06 Aug International SEO

International SEO

International SEO is becoming more important than ever for many businesses. When it’s executed correctly, even a small business can expect a huge ROI. The good news is there is a lot of information about international SEO available for you to read and learn. The bad news, there is a lot of outdated information that may cause you to be misinformed. I’ve met some SEO professionals who have managed global sites for years yet completely missed out on some basics due to updates and changes. This post will cover some basic but frequently asked questions about international SEO. If you know these already, great. Just consider them as the confirmation of your best practice knowledge.

How is International SEO Different from Regular SEO?

Your global sites should not be the “copied and pasted” version of your home country website in different languages, though I see that happen to many websites. Yes, translation and localization of website content are one of the first steps. But then, you need to optimize the sites for each country’s local audience from messaging and offerings to the overall user experience of the site. A site with popular and well-performing content in the U.S. market may not do as well in Asia or in South America and may require additional content edits and optimization work. While you pay attention to each site, you must keep an eye on the overall performance. Otherwise, your websites may be competing against each other or the worst case, may not be indexed at all. For example, your website designed for Mexico should not outrank or appear in the search results in Spain, if you have a different site designed for Spain. If you misuse the canonical tag or hreflang tag, certain sites may not be indexed by the search engines or create duplicate indexing.