Home/Technical SEO/Mastering the Complexities of International SEO: A Step-by-Step Guide Achieving an effective international SEO strategy is often a daunting challenge due to the multitude of factors involved. It’s a task that demands not just technical SEO expertise but also a comprehensive understanding of your company’s commercial objectives, cultural nuances, and data analytics. However, industry perceptions often reduce international SEO to merely setting up hreflang tags. In this article, I’ll simplify the intricacies of achieving international SEO success into practical steps, transforming you from a beginner to an advanced practitioner. Let’s dive in! Part I: Cultivate Commercial Awareness 1. Grasp the Motivation Behind Your Company’s International Expansion Businesses expand internationally to grow through product and service diversification, market penetration, or capturing new markets. While your team might focus on traffic, leads, or revenue, leadership often aims to maximize shareholder value. Depending on ownership, company growth goals vary—founder-owned companies might prioritize sustainable growth maintaining profitability, whereas VC-owned companies target high growth to ensure returns for investors. Publicly traded firms often focus on increasing share value, while startups aim to demonstrate scalability and profitability potential, driven by their maturity stage. Understanding the reasons for business expansion is crucial for making informed SEO decisions, because what’s optimal for SEO isn’t always aligned with business objectives. Tailor your strategy to match your company’s growth model. 2. Prioritize Investment by Ranking Target Markets Before delving into hreflang implementation, let’s explore how commercial awareness influences international SEO prowess. Many companies categorize markets by priority, using metrics like average order value, required investment, market size, and similarity. American companies often first target similar developed English-speaking markets—like the UK, Canada, or Australia—leveraging transferable market knowledge, before expanding to large European economies such as Germany and France, or LatAm markets like Spain. Later prioritization varies, sometimes focusing on Nordic, Brazilian, or Asian markets. Part II: Develop Technical Expertise 3. Determine Your International URL Structure International SEO offers four URL structures, each with unique advantages and drawbacks. Whether it’s ccTLDs, gTLDs with subdirectories or subdomains, or structures using parameters, understanding their impact on localization signals, domain authority, and user perception is essential for optimal implementation. 4. Master Your Hreflang Setup Hreflang is a complex yet crucial component of international SEO. Proper implementation communicates language and regional versions of content to search engines, preventing indexing issues. Collaborate with your development team to ensure accurate hreflang tag generation from your CMS. 5. Error-Free Hreflang Implementation Implement hreflang in your sitemap, HTTP header, or HTML head, ensuring consistency across methods to avoid confusing search engines. Follow best practices—such as including domain and protocol, adhering to ISO language codes, ensuring reciprocation of hreflang tags, and establishing canonical and self-canonicalized URLs. Part III: Gradual Content Investment 6. Translate High-Performing Content With commercial and technical foundations in place, develop a content strategy focused on translating top-performing topics. Categorize content by topic using SEO tools and ChatGPT, analyze performance data, and prioritize translations that maximize conversions within your budget. 7. Localize English Content Adapt translated content to specific English-speaking markets, modifying spelling, terminology, local expressions, and statistics to align with local nuances. This enhancement prevents common indexing issues and improves localization effectiveness. 8. Create In-Market Content For priority markets, invest in original content addressing unique local needs, collaborating with local linguists to identify exclusive pain points and use cases. This targeted strategy sets you apart from competitors and reinforces regional relevance. 9. Synchronize Content Workflows Streamline your international SEO processes by integrating with teams responsible for content creation across your organization. Establish workflows for content updates, new content evaluation, and URL changes to ensure seamless global consistency and prevent technical issues. Final Thoughts International SEO is multifaceted and demands aligning commercial, technical, cultural, and strategic elements. Understanding your company’s global objectives, implementing precise URL and hreflang structures, and localizing content intelligently are key steps toward achieving international SEO success. By following this guide, you’ll lay a strong foundation for your international SEO initiatives and effectively navigate the complexities of expanding your online presence across diverse markets. For additional resources, explore market-specific conversion tracking methods, essential focus areas for new market entry, and a quick reference guide to kick-start international SEO. Featured Image: BritCats Studio/Shutterstock

Technical SEO

Mastering the Complexities of International SEO: A Step-by-Step Guide Achieving an effective international SEO strategy is often a daunting challenge due to the multitude of factors involved. It’s a task that demands not just technical SEO expertise but also a comprehensive understanding of your company’s commercial objectives, cultural nuances, and data analytics. However, industry perceptions often reduce international SEO to merely setting up hreflang tags. In this article, I’ll simplify the intricacies of achieving international SEO success into practical steps, transforming you from a beginner to an advanced practitioner. Let’s dive in! Part I: Cultivate Commercial Awareness 1. Grasp the Motivation Behind Your Company’s International Expansion Businesses expand internationally to grow through product and service diversification, market penetration, or capturing new markets. While your team might focus on traffic, leads, or revenue, leadership often aims to maximize shareholder value. Depending on ownership, company growth goals vary—founder-owned companies might prioritize sustainable growth maintaining profitability, whereas VC-owned companies target high growth to ensure returns for investors. Publicly traded firms often focus on increasing share value, while startups aim to demonstrate scalability and profitability potential, driven by their maturity stage. Understanding the reasons for business expansion is crucial for making informed SEO decisions, because what’s optimal for SEO isn’t always aligned with business objectives. Tailor your strategy to match your company’s growth model. 2. Prioritize Investment by Ranking Target Markets Before delving into hreflang implementation, let’s explore how commercial awareness influences international SEO prowess. Many companies categorize markets by priority, using metrics like average order value, required investment, market size, and similarity. American companies often first target similar developed English-speaking markets—like the UK, Canada, or Australia—leveraging transferable market knowledge, before expanding to large European economies such as Germany and France, or LatAm markets like Spain. Later prioritization varies, sometimes focusing on Nordic, Brazilian, or Asian markets. Part II: Develop Technical Expertise 3. Determine Your International URL Structure International SEO offers four URL structures, each with unique advantages and drawbacks. Whether it’s ccTLDs, gTLDs with subdirectories or subdomains, or structures using parameters, understanding their impact on localization signals, domain authority, and user perception is essential for optimal implementation. 4. Master Your Hreflang Setup Hreflang is a complex yet crucial component of international SEO. Proper implementation communicates language and regional versions of content to search engines, preventing indexing issues. Collaborate with your development team to ensure accurate hreflang tag generation from your CMS. 5. Error-Free Hreflang Implementation Implement hreflang in your sitemap, HTTP header, or HTML head, ensuring consistency across methods to avoid confusing search engines. Follow best practices—such as including domain and protocol, adhering to ISO language codes, ensuring reciprocation of hreflang tags, and establishing canonical and self-canonicalized URLs. Part III: Gradual Content Investment 6. Translate High-Performing Content With commercial and technical foundations in place, develop a content strategy focused on translating top-performing topics. Categorize content by topic using SEO tools and ChatGPT, analyze performance data, and prioritize translations that maximize conversions within your budget. 7. Localize English Content Adapt translated content to specific English-speaking markets, modifying spelling, terminology, local expressions, and statistics to align with local nuances. This enhancement prevents common indexing issues and improves localization effectiveness. 8. Create In-Market Content For priority markets, invest in original content addressing unique local needs, collaborating with local linguists to identify exclusive pain points and use cases. This targeted strategy sets you apart from competitors and reinforces regional relevance. 9. Synchronize Content Workflows Streamline your international SEO processes by integrating with teams responsible for content creation across your organization. Establish workflows for content updates, new content evaluation, and URL changes to ensure seamless global consistency and prevent technical issues. Final Thoughts International SEO is multifaceted and demands aligning commercial, technical, cultural, and strategic elements. Understanding your company’s global objectives, implementing precise URL and hreflang structures, and localizing content intelligently are key steps toward achieving international SEO success. By following this guide, you’ll lay a strong foundation for your international SEO initiatives and effectively navigate the complexities of expanding your online presence across diverse markets. For additional resources, explore market-specific conversion tracking methods, essential focus areas for new market entry, and a quick reference guide to kick-start international SEO. Featured Image: BritCats Studio/Shutterstock

SEO October 14, 2024

0 12 3 minutes read

Revising your international SEO strategy can be challenging. Many factors are at play, making it a demanding and often overlooked task. Success in this area requires deep knowledge of your company’s commercial strategy, technical SEO expertise, cultural awareness, and strong data skills. Yet, many in the industry simplify international SEO to just hreflang setup. This article breaks down the complexities of international SEO into a practical step-by-step guide, taking you from beginner to advanced. Let’s get started!

Part I: Be Commercially Aware

1. Understand Why Your Company Is Going International

Companies expand by growing their products and services or entering new markets. Although your team’s goals may focus on traffic, leads, or revenue, leadership aims to maximize shareholder value. Key differences include:

Founder-owned companies may have slower, sustainable growth goals focused on profitability.
VC-owned companies prioritize high growth to provide investors with returns higher than the stock market, known as alpha.
Publicly traded companies aim to grow share value.
Startups may aim to prove product-market fit or expand reach quickly to demonstrate scalability and future profitability, aiding in raising capital from investors.

Understanding these motives helps inform SEO decisions. Best practices for SEO aren’t always best for business, so adapting strategy to your company’s growth model is crucial. Companies focused on sustainable growth may expand slowly to similar markets, while VC-owned companies and startups might approach expansion with different strategies.

2. Stack Rank Your Target Markets To Prioritize Your Investment

Commercial awareness is vital before jumping into hreflang implementation. Companies often rank market tiers based on priority, using metrics like average order value, required investment, market size, and market similarity. American companies typically prioritize developed English-speaking countries like the UK, Canada, or Australia, followed by large European economies, then possibly Latin American markets. The last prioritization tier varies, focusing on Nordic, Brazilian, or Asian markets.

Part II: Know Your Tech

3. Define Your International URL Structure

International SEO involves choosing from four URL structures, each with pros and cons:

ccTLD Structure targets different countries but not languages (e.g., .es targets Spain). This structure signals localization strongly to search engines but can dilute site authority, as links are spread across domains.

gTLD With Subdirectories involves a centralized domain (e.g., website.com/en) for languages or countries. It aggregates authority, is cost-effective, and recognized worldwide, but may appear less personalized outside the US.

gTLD With Subdomains uses subdomains like us.website.com, signaling intended audiences but often facing SEO challenges, as Google views them separately, diluting link power.

gTLD With Parameters involves adding URL parameters (e.g., website.com/?lang=en). It’s not recommended due to technical SEO challenges and trust issues.

4. Understand Your Hreflang Setup

Hreflang is likened to a multilingual canonical tag, indicating the relationship between documents. It’s mostly managed by development teams, causing frequent errors. Understanding hreflang generation helps mitigate risks. Communication with your engineering team about current hreflang generation is essential.

5. Implement Hreflang Without Errors

Hreflang can be implemented:

On your sitemap.
Through your HTTP header.
On your HTML head.

Consistent implementation is crucial to avoid confusing search engines. Key rules include:

Incorporating the domain and protocol in URLs.
Following ISO 639-1 language codes.
Reciprocal hreflang tags.
Regular auditing—tools like Ahrefs can assist.

Ensure one page per language, with hreflang URLs being self-canonicalizing.

Part III: Invest In Content Incrementally

6. Translate Your Top-performing Content Topics

Create a content strategy focusing on translating high-converting topics. Follow these steps:

Cluster Your Website’s Content By Topic: Use SEO tools to classify URLs into topics, then organize them in a spreadsheet.

Measure Your Performance By Topic: Export data and use formulas to match clicks and conversions to URLs, aggregating data by topic.

Choose What Topics You’ll Be Translating First: Translate topics likely to drive conversions, considering the budget. Focus on one topic at a time for topical authority.

7. Localize Your English Content

Evaluate investment and consider localization. If US content is duplicated on UK and Australian sites, localization is essential. Adapt spellings, words, expressions, and statistics to local markets.

8. Invest In In-market Content

Address specific market needs with local linguists for priority markets. This strategy is expensive but can distinguish you from competitors.

9. Integrate With Other Content Workflows

Integrate with teams producing revenue-generating content. Establish processes for content creation, updates, and removal, ensuring global consistency.

Wrapping Up

International SEO is intricate, aligning commercial strategies with technical precision, cultural insights, and data-driven decisions. It involves understanding motives for global expansion, implementing hreflang tags, and localizing content for success. Numerous resources aid those keen on learning more.