Optimising Your Website For International Business

If you are a business who wants to or already focus on a global audience then you need to spend time thinking about how to market and optimise your website. Understanding your global audience, their buying personas and also how they interact with websites is vitally important. In this article we will look at optimising your website for international business. 

Your Domain Structure 

When optimising your website for international business, you need to think about how people will access your website from their country. Some of the ways to do this are as follows.

Create Subdomains or Country Codes

Your URL makes up a large part of the technical side to SEO. It also gives away big pointers to Google and other search engines. Creating a subdomain for the country you want to target also shows Google and the other search engines that you are creating content for that specific area. For example if your new location was France you would create a subdomain as France.Website Name. 

Alongside also creating subdomains, you can also create country codes. Country codes are a great way to distinguish your home content to your international market. So for example you would create fr. for France or sp. for Spain.

Adapting Your International SEO Strategy

If you are looking to build an audience in a new country then you need to consider how you can tailor your SEO strategy, or even your marketing strategy as a whole. There are some simple fixes which you can impose, some of which we have detailed below.

Use Geographic Keywords

Keywords are going to be integral to your SEO regardless of the location you are in. However, keywords may vary from country to country so be aware of that. How you search for something in the UK will mostly differ if you are in Dubai. Take into account what keywords your new audience may use, and how you can tailor your content.

It is also worth noting that it can take time for you to raise your search ranking in other countries. It is a new set of content, and also needs to be optimised to suit your global search platform not so much your local.

Use Alternative Spelling 

With many locations spelling is going to be different. Tailoring your content brings through a lot of benefits. Firstly it is a pleasure to read for your new audience. Secondly is grammatically correct which is very important. And thirdly it is going to help bring back those readers once again for your website and also content. The more repeat readers, the more potential leads you then have to work with.

Translate Your Page 

This may seem very basic however it is something that is missed. Consider the languages which are spoken with your chosen location, and ensure your website is readable to that audience. It is always worth considering if there is more than one language spoken within a certain area and implement this as well. This should not only be implemented on your website, but also any future blogs that you also post.

Other Things To Consider

Alongside your SEO you also need to consider how your website is perceived to its new visitors. There are some changes which you can make, or different aspects you research to help. These include:

Register A Local Address 

Registering a local URL address helps to give you a bump in the search rankings. This is how you then start to have an association within that specific location. This also helps with saving time. This is only viable if you are not planning on targeting many other locations, or if you want to put time into creating a different website for each location.

Get Local Links

Links are a key to SEO and also building good working relationships with other content pieces. Building backlinks into your content, within your new location can have an effect on how well the search engine recognises you. A backlink also helps to bring in traffic from that linked website, therefore helping you generate a following and traffic in a more efficient manner. 

Research Local Search Data 

Research is going to be key for success when moving into a new area. You are going to need to know what keywords your new audience is looking for, where they find their content and also what they like to read. This is vital for being able to generate traffic, and also an audience.

Understanding that you need to tailor your marketing and SEO plan is going to be important for success. Researching who you are going to be targeting and how is how you will be able to generate valuable leads. The best way to look at this move into international markets is to revert back to how you began your marketing for your home location and repeat these steps.

To Conclude

When it comes to optimising your website for international business there are some very easy and quick ways you can do this. Remember when it comes to your content however it needs to be tailored to your new audience, and readers. Moving into an international market is a big step for a business so ensure you have done your research and understand who you are targeting. 

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