Implementing an SEO strategy effectively is the best way to get your site seen. Focusing on local searches is almost always a good place to start but targeting a global audience is a great way to boost traffic even more. Because of this, optimizing content for an international audience is a great opportunity to improve SEO performance.
Benefits to Optimizing for International SEO
There are many reasons it’s a good idea to target an audience in multiple countries.
- Gain traffic from a larger audience
- Expand reach in organic search
- Introduce brand to global markets
Even if you’re a business who offers services locally, it can be a good idea to increase your search presence by creating content for an international audience. Here are some tips on how you can optimize your site for visitors from around the globe.
Add Translation Option
Giving users the ability to translate site content into different languages is important if you expect visitors from outside your local area. Adding a translation option that’s featured prominently on your site is a great way to let users decide which language content is displayed in.
The Google Language Translator WordPress plugin adds a language dropdown option that can be used to set the language content is displayed in. Over 100 languages can be enabled with plugin settings and it can be added to pages or widget areas with shortcode.
Using different domains for different countries, i.e. mysite.co.in for India, to create sites targeted at your different target audiences is another option to serve content in different languages.
Keep Content Simple
Writing text that’s easy to understand is essential if you intend for it to be consumed by audiences in multiple countries. Short sentences, lists and descriptive headings are good ways to keep your site engaging to users around the globe. Adding images directly related to the text on a page can also help make sure your message is getting through.
Using the Yoast SEO plugin readability analysis feature to scan the content of a page will help you ensure you’re adding quality content. The tool helps you avoid complex sentences to keep your content simple.
Optimize Meta Tags
Updating meta tags with Yoast SEO will give you the ability to change the title and description that shows on search engine results pages for every page on your WordPress site. Setting a unique focus keyword for each page and checking SEO analysis to determine how well content is optimized for that keyword is a good place to start.
Making sure your meta tags give potential visitors from around the globe a clear idea of the content contained on each page is essential for success with global SEO.
Track International SEO Performance
Ranking for valuable keywords internationally has the potential to boost organic traffic to your site significantly. Targeting a global audience can greatly expand the reach of your site and bring new users to your site so it’s important to track where users are coming from.
Google Analytics 4 has a demographics tab that can be used to break down data by country and city so you can see where traffic is coming from. The Countries tab in Google Search Console can also be used to see where organic search listings for your site are showing and getting clicks. All the location related data can be used to identify where your site is most successful and confirm SEO efforts are working as intended.