You own a business and your business has a website. You currently use conventional SEO practices and keyword research strategies to let your business rank well online. You are successful in getting high domain authority and a backlink profile which is diversified. Congrats! But what if you wish to expand your services? This is where it gets complex!
In what way can you create an international strategy for SEO which works equally well as your local SEO efforts? How can you merge international SEO along with your local keyword research? Do you just require translating all the content of your website? Or are there other steps to take? Read on to know about the other strategies to follow.
Step #1: Use VPN to spoof an overseas location to get hold of the traffic
Before you begin your international SEO efforts, you have to get a clear idea on the traffic scenario of the new place that you want to expand your business at. Utilize a VPN server to pretend to be in a different country and access the internet as if you were in that country. The real IP address will be replaced by another IP address which belongs to VPN and the VPN subscriber will seem to be of the location of the server to which you connect. Geo-spoofing will help you get hold of the traffic requirements and also have a close watch on the competitors in that country.
Step #2: Check the target language
The next thing to check is the language as this is the main factor as long as international traffic is concerned. The simplest solution of making your website reachable is by creating local content and targeting all languages in which you seem to be interested to reach. Remember that maximum international consumers choose to purchase from websites which offer content in their main native language. So, you may choose to have your site translated to your target languages.
Step #3: Choose a domain that’s specific to a country
The United States utilizes .net, .com or .org domains and other countries use other types of country-specific domains. For instance, if you wish to have your website in France, your website domain would be .fr as this would rank in a better way than .com for France. In case you don’t wish to create a new website, you can also create a landing page that’s dedicated to the site which you create for France.
Step #4: Link building is a must
When you target a new language, almost everything tends to change. Besides incorporating a new strategy for lead generation, you also require planning about link building. It is most unlikely that the websites that you use for your English domain will be of any importance to other domains which are country-specific.
Step #5: Listen and monitor
Lastly, you have to monitor the international influence and listen to whatever people say. Yes, you will definitely make mistakes while dealing with all sorts of cultures but nevertheless you should instantly be ready to adjust the strategies in an according way. Just as social media monitoring is one of the best ways of gaining insights into what customers do like and what they don’t like, similarly you too have to monitor your customers and clients.
To conclude, international SEO is necessary and it isn’t as difficult as you might assume. It just takes more effort and time to succeed. By utilizing the steps and strategies listed above, you can create a well-rounded strategy which stresses both on international and local search.