Now it’s time to evaluate the potential of each of the language and country markets you plan to segment (and that you identified in the previous step). Keyword research will help you in this step. visibility in your analysis, use this keyword research to segment your markets.
Research:
– The relevant keywords your international target audience uses to search for information about your segment;
– Organic search volume and keyword competition by country;
– Current keyword rankings.
There are many tools available to help you conduct your research, such as Google Keyword Planner , SEMRush , and Ubersuggest (the latter being free and highly effective).
A small caveat…
I’m guessing you’re wondering why, if you speak the same language as another country you’re trying to reach, you can’t rank and reach the audience with the same keywords you use on your website or blog. Let’s look at an example again:
Imagine you’re a Chilean perfume company and you’re ranking highly for the keyword “sweet perfumes for women.” But someone brother cell phone list searches for the keyword in Colombia and suddenly finds you on page 2 of the search engine.
In short, this means you’re well-positioned on google.cl (Google Chile), but not on google.co (Google Colombia) . The reason for this is due to many factors, such as keyword traffic , keyword relevance in each country, and the way users search.
Each region has its own unique structure, vocabulary, and needs, and this directly affects search results—the results will always be different! That’s why regional keyword research is so important.
With this in hand, you have your initial entry into international SEO.
3. Define your buyer persona
Define your buyer personas for the new target countries and languages. Remember, you can define them even if you don’t have your first customer yet. Just use the data available for your market segment.
Buyer personas allow you to discover trends in each region so you can create compelling content with compelling topics for each audience.
Take advantage of all the features available in tools like Analytics and SEMRush to determine exactly who your buyer persona is, what content they’re searching for, and what keywords they’re using—always keeping in mind search competitive pricing strategy, what prices to set for products volume and their connection to your market segment.
Once you’ve defined your buyer persona, don’t forget to always use it as the basis for your digital marketing strategy.
4. Analyze your competition
Just like a regular SEO strategy, analyzing your competition is also part of international SEO. You need to know who your competitors are abroad to know exactly what you’ll be up against to ensure good organic rankings and achieve your digital success.
SEMRush, one of the tools I mentioned earlier, can help you identify them.
5. Choose your domain
Once you’ve chosen a language or country, segmented your audience, researched the most relevant keywords, and researched your competitors, it’s time to think about your domain . Here are three main options:
ccTLDs: This basically involves obtaining a domain with the extension of the country you want to reach . This way, you connect and geolocalize your site by default. That is, if you have a “.com.mx,” it’s automatically geolocalized to Mexico. But keep in mind that if you want to reach more than one country, you’ll have to work on each domain as a separate project (and each new domain starts with zero authority).
- www.example.com.mx
Subdirectories: Here, content is geolocated in a specific subdirectory of a root domain, making it easier to inherit its authority without having to start from scratch. Targeting—that is, its geographic destination—can be configured through Google Search Console .
- www.example.com/mx
Subdomains: This is the most viable option if you don’t want to create a second-level domain. Google interprets these domains as independent entities , just like ccTLDs. Subdomains must also be geolocated manually.
- www.mx.example.com
6. Upload your content
You now have a list of all the keywords with the potential to reach the top of Google; this way, you can start uploading your content in the local language.
However, it’s important to note that it’s not just about translating texts and entering keywords; what’s relevant in Canada, for example, may be completely irrelevant in Colombia.
Don’t forget to check every detail, from your site’s navigation to the language of your content .
If you’re going to work with translations, be very careful with machine translators. It’s best to find someone who’s a native speaker or has extensive knowledge of the language; automatic translation tools (although they often help us with basic translations) don’t usually make proper use of expressions, sentence intent, and even less so of keywords.
7. Specify the language with hreflang
The hreflang tag is used to help japan data Google identify which URL to show to the visitor based on their language and geographic location.
This example would tell the search engine that the site has an alternative version of the content in English and should be displayed in English-speaking territories.
You can insert the code in the following three options:
– HTML link element in the header;
– HTTP header;
– Sitemap.
8. Analyze and measure your results
Like everything in digital marketing, analyzing metrics and results is also part of the daily routine of those who work with SEO.
When monitoring international SEO, it’s very important to stay on top of all the changes, developments, and trends in the country you’re working in . Any development can impact your results.
Even if you want to improve your SEO strategy, you’ll need to look at the results you’re achieving to determine what you can continue to do or what you should definitely stop doing.
International SEO isn’t an impossible task, nor is it unattainable for your business. You have everything you need to set up your site, optimize it, and launch it worldwide, breaking down borders . It all depends on you (and following the best practices you read in this article). Good luck!