SEO: International
SEO: International
How do I tailor my content for different search engines?
Quality content, web design, and metadata are essential for all search engines. However, there are specificities for each search engine. For instance, Bing gives more weight to exact match keywords compared to semantic matches like Google does. Therefore, brands should blend both exact keywords and semantic matches to rank higher in both search engines.
How do I specify my country for SEO?
Globally, brands should optimize primarily for the search engine prevalent in that particular country. Although Google is popular in many countries, others have their native search engines like Russia (Yandex), China (Baidu), and South Korea (Naver). Once domestic optimization is achieved, one can then optimize their site in the country they intend to target.
Instead of just translating content, it’s vital to work with a native language speaker of the country you are targeting. Each culture has unique ways of describing issues, and direct translations might not communicate effectively. The ideal scenario is having content written by someone living in that country to create the high-quality content search engines desire in that language.
How do I tailor content for foreign countries?
To tailor content for international audiences, understanding the local needs and language, ideally by working with local native speakers, is crucial. Hence, a US brand wanting to enter Malaysia should collaborate with Malaysians for content optimization and vice versa.
In case collaborating with local speakers is not feasible, in-depth market research of the target country is necessary. You need to understand their problems, solutions, and the language they use. To get such insights, it may require living in that country for a minimum of six months. The understanding of the buyer’s journey is crucial for effective selling of products or services in a foreign country.
Content should also be properly formatted for international users. You need to set your hreflang tags correctly for the particular language and country.
Here are some suggestions for optimizing content for specific search engines:
- Baidu: Understand the importance of local contact details, title tags, meta descriptions, meta-keywords, alt-tags, and H tags to rank in Baidu’s SERPs.
- Yandex: Crawling takes more time than Google, and so does ranking. User behavior, domain age, and fresh content matter to Yandex.
- Naver: Registration is needed to appear in their SERPs. Content in Korean, submitting in the right categories, and implementing basic on-page SEO best practices like semantically related Korean keywords can enhance your ranking.
Formulating an international marketing plan
In your journey towards creating an international presence, remember that your competition will also vary. Keep a close eye on local competitors while optimizing content for different countries. Market research is key to identify your competitors in specific regions. Such information can help in crafting an effective optimization strategy.
Content optimization for international audiences is an integral part of building a solid content strategy to connect with customers abroad.
Related: Understanding Search Engines
Related: Hreflang tag