Strategies and Guidelines For International SEO

In our previous Blog we showed you the Importance of Keywords and how the Keywords are becoming the Backbone of the world of Digital Marketing. And here we want to provide you the glimpse of the Upcoming future for performing SEO in the International Markets.

What is an International SEO?

International SEO is the practice of optimization of your website so that it becomes easy for the search engines to recognize which country and language the user wants to target respectively.

 

Why focus on International Markets?

Focusing on International Markets helps us in getting the international traffic and this is the sheer important reason to optimize your website as per the international audience for providing them the better user interface.

For building the fully international site you should be clear about the country you want to target and along with a URL which works internationally. And another important key aspect in International Market is to publish the content in your user’s preferred language on your website which surely catches the multiple eyeballs of the international viewers.

Some important aspects of International SEO?

URL structure for International Sites: URL structures are made in order to target a particular country with their website. Every URL includes Country Code Top Level Domain (ccTLD), a Subdomain, a Subdirectory, a gTLD with Language Parameters, and different Domain Name.

Let’s have a look on brief Introduction of all the components of URL structure:

• ccTLD – ccTLD stands for Country Specific Top-Level Domain which is assigned by ICANN and are directly targeted by Google Search Console through geographic measures. 

• Sub-Domain – A subdomain is the bifurcation of the main website address into another address for the reasons like marketing, region targeting, and microsite branding. 

• Sub-Directory – SubDirectory is mainly for the content or to be specific internationalized content in which the content is placed in a specific SubDirectory or Subfolder of the main domain. 

• gTLD with Language Parameters– A General Top-level Domain (like.com, .net or .org) tend to target the speakers of a particular language by affixing a URL parameter. 

• Different Domain – For search engines, it is quite difficult to interpret the different URL structure. So for choosing the right structure, it is so important to have complete knowledge and details about all the options.

The table below provides the potential information about the combination of vehement URL structures for optimizing the site internationally.

Sample URL	Search Engine Target Interpretation	Internationalization 'Type'	URL Structure Type
germanagency.es	Searchers in Spain	Country	ccTLD
Es.germanagency.de & hreflang= es tag	Spanish speaking searchers in Germany	Country and Language	ccTLD+ Domain
Es.germanagency.com and hreflang=es tag	Spanish- speaking searchers worldwide	Language	Subdomain
germanagency.de/?lang=es hreflang	German-speaking searchers in Spain	Country and Language	ccTLD+ Language Parameter
germanagency.com/?lang=es hreflang	Spanish speaking searchers worldwide	Language	gtld+ Langauge parameter
germanagency.de	All searchers in Germany	Country	ccTLD

You can actually choose any structure but the only recommendation is to organize your hierarchy in a way that it gets easily crawl by Google crawlers.

Strategies for International SEO:

• The user should use the common primary language for all the content, site navigation and help desk activities of the website.
• Never rely on artificial/machinery translations. The result may differ.
• Don’t use cookies and scripts to display different language versions of your website’s page.
• Make customized content as per the culture and language of your target audience.
• Try to rank on search engines of other countries also.

Let’s have a look at the International SEO Checklist:-

1) Do you have an International SEO Caliber?

• Check the total traffic of your website (National & International) with the help of either  Google Analytics or Google search Console, in order to do the proper analysis of your website and implement the right set of Keywords as per the culture and language of the targeted country.
• Identify the local list of preferred keywords in other countries with the help of the appropriate tool for ex- Yandex Keyword Stats, Baidu Index for getting the precise result keyword of their culture and language respectively.

2) What are the ways to target your International Audience?

• Understand the behavior and characteristics of your international audience on different occasions and celebrations. Some tools like Google GDN Research, TNS Digital Life, and Comscore Data Mine are excellent for getting overseas information.
• Try analyzing your International Industry and Competitors in order to perform the proper analysis of your Business and to set the competitive strategies at right time.

3) How can you develop an Internationally Targeted Site?

• Make the structure of International Website searchable and easy to navigate and make sure that you don’t automatically direct your audience to another specific version. Provide them the suggestion option.
• Specify the language clearly in HTML coding by putting “hreflang” code if you are targeting some other country. You can also use the hreflang Sitemap tool for performing it easier.
• Use the Meta Content-Language in your website by adding the “content- language”meta tag in your HTML .

4) How to measure your International SEO process?

• Track each International Web versions independently with the help of Google Analytics to track the internal changes and actions that take place between the different international versions of your website.
• Perform regular follow up with your International Search Visibility by applying right tools for a rank check of the website and to explore about the new preferred Keywords by the users.

Conclusion

This is the end of the topic “SEO for International Market” from our side where we have poured out all the necessary information and strategies regarding International SEO.  Every sector and industry sooner or later will have the requirement of International SEO for performing better business online.