When it comes to SEO, localization is key. Whether you’re targeting a global audience or a specific regional or national audience, setting up your SEO correctly to accommodate different languages and countries is essential to optimize visibility and ranking in the desired target areas.
First and foremost, establish goals for your SEO efforts regarding language and geography. Knowing exactly who you’re targeting and what you’re hoping to achieve – are you trying to capture international sales or simply wanting more web traffic from a specific region? – will help you determine the best strategy for success from the outset.
For targeting multiple countries, start by creating a localized version of your website or separate pages that match the language and culture of the target audience. Ensure you comply with the regional SEO guidelines and that your local website stands up to local competition to effectively capture another market. Each local site should feature relevant content and tactics to address specific local needs and requirements.
Optimizing for multilingual search requires translated meta titles, descriptions, and content. Utilize a keyword database repository to identify and research the most relevant keywords in the other targeted languages. It's important to keep in mind that keyword translation often isn’t literal; you may have to modify keywords to better target a certain language or dialect. During the translation, you have to keep the quality of the content in mind; having an accurate translation that makes sense to the target audience is just as important as structuring the content for SEO.
When compiling content for different locations, utilize both generic and location-specific keywords. This will help ensure your site’s visibility on generic, localized, and individualized search engines. Consider local language, units of measurements, and even time zone differences. Implement all appropriate schema for the location and language, such as the local language and currency.
In some countries, such as the US, Google offers custom domain variations that you should take advantage of to gain extra visibility. For example, if domain.com is your primary domain, be sure to register variations that include ccTLDs such as .net and .org, as well as generic TLDs such as .info and .biz. You can also leverage country codes such as .fr, .de, and .es.
Set up international links to help spread authority and rank higher in specific geographies. For countries where you don’t want to target people, you can still link to an international page with a rel-alternate-hreflang tag in your header to tell search engines which language is being used.
It’s also important to keep track of your performance across geographies. Use local and international analytics software to track performance, assess your content and target markets efficiency, and determine strategies to optimize website performance.
By following these steps you can ensure that your SEO is properly set up for different languages and countries. Utilizing translation and localization of your website and content, as well as international links and analytics, you can gain more exposure and better SEO results in your target markets.