With the boom of the internet in the early 2000s, marketing boomed with it. We used to be limited in who we could market to, but with the internet, there is no limit to where or who we can reach. SEO is important no matter what you are marketing, but international SEO is a whole other beast. Things that work where you live can be interpreted entirely differently in another country. You need to be careful when it comes to how and who you market to across the world. Let’s go over some tips and tricks to help you effectively use SEO around the world.

Research

Just like any SEO you would do for your country or local area, doing research on other countries is a huge part of international SEO. Keyword research is going to help you find the keywords that are most relevant in that country and for your campaign. Keywords are an important part of SEO because they help drive in leads that are the most interesting and relevant for you and your business.

You are going to want to put a big focus on long-tail keywords. Long-tail keywords are words that contain three or more words. A good example of this would be "Mexican restaurants near St. Paul, MN." These keywords are specific and tell you exactly what your potential customers are trying to find. I would consider these keywords more valuable as they drive more valuable leads.

Language targeting

One of the most important aspects of international SEO is going to be language targeting. Oftentimes, companies are going to focus on specific countries, such as Germany, Spain, or France. This is because they often offer those language options. To make sure that you reach all the potential leads, it’s best to focus on the language rather than the country, because countries more often than not speak more than one language. For example, Canada speaks both English and French. So if you target France, you wouldn’t be focusing on people who speak French in Canada.

Think about culture.

If you want your SEO to do well in other countries, you are going to have to immerse yourself in whatever culture you are trying to market in. You want to make sure that your design and site content are culturally appropriate for the audience you are targeting. It will provide them with a better understanding and experience of your website. First, you are going to want to format everything correctly. This means using the local language, currency, and the correct time zone where they are. You are going to want to also look at things like addresses and phone numbers to make sure everything is properly formatted. These may seem like little things, but they make all the difference and can result in a huge impact.

When it comes to the design part of your website, research the countries beforehand to understand how they perceive colors and designs. Just because it works here in the United States doesn’t mean it is going to work well in other countries. Other countries may not find the colors you pick appealing, so make sure that you spend some time figuring out what colors and what designs are going to work the best for you and your website.

Translation 

When you are making great content, you are going to want to share it with all leads in all markets. You want to be able to duplicate your content and translate it properly for them. A great thing about Google is that they won’t penalize you for duplicating content. When you are making content in a different language, Google realizes the purpose and allows you to create content in various languages. Just because you are duplicating it doesn’t mean you shouldn't change it based on the culture.

You want to make the alterations fit the cultures; some terms may not make sense in other cultures. You will want to keep the same concept behind the content, but you want to make sure that the focus on translating the content makes sense to your international audience. Content marketing has a bigger impact on SEO performance than you may think; it keeps leads that you generate engaged on your site for a longer period of time. This will help boost your SEO ranking, so you can reach more leads.

In conclusion, international SEO is a vital part of your marketing strategy. If you want to engage with these leads, invest in some international SEO to make sure you reach them in the best way possible. International marketing is one of the best ways to market your company, and that won’t go away anytime soon. If anything, it will just progress further. So get started today by jumping on the international marketing bandwagon.

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