International SEO: Your Guide to Reaching a Global Audience

Search engine optimization (SEO) is essential for getting your brand to the first page of search results and, preferably, the top five places for your main keyword.

But what if you wish to go outside your current market? With over 3.5 billion searches every day on Google, there’s a huge chance for companies to gain new clients. The drawback is that current SEO tactics may not apply to other regions, and in some situations, may even harm your brand.

Approximately 8 billion people live on this planet, and 4.66 billion of them are regular internet users. Although not every website can profit from foreign visitors, if yours can, international SEO may help you expand your reach dramatically. After all, there are millions of individuals seeking information similar to yours, but they won’t find it if it isn’t tailored to the correct country (or in the proper language).

What is International SEO?

International SEO is the process of improving your search visibility for users who live in other countries or who speak different languages. It is the process of increasing the organic presence of your website in overseas markets. You may target content to viewers all across the world using geo-targeting, hreflang tags, and other localization signals. It allows you to target people in certain countries, broadening your reach and raising brand exposure.

In short, international SEO is a great method to develop your business by bringing your content, goods, and services to worldwide search results.

How International SEO Works

Google tries to match search results to the searcher’s language and location. If you put Special signals to your website, then these tell Google and other search engines whether your site provides material that might be relevant to someone looking in a given country or language.

Although several nations have strong cultural and linguistic links, there are many variances. In Australia, for example, you can’t go far without seeing a Bottle-O, yet many Brits and Americans may be unsure what it means.

The basic idea is that each country has a distinct audience that requires its own SEO strategy—and that’s even before you factor in several languages.

Why is International SEO Important?

Although Google is based in the United States, it is used in every part of the planet and generates 92.96 percent of global traffic. Furthermore, millions of American businesses sell their goods and services abroad, with foreign sales accounting for a significant portion of their revenue:

• Apple has a market share of 60.7 percent in overseas markets.
• Ford has a market share of 36.7 percent in overseas markets.
• Alphabet (Google) has a market share of 53.8 percent in overseas markets.
• Walmart has a market share of 23.2 percent in overseas markets.

While you might wonder that that’s fantastic for big firms with big finances, but how does that affect small businesses?

The answer is simple: SEO is a marketing tool that enables little firms to compete with the giants, and international SEO is no exception. International traffic is available for the grab, and matching user intent is one of the most crucial components of SEO. Google and other search engines strive to direct consumers to the most relevant page to answer their inquiries, and for many searches, location is a factor.

Let us take the Bottle-O case for instance. When someone in Australia would search in Bottle-O, they probably want to know the opening hours of their local Bottle-O. But when an American searches for Bottle-O, they’re presumably looking for information on what it even is. The two search results would be fundamentally opposed, and any material that addressed the incorrect user intent would have no chance of ranking.
International SEO enables you to cater to a variety of user needs in order to capitalize on worldwide interest in your products and services.

Does My Business Need An International SEO Strategy?

Selling globally has its difficulties, but it also has its own benefits. In the coming five years, the worldwide e-commerce market is predicted to grow at a rate of 18.7% per year, with growth rates considerably greater in less-developed regions.

If you can adopt an international SEO plan, this opens up a lot of doors for your company. However, Consistency is something that is of utmost importance when it comes to SEO. It isn’t something you do for a month and then abandon. International SEO is the same way: it requires time and work. To make this time and work worthwhile, you must believe that the advantages of going international are worthwhile.

Ask yourself a few informed questions before you start investing in international SEO:

1. Does your business have an international audience already? To find out where your visitors are coming from, look at the visitors section of your Google Analytics account. If there’s a lot of overseas traffic, that suggests there’s a lot of demand.
2. What are your visitors looking for? Perform keyword research in the same manner as you would for traditional SEO. See what phrases people are searching for in various locations.
3. What is the default language for your users’ browsers? This information can be found in the audience section of your statistics and can provide you with valuable insight into what your website visitors are searching for.
4. Is international SEO something your components are doing? For this, you can use a VPN to observe what search results individuals in various countries are seeing. If one of your competitors has a significant presence in another nation, it’s possible that it is also a feasible alternative for you.
5. Do you have the knowledge, selling ability, etc. to implement International SEO? SEO isn’t only about generating traffic; it also has to result in conversions. If you don’t have the experience or selling skills to do this, the advantages of international SEO will be limited.

How to Implement International SEO

• 1. Research Your Strategy
  Any SEO strategies you use should be backed up by solid research. Everyone has a marketing budget, and squandering it on useless targeting will lower your return on investment. Make sure that your efforts are directed toward the regions with the most potential. Research can assist you decide on important goals, keyword selections, website structure, and more in the following phases. Furthermore, make sure that you have reliable proof that investing resources on international SEO will be better for your firm in the long term than focusing those resources on local SEO.
• 2. Choose A URL Strategy
  The source of the content you’ve developed is a major determinant of international SEO ranking. Your website’s domain structure affects how easy or difficult it is for users and search engines to discover your content. Various choices are available, including:
  • (i) ccTLD
    Country code Top Level Domains (country code top level domains) are two-letter domains that are given to certain nations. For example, .us represents the United States,.ca represents Canada, and .au represents Australia. Create a distinct ccTLD site for each country where your products or services are accessible to increase international SEO.
  • (ii) gTLD
    A generic Top-Level Domain (gTLD) is a domain extension that has three or more characters; these TLDs are managed by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA). .com, .gov, and.org are just a few examples. Using a gTLD prevents search engines from restricting results based on location, but it may diminish total traffic because many consumers prefer sites that have their country code TLD.
  • (iii) ccTLD or gTLD with subdomains
    You may also use a combination of ccTLDs and gTLDs to build subdomains for your website. This combines the advantages of a country code with those of a generic top-level domain.
  • (iv) ccTLD or gTLD with subdirectories
    Subdirectories, on the other hand, modify the country code’s location.
• 3. Optimize Content for Language
  There are around 7,000 languages spoken worldwide. While you won’t be able to reach everyone, you should make sure your site appears in their preferred language. If you want to have the right international SEO, don’t count on machine translations which aren’t currently up to par. From the navigation bar to the content itself, make sure every component of your site (whatever you’ve chosen to put it up) is in the right language. You may also utilize language tags to aid Google in its search.
• 4. Optimize Content for Countries
  International SEO entails addressing nations or areas separately. Individual tactics, material, and creatives are required. This is a major task, and it demands prioritization. It’s pointless to go after the entire world since you’ll end up spreading your resources too thin.Find out which nations are the most beneficial to your company. Study keywords in your sector to see if there are any worth targeting in other nations, and check what countries people visiting your site are from and what languages they speak.Maximize your potential by establishing authority in your main target nations.

International SEO Services in Australia

DigitalKey offers digital marketing in Australia. We are committed to your company and strive to deliver the outcomes you require. If you want an International SEO strategy that gives you the best results, contact us now! Simply call at 07-3732-6859 or email us at info@digitalki.com.au.