International SEO Checklist and Best Practices For All-time

Taking your business global is a big step to take and making sure that your website is put together and ready to cater to international customers puts you one step ahead of your competition. Take these international SEO best practices into consideration if you’re putting together a global SEO strategy: 

Research Potential Markets

Tick off the first item on your international SEO checklist by doing your research on the different potential markets you have in other countries. Before diving right in and hoping to garner international attention, check out your current data and where your website’s traffic is coming from. This can help you get an idea of where customers are coming from and what you can look into in order to target a specific country.

Define Your Site’s Structure

Whether you’re going global by creating a multilingual or multiregional website, your international SEO strategy should include structuring your site to cater to your potential customers. For instance, you can geo-target or target potential customers by their geographic location by choosing a specific country code top-level domain name (ccTLD.) By having one site with .co.uk and another with .fr, you’re taking their currency, language, and purchasing habits into consideration. This can also be done with subdomains and subdirectories.

Perform International SERP and Keyword Research

While Google may be the preferred search engine in one country, it may not be in another. Analyze what search engine a country or region is using and study its algorithm in order to rank well. Another one of the international SEO best practices is performing international keyword research. While initial keyword research can be performed in English, it is a good idea to invest in multilingual SEO professionals or translation services in order to really get a certain keyword or phrase translated accurately and in the right context. 

Rank Better by Prioritising HTML

One of the international SEO best practices you should be prioritising is taking advantages of the Hypertext Markup Language or HTML. Your international SEO strategy should put HrefLang tags first so that Google is able to understand the content on your website. Utilising schema markup is also a good idea so that search engines are able to suggest your website if it is relevant to a user’s query. 

Think About Local Preferences

Tying into the previous best practice that should be included in your international SEO checklist, localising your website’s content is another way to stay competitive globally. One language can be spoken in various countries but mean completely different things. By using the right language and tweaking your content, you are ensuring that your website is understood. Localise the following:

• Website URL
• Blog Titles
• Meta Descriptions
• Images
• Currency
• Contact Information (e.g., phone number, business address)
• Time
• H2 and H3 Headings
• Site Text

Leverage Social Advertising Around the World

Another item that should be on your international SEO checklist is leveraging global social advertising. International targets can be reached with sponsored posts and paid advertisements. Promote your products and services by investing in influencers or via posts on social medial platforms like LinkedIn, Instagrams, Twitter and Facebook. 

Put Together an International Link Building Strategy

Putting together a domestic link-building strategy can be challenging and building links to your international website can be just as demanding. However, international link building is just as important as other international SEO best practices. For businesses that have already established a market in some countries, you may already have existing global backlinks. Identify and analyse backlinks then research your competitors. Learn from international competition and create link-earning content that appeals to different countries and global influencers. 

Get Your Global SEO Strategy Right

To rank on various search engines, you need to avoid international SEO mistakes by executing our international SEO checklist. You can also reach out to our SEO consulting team to adhere to best SEO practices and make sure that your site is ready to go global.