If you’re looking to raise the profile of your business, then SEO is an essential marketing practice that you must implement into your digital strategy. SEO stands for search engine optimization and its basic function is to get websites to rank higher than competitors on page one of Google and other search engines.

In the UK alone, there are roughly 60 million e-commerce users and that number is only going to continue to rise. This highlights how many people are shopping online and why SEO is so valuable. However, as your business grows, so will its reach which may lead you to grow an international customer base. This will require international SEO practices which can sometimes be a bit trickier.

Fortunately, we’re here to help. Our comprehensive guide will explain what international SEO is and what you should be avoiding to maximize your chances of success. Read on to find out more.

What is international SEO?

International SEO is the process of optimizing a website, so that search engines understand which countries and languages your business operates within. It will ensure you can reach a global audience which will help your brand to grow properly and ensure you can be found easily too.

When should international SEO be implemented?

You mustn’t rush into international SEO as there may not be an audience out there to make it worthwhile. That’s why you should do research using tools like Google Trends which can highlight if people are searching for your products or services from other countries. If there’s a high search volume in one of them, then maybe international SEO is needed.

Common mistakes of international SEO and how to avoid them

So if the time has come to implement international SEO into your marketing strategy then here are some of the things you MUST avoid for success.

• Automatic redirection – creating a redirect based on a user’s IP address can make it so not all versions of your site are available to the user.
• Don’t forget to write content in native languages and cultural nuances – do not use google translate and make sure the content is written to a high quality.
• Not using the hreflag attribute – This is a vital step in showing Google that there are other versions of the site in different languages. This helps Google to read your national pages the right way.
• Not doing keyword research for the country the website is built for – No keywords are truly equal in every language which means you shouldn’t assume that they are. Conduct correct research for the country you’re targeting to rank high on their search engines too.

Need more help or think that this might be too hard for your team to handle? There are plenty of impressive digital marketing agencies with experts that can help with international SEO, so you don’t have to worry about it. This will allow you to focus on the areas of the business so that you can continue to grow on all fronts.

Additional:

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