International SEO: 7 tips for better global visibility

International SEO includes strategies and techniques to make your website visible through high rankings in global search engine results. However, without an international SEO strategy, it is not easy to help a German website achieve greater reach in other countries.

 

Find out what you should consider in your international SEO strategy and how you can take different cultures, languages and search habits into account in our 7 tips!

 

How to recognize that global SEO is right for you

International SEO is quite an extensive undertaking that takes a lot of time. The following factors provide information on whether these investments and resources can ultimately pay off for your company:

 

Probably the most important criterion for global SEO is, as so often, the target group. In order to reach the right people in other countries, you should find out whether your existing target group is already accessing your website from other countries . This works best with Google Analytics:

 

If you notice that you have a significant number of visitors from certain countries, it makes sense to focus your SEO efforts on these regions.

 

The next point has nothing to do with your target group, but with your company itself. If you want to improve awareness of your brand in other countries, there are usually reasons for this; for example, because your company has international locations or you deliver your products worldwide at good conditions with your e-commerce company.

 

If your offer also has manageable competition in the target countries, you could score points with USPs and pick up high-quality keywords without much competition.

 

You can also analyze the existing local competition and observe whether they are also successful beyond national borders. With tools such as SEMrush or Ahrefs, you can find out which strategies they are using and better assess your own potential.

 

 

7 tips for a successful, international SEO strategy

If your company has the potential to be successful with international SEO due to the factors mentioned above, you should now start developing a well thought-out SEO strategy. Here are our 7 tips for better targeting your target markets:

 

Tip 1: Choose markets specifically & carefully

First of all, you should find out which countries or markets your brand is best suited to. As mentioned above, Google Analytics can help you localize your target audience and find out which language your audience speaks.

 

Focus on a few markets at the beginning, as this will increase your chances of ranking at number 1 in the SERPs. To be seen by many potential new customers, it is better to focus on a few countries than to appear on the second page of Google Search Console in many countries.

 

This means you can achieve greater success with less effort and investment and select markets that offer high potential for your company. To do this, carry out market analyses, check competitiveness and take cultural factors into account - more on this in tip 3.

 

Tip 2: Decide on the right domain

For your global search engine optimization, you have various options for domains to choose from: We want to focus on ccTLDs (country code top-level domains), sub-domains and directories. Each of these network addresses has its advantages and disadvantages, which you should be aware of for your domain strategy:

 

Domain type	Advantages	Disadvantages
ccTLDs	Local ranking, trust	High costs, complex administration
Sub-domains	Flexibility, independence	Less local trust
Directories	Simple administration, lower costs	Weaker local ranking

 

A ccTLD (country code top-level domain) such as .de for Germany or .fr for France gives the search engines a strong signal that your website is relevant for a specific country. In principle, you are building a completely new site here. This can increase trust and click-through rates, as users are more likely to click on local domains.

 

Sub-domains (e.g. de.nureinbeispiel.com) offer flexibility and independence, as they can be treated as independent websites. This can be useful if you offer different content or services in different countries.

 

However, the domain name could lead to a loss of local trust among users, as it is immediately apparent from which country the site originates.

 

Directories (e.g. nureinbeispiel.com/en/) are easier to manage and also cheaper. They benefit from the authority of the main domain, but can be weaker in the local ranking. This is because directories are not treated equally by search engines compared to top-level domains.

 

Tip 3: Analyze the target group, language & competition in the target market

Our first tip was about finding out which countries are relevant for your company. We have already explained that a competitive and target group analysis is important in order to create suitable content for good content marketing. A little more on this now:

 

Every international market has its own special features and its own target group. And these target groups have different needs. You should therefore analyze the demographic data of your audience in the relevant market in order to understand their culture and purchasing behavior.

 

The language of your target markets is also relevant for creating content and choosing the right keywords:

 

Use tools such as Google Trends and Google Keyword Planner to find out which search terms are used most frequently in your international target markets and which topic is particularly popular. Also consider regional differences within a country.

 

Local keyword research tools, VPN tools and an analysis of your competitors are suitable for country-specific keyword analysis: Which websites rank well in your target market? What do they do differently?

 

Use competitive analysis tools to identify the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors, compare the search behavior of different countries and filter out relevant content for your own website.

 

Tip 4: Check translated content carefully

If you want to copy content from your existing website for your new, international domain, you should be careful with this duplicate content:

 

When translating texts, don't just rely on AIas it is still not without errors - especially when it comes to colloquial expressions. Incorrect machine translations could affect the trust of visitors, resulting in lower SEO rankings and less traffic.

 

A native speaker or interpreter should therefore at least check and correct the content afterwards. For highly relevant topics, it is often even better to completely rewrite texts. This allows linguistic, cultural and location-related subtleties to be taken into account that an AI may not be aware of.

 

Bonus tip: Offer users the option to change the language on your website via a button. This significantly improves the user experience. Such an option is particularly beneficial in multilingual countries such as Switzerland or Belgium, but also in popular vacation destinations.

 

Tip 5: Generate country-specific backlinks

Backlink building is another important SEO discipline that you should not neglect in international SEO. Choose relevant link partners in the target market to improve your authority and the ranking of your site in that country.

 

But what are local, trustworthy sites and how do you find them? There are also special tools that filter out relevant partner sites with corresponding capacities for backlinks. However, you should also build your own relationships with local influencers, blogs and news sites in order to improve your link building in the long term.

 

Bonus tip: Always make sure that the backlinks link to the correct country version of your website and not to your local website.

 

Tip 6: Pay attention to technical aspects of international SEO

Technical SEO is often neglected in local and international SEO, although the technical stability of your site is also an important ranking factor. If you are not familiar with programming codes and the like, you can hire an SEO agency like Timo Specht GmbH!

 

 

However, if you have already brought your local website up to the latest technical standards, there are a few more factors to consider or add for international SEO. Here is a checklist for the technical aspects of international SEO:

 

• Implementiere hreflang-Tags korrekt ( <link rel=”alternate” href=”http://de.nureinbeispiel.com/viele-beispiele” hreflang=”de-DE”/> )
• Create a Sitemap.xml for each country domain for faster error analysis
• Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN).
• Optimize the server response times.
• Make sure that the mobile version of your site works well.

 

Tag attributes such as the link attribute hreflang are important to make it easier for search engines to crawl and index your pages; in this case, hreflang shows search engines the correct language and country version of your website. This prevents users from being redirected to the wrong language version, which has a negative impact on satisfaction and therefore also on your rankings.

 

A content delivery network (CDN) is also very useful. These are intermediary servers that are geographically closer to the user. By improving the loading times of your website, a CDN ensures a better user experience.

 

Tip 7: Take country-specific design preferences into account

Web design also plays a crucial role in your international SEO strategy. Different countries have different aesthetic preferences and usage habits that you should take into account. This allows you to improve the user experience and increase the time spent on your website.

 

Here are some examples of how you can adapt the design preferences of your target markets when expanding your website abroad:

 

The symbolic power of colors

Colors and symbols have different meanings in different cultures, which can help you when designing your domain. For example, the color blue is associated with trust and professionalism in Western countries, while red is associated with luck and prosperity in China.

 

Navigation and layout

The way in which users navigate through a website can also vary depending on the country. In Western cultures, users often prefer clear and simple navigation structures. In Asian countries, more extensive menus and more content on the homepage are more acceptable.

 

Images and symbols

Avoid images and symbols that could be considered inappropriate or even offensive in certain cultures. Instead, you can use images that emphasize diversity and community on a website for the Indian market, for example. For the Scandinavian market, on the other hand, you should focus on minimalist and nature-related images.

 

Fonts and typography

The choice of fonts can also influence the user experience. In Asian markets such as China or Japan, clear and legible fonts are crucial as complex characters are used. In Western countries, a wider variety of fonts can be used to convey different styles and moods.

 

Conclusion

As you can see, international SEO is a complex task. However, it can be worthwhile and ensure higher sales for your company - as long as you do it right!

 

If you've already had success with local SEO, you know the cornerstones of successful SEO strategies; now all you need is an international understanding of SEO to expand your visibility globally.

 

In particular, market, competition and target group analysis for your target countries is crucial to achieving success. When implementing your international SEO strategy, don't forget to have translated content checked by interpreters in order to achieve the most positive user experience possible.

 

You should also make sure to adapt the technical aspects and design of your website to the target market.

 

Once you have achieved this, your website is optimally positioned internationally - for the time being! As search engine optimization is an area that is developing rapidly, you should ensure that content and technical aspects are continuously updated. To stay up to date with the latest SEO developments, we recommend our free newsletter!