What are the international SEO best practices for website optimisation?

Despite the travel restrictions over the past two years, we all know that the world is getting smaller. It is now easier than ever to fly to another continent, buy clothes from overseas and interact with people from all over the world at the click of a button. International business is no longer reserved for corporate giants, as start-ups and SMEs capitalize on the ability to attract customers from all corners of the globe. 

But where do you start to enable your website to rank on a global stage? This is where the world of international SEO comes to the fore. International SEO involves optimizing a website to direct search engines to show your pages in certain countries and regions. If done correctly, international SEO can offer businesses the chance to access a new market, boost traffic, improve engagement and increase conversions. Read on to find out more about international SEO best practices…

Hreflangs for multilingual websites

To really play the international SEO game at the highest level, websites spanning different countries can be set up with a CCTLD, or a cross country top-level domain. For example, co.uk for British websites, or .fr for French websites. Moz says: ‘ccTLDs are the single strongest way to show search engines and users that site content is specifically targeted to a certain country or region’. However, if the same website needs to be translated into multiple languages, this is when Hreflang tag attributes join the party. Put simply, hreflang tags tell Google which language you are using on a specific page, so the search engine can serve that result to users searching in that language. (Moz.com) 

Hreflangs are super important to help Google understand the differences between two pages, and avoid thinking that content has been duplicated, meaning that only one version of the pages is indexed. Hreflangs help to improve SEO by showing the right language version to specific language users, which can help decrease bounce rate and increase conversions. Hreflang tags work in pairs, so have to direct back to both websites, as seen in the graphic below. URLs should also be translated into the target language, as this is another signal to Google that the pages have different content, as well as improving the UX of the page. 

Geotagging your website

Geotagging is a feature which should be implemented on all websites as standard, even if you are only serving domestic customers. A super important element of SEO, it can once again signpost Google to serve the best results in the SERP for what the user is searching for. Adding location specific data to your website is even more important for international SEO, especially if you have web pages in different languages. Geotags can help Google supply the most relevant web page, as well as improve the UX of a webpage. For example, if you lived in London and searched for ‘web design companies near me’ and the Paris branch of a company appeared rather than their UK address, chances are you wouldn’t click on it.

Language Optimization

As a modern languages graduate, it pains me to see websites which have clearly been copied and pasted straight into an online translator. We have all had a laugh about word for word translations which have gone wrong, but it can have disastrous effects on international SEO. It is always advisable to employ a professional translator to translate a website, as they will be aware of both cultural and linguistic nuances which need to come across on the site. For example, Chilean Spanish has different reference points and verb forms than Mainland Spanish, so the more specific the better. As stated by Dignitas Digital, “by investing in carefully crafted quality content, you can effectively address the queries of your customers and provide them solutions personalized to their specific needs; thus, getting higher rankings in the SERPs.” Language optimization also applies to keyword research, where once again it is important not to translate keywords word for word. For example, Translate Press found that the keyword search volume for ‘how to install wordpress plugin’ in English is a popular query. However, when translated into Spanish as ‘como instalar plugin wordpress’ the search volume is relatively low, meaning it wouldn't be in SEO’s best interests to focus on this as a keyword in Spanish.

Hopefully you can now see the importance of optimizing your website for international SEO, and how the right focus, strategy and execution can have a big impact on ensuring your website gets seen overseas. Taking into account the factors mentioned above, you should be in a great position to boost engagement and conversion rates both domestically and internationally. Go and get started!