All The Things You Need to Know Before Starting International SEO
Gone are the days where a global brand had to be the biggest name in the industry. Now thanks to the internet, it’s easier than ever to connect to people worldwide. But participating in the international market isn’t easy, especially if you have limited resources.
One of the only options you’ll have is international SEO, which is geared towards boosting your presence in international search engines so locals find you faster and engage with your products and services. But to get this right you will need an international SEO specialist on hand to help you out. So, before you jump in, let’s look at why it’s worth the investment overall.
The Strength of International SEO
Reach New Markets
In the online world nothing stops people from reaching new markets, no matter where in the world they are. However, the world is not a one size fits all situation, you need to cater your international SEO to target the region by using their language and making content that includes language norms, cultural norms and nuances as well.
Grow Organic Traffic & Everything Else
If you work on your international SEO and start implementing your campaigns successfully, you’ll see that your growth will begin as soon as you appear in search results on Google in that specific country. What follows this is ongoing traffic growth, increased visibility and increased trust which then leads to increased sales. Which is the end goal of many businesses who want to branch out.
Improve Brand Visibility
Your brand’s identity is what will carry you across to international markets seamlessly. By growing this in an organic manner over time you can slowly build this visibility alongside something else that’s very important, credibility. When people can see your business and trust you (because you’re high on their search engine results and in their language), they are more likely to make a purchase, but not just one purchase, they’re more likely to come back for more.
Keep These Things in Mind Before Getting Started
Define your international goals
Like with any marketing strategy you need to make sure your objectives are clear before you start your international SEO campaign. This way you can accurately set a course for your growth in a way that can be scaled up or down organically and track the success of your work more accurately. But most importantly, it’ll keep you on track.
Market research matters
When you decide on your goals the next step is to do research into the country you want to operate in as well as your direct competitors in this market. This way you can understand consumer behaviour and how you’re up against up front. IF you’re working with an agency, you might find this being a long process, but it’s worth it as it gives you all the insights you need.
Don’t skip keyword research
Keyword research in international SEO is vital, often it’s in different languages, it contains cultural nuances and it takes a long time to get right, but you need to put the effort in otherwise there’s no use in even trying as keywords are what connects you to your customers. For example if your target country is Australia you’ll need to use their famous slang in your keywords to mimic how they’d type naturally into search engines and getting this right is a lot of work.
Don’t ignore technical stuff
One of the biggest issues people face is that they forget that international SEO is such a technical undertaking (which is why we don’t recommend DIY), and when it’s done right these technical aspects aren’t apparent to anyone, but when it’s done wrong it all falls apart very quickly, so take the time to look into URL structures, hreflang and other such things before getting started, or just work with the experts because they’ll get all of the above right and do it for you with less stress on your part.
If you’re in the market for an International SEO agency, you’re in luck. From their recent updates it looks like Global SEO superstar Perfect Link Building has started offering international SEO, so give them a call ASAP and get started!
