International SEO is just ccTLDs and hreflang, right? Nope. Webcertain's Gemma Houghton joins the SEO Rant Podcast to share the deeper side of international SEO:
Why international SEO is its own art and science
When you should begin with international SEO efforts
The role of culture in international SEO
What Goes Into Doing International SEO
International SEO often gets pigeonholed into things like hreflang, ccTLDs, subfolders vs. subdomains, etc. In reality, there is a lot more that goes into international SEO and it is far more holistic than you might expect at first glance.
When to Start With International SEO
Perhaps the most fundamental mistake people make with international SEO is when to get started with it, to begin with. As Gemma mentions in the podcast, internationalizing your SEO strategy should be part of your natural business evolution. That is, don't simply translate content and target the international market simply to get more traffic. The move to international SEO should be aligned with the business itself moving to the international stage.
The Role of Culture In International SEO
There's so much that goes into working at the international level. One of the main aspects of international SEO that we discussed was the cultural aspect of it. As an ex-pat myself there are many things that as an American simply don't translate into my new culture. In these instances, if I were to simply translate my content I would be missing the boat entirely. This is very similar to what I discussed with Lidia Infante in that different cultures search for things in different ways with different starting points and beyond. The point is, you can't simply nail the technical implementation and translate the page. International SEO does contain a real strategic element to it.
Resources:
For more of the SEO Rant Podcast check out our previous episode on how to use SEO data the right way.
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