What’s worldwide Search engine marketing? • yogurt
Willemien Hallebeek
Willemien is the content manager of yoast.com. She loves creating user-friendly content and making it easy for people and search engines to find.
If your online business is doing well in your country, consider expanding into international markets. However, to be successful in new markets, some additional investment in SEO is required. You’d better think about international SEO – or multilingual SEO – if you want to make sure your website is found and used well in other countries! Here I explain what international SEO is, why it is important, and what elements it consists of.
What is international SEO?
International SEO deals with offering optimized content for multiple languages or multiple locations. Let us explain this with an example. Imagine you have an online shop: you sell WordPress plugins in many countries. In order to increase your sales in Germany, you have decided to translate your content into German and to create a German website. Now you have two variations of the same page: the English and the German version. Pretty easy, would you say? Well there is more.
In particular, if you want to address countries with similar languages or countries with multiple languages, this presents some challenges. Let us examine the situation shown in the image below. This is a simplified example; There are obviously many more potential audiences than we have included, such as UK users.
Multilingual or international SEO scenario: address target groups with German and English content
Obviously, you want people searching in German to be directed to the German website. You might even want to have a special site for German speakers in Switzerland. It would of course be even better to have a French alternative for French speakers in Switzerland as well. For now, let’s assume that you don’t have the resources to do this. In this case, it is probably best to refer users from Switzerland who speak French to the English page. Additionally, you need to make sure that you direct everyone else to your English site as they speak English rather than German. In such a scenario, you need to build and implement a multilingual, international SEO strategy.
Since it is not easy to get the right website ranking in the right market, we decided to start an international SEO training! In this course, we will guide you step-by-step through all the important multilingual SEO elements. Do not miss it!
Why is international SEO a thing?
They want your website to be found on Google. With a standard SEO strategy, you optimize your content for one language: the language in which your website is written. However, sometimes you want to target audiences in multiple countries and regions. These audiences are likely to be similar, but there are always differences. This gives you a chance and you can take advantage of international SEO to take advantage of it. By targeting your target groups in a targeted manner, it is easier to address their needs. One of those differences is the language they speak. When you make your website available in multiple languages and target specific regions, you accomplish two things:
- You expand your potential audience;
- They improve your chances of getting a ranking for a specific region and in several languages.
With this in mind, let’s review the example we discussed earlier. By creating a German version of your original English site, you have enabled users searching in German to find your product. Ultimately, international SEO is about addressing the needs of your users.
It all sounds pretty clear, but multilingual SEO can be tricky. A lot can go wrong, and poor multilingual implementation can damage your ranking. That means you need to know what you are doing.
One of the biggest risks of multilingual SEO is duplicate content. If you present very similar content on several pages on your website, Google will not know what content to display in the search engines. Duplicate pages compete with each other, so that the individual rankings of the pages drop. You can avoid this particular problem with hreflang, an element of your international SEO strategy. But multilingual SEO is more than that. Let’s discuss the most important aspects below.
International SEO: content, domains and hreflang
Content for international websites
Content is an essential part of your multilingual SEO strategy. If you want to write content in different languages, you will need to adapt existing content or create new content. Customizing your content while maintaining good SEO can be a challenge.
Your content strategy should always start with keyword research for the region and language you are targeting. You can’t just translate your keywords using Google Translate or other AI translation tools. You need to get into the minds of your new audience. You need to know what words they are using. The same words can have different meanings in languages used in more than one country, as explained earlier.
Translating content is also a challenge. Take into account the cultural differences that exist between countries. Otherwise, your copy won’t appeal to your new audience. Whenever possible, you should have your translated content translated by native speakers, or at least checked, to avoid embarrassing mistakes. For a full list of what to consider when translating content, check out Marieke’s post on creating SEO-friendly copy in a foreign language.
Domain structure for international sites
In order to successfully address your target groups, you need to think about which pages they should land on. There are several ways which domain structure you want to use. Do you need the ccTLD (Country Code Top Level Domain) like example.de for Germany? Or could you create subdirectories for countries like example.com? Or are you using a subdomain like de.example.com? And what about countries where multiple languages are spoken? How do you set up a domain structure for these countries?
There is a lot to consider in making these decisions. This is where the domain authority and size of your business, as well as the marketing capacities in your target countries, come into play. If you really want to dive into these, you should check out our International SEO Training, which you can find at our Yoast SEO Academy!
Hreflang
Hreflang is the technical implementation that you have to implement if you offer your content in multiple languages. Simply put, tell Google what result to show to whom in the search engines. However, it’s not as simple as it sounds, and it often goes wrong, even on the big websites. Joost wrote an extensive post on how to properly implement hreflang.
Below is an example of a hreflang implementation with HTML link elements:
International ambitions? Do Your International SEO Right!
International SEO focuses on optimizing content for different languages for the search engines. With a proper multilingual SEO strategy, people in different countries can find your website for their market in their native language. However, international SEO can be tricky and you need to know what you are doing. It touches on many different aspects of website optimization. If you really want to get it right, take our International SEO Training!
Read more: How to create SEO-friendly texts in a foreign language »