Evolving your International SEO
Whether your company’s looking to expand internationally or to increase its already established market share, there are several areas crucial to success.
Do your research:
A solid foundation is essential – you can’t build anything on sand and being able to get off to a good start is even more important when it comes to an international strategy.
Take time to understand how your brand is already placed and look into its potential. Who are your global competitors? Who are the big brands in each of your target markets and how do they communicate with customers? Knowing this will help you understand what they do to stay at the top of the rankings and how they build local domain authority.
At Ingenuity Digital we use in-house tools to evaluate our clients’ position in comparison to the top ten competitors in their market. We analyse the most important key phrases in each market and identify the sites that rank well in natural search for each phrase. Understanding what makes each competitor successful allows us to devise competitive strategies. For example, sites with higher domain authority and more inbound links tend to have the highest rankings.
Use Google Analytics to examine how your landing pages are doing now, then Google AdWords tools to gage the potential traffic your global site(s) could achieve.
Really get to know your target markets: what are your potential customers’ buying preferences? How does their online behaviour differ from country to country? What are the major search engines within your chosen area for expansion?
If you can answer all these questions then you will be able to form an online strategy that targets markets in the right way, and builds a secure return on investment.
Think about your website
Make sure your site is easy to navigate for users in any location. Think about language and different dialects. Think about how this will affect search terms – even between the UK and the US, customers will not use the same search terms. A search in the UK for “red trousers” may carry high volume, while in America a search for “red pants” would have a higher traffic level.
The site menu must be easy to use and language options visible, as this will help keep your “bounce rate” low and potential customers on site. As search engines are increasingly considering the usability of websites, this type of optimisation will also help boost your rankings.
Re-structure your site content so each customer can see the products and information most relevant to them. Choose the right domain for your company too, whether this is using sub-domains or separate sites for each country. I’d personally recommend the latter, as you can then build the popularity of each site individually, create a customer experience that’s tailored to different audiences and territories and get ranked on the market leading search engine in the appropriate area.
Be relevant:
Your rankings will improve the more you offer relevant content. Ensure that you react to individual customers through social media, offering them personalised information that takes into account location and cultural differences.
Measure your success:
Use Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools to follow the success rates of your campaigns. Look at how long customers are spending on your site, where they are coming from and what content is most engaging for them, as well as your conversion data. Set these tools up to measure traffic between your international sites.
A final thought:
Any business with a clear strategy, the bravery to invest and an understanding of their market potential can capitalise on global platforms. Here we’ve provided a few, short pointers on where to start, but with international SEO, the sky’s the limit.
Get in touch if you would like to learn more about International SEO.