How to Develop an International SEO Strategy for Your Enterprise WordPress Website

by Vipe Team in WordPress SEO; Published on 08.02.2022

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One of the main characteristics of any large-scale enterprise organization is the multinational audience it usually targets. If your business is of such enormous scale, you have probably already outlined your general corporate plan, you know which nations you want to target and who you’ll be up against in your new areas of interest.

Our WordPress agency for enterprise knows that your next obvious step would be to assess your SEO potential in your selected locations and consider how you could structure your digital presence.

To assist your brand reach the first page of search results and, preferably, the top five spots for your main keyword, search engine optimization (SEO) is absolutely essential. Going international presents a huge chance for companies to gain new clients. However, the drawback is that established SEO tactics may not translate to other regions, and in some situations, may even harm your brand.

To prevent this possible snare, you’ll need a solid international SEO strategy. This is why, in today’s article, our enterprise WordPress agency will tell you everything you need to know about the best international SEO practices. By following our expert tips, you’ll be able to generate more traffic, increase your worldwide presence, and better serve your consumers. And so, without further ado, let’s get you acquainted with the world of international SEO!

What Is International Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?

After you complete the process of WordPress website development, international SEO will refer to the practice of improving your search visibility for individuals who live in other countries or who speak different languages. By using hreflang tags, geo-targeting, and other localization signals you may target your content to users all around the globe.

In order to understand how international SEO works, it will be best to grasp the way Google operates. So, in a nutshell, Google tries to match search results to the searcher’s language and location. Special signals you include in your website tell Google and other search engines whether your site provides content that might be relevant to someone searching in a given country or language.

When it comes to international SEO, our WordPress Agency for Development knows that to design SEO strategies that deliver consistent ROI, effective tactics should combine regional and linguistic data. A good international SEO strategy will assist your business in expanding into new areas and increasing income.

How Does International SEO Differ From Regular SEO?

Because search engine algorithms are largely similar, if not identical, from region to region, conventional SEO best practices are unquestionably the core of international SEO. Our WordPress development agency considers international SEO as something that is mostly based on regular SEO knowledge and expertise.

However, international SEO is distinguished from regular SEO, thanks to various factors, such as multiple websites, local audience, local competitors, languages, and popular search engines.

When you have multinational websites, you must stay updated on the general performance while at the same time paying close attention to each individual site. If you fail to do that, you risk your local market websites competing with one another. And, in the worst-case scenario, your sites may not be indexed at all.

We remind you that once you complete your WordPress development for enterprise, you must be very careful not to misuse the canonical or hreflang tags. Otherwise, certain sites may not be indexed by search engines or duplicate indexing may occur.

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What Does a Successful International SEO Strategy Require?

Our WordPress development company is aware that due to cultural and linguistic variations, an international SEO strategy that works in one market may not necessarily work in another. This is why effective international SEO techniques should be carefully tailored to different areas or nations.

To succeed in international SEO, you must consider the cultural distinctions in each language or country for which you wish to produce content. You can’t simply translate your content and expect miraculous outcomes. You must localize your content.

For instance, it’s critical to guarantee that your target audience can make purchases in their own currency. What’s more, your international audience will probably ask you questions while going through the buyer journey, which will necessitate a response from you that is in their native language and within their cultural context.

Our WordPress agency for enterprise knows that localizing a single website or numerous websites to fulfill all of these requirements can be a lot of hard work. However, nothing is impossible when you utilize the correct strategies and seek the best technical assistance.

In this context, you may consider implementing a translation management system (TMS) that uses smart automation to help you streamline your whole localization process and connect smoothly with your current tech stack.

Best Practices for Developing an International SEO Strategy

Now that you already know what international SEO is and how it can benefit your business, it is time to look at some of the best practices that can help you develop the best strategies for your worldwide search engine optimization. Our enterprise WordPress agency reminds you that understanding and meeting your audience’s demands is crucial to developing a good international SEO strategy. Here are some other things you should do if you want to skyrocket your multinational business performance, in terms of SEO:

Determine Your Market Strategy

Once you have finished with your WordPress website development, your international SEO strategies will be determined by your company’s goals and prospective customers.

You might be selling the same products or services to various language audiences all over the world. If this is the case, then it is best to use a language-based segmentation strategy. This entails optimizing your website’s content so that it is consistent across all languages important to your business.

Alternatively, your company might be selling various products or services in several countries and under distinct brand names in different languages. In this case, it is most advisable to handle each country individually. You’ll need country-specific websites, each with its own international SEO strategy.

Conduct Market Research

When you complete your WordPress development for enterprise and before initiating your international SEO strategy, you should take time to determine which consumers would be interested in your product or service. Finding out what’s important to them is crucial for your success.

So, how do you ensure you’ll be relevant to your international audience? It will be best to do proper research to identify how these consumers normally find goods or services. Keyword research is another must. The thorough market research you do will allow you to get to know foreign audiences better and cater to their specific needs.

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Investigate Your Competitors

Our enterprise WordPress agency can also recommend you examine the performance of your potential competitors in terms of SEO, paid advertising, and content marketing.

Like we already said, international SEO can help you discover new prospects and this can turn into an especially successful endeavor if your rivals have made the mistake of not optimizing their content for specific markets or languages.

Perform International Keyword Research

Once you complete your enterprise WordPress development, you’ll quickly discover that keywords that work for you in your own country may not perform the same way in different countries.

Oftentimes, this is attributed to keyword volume, or it could be related to the way your business is being referred to by your target market.

Our WordPress agency for enterprise reminds you that in some cases even people who speak the same language (think British folks and Americans) use very different words to address the same things.

For instance, if your business is within the real estate industry, you’ll want to use the word “flat” when catering to the British audience and the word “apartment” when offering your services to Americans.

Use Dedicated URLs for Each Local Content Page

After you finish your WordPress development for enterprise, you need to make sure that each localized content variant has its own URL. This will help minimize confusion. Webmasters can use a few different URL formats to target specific nations. The following are the most prevalent choices:

ccTLD (country code Top-Level Domain): example.uk
gTLD (generic Top-Level Domain): example.com
ccTLD or gTLD with subdomains: de.example.com
ccTLD or gTLD with subdirectories: example.com/de/

Employ the Hreflang Attribute

If this is the first time you’re hearing about the hreflang attribute, don’t worry, our WordPress development agency can explain. So, the hreflang attribute specifies the language in which your content is written and the geographic location for which it is intended.

Another benefit of the hreflang attributes is that they assist you in avoiding duplicate content problems on your website’s many language versions that are used to target various areas.

Once you complete your WordPress website development, the hreflang attribute can be used in the following ways:

Including it in your HTML’s head> section
It’s a good idea to include it in your XML sitemap markup
You can also include it in your HTTP headers

Avoid Automatically Switching a User’s Language Based on Their Location

One common mistake that our enterprise WordPress agency is used to seeing is the automatic redirecting of visitors and/or search engines based on IP addresses or browser settings. This practice can be truly inconvenient for your target audience and it can be perplexing for search engines too.

If you do automatic redirecting you risk your content never being found by users and search engines. This is why we advise you to display a banner at the top or bottom of the page, which lets visitors and search engines know that there is an alternative (different language) version of your page.

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Devise a Link-Building Strategy for Each Location

We’ve talked about the importance of backlinks so much. When it comes to international SEO, things aren’t so different from traditional SEO practices, meaning that links have varying values based on the origin of the backlink.

When you finish the process of enterprise WordPress development, your site might receive a lot of backlinks from URLs that finish in “.de”, for example. If this is the case, Google will assume that your website is relevant to German users.

As a result, the search engine will rank your content in a way that adequately serves those local SERPs. Because local links have the most influence on search results, it’s worthwhile to devote effort to developing a solid link-building strategy for each page.

Tailor Your Content for Local Cultures

Last but definitely not least, our WordPress agency for enterprise reminds you that all content you publish on your selected nation pages should be relevant to the target audience in that country.

Remember that targeted content should qualify, first and foremost, as relevant to the audience who will visit the dedicated country pages. Localized content could be hard to create, but you can always consult someone residing in the target nation and ask them for assistance. For instance, a local professional can help you design a landing page that resonates with your target audience in a specific country.

Improve Your International Impact With the Right SEO Strategies!

In conclusion, we can say that international SEO should adhere to and further advance the standard SEO best practices. You should remember that after you complete your WordPress development for enterprise an optimized website would not necessarily result in an optimized global website. There are some crucial aspects that should be considered in order to achieve the best results.

However, our enterprise WordPress agency believes your brand will definitely stand out from the crowd if you utilize the correct SEO approach. Search engine optimization is vital in domestic markets, and it becomes much more significant if you decide to expand internationally. A good international SEO tactic will ensure that your website is optimized to complement valuable content and keywords across different regions and nations.

Understanding how to best serve your clients and tailoring your content and search experience to their demands are the first steps you should take when crafting your international SEO strategy. By following the best practices we shared in this article, you’ll be able to optimize your website for audiences that live in various countries or speak different languages.

Still searching for a WordPress development agency that has the needed expertise to build a robust and secure website for your enterprise-level business? You’ve come to the right place!

Vipe Studio offers a world-class enterprise WordPress development service that can cater to the needs of even the largest of organizations. Our super scalable solution will guarantee your website is future-proof and ready to keep up with the fast-paced digital world. If we’ve managed to spark your interest, don’t hesitate and send us an inquiry. We can’t wait to hear from you!