WHAT IS GLOBAL SEO, AND HOW DOES IT HELP DRIVE TRAFFIC?

Does your business have a global audience and struggle to generate organic traffic? If a large share of your website visitors and potential customers from a different country from your business’ location, or speaks a different language, or both, then it’s essential consider focusing on Global SEO.

Unless you run a local business with no digital / ecommerce component, chances are that you have customers from all over the world. Whether you’re dropshipping, running a digital-first business, or simply want to expand your existing operations, a good Global SEO Strategy can help you attract customers regardless of their location, and with the compounding effects of SEO, a successful SEO Campaign can increase your traffic exponentially.

What is Global SEO?

On the surface, Global SEO might sound foreign or incredibly complex, but it’s probably a lot more familiar to you than you realise. Essentially, a Global SEO Strategy would involve optimizing your website’s content to cater to cater to diverse locations and audiences worldwide, or more specifically just the regions your target audience are located in. International SEO Campaigns are similar to geotargeting, but focus instead on multilingual content, multiple countries, and cultures rather than just physical location.

For Instance, if you were to sell dried fruit, then in English speaking regions “Dried Fruits” would be a valid keyword but would have little to no effect in France. Instead, you’d have to translate your content and focus on French keywords, like “Fruits secs”, or “fruits séchés”.

While the general concept of international SEO isn’t complicated, it is however still an extremely time-consuming task, and the complexity of it comes from the details – translations, regional website optimisation, Multilingual content, and of course keeping everything at a low cost.

Global SEO Strategy

Global, or International SEO, isn’t too different from your regular SEO Strategy. While local SEO is generally aimed at ranking well and being visible to a local audience, the key to a successful Global SEO Strategy lies in optimizing your website for all of your target audience’s countries and/or languages.

A good start for an international SEO strategy would be to frequently publish multilingual content that resonates with different languages spoken by your target audience and aligns with the regions from which your website visitors originate. Additionally, the website would need to be translated and optimized specifically for the most popular search engines in each region or country, since some countries don’t predominantly use Google – even though it is the leading search engine worldwide.

As such, the very first step in creating a successful SEO Strategy is to do some background research. Here are some things you should look into before getting started:

1. Audience

This one should go without saying, but we thought we should list it here just in case. Before creating multilingual content, it's crucial to get a good grasp of your new target audience as well as their culture. Things like slang, sayings, and local jokes can take time to learn and require local expertise to get a handle on, but give an incredible advantage in communicating and relating with your audience in a specific region. Going that extra step can be all it takes to spark extra engagement with your audience and set your far apart from the competition.

2. Competition

Aside from your audience, you should also find out who your competitors are. Look into who your competitors are and do some thorough competitor research. Check out what their content looks like, how their URLs are structured, and get a good idea of what keywords they rank for. For social media, seeing how/if they engage with their audience can give key insights into the market and the competitors. For example, if your competitors aren't quite connecting with the audience or getting major engagement, that could be a great place to start.

3. Link Building

Then there's of course the technical aspects of SEO. While there are a lot of different tehnical parts to SEO, a good link-building strategy is core to any SEO strategy and needs to be adapted to the target market. You’ll need to find popular directories, blogs, magazines, and general websites with a high authority rating that can provide you with good backlink opportunities. Another aspect to consider is vierwership with your audience as well. A website that has high viewership from your audience could be much more beneficial than just any other high authority website.

4. Search Engines:

Now, this one is often completely forgotten since we really take Google for granted. It’s important to remember that Google isn’t always the best Search Engine to reach your target group. Some countries don’t use Google predominantly, or even at all. For example, China’s top ranking Search Engine is Baidu. It's also wholly possible that the majority of your audience might use a different search engine. While it's definitely not a common occurence, it's something that should be considered when targeting new markets globally.

As a whole, Global SEO is a vital tool for attracting a diverse audience and driving organic traffic from different regions. And while it is a lengthy and complex process, a well executed international SEO Strategy can give you access to new markets, and catering to your international audience's unique needs and preferences allows your business to unlock entirely new channels of growth. So, if your business already caters to an international audience, or if your business is looking to expand to new markets, then investing time and effort into a well-crafted Global SEO strategy could be exactly what you need.

With that said, we understand the importance of local and global SEO for businesses targeting specific regions and our strategies are designed to enhance your presence in your target audience's regions and drive that juicy traffic right to your website. So, if you're looking for a partner to optimize your site and get your online presence up to its full potential, just contact us to set a free call and get started!