We all are familiar with the word “SEO” but are you all aware of Global SEO and its benefits? I guess NOT.
Factually speaking, only one seventh of the world’s population speaks English and 340 million speak it as their first language. This signifies that more than six billion people are not getting the message if you have English-only mindset.
If you sell a product that is available worldwide, localizing your content online will be a great opportunity, especially if your site is close to maxing out the current SEO potential.
Online marketer Neil Patel revealed to have increased his traffic by almost 47 percent because he translated his blog into multiple languages. Such results are expected only if you can think about how big the world market is.
Henceforth, to avail the benefits of global market, it is necessary to execute the right technique. Considering the below given five valuable factors will let you earn benefits from global SEO.
Are You Done With Your Research?
Do you think that your product or services is wanted in other regions or languages? It is important to do your planning first before you start with the strategy. The best place to begin is to have a look at the location and language tabs in Google Analytics.
Find out which country or language is converting right now? You may be surprised to see a country like Romania is converting well and bigger countries like Germany are near the bottom. Also, take a look at the competitors to find out what languages or regions are they targeting. You can simply pop their website into SEMrush and look for the hreflang tags in the source code of their website.
Is your website ready?
Before you go international, make sure that your website is optimized for search. It is comparatively easy to translate a website that is perfectly formatted. If your website is not up to the mark, think about how you want it to structure for international content. The main decision that you need to make for each language is subdirectories vs. sub-domains.
If you don’t have the resources to translate the entire website, that is not an issue. You can simply create a single landing page that includes all essential info- so that you can replicate easily across the target languages. This will help you target SEO keywords in many languages.
Are you able to find the right people?
You are aware of the on-page SEO basics….right? The process is same in other languages as it is in English. If you choose keywords that don’t have good search volume, you won’t drive traffic to your website. It is not possible to write and use your SEO expertise in every language and thus you will have to hire an agency that can help you with this. Translators are not always knowledgeable and this is the reason why you should find the right translator or agency so that they can get the job done right.
Also think about customer support. After all, you will be getting new customers in a variety of new languages and locations. If you website offer phone support, you need to hire support in other languages or you should make it clear on your website that support is only in English.
Are you focusing only on Google?
If you are doing so, then it is a big mistake. While Google is the world’s most popular search engine, there are other players too. Some of the most popular countries in the world support other search engines and they are earning huge benefits. Each search engine runs on different algorithm which means that they have different ranking factors. Some search engines have recommended keyword percentage in content, some use Meta keywords, while others count social signals as ranking factor. It is important to mark up your website correctly so that you can earn proper benefits.
Are you trying to build links?
Creating more pages splits up the link equity to your website, which can affect your rankings. If you really expect to double your traffic by translating a 1,000 product ecommerce site, you are in for a wonderful surprise. This may result in losing traffic to your website. It is always recommended that before you duplicate your website; ensure that you have a solid link strategy in place. Find out ways to build links from the country you are localizing in order to earn good results. May be thinking about using translators to do some link building for your brand new pages.
Final Thoughts
When you think about the possible, going global with SEO will serve as your biggest opportunity to acquire more traffic and sales. This can be a tricky proposition, particularly for large websites. But the return on investment can be huge if you can plan it out correctly. Considering these five factors will definitely help you reach global SEO.