Brands looking to expand to new markets need to understand how to optimise for international SEO. It will help you reach new audiences and prove your authority. In order to do this, you need to have a bulletproof strategy.
In this article, we’ll explain the importance of international SEO, and provide you with a guide on implementing it.
What is international SEO?
Source: Search Engine Journal
Search engine optimization helps you gain visibility on Google. You already know how important that is for raising brand awareness, attracting new customers and building loyal relationships.
When it comes to international SEO, brands usually make sure it’s in the native language of their target audience and that it follows cultural norms. In order to do this correctly, you will need to hire a native speaker.
Why is international SEO important?
A personalised approach is essential in both sales and marketing, which is why people expect brands to go the extra mile. With research showing that 70% of brands that rely on advanced personalization bagged 200% ROI, it’s easy to see why you should utilise this strategy.
The importance of international SEO lies in making sure that the entire customer journey is customised to people from specific locations. You need to make sure you’re directing people to the right landing pages that have culturally appropriate content, as well as currency and shipping options.
Once you manage to do that, your clients can conduct the entire purchase process without your help. This will unburden your customer support team and shorten your sales cycle.
Furthermore, once you divide your customers by their location, you can extract detailed data on specific customers and shape your sales and marketing strategies accordingly. Further down the line, this will help you create new products and services that you can push onto new markets.
If you already have a sizable amount of visitors to your website from different countries, take advantage of that and provide them with an even better buying experience. Web development services will help you build an international brand that will attract a lot of new customers.
Guide on international SEO
When international SEO is done correctly, you can create an amazing user experience for all your visitors. Let’s take a look at how it should be done.
Market research
Source: Gulf Resources
Once you’re ready to spread to international markets, you should conduct detailed market research. After all, no two international markets are the same. There could be a vast difference in how your products and services are used in different countries.
An example of a brand that bridged this divide amazingly is Mcdonald’s. Although this brand is famous for its hamburgers, once it was time to open restaurants in India, they created a completely vegetarian menu, in order to respect the cultural and religious connotations.
In some examples, the exact same product could be marketed differently to different groups of people. A marketing strategy for a smartphone could be taken in two different directions when targeting teens and their parents.
For teens, it would highlight the technical features like the camera and memory, while for parents it could focus on being able to track their child.
The way to approach researching new markets should be by utilising any data you can get your hands on. Once you have a good base, make sure to talk to people that are a part of your target market.
Conduct in-depth interviews and focus groups in order to find out what their needs and wants are. Make sure that all of your SEO strategies are based on real data and people.
Even once you do this, your work won’t be done. You need to constantly test out different content and keywords.
Also, look into which content you’ll translate and which you’ll rewrite from scratch.
Competitor research
In order to stand out in a new market, you must do competitor research and find out what similar brands are doing. The best way to understand your competition is by performing a SWOT analysis. It will help you understand everyone’s strengths and weaknesses as well as how to position yourself on the market.
Not only should you differentiate yourself from competitors, but you should also take advantage of their blind spots.
International keyword research
Different locations require different keyword strategies. Just because something works in your geo-location, doesn’t mean it will work in other places.
People have different tendencies and behaviours so the keyword volume will be different. Make sure to check every factor individually and don’t forget about the cultural differences we talked about.
It would be best to get a native speaker to help you out and make sure you don’t make any mistakes.
Link building strategy
In order to have a successful link building strategy in a new market, you need to find the right partners. This is because domains will have different values in different places of the world. Google will understand which domains to push based on your traffic.
If you get a lot of backlinks from UK websites, Google will see the relevance of your content to people in those countries.
Make sure to find reliable partners and build your links on high-quality domains, instead of going for quantity.
Key takeaways
International SEO shouldn’t be a harrowing task on your to-do list. It’s a chance to get to know different cultures and behaviours and help your brand reach new customers. If you’re looking for a way to present your SEO services to a new client, we suggest you use a beautifully designed SEO proposal that actually converts.
Remember, new markets demand new approaches and strategies, which is why you need to test out different keywords and phrases. Play around with different types of content and keep tabs on your analytics in order to understand what works best.
Lastly, don’t be too afraid to have fun. Expanding to a new market gives you the opportunity to re-brand and target people of different ages, behaviours and more. As long as you’re being respectful, you can test out new strategies.
