Business owners looking to introduce their brands to foreign markets might want to consider performing international SEO – after all, e-commerce is an absolutely crucial sector and, according to research, by 2025, its rate will be even 5% higher than in 2021. Obtaining a high position in foreign search results is a complex and multi-faceted venture, and there are countless pitfalls one has to be aware of. Our article provides all the information needed to understand the process and avoid mistakes that otherwise may prove to be a huge setback for any company.
First things first – what is SEO and what does it involve?
Let’s start by explaining what international SEO actually is. It’s the process of optimising a website so that it ranks high in foreign search results and can be easily found and navigated by users from specific countries, regions, or ethnic groups. The elements that need to be considered while performing international SEO include:
| 1. Research into competition: Learning about competition in a given market and performing a preliminary visibility and SEO analysis. 2. Targeting: Identifying and targeting the right keywords for a given country or region (KWR, or keyword research). 3. Language: Ensuring that the content of the website is translated into the language of the target audience, preferentially by an expert native speaker. 4. Localisation: Adapting the content to the local culture, including dialects, slang, symbolism, customs, and references. 5. Technical optimisation: Ensuring that the website is optimised for search engine crawlers, both in terms of on-page and off-page SEO; choosing a suitable domain and subdomain. 6. Link building: Building links from relevant websites in the target country. 7. Analytics: Setting up analytics to track website performance in different countries. |
By taking these steps, you’re bound to boost site visibility, drive traffic, and ensure better conversion rates. But how to make sure that the process runs smoothly and that we don’t mess anything up? There are several aspects that we need to be particularly aware of.
Employing wrong keywords and keyphrases
Keywords and keyphrases are absolutely critical to achieving a good position in foreign search results. But for them to be really effective, one needs to ensure that they are indeed the right ones. Literal translation will hardly suffice – if anything, it can lead to creating strings of words that are completely unsuitable for the target market and thus not yielding any results.
Each market has its own rules – and its own preferences, also when it comes to formulating thoughts and needs. Phrases used to search for things may be completely different depending on the locale, language, or culture – which is why no business can do without a thorough analysis of keywords and keyphrases (KWR, or keyword research). By carrying it out, you’ll be able to examine and understand the market you intend to enter and identify just the right linguistic elements. Including them in your content will result in a higher rank and attract more users to your website.
It would be best to conduct the said analysis before translating, transcreating, or creating content. This helps ensure that the content resonates with the target audience and that the resultant text is characterised by increased accuracy, better optimisation for search engines, and improved cultural relevance. Such a strategy will also allow you to implement keywords and keyphrases in a partially automated way, especially when a large-scale deployment is required.
If you’re unsure where to begin, get in touch with us! Our experts are ready to help you find the best solution.
Choosing a wrong search engine
Although, from certain points of view, it might seem that Google is the most prevalent search engine in each and every corner of the globe, the reality turns out to be different. Popularity of search engines differs vastly from market to market, and it is extremely important to consider this aspect while performing international SEO. Knowing what solutions are the most popular in a given country allows you to optimise your website just the right way and thus drive much more traffic. The most used search engines in some countries include Naver in South Korea or Baidu in China – and it certainly wouldn’t hurt to consider also the runners-up, such as Yahoo! Japan in Japan or Bing in the United Kingdom and the USA.
Neglecting legal aspects
The regulations surrounding a company’s online presence can vary significantly depending on the country or market, and the consequences of not following legal provisions can be severe. For this reason, it is extremely important to dedicate time and effort to learning and understanding all the relevant requirements. This includes topics such as personal data protection, terms and conditions of the online store, and cookie policy – all these documents should be clear and compliant with local regulations. Seeing to it will help you build trust with website visitors, and ultimately play a part in encouraging them to choose your services.
Forgoing local SEO
Local SEO, or local positioning, is a way of advertising your brand online to reach as many potential customers as possible – in your area. It helps companies promote their products and services among local internet users when they are searching for a specific service or business. According to Search Engine Land and Business 2 Community, 96% of computer users search locally, 46% of all Google searches are local, while 78% of local searches on mobile devices end in an offline purchase. This shows the importance of location-specific SEO for companies targeting local audiences – it allows them to offer precisely what the customers need when they need it. What is more, Google often adds a relevant map to certain keyphrases, assisting its users in locating the desired business – this provides an extra layer of convenience and helps businesspeople close more transactions.
Translating content indiscriminately
It’s essential to localise and culturally adapt the content published on your website rather than simply translate it – it’s a way of showing your new audiences that you truly respect them, and as such it’s vital for customer acquisition. For example, when planning seasonal marketing campaigns, it would be a good idea to do a thorough research on local holidays, even if celebrations seem universal.
As can be found on Travel Triangle, the way Valentine’s Day is celebrated in the United States is substantially different from the festivities held in some other countries – in Bulgaria, the holiday is called San Trifon Zartan (“The Day of Winemakers”) and consists in couples savouring superb local wine. Additionally, the date itself varies from region to region – while in numerous places Valentine’s Day is celebrated on 14 February, Wales celebrates it on 25 January, and Miao in southwest China – on 15 March. Furthermore, not all countries have the same holidays, meaning that a text targeting one audience may be completely irrelevant to another – this, in turn, may make a given group think you disregard their customs and culture. Which, obviously, couldn’t be further from the truth!
Using identical URL addresses across website versions
A typical URL address is made up of a protocol (https), a domain name (e.g. digibutsu), a top-level domain (e.g. .com), and a resource name (e.g. /blog). It allows for locating various pieces of content on the internet. Having a straightforward and encouraging URL is essential to letting users know what to expect from your website. When it comes to international positioning, it is important to make sure that URLs are adjusted to the language and country. This ensures that search engines have no trouble ranking your website and that users can memorise the URL and navigate the site with ease.
Choosing a wrong hreflang attribute
The hreflang attribute is an HTML tag used to specify the language of a web page. It helps search engines determine which version of a web page should be served to users that are searching in a specific language. What needs to be kept in mind is that it should be added to all versions of a website that has been translated or transcreated into different languages, dialects, or cultures. This can help you boost conversions and reach more potential customers in foreign markets, as they will be able to easily find the version of your website that is relevant to them. It also helps prevent duplicate content issues by making sure that search engines recognise texts as separate optimised versions, not just copies (this applies in particular to situations in which there are multiple website versions in one language, but they are intended for different markets, so they vary to some small degree).
Amongst the tools that can be used to assess the efficiency of our hreflang-related actions are Screaming Frog or the hreflang checker function available in Google Search Console.
Using a single domain for multiple countries
If you plan to expand to foreign markets, it is important to carefully think about the domain you want to employ. Using the same one for all countries will make it difficult for search engines to recognise the content as being separate for each locale. This, in turn, could make them unable to recognise and rank the content, leading to lower positions in foreign search results.
One solution is to use a generic domain, such as .com, .org or .net, to create one website with multiple language versions. However, this may not be the best option for international positioning and local ranking.
A better solution would be to create a separate website targeted specifically at a given market, with a domain relevant to that country – a ccTLD domain, or a country top-level domain. For example, the ccTLD for Germany is .de and for Great Britain – .uk. By using the correct ccTLD, search engines will have no problem with recognising the content as being targeted at the intended recipient.
Ways of steering clear of slip-ups
Making mistakes is an unavoidable part of life, but as business owners, we need to maintain an impeccable professional image, and do our best to minimise the number of potential slip-ups. Therefore, it is important to be cautious while planning an international SEO strategy. If you are unsure what the best approach would be in your case, it may be a wise decision to turn to experts.
Digibutsu works closely with translators and copywriters who are native speakers and specialists in various fields. They have an in-depth understanding of their local market and know which content will be effective and which won’t. For an international website to be successful, it has to be tailored to the target audience – and native speakers who know their own market inside-out are truly best suited to optimising your website to unlock its full potential.
International SEO with Digibutsu
If you want to have your website perfectly localised, from content to attributes, look no further than us! At Digibutsu, we expertly manoeuvre the complex, multi-step process of international website optimisation, and we’ll be more than happy to lend our expertise.
Sources
https://www.seogroup.pl/pozycjonowanie-zagraniczne/
https://www.ranktracker.com/pl/blog/7-biggest-international-seo-mistakes-you-should-avoid/
https://www.goinflow.com/blog/13-international-seo-mistakes-avoid/
https://widoczni.com/blog/optymalizacja-adresow-url/
https://yoast.com/hreflang-ultimate-guide/
https://toponline.pl/slownik-seo/domena-cctld
https://www.business2community.com/infographics/local-seo-statistics-must-know-infographics-01557523#hLlTEbMlZ1xqt4l9.97
