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5 Ways to Boost Your International SEO Results In 2020

The digital revolution is a miracle that spans the globe, and many businesses have been quick to adapt to this fact. Digital marketing is no longer seen as something that should be hyper-focused on one region alone. Instead, marketers are aiming to reach wider audiences by opening up their strategies to international markets. This is a monumental task that requires some clever adaptation to different languages and cultures. To achieve this feat, you’re going to need to understand how international markets work and how to improve your SEO within them. Here are a few ways to go about this.

Optimal keyword research

Keywords have always been “key” to understanding SEO. They’re one of the most important elements of digital marketing in the modern age, and this isn’t likely to change soon. However, strategies for optimising keywords are constantly being updated, as search engines adapt to avoid keyword stuffing. 

Keyword research is your most valuable asset when it comes to improving SEO. At its core, the principle behind keywords is pretty simple. You’re aiming to find out what people are searching for when they want products or services. They’re likely going to use layman’s terms to find what they need. 

The difficult part is creating a balance of what people are looking for and what can get your website ranking. You’re not the only business that’s looking to attract consumers with certain keywords. The more unspecific the keyword, the less likely it’s going to lead to your website. A phrase like “golf clubs” is going to lead to tens of thousands of different results. You have to be more specific in order to get searches closer to your own website. Regularly read up on new keywords and combinations for long tail and short tail versions. They will help you build a strong repertoire of keywords to use. 

Multilingual brand messaging

There are many barriers that you will encounter when entering into foreign markets. The differences in culture and demographics can pose a problem for your business, and the wealth of local brands can make competition tough. Very few of these barriers will keep your business from flourishing quite like language differences.

There’s no getting around it, language is a crucial part of marketing. Getting your message across in a different language is pretty difficult. Even when you have native speakers on your side, it can still remain challenging. The amount of thought that goes into figuring out a clever and enticing marketing campaign in your own language has to be increased tenfold when transferring it across borders.

You need a natural flow to your message in order to get people interested. Don’t leave it up to machine translation, as it can horribly backfire. Make sure you have expert translators that can get a very good perspective on your marketing strategy and translate it in a way that makes sense. If possible, get native speakers on your side to judge whether or not the message is being conveyed correctly. A bit of authenticity goes a long way.

Having an authentic voice in your marketing and social media is something you can’t do without. People quickly take note of semantic and grammatical errors and stop taking your brand seriously. Even a single contextual mistake can significantly set your campaign back. These types of errors are easy to share and they can put a stop to your campaign before it even starts taking off. 

Planning strategies in advance

For your digital marketing campaign to be successful, you will want to reach as wide of an audience as possible. This often means entering into foreign markets and getting your marketing campaign running in different languages. This is easier said than done. Rolling out a marketing strategy to attract a wide consumer base requires thorough planning. 

International SEO is instrumental in getting your business on the map, which is why it’s so important that you have a sound strategy for it before forming your marketing campaign. If you start out with only local marketing in mind, you’re going to find it a lot more difficult to adapt to a growing international market later on. It’s best to get started right away with ways to make your international strategy effective.

Search engine algorithms look for a few key elements in every website that they scour, regardless of the language, it’s based in. These include meaningful and relevant pieces of content that utilize keywords, descriptive tagging, rich media, and a powerful social media presence. These are all elements that can be modified to fit a different language when planned for in advance.

Ask yourself what kinds of keywords your target audience will utilize in their searches. Every language has its quirks and slangs words that are often unpredictable. Getting to know them will allow you to modify your keyword selection for maximum reach. Sometimes, you will need to know the culture to understand whether or not a translation is even necessary for certain products. Some languages might treat English words with preferential treatment if they’re related to some uncommon products. Common, everyday things will probably have their own words or slang versions because they are used frequently. Keep this in mind when doing keyword research and forming your strategy.

Visual stimulation

They say that a picture is worth a thousand words. What they don’t say is that a picture can translate those thousand words into any language pretty effortlessly. The one thing you can count on when utilizing visual media is that most audiences will understand it, whether you share a common language with them or not.

This is something worth keeping in mind when you’re creating your international marketing strategy. The more visual imagery you utilize, the fewer translated words you’ll need to incorporate. This can make conveying certain messages pretty easy.

You shouldn’t be above scrutinizing visual content, though. It’s still possible to create an out of touch image or video that paints your company in a bad light. Certain actions or symbols could be perceived as negative in different places, which is why you have to choose them carefully. The image you choose could signal that your company is knowledgeable when it comes to its target demographic, or it could make you look ignorant. 

Seasoned experts in web design from Sydney are saying that negative connotations can be tricky to avoid, which is why you need to do your research and consult locals that are willing to cooperate. For these purposes, you won’t always have to find organic help. There are many localization experts out there that can share their knowledge of specific cultures and demographics in a way that would directly benefit your marketing campaign. After all, you can’t guarantee that a local would be able to help you, especially if they aren’t sure what you’re aiming for.

Localize content

When it comes to international markets, there’s nothing more effective than targeted advertising campaigns. Normally, this relates to creating unique and attractive advertising options for an individual, but it can be applied to international SEO in much the same way. A more target-specific approach is the best way to attract users from different regions, as SEO Sydney experts point out.

Create region-specific websites to better manage your foreign audiences. This allows you to filter out the things you know these demographics wouldn’t enjoy, while also making way for the content that you know they would. It’s an ideal split that would leave both sides happy. Both your local and international audiences get benefits. The difficult part is filling both websites with quality content. This takes extra work and creativity, often requiring that you hire local writers and content creators to help pad the website with quality content. 

While it may be costlier and more demanding, localized content eliminates many of the issues that businesses often run into when applying their marketing strategies to international markets. You don’t have to worry about direct translations ruining your business’s reputation, nor do you have to keep every bit of your content in sync with local and international versions of your website. The main goal is to create unique content that will keep consumers from specific areas interested. 

If your business has an interest in spreading through new physical locations, a localized website is a must. However, keep in mind that not every bit of your content needs to be filtered, as many visitors might prefer to visit your website in its original form. Create separate landing pages to accommodate this. For the local version of the website, do your best to respect the region by incorporating local landmarks, pastimes, and interests in the design and visual content.

Conclusion

If you’re looking to implement your digital marketing strategies overseas, you’re going to have to put some extra work into it. Whether you decide to adapt existing content to create separate websites, you need to first understand that consumers are going to think alike no matter where they are. This means search engines aren’t going to be much different. With this in mind, you can focus on creating good content and planning your keyword strategies for the best possible search engine results.

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