The Ultimate Guide to International SEO 1  

The Ultimate Guide to International SEO

     

The Ultimate Guide to International SEO 2  

WHAT’S  INSIDE  1.1.      Why  you  need  International  SEO  

1.2.      Identifying  your  International  SEO  opportunities  

1.3.      Establishing  an  SEO  friendly  Website    

     

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1.1. Why  you  need  International  SEO  

Although  you  might  already  be  implementing  a  successful  SEO  strategy  to  improve  your  website’s  organic  search  ranking,  traffic  and  conversions,  you  could  be  missing  new   business   opportunities   by   only   targeting   your   own   country,   or,   if   you   have  multilingual  sites,  only  doing  SEO  for  the  local  version.        

 

Not  only  do  73.2%  of   Internet  users  speak   languages  other   than  English1  but  also,  according  to  the  latest  eMarketer’s  forecast2  “in  2014,  for  the  first  time,  consumers  in   Asia-­‐Pacific   will   spend   more   on   ecommerce   purchases   than   those   in   North  America.”  Countries  in  the  Asia-­‐Pacific  region  along  with  Argentina,  Mexico,  Brazil,  Russia,  and  Italy  among  others  will  be  driving  ecommerce  sales  growth  worldwide.    

 

To   expand   your   business   and   compete   in   the   global   market,   you   will   need   to  translate   your   website   into   different   languages   and   then   optimize   these   other  versions  for  relevant  organic  search  visibility,  traffic  and  conversions.    

 

But   which   international   market   should   you   prioritize?   What’s   the   specific  opportunity   in  your   industry   for   international  search  markets?  What’s   the   level  of  search  competition,  and  what  does  local  consumer  behavior  look  like?  How  do  you  optimize   your   website   to   rank   for   other   languages   in   other   countries’   search  results?    

 

In   this   guide   you’ll   learn   the   fundamentals   for   developing   your   own   international  SEO  process.    

1.2. Identifying  your  International  SEO  opportunities  

A  key  part  of  the  International  SEO  process  is  the  initial  analysis,  as  it  will  drive  the  rest   of   your   tactics   by   allowing   you   to   identify   your   current   international   organic  search  status  as  well  as  the  potential  of  the  international  markets  into  which  you’d  like  to  expand.      

                                                                                                               1 http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats7.htm 2 http://www.emarketer.com/Article/Global-B2C-Ecommerce-Sales-Hit-15-Trillion-This-Year-Driven-by-Growth-Emerging-Markets/1010575  

     

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As   you   work   through   this   first   section,   don’t   forget   that   the   main   criteria   for  identifying   your   international   reach   are   not   your   own   location   and   language  but  those  of  your  target  audience.    

 

1.2.1.  Analyze  your  current  organic  web  traffic  &  search  visibility  Before  anything  else,  you  need  to   identify  and  analyze  your  current   international  traffic   by   answering   the   question:  Which   countries   and   languages   have   brought  more  and  better  organic  search  visibility,  traffic  and  conversions  in  the  last  year?    

 

You  can  find  this  information  by  going  to  the  Audience  >  Geo  >  Location  report  in  Google   Analytics   (or   any   other   analytics   tool)   and   apply   the   organic   traffic  segment.  

Then   you   can   drill   down   into   your   languages   report,   in   order   to   identify   which  languages  have  been  bringing  not  only  the  highest  volume  of  traffic,  but  also  the  highest  quality  traffic,  with  the  greatest  number  of  conversions.      

     

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Once  you  have  identified  your  top  countries  and  languages,  you  can  analyze  their  traffic  volume  and  quality,   looking  closely  at  their  behavior  and  trends  over  time.  Are  you  seeing  an  increase  or  decrease  in  searches?  Which  content  attracted  these  international  users  and  which  products  did  they  buy?    

If   you   select   additional   dimensions   in   your   report,   such   as   “Landing   Pages,”    you   can   further   analyze   how   well   your   content   is   performing   by   country   and  language    

     

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After   identifying   your   top   referring   countries   and   languages,   as   well   as   their  trends  over  time,  you  can  use  Google  Webmaster  Tools  to  discover  which  queries  your   international  audience  has  been  using  to  search  for  your  services,  products  or  content.    

With  this   information  in  hand,  you’ll  have  a  better  understanding  of  your  current  international  organic  search  activity.  If  these  numbers  are  still  very  low,  remember  that   they’re   only   your   starting   point   –   you   can   use   this   data   to   prioritize   the  markets   in   which   you’re   already   performing   well   and   develop   a   plan   to   reach  newer  markets  down  the  road.    

     

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1.2.2. Research  your  potential  International  search  markets  

Once  you  have  determined  your  website’s  current  international  search  status,  it’s  time   to   identify  and  prioritize   the  most   important   international  markets   for  your  business.    

 

Use   keywords   tools   like   Google   AdWords   Keyword   Planner,   Semrush   and  keywordtool.io,   which   are  multilingual   and  multi-­‐country,   to   identify   the   search  terms  used  by  your  audiences  across   the  globe.  These  tools  can  also  tell  you  the  number   of   times   keywords   are   searched,   so   you   can   verify   the   potential   search  traffic  you  could  attract  by  ranking  in  these  countries.    

With   the   Semrush   Organic   Search   Competitors   Report,   you’ll   also   be   able   to  identify   your   competitors   –   those   websites   already   ranking   for   your   relevant  keywords  –  for  each  of  your  international  markets.      Although   these   tools   will   help   you   identify   ideas   for   how   to   best   optimize   for  search,  it’s  critical  that  you  are  using  the  right  translation  solution  so  you  correctly  

     

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take   into   consideration   the   right   topics,   terms   and   phrases   from   each   specific  country  and  language.      Besides   the   relevant   keywords   and   search   volume   of   each   international  market,  you   should   also   identify   their   seasonality   with   Google   Trends.   Although   two  countries  might   speak   the   same   language,   their   audience   behavior   and  markets  might  be  very  different.    

 Next  you  can  use  the  Moz  Keyword  Difficulty  Tool  to  verify  your  keywords’  level  of  difficulty,   depending   on   the   authority   and   optimization   of   the   websites   already  ranking  for  them.    

With  all  the  information  you  will  have  gathered  after  following  the  steps  laid  out  in  Part  1  of   this  document,  you’ll  be  able   to  create  a  prioritized   list  of   international  markets  to  consider  for  your  business  expansion.      Now   what?   Should   you   just   enable   new   languages   on   your   current   website   or  create  brand  new  websites  targeting  each  individual  country  on  your  list?    

     

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Ideally,   you   should   geo-­‐target   each   country,  which  will   allow   you   to   localize   not  just   your   content   but   also   the   overall   user   experience   in   a  much  more   granular  way.  The  English   in   the  U.S..   for  example,    differs   from  the  English  spoken   in  the  U.K.  or  Australia,   just  as   the  Spanish   spoken   in  Spain  differs   from   that   spoken   in  various  Latin  American  countries.  While  there  are  feasible  and  cost-­‐effective  ways  to  do  this  right  from  the  start,  for  some  companies  it  might  not  be  so  critical.    

 So,  ask  yourself:  Is  location  a  factor  in  your  business  and  web  operations?  For  news  websites,  web-­‐based  software  services,  or   technology  blogs,   the  country   location  of  their  users  might  not  be  as  critical  as  for  an  ecommerce  site  or  retailer.      If  location  is  an  important  factor,  is  there  enough  potential  traffic  to  target  each  of  the   relevant   countries?   To   answer   this   question   you   can   use   the   previously  identified  keyword  search  volume  for  each  of  your  top  country  markets.    

1.3. Establishing  an  SEO  friendly  Website    

Once   you   have   identified  whether   you’re   going   to   target   languages   or   countries  and  which  you  will  focus  on,  the  next  step  is  to  establish  an  optimized,  crawlable  website   structure   for   each   one   of   them,   allowing   search   engines   and   users   to  effectively  find  your  internationally  optimized  content.    

1.3.1. Selecting the best international website structure Depending   on   whether   you’re   targeting   languages   or   countries,   you’ll   have  different  options  for  enabling  your  international  website  versions:      

• Language  Targeting  

From   a   web   structure   perspective,   there   are   two   ways   to   organize   and  configure   each   website   language   version   to   target   the   right   language  audience:    

 o Language  targeting  with  subdirectories  

 Enable   the   main   language   in   the   domain   root   and   each   additional  language  as  a  subdirectory.  For  example:    

 ! English:  www.yourbrand.com    ! Spanish:  www.yourbrand.com/es/  ! German:  www.yourbrand.com/de/  ! French:  www.yourbrand.com/fr/  

     

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This   is   the   most   commonly   used   option,   because   it’s   easier   for   each  language  version  situated  in  the  subdirectories  to  inherit  the  popularity  of  the  root  domain.      The  Atlassian  site  is  language  targeting  by  using  subdirectories.    

Using   subdirectories   might   not   be   ideal   if   a   high   volume   of   pages   are  going   to   be   published   and   will   need   to   be   indexed.   In   that   case,  subdomains  are  a  better  alternative.          

 

o Language  targeting  with  subdomains    

Enable   the   main   language   in   the   www   subdomain   and   each  additional  language  as  a  subdomain.  For  example:      

! English:  www.yourbrand.com    ! Spanish:  es.yourbrand.com  

     

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! German:  de.yourbrand.com  ! French:  fr.yourbrand.com  

 

Although  this  is  the  best  option  if  you  need  to  publish  and  index  a  high   volume   of   pages   for   each   of   your   language   versions,   more  link-­‐building   efforts   will   be   required   to   grow   your   websites’  popularity,   because   the   subdomains   will   no   longer   be   able   to  inherit  the  popularity  of  your  main  site.  

 Wordpress.com  is  language  targeting  by  using  subdomains.    

• By  Country  Targeting  

In this case, you are organizing and configuring each web country version to target the right audience, which can be done in three different ways from a website structure perspective:

     

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o Country targeting with ccTLDs By enabling each country’s web version under its own ccTLD. For example:

! U.S.A in English: www.yourbrand.com ! U.S.A in Spanish: www.yourbrand.com/es/ ! Spain: www.yourbrand.es ! Mexico: www.yourbrand.com.mx ! Germany: www.yourbrand.de

This is the best alternative for country targeting since ccTLDs are directly geo-targeted to their relevant country. Again, it’s important to note that, as each ccTLD is an independent domain, they will require more efforts to grow their popularity, since they cannot easily inherit it from each other. Tripadvisor is country targeting by using ccTLDs.

o Country targeting with subdirectories

     

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Enable the main country in the domain root of a generic domain (such as .com, .net, .org, etc.) and each additional country as a subdirectory. For example:

! U.S.A in English: www.yourbrand.com ! U.S.A in Spanish: www.yourbrand.com/es/ ! Spain: www.yourbrand.com/es-es/ ! Mexico: www.yourbrand.com.com/es-mx/ ! Germany: www.yourbrand.com/de-de/

With this approach, your website is not automatically geo-targeted as ccTLDs are, and will need additional efforts to be geolocalized. However, each subdirectory will inherit the popularity of the root domain   and   will   help   to   consolidate   each  other’s  authority,  as  they  will  all  be  under  the  same  domain.      EA  is  country  targeting  by  using  subdirectories.    

     

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o Country  targeting  with  subdomains      Enable  the  main  country  in  the  domain  root  of  a  generic  domain  (such  as  .com,  .net,  .org,  etc.)  and  each  additional  country  as  a  subdomain.  For  example:    

 ! U.S.A  in  English:  www.yourbrand.com  ! U.S.A  in  Spanish:  es.yourbrand.com  ! Spain:  es-­‐es.yourbrand.com  ! Mexico:  es-­‐mx.yourbrand.com  ! Germany:  de-­‐de.yourbrand.com  

Using   subdomains   won’t   provide   the   automatic   geolocation   like  ccTLDs,  and  each  country  version  will  need  to  independently  grow  its  popularity  as  each  of  its  subdomains  are  seen  as  independent  entities,  but   they’re   better   than   subdirectories   for   publishing   and   indexing   a  large  number  of  pages  in  each  country  version.      

     

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 The  Beats   by  Dr.  Dre  website   is   an   example  of   country   targeting  by  using  subdomains.    

 

As  you  can  see,  all   the  alternatives  have  pros  and  cons,  but   it’s   important   that  you   choose   one   of   them,   as   they   all   will   offer   a   crawlable   international   web  structure  for  each  one  of  your  versions.    

 

What  we  do  not  recommend  is  using  URL  parameters  for  your  international  web  versions,  or  showing  the  different  versions  through  the  same  URLs  using  scripts.      

     

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Although  it  might  require  more  initial  work  to  set  independent  web  structures  for  each   language   or   country,   your   international  websites  will   be   easier   to  manage,  target,  optimize  and  track  in  the  long-­‐term.    

 1.3.2. Optimizing  your  international  website  structure  

 Once   you   have   selected   and   established   a   language   or   country   targeted   web  structure  for  each  one  of  your  international  versions,  the  next  step  is  to  optimize  them  so  it’s  easier  for  search  engines  to  identify  their  relevance.    

 o Optimize   your   web   content   and   user   experience   for   your   target  

language  

 After   having   correctly   established   your   international   web   structure,  you  must  make  not  only  your  content  but  the  overall  web  experience  relevant  to  your  new  international  audiences  –  making  sure  they  are  translated  to  the  proper   languages,  using  the  relevant  keywords  you  identified   in   the   previous   research   phase.   Use   the   optimized  keywords  in  your:  

! Titles  ! Meta  Descriptions  ! URLs    ! Menu  &  navigation  elements  ! Headings  ! Images  ALT  descriptions  ! Page  content  

     

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o Link  between  your  international  web  versions  

 It’s   recommended  that  you   link   to  and   from  your  different   language  or  country  website  versions  so  search  engines  can  discover  them  and  users  can  switch  between  them.    

     

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o Suggest  the  relevant  international  version  to  your  visitors  

 You   can   detect   the   location   and   language   of   your   visitors   by  identifying   their   IP  and   their  browser   language.   If   they  are  visiting  a  language   or   country   version   that   is   not   relevant   for   them   –   for  example,  a  visitor  accessing  the  Mexican  version  of  your  website  from  Spain   –   you   can   suggest   the   correct   site   in   a   non-­‐intrusive   way,   as  Amazon  does.  

 

You  should  also  always   take   the  user   to   the  specific  page   they  were  looking  for,  but  in  the  right  country  or  language  version.    

     

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For   example,   if   your   visitors  were   looking   to   access   the   “About  Us” page,   you   should   take   them   to   the   specific   “About  Us”   page   of   the  country   or   language   you   are   suggesting   for   them.   In   other   words,  don’t  divert  them  to  your  website’s  homepage  to  suggest  a  change  in  language  or  country  version.  

o Use   hreflang   annotations   to   specify   each   of   your   international   web  versions  country  or  language  targeting    

 Hreflang   annotations   are   used   by   search   engines   like   Google   &  Yandex  to  identify  web  pages’  language  and  country  targeting.    

The   usage   of   hreflang   annotations   avoids   language   and   country  misalignment  issues  in  search  engines  results.  

These   tags   not   only   specify   the   language   and,   alternatively,   the  country  targeting  of  each  page,  but  also  refer  to  other  languages  and  country  versions  that  are  available.    

They  should  be  included  in  the  header  area  of  your  web  pages’  HTML,  in   the   HTTP   header,   or   in   the   XML   sitemaps   as   specified   here   by  Google.    

You  can  use  this  tool  to  facilitate  the  generation  of  the  hreflang  tags  

     

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or  this  other  tool,  which  will  include  them  in  the  XML  sitemaps.      

Use  the  International  Targeting  Report  in  Google  Webmaster  Tools  to  see  if  there  are  any  errors  in  your  hreflang  annotations.        

o Use  HTML  “lang”  and  “content-­‐language”  meta  tags  

 

Besides  hreflang  annotations,  we  also  recommended  using  the  HTML  “lang”  attribute  and  the  “content-­‐language”  tag.  These  attributes  are  still   taken   into   consideration   to   establish   your   pages   country   and  language  targeting  by  search  engines  like  Bing,  as  detailed  here.    

     

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o Geo-­‐target   your   subdirectories   or   subdomains   if   you’re   country  targeting  and  not  using  ccTLDs  

If   you   have   chosen   to   use   subdirectories   or   subdomains   to   country  target,   then   you   can   geolocate   each   one   of   them   to   their   relevant  country  by  using  the  correct  option  in  Google  Webmaster  Tools,  Bing  Webmaster  Tools,  or  Yandex  Webmaster  Tools.    

o Use  the  appropriate  character  encoding  

 You  should  specify  the  character  encoding  in  your  pages  as  described  here,   in   addition   to   using   UTF-­‐8,   to   effectively   display   non-­‐ASCII  characters.    

1.3.3. Monitoring  your  international  search  results  After   you   have   launched   and   optimized   your   international   web   versions,   you  should  continue  monitoring  your  search  results  for  each  country  and  language.    

 There   are   two   ways   to   check   your   ranking   for   your   targeted   international  keywords:      1. Use  tools  such  as  I  Search  From,  Search  Latte  or  impersonal.me  that  allow  you  

to  manually   verify   your   international   results   (or   search   by   using   proxies   that  allow  you  to  select  your  location,  such  as  HMA  or  ProxyBonanza).  

2. Use  rank  checkers  that  support  international  results,  such  as  AuthorityLabs  or  Advanced  Web  Ranking.        

     

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By   doing   this   you   can   not   only   verify   how   you’re   ranking   against   your  competitors   in   your   international   markets,   but   also   identify   trends   in   these  results,   such   as   the   type   of   pages   that   are   ranked   and   how   well   they’re  optimized.    

You  should  also  keep  an  eye  on  your  organic  search  traffic  via  Google  Analytics,  making   sure   that   each   of   your   international   web   versions   are   attracting   and  converting  traffic  as  expected.      

     

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Although there’s plenty more you can do when it comes to growing your business’s popularity in highly competitive international markets, by following these basic steps you’ll have effectively set up a good baseline for your international SEO.  

About Smartling Smartling is the leader in translation management and delivery solutions, helping globally minded, technology-driven companies eliminate the inefficiencies of manually managing translation processes, tools, and vendors. Enterprises and fast-growing companies use Smartling’s multi-tenant cloud platform to create, manage, and deliver their translated content. Smartling services innovative customers like GoPro, HubSpot, Optimizely, Pinterest, Spotify, SurveyMonkey, and Zuora.

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