How is SEO Different Around the World – International SEO Strategy and Fundamentals

So you thinking about going international with your website?
Congrats, we know the name of the game is for global domination,
but have you thought about how this might affect your SEO?
Look, I'm not going to stand here and tell you that SEO is different all over
the world because realistically, the main concept and process is fairly similar.
However, I am here to tell you that the way to look at SEO for each
region is different and, well, super important.
So it's not so much the SEO process
that changes, more so the strategy for each of the regions.
Hi, guys, it's Trav here
from Neighbourhood, where we help brands find, sell and keep their people.
Now we all know that the number one rule in marketing is knowing your audience.
This is a crucial part of why SEO varies around the world.
Every country around the world is a unique
and diverse market of its own. With this in mind,
each country also uses the Internet a little bit differently.
Each region comes with their own values, interests, rules and regulations.
This is why your SEO strategy should differ with each region.
There are three main things that you need
to keep in mind when looking at international SEO strategies.
Number one, your search competition is going to be different in each market.
Entering a new search market means
that you're competing with that market's already optimised sites.
It's going to take some time to grow some
awareness amongst competition in a Google or search domain that you're new to.
Each region of the world has their own
Google, like Google.Com, Google.fr, Google.es, Google.jpn -
they all behave pretty much the same with almost identical algorithms.
But it's important to understand that each has its own world of published web pages.
Now, don't worry, it doesn't mean that you're starting
from zero domain authority, but it does mean that your brand will have
less awareness and less awareness equals less website traffic.
So basically, you have to work a little
harder to get this search market's attention.
A good way of starting at this is looking
at what your biggest competitors in the search market are doing.
Look for trends and content that is gaining traction.
The more organic content you can create
specifically relevant to that region, the more awareness and traffic that you
will achieve, ultimately boosting your website's authority.
Another way of gaining authority in a different search region is networking
with established sites and developing your backlink profile.
This is where your website is linked on another industry relevant websites,
search engines, love quality back links. Number two speak their language.
Obviously, this is a bit of an elephant
in the room and it is a pretty crucial, especially when it comes to keywords.
Keywords are a great way to optimise your
content so that it ranks on search engines.
Consequently, it's important to do some research into the keywords appropriate
for your product or service in relation to that target country.
Some keywords that are effective in English might not be so effective if
they're just word for word translated into a different language.
This could be for a number of reasons.
Maybe it might not have the same meaning, or it could have different connotations.
There are some words in other languages
that simply just don't translate to English.
And just remember that! Our best advice
to mitigate translation issues is to do a fair bit of research and if possible,
reach out to someone who is clued in on the target market language.
This is another really effective way to optimise your content,
getting on a local creator to write and produce content for you.
To be honest, I would say that this is
an invaluable way to ensure your content is relevant, helpful,
engaging and ultimately optimised appropriately for that region.
Another added bonus to hiring local talent, they
really do know their stuff in that region.
So you're putting yourself in the best
possible position to be authentic and genuine, which is another step towards
gaining authority. When setting up the website for an international audience,
you have a couple of options
depending on whether you have the whole page translated or whether you just want
to attract an audience from a certain region.
Each domain structure comes with its pros and cons as well as their own price tag.
So it's good to do some research
into exactly what you want to achieve and how best to structure it for you.
HubSpot has a great article about setting
up your site for International SEO, which you can check out the description below.
Multilingual SEO meta tags are also pretty
important when it's assigning different languages on your website.
These are the tags in the HTML coding of your website.
These tags help search engines figure out
who the content is for when crawling the site.
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Number three, sometimes Google just isn't all that.
While we talk about optimising our sites
for well known search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing, in some regions,
these search engines don't even exist or even banned.
If you are looking into expanding into these markets, it's important to find
out which major search platforms you need to be optimised for.
For example, Russia's main search engine is Yandex, and in China, it's Baidu.
Unfortunately, unlike major search engines
like Google, Yahoo and Bing that have all have similar algorithms and behaviours,
these less known search engines are actually pretty different,
and therefore, you'll have to do a bit
of research into which search engine you'll be tackling.
All in all, SEO processes don't really change from country to country unless
that country likes being a little bit more difficult like China and Russia.
However, you will need to invest some
energy into creating an SEO strategy for each region.
The best way to do this is to start
and think back to basics, knowing your target audience,
researching local trends and delivering relevant and engaging content.
So if you found this video helpful, then feel free to share it with someone
that you know that needs a hand with some international SEO.
You can also subscribe to our blog, where
you'll find a bunch more tools,
tips and templates, to Help you Find Sell & Keep your people.
Just like Neighbourhood does.
Well, that's it from me. Happy marketing.