Global SEO Solutions for Optimizing Your Content Strategy
As search engines continue to evolve, so must the strategies that businesses use to optimize their websites. To help you get your content in front of more people, I've outlined several ways that you can take advantage of global SEO solutions to optimize your content strategy and drive traffic to your site.
These tips are simple to implement and have proven successful time and time again with clients around the world.
When you start implementing them on your site, you'll be able to stay ahead of the curve while also getting a better return on your investment in content marketing over time!
Challenges of an International SEO Content Strategy
There are a few challenges when it comes to global SEO solutions and optimizing your content strategy.
For one, you need to make sure that your website is accessible in different languages.
You also need to consider the cultural nuances of targeting a global audience.
Additionally, you need to be aware of the different search engines that are popular in different parts of the world.
Finally, you need to have a plan for how you're going to track and measure your success.
This requires a lot of research and work before you start writing anything (or even before you think about writing anything).
It's estimated that upwards of one in four US buyers purchase from a merchant in a foreign country.
However, 60% of buyers will only purchase products featured in their native language.
In order to do this well, you must have a deep understanding of your own business and its culture, as well as what other businesses in your industry do well to understand how people use search engines.
The second challenge is determining how your company or brand fits into the market.
For example, suppose you are a furniture store.
In that case, it will be important for you to know whether people (in that country you are targeting) look for furniture or prefer home furnishings companies like Ikea instead.
You should also know whether your international consumers prefer rocking chairs or normal chairs or no chairs at all.
All this information will then help you determine your content strategy.
Best Practices for an International SEO Content Strategy
1. Tailor Your Content to Each Specific Geographical Location
This means creating content in different languages and taking into account the different cultural norms of each country.
You can do this by utilizing international SEO services or by doing some research on your own.
This doesn't mean that you should keep creating a new “brand face” for every different location.
Maintain your brand consistency across all markets while also creating content that resonates with each target audience.
2. Build a Data-Driven Content Strategy
Without a doubt, data should be at the core of your international SEO content strategy.
Comprehensive market research will allow you to gain local insights and identify key trends.
This is crucial to understanding your audience and their preferences and will help you provide your audience with relevant content and rank higher on different search engines.
You need to create multilingual SEO content that appeals to a global audience.
3. Pay Attention to the Technical Aspects of Your Website
What's good about your content strategy if your website doesn't load fast enough or isn't mobile-friendly?
Your site speed (see Free Website Speed Testing Tools) and mobile friendliness can impact your ranking in search results.
So, monitor your progress with analytics tools so you can see how well your content is performing internationally.
Regularly adjust your strategy based on what is working and what isn't.
Keep in mind there are several global SEO solutions, and optimization is an ongoing process, not a one-time effort.
4. Focus on Content Localization – Not Translation
There's a big difference between localization and translation regarding your content strategy and international SEO services.
Translation is simply taking your original content and converting it to another language, while localization is adapting your content to suit the target audience in another country better.
While using Google Translate may save you a buck or two, this has proven to be inaccurate and risky to create localized content.
Why?
Remember when Nokia launched its phone with a name that meant “prostitute” in Spanish?
Every region has its unique set of idioms, analogies, dialects, and nuances.
This is important not only for your content in general but also when choosing your keywords.
5. Don't Translate an Existing Keyword, Do Research
Again it can be very tempting to translate existing keywords because you already have an up to date keyword research for your local market in English.
So, why not save money by simply translating that word into another language?
It seems reasonable – NOT!
When building an international SEO content strategy, you need to be aware of the nuances in translating content.
You don't want to just translate an existing keyword into another language and hope for the best.
You need to do research and think about how your content will translate into other countries.
The problem is that you will miss out on a lot of keywords if you don't create new keyword research for the new market.
For example, for “wedding band” in German, people use “Ehering, Hochzeitsring, Trauringe.”
How do you know what to use if you don't research properly?
Conclusion
If you want to optimize your content strategy for better search results, consider using a multilingual SEO approach.
Here are a few tips on how to do global SEO:
1. Do your research and understand the differences between countries when it comes to search engines and keywords.
2. Choose the right keywords for each market and language.
3. Localize your content and use a native speaker for translation
4. Promote your content in different countries through social media, guest blogging, and other online channels.
5. Monitor your progress and adjust your strategy as needed.
6. Be patient! It takes time to see results from global SEO efforts.
7. Keep at it, and don't give up!
