcome them.
2. Select Your URL Structure
This section describes the existing solutions for managing international URLs if your content is available in multiple languages or across multiple countries/regions. Google has published documentation on the subject, which is primarily based on the engine’s language and country recognition criteria. Generally, there are three ways that you can create your URL structure.
Solution 1: Using Several Domain Names
This is the most obvious SEO solution for the engine’s understanding. It consists of using extensions for countries and language directories. By this method, the country and the language are indicated to Google. However, Solution 1 comes with a few disadvantages such as the unavailability of domains and the high cost of maintaining several domains at once.
Solution 2: Using Subdomain and Subdirectory
It is also possible to manage countries by using subdomains. This is a good solution in terms of easy implementation while still allowing separate sites to exist. It allows the domain to benefit from existing backlinks in terms of netlinking. It is, however, more difficult for the robot because the URL alone is insufficient to determine the country and language.
Solution 3: Using All in Subdirectories
It is about using directories to indicate the country as well as the language. This solution is simple to implement and low-cost to maintain. The domain’s netlinking is also strengthened. On the other hand, it complicates Google’s site separation and understanding of languages and countries. This appears to be the best option if your international subsidiaries are not self-contained and if a single technical team is in charge of the entire site.
3. Language Target Your Website
Language is one of the most important factors when it comes to international search engine optimization. If you market your content in different countries, you need to address them individually, in their languages. There are over 7,000 languages spoken around the world. While you won’t be able to reach everyone, you should make sure your site appears in the language of your users.
More importantly, Google wants to show results in people’s native language, so your website will be evaluated using this standard. However, don’t rely solely on machine translations if you’re serious about international SEO. Check that every aspect of your website, from the navigation bar to the content, is in the correct language. Language tags can also be used to guide Google. Another thing to keep in mind is that not everyone prefers to browse in the language you expect. It can be very frustrating to automatically redirect people to different language content based on their location tag.
4. Tailor Your Content Well
Users spend an average of 54 seconds on each page they visit. To keep them on your page, you must create content that matches the intent of their search queries. In international SEO, user intent is more than just serving content in the appropriate language. People want to see information that is relevant to them, and they do so in a variety of ways. Just because a keyword works well for you in English does not mean you can directly translate it into a foreign language and match user intent. There are two methods for determining user intent for countries other than the United States.
1- Use VPN to find the key terms frequently used in your targeted location.
2- Use a tool like Ubersuggest to find keywords.
When you prioritise international SEO, you should tailor each piece of content to the audience you’re targeting. This includes everything from keyword research to the topics you focus on and the statistics you employ.
5. Prioritise Your Targeted Countries
Going after the world is pointless because it means spreading your resources too thin. Find out which countries provide the most value for your business by using the strategies mentioned above to see what countries’ people visi your site and what languages they speak, as well as researching keywords in your industry to see if any are worth targeting in different countries. You should also be aware of the resources available to you. In SEO, it’s better to rank number one for a few keywords than number 50 for thousands, and the same is true for international SEO.
Looking for a Reliable International SEO Agency?
SEO, in general, requires a considerable amount of technical knowledge that many business owners might not have. If you are expecting to launch your products overseas or to create a foreign audience for your content, contact SEO Consultant to enjoy highly effective and trusted International SEO services.