The Builtvisible Guide to International SEO

What is International SEO?

Search engines are designed to match the organic results to the search queries’ intent, but also the user’s language and geographic location. International SEO allows you to: 

• Help search engines easily identify which countries and languages your business wants to target
• Optimise your site to make it more visible and rank higher in those regions
• Help search engines serve the right version of your content to the right users across all the local markets you operate in

Through content localisation, technical SEO elements – such as country or language targeting, hreflang tags or designated URL structures – and other localisation signals – such as international link building – global businesses can optimise their website for international audiences around the world, increasing the exposure of their products or services in worldwide markets.

How do you develop an (effective) International SEO strategy?

Determine your target locales

Now that you’ve bought into the importance of developing a global SEO strategy, let’s dive into the steps required to do so. The first thing you need to do is define the basics, such as:

• Which countries or regions do you want to target?
• What languages do your target markets speak?

The answers to these questions will determine how you will handle website localisation. They will also influence key aspects of your strategy, such as what’s the best structure for your site, payment terms, shopping policies, payment processing tools, etc. so don’t rush through this decision. Take your time and ensure that all the relevant stakeholders within your organisation agree on the answers before moving on to the next steps

When targeting international audiences, you have two options: language targeting (if your target audience speaks the same language across different countries) or country targeting (if you are operating across different regions that have their own language).

For example, you could be targeting Spanish users across Spain and several Latin-American countries (language targeting), or you could be selling services across several European markets, such as the UK, Germany and France (country targeting).

International keyword research

Once you’ve determined where and who you’ll want to target, now it’s time to conduct keyword research for each market/language chosen. This allows you to effectively reach your target audience in each market. A comprehensive keyword research strategy is the base for a successful SEO strategy, and this isn’t any different when it comes to international SEO.

You’ll need to find which search terms your international customers use in their respective languages when looking for products or services like yours, so that you can then optimise your content to target them. You can use your current market keywords as a base, but you’ll need to adapt them to fit local search patterns. A simple translation won’t be enough if you really want to thrive globally, as search behaviour can vary significantly in a number of ways between territories.

For example, the keyword ‘snow boots’ is much more popular (and competitive) in Canada than it is in Spain, where temperatures are significantly higher. Therefore, the strategies to target this term across those two countries will differ. 

Seasonality is another variant that changes between geographic locations. For instance, Mother’s Day is celebrated on the second Sunday of May across a number of countries, whilst in Thailand, it’s celebrated in August.

You need to find out exactly what people in your target market are typing into search engines and modify your keyword strategy accordingly.

Once you’ve got the final list of terms you’re targeting in each country and language, you’ll need to delve into the search landscape, so that you can create an effective targeting strategy before optimising your content for the chosen keywords.

Market and competitor research

Start by assessing your current organic search performance – and that of your competitors – to find the relevant keywords in each of your desired markets. Identify the top-performing landing pages in the search results for your most popular terms in the countries you identified previously. Then, analyse your organic competitors’ SEO strategies to find a way to differentiate yourself in each international market.

Through the gathering of certain data points for those landing pages (including both off-page and on-page factors) you can also assess, at scale, what’s required for you to outrank them for those keywords

Ask yourself, what landing pages are lacking content? What landing pages do I need to build links to? Where are my quickest wins? What landing pages represent the biggest opportunities? These insights will help you define an impactful (yet realistic) international targeting SEO strategy that maximises your ROI.

You now have a clear understanding of what countries and languages you are targeting, what keywords you want to appear for in each market, and what you need to do to rank at the top of the SERPs for those terms. So now it’s time for you to start optimising your site using international SEO tactics across all aspects of SEO: technical on-page content optimisation, content localisation and international link building.

Technical considerations 

Choose the right international site structure

Defining your URL structure is one of the first steps and one of the many key decisions you’ll need to make when it comes to international SEO. As mentioned earlier, this will be influenced by the markets and languages you previously decided to target, so if this isn’t agreed upon internally, you should go back to that stage and make sure that all relevant stakeholders within your business are in agreement. 

There are a few different options when it comes to international URL structures but the most common ones are:

Country code top-level domains (ccTLDs)

These are two-letter domains assigned to specific countries (e.g. domain.de and domain.fr). CcTLDs send strong signals to search engines that these sites should be served to users located in those specific locations, making it a very effective way to rank locally in the SERPs. 

However, this approach is typically the most expensive and time-consuming in comparison to other approaches, due to a number of reasons. For example, as ccTLDs are considered separate domains, they won’t share any off-page factors, such as domain authority; therefore, any benefits from your link-building campaigns will be specific to the domain you work with.

Subdomains

With this approach, you’d have multiple subdomains (one for each country/language) under one main domain. E.g. de.domain.com and fr.domain.com. In contrast to the ccTLDs strategy, using subdomains allows you to have highly localised content in different regions whilst consolidating your domain authority. However, the technical setup and maintenance will be more complex compared to the other approaches.

Subfolders/subdirectories

Using a single domain, you can make use of subdirectories (or subfolders) to host your designated language or country pages (e.g. domain.com/de/ and domain.com/fr/). Whilst localisation signals will be weaker compared to those for the above two approaches, subfolders are easier (and cheaper) to maintain and, with this setup, you will be consolidating your authority on a single domain.

This is usually the best strategy for brands targeting users in a single market with multiple languages being spoken or those targeting two or more countries that speak the same language (e.g. the UK and the US).

Hreflang

Hreflang tags are bits of code that indicate to search engines which language your content is available in and what geographic location each version of your content should be served on.

For example, the below hreflang tag will indicate to search engines that an alternate version of the content is available in English and should be served on the UK territory:

<link rel=”alternate” href=”https://domain.com/uk” hreflang=”en-GB”/>

Hreflang attributes are a key element of international SEO and they help you to avoid duplicate content issues between different versions of your site – if implemented correctly. There are three ways in which these tags can be implemented:

• HTML’s <head> section
• XML sitemap
• HTTP header

Below is an example of a hreflang tag correctly implemented on the Groupon site:

A few things to keep in mind when implementing hreflang tags:

• Only apply one of the implementation methods explained above
• Every page needs to reference itself as well as its translated variants
• Therefore, every page will have return tags (meaning that every other version will also contain a reference pointing back to it)
• Language and region combinations should be defined correctly for those to work (as shown in the above example)
• Only include the canonical URLs that are returning a 200 and are indexable on hreflang clusters – as otherwise the entire cluster could be removed from search engine indexes
• Use absolute URLs
• Set hreflang=”x-default”

Avoid automatically redirecting users based on their IP address

Redirecting your users based on IP addresses or browser settings is a bad practice, unfortunately. It’s also used too often and Google specifically advises not to use it. It can be confusing (and annoying) for both visitors and search engine bots and often leads to search engines not being able to find some of your content, meaning it can end up dropping from search engine indexes, too

Instead of the redirection, you can show a banner or pop-up on the page. This will let users or bots know about all the alternative versions of the site available in different countries or languages. Great examples of this are ikea.com or zara.com:

 Examples of how to let visitors change location easily at Ikea.com and Zara.com.

Other technical SEO signals to take into account

There are a few other elements you can use to show search engines that your site targets a specific location, such as having a local IP address.

Furthermore, if you are serving users in multiple locations, you should install a CDN to ensure your users load pages from a localised server (as opposed to a centralised one). Whilst this isn’t a ranking factor for international SEO in itself, it will contribute to faster site speed (which IS a ranking factor) and more satisfying user experiences (which will have a positive impact on user engagement and conversions).

Finally, remember that not all countries use Google as their preferred search engine, so you’ll need to consider which search engines are operating in those locations. If you are operating in countries such as Russia or China, you’ll want to find ways to rank on Yandex and Baidu, respectively.

Creating an International content strategy

Expanding your SEO strategy into new global markets comes with many benefits (as Maria explores above). Though several of these benefits – including generating brand awareness, connecting with new audiences, and reaching more customers – often aren’t as effective without a well-devised international content strategy.

You may already have content strategy ideas for your original locale, but they won’t always work well for different global audiences. Language and technical SEO implications are one thing, but ensuring that your content can really adapt and thrive in a new market is a separate challenge altogether. 

As a Content Strategy Consultant at Builtvisible, I’ve supported on a number of localisation projects as well as native content strategies. What I’ve learned with any strategy – native, or global – is that you need a bespoke, detailed approach to create meaningful, impactful content that’s culturally relevant and resonates with your target audience. 

Tips for an International content strategy

An effective international content strategy isn’t just a case of ‘translate and wait’. Below are some top tips for ensuring that your content localisation strategy delivers world-class results. 

1. Define your approach

Getting buy-in from the beginning is crucial to any successful strategy, but it’s arguably more important for international content and SEO strategies. 

With time zone differences reducing collaborative time and check-in opportunities, you’ll need to trust that everyone’s working towards a shared goal. This goal could be anything from brand awareness to increasing conversions, but it needs to be clear and tangible. 

Discussions about resourcing and responsibilities need to be had early on, too. It’s essential that your team knows who’s responsible for deliverables. A RACI chart can help you know who is – Responsible, Accountable, Consulted and Informed.

At this stage, it’s also important to define your ways of working – including how briefing, execution, and implementation will work. There may be barriers around CMS access or lack of resources, so identifying them as early as possible can help you overcome them and work to a solution before you dive into your strategy work. 

Forming strong relationships with local expert teams can facilitate better workflows, which we’ll explore in more detail later. 

2. Understand your international audience

It goes without saying, but the first step in any localised content strategy is to understand the needs, wants, and goals of that specific target audience. After all, a new audience means that you need to gather new insights. 

This is where your keyword research will help you: dive deep into the data to find long-tail queries or look at recurring topics and themes to see where patterns lie. We use custom in-house categorisation tools to help us identify these. 

Trend analysis is also important to see what’s relevant in that specific market. Leverage social listening data to find out what’s trending, as well as what social platforms and device types your audience typically uses. In fact, We Are Social’s Digital 2023 Global Overview report revealed that trends vary considerably by market. Taking Instagram as an example, users in Turkey typically spend an average of 21.4 hours per month using the Android app, versus just 6.1 hours per month for users in South Korea. Assumptions should never be made about new audiences. 

Another idea is to mine international forums on platforms like Reddit and Quora, and look at upcoming events within the industry to see what’s featured. 

Tip: If you’re already in touch with any points of contact in that market, you could provide a series of questions for them to answer, too. 

Once you’ve gathered enough data about your international target audience, you can start to form personas and create user journey maps. You’ll then have a good idea of what pain points users have at each stage of the buyer funnel and how you can address them through meaningful, localised content. 

3. Competitor analysis 

As Maria discussed earlier, one of the best ways that you can deepen your understanding of an international customer base is by analysing your competition in that market. Combining keyword insights and exploring what’s ranking on the international SERPs for your hero topics can help you know what’s sensible to go after. 

From a content point of view, we’d also recommend looking at examples of competitor content in a similar sector to see what topics they’re discussing and what formats they use. The content may be good, but there is also likely to be areas for improvement. Make a note of any user engagement with the content and explore what the audience responds well to and what they may not engage with. 

It’s also worth looking at product reviews on competitor sites, or if available, on your own site from users in other countries. This will help to uncover any specific pain points and spotlight any questions that customers may want answering.

Combining these tactics will allow you to identify any gaps in your existing strategy, figure out what will work for a new audience, and set you on your path to relevant localised content creation.

4. Work with local experts 

One of the most important factors of a successful global content strategy is working with native language-speaking experts in your target market. This is essential to ensure that your localised content is of the highest quality and resonates with your new audience. Translation alone may seem like a quick win, but crucially, you risk compromising your brand tone of voice and values, which are likely what will help you get noticed in a new space to begin with. 

When adapting or repurposing your content strategy, we recommend transcreation, not translation. Existing content ideas should be reviewed against any trends for that market, and optimised with specific keywords. The audience research step of your strategy will help you here, as well as working with international copy experts to deliver your message in the right way.

At Builtvisible, we partner with local agencies and multilingual copywriters to ensure that any content created considers the nuances of the language and the context of the wider market. We’ve built up some great relationships over the years, so if this is something you’d like to know more about, we can definitely help out. 

5. Measure performance

Good working relationships with local experts are key to not only creating localised content, but getting it implemented too. So when your content starts going live, you can start monitoring its performance.

Reporting metrics should ideally be defined at the beginning of your content marketing strategy, and should correspond to your initial goals. Mapping content to a specific goal and customer funnel stage can help you define what you want to measure. 

For example, if your goal is to build brand awareness, you’d probably want to look at page views, unique visitors, referral traffic etc. While if your goal is to convert your user, you’d measure conversion rate and other metrics like form submissions and asset downloads. Keep in mind that different markets will engage with content in different ways, so you should always review your metrics to make sure that they’re bringing you the most value.

You can use tools like GA4 or Google Search Console to measure performance, or combine multiple metrics from different platforms in a reporting dashboard on Data Looker. Creating an international reporting dashboard can help you to easily view the performance of your new content, and compare the data to other markets, too. 

We work closely with our Builtvisible data specialists to ensure that our measurement plans and dashboards are the best in class. Learn more about our approach to reporting here. 

So there you have it – our five-pronged approach to a successful international content strategy. When combined with Maria’s fantastic SEO tips above, you’ll be winning over new markets in no time. But wait, there’s one thing missing…

…Ah yes, distribution of course! For any localisation strategy to succeed, you’ll need to ensure that your content gets the right coverage and lands in front of the right audiences. Gretta’s upcoming tips explore exactly how to master Digital PR for international markets, which will take your strategy from great to global growth-worthy. 

Digital PR for International SEO

In the next few sections, we’ll be discussing how you can incorporate Digital PR into your international SEO strategy to improve online visibility, credibility, and engagement across global markets through local link-building. 

What is local link building and why is local link building important?

Local link building is the practice of securing backlinks from websites within the same geographical region as your business’s target audiences, such as local news publications, blogs and directories. The aim of this approach is to enhance a website’s online visibility and authority within the respective location, making local link-building a crucial element for building equity in international markets. 

There are several benefits of link building for local SEO that you can harness depending on your needs. Whether you’re launching into a new market and want to build brand awareness or are looking to boost your backlink profile in a market you’ve been in for a while, you can use link building for local SEO to your advantage. Once you have defined your objectives, you can use them to guide which approach you take. 

Beyond increasing site visibility and organic traffic by indicating geographic relevance to search engines, a local link-building strategy will help you develop a strong presence within the respective location. This establishes credibility among the local audience and works to position your brand as a leader in your niche. 

As mentioned in the section above by our content strategy specialist Ailis, the first step when establishing an international marketing strategy is to understand the needs, wants, and goals of that specific target audience. Not all local link-building campaigns and tactics will resonate across all markets, making a collaborative approach with your content team imperative to understand how best to engage with your local audience. 

Digital PR tactics for International markets

Competitor Link Intersect

The what 

Conducting a competitor link intersect is one of the best tools for local link building and a great place to start when developing your strategy. This tactic will identify opportunities where competitors have secured links but your site has not. It’s likely that the sites linking to your competitors will also be inclined to link to your offerings or content.  At Builtvisible, we have created a valuable competitor link intersect tool that allows you to achieve unparalleled insights around your competitive landscape at pace and scale. 

By leveraging this method of identifying your competitors’ local directory and resource placements, you can proactively seek out and ensure that your business is well-represented among the local audience actively searching for information within your niche. 

The why 

Alongside qualifying prospects, a link intersect will highlight the types of content that competitors are using to secure links in relevant local news publications. These insights can  feed into your wider international digital PR strategy and ideations.

You will find when looking to expand your back-link profile across different countries, that awareness and implementation of link-building and digital PR are at different stages. In some countries, such as Finland, it is not something that is at the forefront of marketing like it is in the UK and Spain. However, by harnessing this gap in the market you are already one step ahead of your competitors. By combining your audience insights and existing competitor backlink profiles from said markets, you are in a great position to create a strategy that will appeal to local publications and audiences regardless of their understanding of link-building. 

Now that you’ve done some research and established your aims, it’s time to look at what tactics to implement within your local link-building strategy. In the below sections, I will be discussing digital PR campaigns and building links from local directories and useful resource pages. Incorporating a varied approach to link-building will contribute to a robust backlink profile, however, through a competitor link intersect you will be able to identify which tactics will add value in which markets and how best to scale your approach accordingly. 

Conducting regional Digital PR campaigns 

The what 

One of the primary tactics to incorporate into your international SEO link-building strategy is conducting regional digital PR campaigns to promote links in local news sites. Reputable news outlets tend to be high-authority sites that people trust, so are hugely beneficial to your backlink profile. 

Off the back of your competitor link intersect and regional media landscape research, you can identify key topics and trends that are being picked up across local publications. By using these insights to sculpt data-driven and informative campaigns, you can effectively target your audience and tailor your messaging. In turn, this will maximise engagement and impact across your target market.

The why 

Developing regional content relevant to the local audience will generate buzz and solidify your online presence within your target region. By adapting your PR efforts to engage with local audiences, tapping into regional media outlets, and collaborating with local experts, you’ll be laying a strong foundation for a robust local link profile. 

In a world where search engines increasingly emphasise the importance of localised relevance, integrating regional digital PR campaigns into your link-building strategy will not only bolster your SEO rankings but also enhance your brand’s reputation within your local community.

Building links from local directories 

The what 

Link building in local directories refers to the process of obtaining backlinks to your business’s website from online directories that are specific to your target area. These directories are platforms that list businesses, services, and resources within a particular geographic location, and they often categorise listings based on industry, type of service, or other relevant criteria. 

Your competitor link intersect may have highlighted directories that your competitors have been listed in for you to reach out to. On top of this, using advanced Google search operators to filter for directories within your target market and niche will also allow you to quickly qualify relevant opportunities. 

The why 

This tactic can be hugely beneficial to your international link-building strategy as reputable online directories are considered authoritative sources by search engines, helping to establish your website’s authority and trustworthiness. Many directories categorise businesses based on specific industries or niches. Getting listed in directories relevant to your business niche or industry can enhance your website’s visibility to your target audience.

Building links from useful resource pages 

The what 

Resource link building involves prospecting for helpful information pages that could potentially include a link to your site such as guides, useful link pages and recommended further reading sources. 

These pages often contain valuable information and tools related to a specific topic. When your site is linked from a relevant resource page in your industry or niche, it adds context for both users and search engines.

Beyond prospects qualified by your competitor link intersect and advanced Google search operators, you may find opportunities to replace broken links from your competitors. This method involves finding resource pages that link to relevant content and extracting and identifying all broken or insecure links. From this, you can reach out to these sites to update and include a working and secure link to your website. 

The why 

Regional or country-specific resource pages can enhance the geographic relevance of your international SEO, contributing to improved local search rankings in the target market. Alongside this, resource pages can offer enduring value compared to other links due to typically being well-maintained and less likely to be removed or changed over time, sustaining traffic and SEO benefits once your website is featured.

International SEO best practices

As well as the standard SEO best practices we’d apply to every website, we also need to add a few international SEO best practices. Brands targeting multiple languages or countries should:

1. Create an international SEO-friendly domain structure based on your target locales.
2. Conduct proper international keyword research for each market (don’t just translate), taking into account regional differences as well as search patterns and trends.
3. Modify your keyword strategy accordingly across markets based on market and competitor research.
4. Optimise and localise your content for each audience. Again, this is not as simple as just translating the content, you should conduct audience and competitor research to understand local nuances and context. 
5. Make sure that all on-page elements are localised, including alt text, anchor text, etc. Convert other items, such as prices, to local currencies.
6. Allow visitors to change the language of the website easily with a banner, and don’t force redirects based on location/language.
7. Develop a link-building strategy for each market that includes links from local websites.
8. Consider what search engines are operating in each location and find out the best way to start ranking on them.
9. If possible, facilitate strong working relationships with local experts to support with localised content creation and implementation. 
10. Ensure that your reporting metrics are specific to each type of content and reflect the overall goal of your localisation strategy.

Conclusion

To give your international SEO strategy the best chance of success, you need to consider a range of tactics and best practices for SEO, content strategy, and digital PR. Plus, you need to ensure that you have a network of local contacts on the ground to facilitate seamless communication and execution.

At Builtvisible, we’ve mastered cross-team collaboration across multiple disciplines to deliver countless international strategies. If localisation is something that interests you, but you’re unsure whether you have the right resources to get started, feel free to get in touch with one of our organic digital specialists today.