International SEO is a vital strategy for companies wanting to penetrate the global market. International SEO helps businesses gain exposure not only in their local areas. It is a long process that needs patience that gradually increases through organic traffic. 

What is international SEO?

It is a process of optimising the contents of the website to garner visibility on SERPs. It is powered by strong search results, the right keywords, and quality content. International SEO helps companies target specific countries while adjusting to the language, culture, and timeframe. 

Practices for International SEO

Define your Market Approach

Your SEO approach always depends on your target market, your product, and your overall business operations. Defining your market approach will require thorough research about the area’s language, culture, spending capacity, purchase decisions, and other elements that will affect your sales. 

Additionally, international SEO approaches each country separately to deliver a more modified marketing strategy. Your marketing efforts in the US may not work in Australia or vice versa. Each place has its own specific factors that your company must address. 

Execute Market Research

For any business, market research is crucial. Marketing strategies will be no good without the presence of data about your market segment and demographics. It is vital for every company to know their audiences to the core to know how and where to approach them. It helps the company create target marketing techniques. 

Execute Competitor Research

Competitor research is also crucial to know where you stand and your competitors. Not only your competitor but doing some research on industries that directly and indirectly affects your business will also give you important insights on how to approach the market and how to position yourself in the market. 

Plan A Marketing Strategy

After doing the research, you will now have ample data about your target market and your competitors. When formulating your international SEO marketing strategy, you can use tools and analytics software to see where the current traffic dwells.

Pick the Right Domain

Your domain is another important factor when entering the international market. It is important that your brand name and domain project the right brand associations to your international customers. It is best that your brand name and domain name is something that does not connote any negative views from your market and must be clear. Also – after the July 2021 Google Algorithm update, it’s not advised to use any exact match domains. Partial match domains such as https://firstaidworks.com.au/product/modular-first-aid-kit/

Choose the First Audience You Want to Cater

It will be quite a challenge to tap all your target countries at once. It is ideal to choose one and see if your SEO strategy works or not. It will be hard to optimise all your content for different countries. It may sound or seem confusing and with a weak standpoint. You can do a multi-stage roll-out by starting with one target market and earning insights on how to implement your international SEO strategy. 

International SEO can be achieved slowly but surely. It is a technique that will require specific actions to garner the right audience and the right insights from your international market. Even in the digital world, culture, beliefs, and behaviour differ. Although it is a platform where people all over the world can interact, it is still ideal to mind cultural differences to tap the right people.