Adopting an international SEO strategy is a fairly complicated, yet essential, step for a company that wishes to optimize its visibility in the search engine. Many elements must be put in place such as the techniques to adopt, the marketing strategies or the editorial. This article tells you more about how an international SEO strategy works as well as how it should be used for best results.
What is international referencing?
International SEO is a strategy to increase the visibility of your business on the search engine. To do this, you need to determine how you are going to target users. Hire a professional website builder . He will take care of setting up for you a multi-regional site or a multilingual site, or both at the same time. The first is to create content that targets multiple geographies, but has a single language. The second type of site, on the other hand, has content in different languages, without having to geographically target users. The combination of these two dimensions defines a key strategy to optimize the visibility of your website internationally.
How to succeed in your SEO strategy?
Market analysis
To succeed in your international SEO strategy, a few steps must be followed. The first is to analyze the market. Indeed, each country has its own approach to the web that should not be overlooked. The best way to do this is to have a presence in the target country to enlighten you on user habits, the use of keywords or the translation of content. You can also call on professionals like Linkeo to support you in carrying out your digital project.
The domain name
This is an important step in ensuring brand awareness for your offering. One way to choose the domain name is to use an extension for each country. This option is very effective in adapting to the targeted country. However, it is a rather expensive paid search and its execution takes a lot of time. In addition, the use of a sub-domain, per language and per country is less expensive and allows more precise targeting. However, this second alternative takes longer than the first. The third solution is the subdirectory by language. Its advantage is linked to the fact that the strategy is less expensive, but it is not very efficient in terms of SEO.
How to target users?
According to a study published in 2020, most users prefer sites that have an effective digital experience. This is one of the most important points of an international SEO strategy . To target users, first determine their language and region. Offer the right version of your site, depending on the target customer. Also, make sure to optimize the loading speed of your website to allow users to have smoother browsing. Indeed, ensuring a good customer experience allows you to retain them and make them want to return to your site.
Adapt the content to the targeted targets
To ensure that your site is adapted to the targets, make your contents more desirable by taking into account their cultural aspects. The same is true for accessibility, which is mandatory in some countries. Choose a language that your targets will be able to understand directly, without having to go through a translator. The content of your site must also be relevant. That is to say that the information communicated must be of interest to the targets. Similarly, content must be indexable and searchable. If certain elements are overlooked, it can create frustration for customers.