How To Assess Your Website’s Readiness For International SEO

Expanding your business into international markets can be a game-changer for growth and brand visibility. However, tapping into global markets requires more than a well-designed website and an SEO plan. It is pivotal to go a few steps further and ensure that your website is finely tuned to resonate with your international audience.

In this article, we will discuss how to effectively assess your website’s readiness for international SEO, and how to implement SEO for international markets to boost your digital footprint worldwide.

Determining If Your Website Qualifies For International SEO

Before you start implementing an international SEO plan for your business, it’s crucial to verify if your website is even eligible for global optimization.

1. Make sure that your website content is not blocked by robots.txt file, or inaccessible due to server issues. This can prevent search engines from properly indexing and ranking your content for international users.
2. Your website should not have a slow loading time because slower websites impair user experience and SEO performance, especially for international users accessing the site from regions with slower internet connections.
3. Make sure your web hosting supports international SEO.

How to Implement International SEO?

Step 1: Conduct Market Research

An in-depth market research establishes a strong foundation for the long-term success of your international SEO strategy.

Start by clearly defining your business objectives, budget, and scalability plan. List down your main competitors and study popular search engines in your targeted countries.

Discover market gaps in different regions or countries by utilizing tools like Ahrefs, SEMrush, UberSuggest, and Google Trends.

Utilize your website’s analytics page to pinpoint the international regions from where you are receiving traffic. Then, strategically select target countries based on factors such as languages, cultural nuances, and purchasing patterns within those markets.

Step 2: Select URL Structure

Secondly, choose an SEO-friendly international URL structure suitable for your specific goals and resources.

Let’s take a look at some common domain structures.

1. 1. Country-code-top-level domains (ccTLDs)

• e.g yourwebsite.us

1. 1. Generic-top-level domains (gTLDs)

• e.g yourwebsite.com

1. 1. Subdomains (a domain that is divided into separate spaces)

• e.g us.yourwebsite.com

1. 1. Subdirectories (a folder within the domain)

• e.g  yourwebsite.com/us

If your website is in one specific language only but you want to target different countries you could use the following domain structures:

• ccTLD (example.uk)
• gTLD + Subdirectory (example.com/gb)
• gTLD + Subdomain (gb.example.com)

If your website is in one specific country only but you want to target multiple languages then you could use the following domain structures:

• gTLD + Subdirectory ( example.com/fr )
• gTLD + Subdomain ( fr.example.com)

If your website is targeting multiple countries and multiple languages at the same time then you could use the following domain structures:

• gTLD + Subdirectory ( example.com/gb/en )
• gTLD + Subdomain + Subdirectory ( gb.example.com/en )
• ccTLD + Subdirectory ( example.uk/en )
• ccTLD + Subdomain ( en.example.uk )

Step 3: Localized Keyword Research

Conduct keyword research for each target market to understand the local search trends and language variations. This can be done by utilizing keyword research tools like Ahrefs, SEMrush, UberSuggest, and Google Keywords Planner.

Beware that machine translation of keywords from one language to another may not always be effective. Consider cultural nuances, local slang, and search trends when selecting keywords.

Step 4: Create Multilingual Content

Create high-quality, relevant content in the languages of your target audiences. This may include product descriptions, blog posts, FAQs, and landing pages. Aim for natural-sounding content that resonates with local users.

Localize your content by translating it into the target languages. Always use Human translation for translating content to preserve the meaning of the original texts.

Step 5: Implement Hreflang Tags

A Hreflang tag is a piece of code that goes into the <head></head> section of a website on each page. This tag acts as a signal that specifies the language or language + country of content to the search engines.

Let’s discuss this concept using an example:

<link rel=”alternate”

href=https://example.com

hreflang=”es-us” />

In this example, the hreflang code will signal to the search engines that this page is in Spanish and is meant to target U.S. customers.

Step 6: Mobile Optimization

More than 58.67% of website traffic worldwide is now driven by mobile devices, hence, mobile optimization is essential for international SEO success.

Ensure that your website is mobile-friendly and optimized for different devices and screen sizes in different markets.

Step 7: International Link Building

Link building strategy for international SEO involves building links to relevant and well-known websites in every language and country. For instance, a software company might need to link to technology blogs posted by reputable websites in every country it operates in.

Build quality links by reaching out to high-domain authority websites and providing them with value (e.g. guest posts) in exchange for backlinks.

Step 8: Technical SEO Audits

Perform regular technical SEO audits to identify and fix issues that may affect international SEO, such as broken links, crawling errors, canonicalization issues, or low loading speeds.

Step 9: Monitor Site Speed and Performance

Once you have successfully implemented an international SEO strategy it is crucial to regularly monitor site speed and performance to proactively identify and resolve issues. Use analytics tools like Google Analytics, and Google Search Console to monitor performance, indexation status, track rankings, and analyze user behavior in different markets.

This will allow you to collect real-time data that can be used to improve your website’s loading speed and overall health.

International SEO Best Practices

Now that you understand the essential steps for implementing international SEO, let’s explore some best international SEO practices to maximize your efforts:

• Prioritize user experience across all international versions of your website.
• Add schema markup to your website to provide search engines with structured data about your business, products, and services.
• If your business has physical locations in international markets, optimize them for local SEO.
• Collaborate with local Influencers to enhance brand credibility and reach.
• Stay updated with search engine algorithm updates.

Internationalize Your Business With Ayraxs

Ayraxs – a premiere international SEO company will help you expand your business into international markets by creating a foolproof SEO strategy custom-tailored to your business needs. We take immense pride in helping businesses dominate the international landscape using our state-of-the-art technologies and modern SEO methodologies.

Need to know more about international SEO, read our related blog “A Beginner’s Guide to International SEO“.

Frequently Asked Questions

1.     How do I check International SEO?

If your website is ranking in different countries and you are getting traffic from multiple markets and geographical regions then your website is successfully optimized for SEO for international markets.

2.    How do I target International SEO?

You can target international SEO by following the steps given below:

• Conduct Market and Keyword research
• Use the right URL structure
• Create localized content
• Use hreflang tags

3.   How do I optimize my website for different countries?

Create localized content for the countries you’re trying to target considering their languages, cultures, and search demands. Use hreflang tags to signal search engines that your content is suitable for the audiences you’re to target and build quality backlinks from those markets.

4.   How do I rank my website in another country?

Research the market of the country you’re trying to target including popular search engines, localized keywords, and cultural norms. Human translate your website’s content in a targeted language and build local backlinks from domain-authority websites. Use hreflang tags to signal search engines that your content is suitable for that country.