SEO is optimizing your web content to increase its visibility in search engine rankings. Global SEO is the same process repeated for different countries or regions for better online visibility to the relevant audiences. It comprises of multiple techniques like creating content specific to the preferences and requirements of audiences of different countries as well as optimizing the content for the main search engines of those countries individually. Just like in general SEO, even for global SEO, you will need to take in account optimization for site loading speed, keywords, backlinks, UX, sitemap, and schema markup in addition to listing in local directories, business information platforms, and customer reviews to lift up your page ranking. With global SEO, you will be targeting audiences all over the globe but with the focus firmly on customizing the experience for local audiences keeping in mind their language, behavioral patterns, cultures, and even the regulatory environment.
Google’s Perspective on Global SEO
Despite the popularity of many other search engines in different countries, Google remains right at the top of the heap in the worldwide web search market. It is therefore important to keep in mind Google’s perspective when crafting the global SEO strategy. Regardless of the geographical area, Google remains fixed on its philosophy that relevance is of utmost importance. It uses both on-page and off-page SEO and visitor behavior to quantify relevance. It is important for global markets not to treat different countries the same but to identify and address the unique needs of each and every target audience. Using the same content, even though it might have been successful in one country, is unlikely to work because the needs and relevance of audiences in different countries will be different. To be successful, you will have to build credibility and trust in every market you want to operate in. Global markets should not forget the importance of including NAP information (business name, address and phone number) in the local websites or pages that you set up for each country. The more you can customize your website with region-specific information, the more relevant it will appear to Google and rank better in the search results.
Global SEO Tactics for Dominating Markets
Research across multiple parameters: Conducting research is the most fundamental step in creating a global SEO strategy. To improve your chances of success in global marketing, you need to find out the countries that offer the most potential for your company. Find out what their online habits are, including their favorite websites and social media usage and the influencers that have the maximum impact. Also, conduct a competitor analysis to find out who your main competition is and discover the opportunities that are being exploited successfully. Learn how your competition ranks for your target keywords and their search traffic volumes. Also, use market intelligence to understand why certain countries seem more attractive. Now set your company’s marketing goals and then derive your SEO goals and decide on the metrics for monitoring performance. Conduct comprehensive keyword research to discover the keywords with the maximum volumes across countries and languages. There are a number of tools that can help you in this analysis. Ascertain the competitiveness of each of the keywords and then find out what your current rankings are for each to know how much effort you need to put in to improve and get ranked on the first page of Google search results.
Prepare Your Website for Global SEO: Your website is perhaps the first and often the last point of contact by customers of your business and you need to be able to get ready a website that users find value in and will want to visit repeatedly. With global SEO, the problem gets even more complex because you need to tell search engines the language in which the site should be displayed. For Google, this is done by creating the hreflang attribute for every site that you create while for Bing, you need language Meta tags. If you want, you can use language targeting that is regional so that you can target all the countries speaking the same language. Global SEO will be incomplete if you do not take into account the strong preference for alternative search engines that some international markets display. Not optimizing for Baidu in China or Yandex in Russia will have an adverse effect on your brand visibility. According to https://searchengineland.com, Yahoo has 40% of the market share in Japan.
Hire content translators and customer support executives with native language proficiency and understanding SEO: It is very important that the content development and customer support is handled by people who are fluent in the native language of the country you are operating in; although there are a number of apps and API integrations that can let you access multiple languages. Hiring bilingual staff is a good strategy to overcome the expense and complexity of automated translation software. Creating comprehensive guides, FAQs, and support documents besides infographic and videos can be helpful in bridging the language gap. It is necessary that local content creators not only understand your industry well but also are SEO-savvy.
Put a Robust Strategy for Backlinks in Place
Global SEO will be more effective with strategic backlinking as backlinks are a very important factor for search engine rankings. When you can have a large number of backlinks from one country, it can suggest to users from that country to engage with your content. Also, backlinks from sources that are considered authoritative in specific countries guide the search engines to understand that your content is relevant and credible to audiences from that country. While remembering to maintain the link density with the development of new web pages, you should encourage translators to use their expertise to acquire more backlinks from local review sites, business directories, resource pages, blogs, online communities and forums, events listings, and much more. Using people with proficiency in the local language can help you to make more informed backlinking decisions. Investigating the backlinks of your principal competitors can be especially helpful.
Conclusion
A global SEO strategy can sound very grand; however, it is just an SEO strategy that you have to develop for success at the local level replicated across the different countries you wish to establish your business presence. The key to success lies in finding out who your local audience is and what makes them tick and then developing the content with local relevance to satisfy them.
