Welcome to our frequently asked questions and answers section about SEO and international search engine optimization. We’ll expand this section with new content on a regular basis since SEO is ever-evolving and new industry terms seem to appear on a daily basis.
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International SEO (ISEO) is the process of optimizing your localized and multilingual websites, after properly optimizing the source language website in order not to replicate mistakes, to rank on top of the search engine results pages. It involves addressing each and every ranking signal in Google’s (and other search engines’) algorithm. Most of the rankings signals can be “placed” onto one of the following five pillars:
The foundation of a strong international SEO strategy is content development and marketing.
Having an SEO strategy for your English website is a great way to start getting noticed by search engines. But if you’re localizing your website into several languages and you don’t have an international SEO plan, you’re missing a big opportunity to reach your target foreign language audiences. People prefer to browse online in their own language. Understanding how they’re searching – what terms (keywords) they’re entering into search engines – and then optimizing your multilingual websites is one of the fundamental components of global SEO.
By implementing a winning international SEO strategy, you can increase search engine traffic, resulting in more revenue and increased global brand recognition.
Many people think that it’s enough to just translate the English keywords, but it’s not. The keywords actually have to be transcreated, which is the process of taking the English keywords and researching terms in the target languages by linguists who are trained in SEO. Make sure to read article An Introduction to International SEO Keyword Research and the Transcreation Process for additional information.
There are basically three different options:
There really isn’t one clear answer, as all of these options have pros and cons. There are technical things on your website that you need to consider, including international targeting, website speed, the implementation of hreflang codes, etc.
For additional information, make sure to read these tips by Google and don’t hesitate to reach out. I’d be happy to discuss these option with you.
Hreflang is a tag that enables you to select which language to serve up to Google on a specific page. It seems like implementing hreflang codes would be a straightforward task, but just like setting up your domain structure, there are certain considerations that you need to take into account.
Optimizing your multilingual websites is a very important part of the international and global SEO process. However, your efforts don’t stop there. Developing and executing a multilingual content marketing strategy is key to your long-term success and it will ultimately get your web pages ranked high in search engines.
Global SEO can definitely take time and resources, and it’s not a service that just anyone can provide. If you’re interested in learning more about how I could potentially assist you and your company, please don’t hesitate to reach out.
I used to teach a three-day digital marketing workshop which also included a global search engine optimization component. Since I now focus more on teaching half- and full-day workshops here in the Denver area, as well as private workshops for companies around the globe, I ended up professionally recording and creating an online course of this workshop. The online digital marketing and SEO course is roughly seven hours long. It is now also part of the University of Strasbourg, France TCLoc and CAWEB Master’s Degree which I teach online. I’m happy to answer any questions you have about the online training.
