Are you thinking of making your business international? In this case, your search engine optimization (SEO) must follow suit. It is perfect if you want your business to be discoverable online by users in many countries. Plus, you will rank on search engine results pages (SERPs).
This is where WordPress international SEO comes in. But it is not all sunshine and rainbows. It requires serious effort. And that is what this article is about.
Below, you will find tips and suggestions for taking your SEO to the international stage.
Let’s get started.
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What is WordPress international SEO?
Note that by default, WordPress allows you to build your website in only one language out of 180. So, how do you get around this?
The answer is WordPress international SEO or multilingual SEO. This is the practice of optimizing your WordPress website. It aims to help search engines determine the countries and languages it is targeting.
It is considered a combination of technical SEO, content translation, and link building. We cover each of these aspects in more detail below. But first, why bother with international SEO? Let’s find out.
Benefits of WordPress international SEO
Getting your WordPress site on the international stage comes with multiple advantages. Sure, it is not always an easy process to achieve, but once you get the ball rolling, you will be able to benefit from the following:
- Improved usability: Boost your audience’s user experience. Do this by serving them your content in a language they understand.
- Improved global brand visibility: You can reach new audiences. You can also tap into a bigger target market.
- Improved chances of ranking: Yes, you can rank in many languages for many regions.
- Increase traffic, conversions, and revenue: Generate more leads and boost conversions. Tapping into a wider audience allows you to enjoy higher revenue.
How to carry out SEO for the international stage
It all starts by identifying the countries and languages you want to target. Then, you want to make sure you target the right search engines. While Baidu is popular in China, Russia often uses Yandex. But Google dominates global search and that is where our focus lies.
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Technical SEO
Technical SEO is a must in any international SEO strategy. It involves selecting the right languages and countries to target. It is also about ensuring that your URLs and site speed are correct. Ultimately, it is about getting the technical details right the first time and on an ongoing basis that will hit the mark.
- Put hreflang tags in place: Hreflang tags are specific attributes or technical codes. They help to specify the language and location of a webpage. They are useful because they segment audiences. They also present them with accurate and relevant information in their language. Plus, they avoid issues of duplicate content.
- Pro tip: It also helps if you have different variations of the same language. You can include the hreflang attribute in the HTML’s <head> section, the XML sitemap, and your HTTP header.
- Apply geotargeting: You can also use the geotargeting strategy. This means creating content directly related to your users’ geographic location. Before jumping into the technicals, accurately translate your slugs. And now, here are several methods of revising your URL structure:
- Country code top-level domains (ccTLDs): This is where you tailor your content and make it relevant to specific countries.
- Global top-level domains (gTLDs) combined with subdomains: These can improve your geotargeting and boost your brand recognition in each target market. But, they are challenging to set up and maintain from a technical perspective. It may also be hard to ensure SEO alignment with other subdomains.
- Global top-level domains combined with subfolders: Use these when your audience’s location does not impact your products or services. Use a single domain name and then subdirectories or subfolders that host your language or country pages.
- Global top-level domains combined with subdomains and subfolders: These domains can make your website more relevant to your users. That is because they combine the best of both worlds of subdomains and subfolders. Yes, they are complex and need significant server resources. They can also lead to long URLs and possible issues with cookie sharing.
- Subdirectories and subdomains: An example of a subdirectory is website.com/es for Spain or es.website.com for a subdomain. Google recommends using subdirectories.
- Create multilingual XML site maps: Google or other search engines must crawl your site. You need a site map for this. In short, you need to help search engines figure out what to crawl, where to crawl, and what it all means. The more help you give search engines, the better for your rankings and user experience.
- Pro tip: Ensure each language version of your site has a URL.
Screenshot provided by the Author
- Ensure fast site speed: Website loading speed is key for users, no matter where they are. Your site speed should be swift to boost the user experience. To achieve this, you want to use content delivery networks (CDNs). They are great for eliminating latency and improving load times.
- Note: They do this by replicating your site’s content on different global servers. These servers are physically closer to your users, resulting in faster site loading speeds.
- Optimize for mobile: It is important to optimize your site for mobile devices. Different markets have different SEO statistics for mobile usage. But that means you must capture the attention of users who use their smartphones to browse or consume content. Your images and scripts should load quickly on smart devices.
- And the benefits? This will create a better user experience and drive higher levels of engagement.
Content translation and localization
While WordPress international SEO is an ongoing process, the technical side is just one part. You should also engage in content translation and localization.
Research shows that 72% of consumers worldwide prefer browsing content in their own language. Reaching the international SEO stage can help increase traffic and revenue.
Take MrBeast, a well-known Youtuber whose multilingual videos helped him achieve 160 million views in the first six months of 2022.
Here’s what you can do to optimize your WordPress site for global reach:
- Localize content: Localizing your content goes beyond word-for-word translations. It is about considering your audience’s culture, language, tastes, and preferences. Use the local currency, correct date formats, the right units of measurement, and fonts and colors appropriate for your users, etc.
- Pro tip: It is not advisable to use automatic translations. But if you choose to use them, use your site’s robots.txt file to block search engines from crawling this content.
- Incorporate local keywords: Every SEO campaign needs quality keyword research. Here, determine which keywords rank high for your target language and region. For instance, UK English differs from US English. Different locations need specific keywords and adaptations for the greatest effectiveness.
- Pro tip: You should transcreate and not translate your keywords.
- Add metadata: Remember that you will need accurate translations and keywords in your metadata. This refers to your page title and description, image alt tags, and social media metadata. Some handy WordPress plugins can help you with this.
- Implement digital PR: Digital PR is about sharing your company news, research, updates, and valuable information with the public. Here, focus on establishing relationships with media outlets and journalists. Ensure they are interested in publishing your content. The more opportunities you use to get your website’s links in reputable media sites, the better your link juice and rankings will perform.
- Implement international link building: Get high-quality backlinks from websites hosted in different countries. This helps increase your website’s visibility in SERPs for specific areas and drive traffic to your website. Link-building tools monitor your current backlinks in numerous locations and those of your competitors. This allows you to see the gap between your websites and get many ideas on where to build your international links.
- Implement local link building: It is essential to build local links to your multilingual website content. For example, if the German version of your website receives a lot of .de links, it is a signal to Google that your site is relevant to German audiences. So, it will rank your page higher on these search engine results. Local link building is worth it because it is a significant ranking factor.
- Offer guest blogging services: Offering your content to other websites to publish that link back to your site is another way to earn quality links. Guest blogging is worthwhile for content published on sites with a high domain authority or rating (DA or DR). Acquiring many links back to your site signals to Google that your content is valuable and that you deserve to rank high in the SERP.
- Collaborate with local influencers: Another way to get public exposure and links is through collaborations with local influencers. Popular micro or macro influencers are the key to tapping into your preferred target market. That is because they speak in a language they understand. Local influencers know local customs and cultures and can portray your product or service in the right light.
- Pro tip: It does not matter whether it’s a B2C or a B2B SaaS product. Influencers are trusted by their followers. And they play an influential role in convincing others to buy from you.
Other tips
A few other tips worth sharing when it comes to WordPress International SEO include:
- Avoiding using text on images
- Including a navigation menu and language switch options
- Avoiding the automatic redirection of users to a different language based on location
- Choosing locally relevant social media channels to share content and encourage user reviews. And using social media management tools to streamline your process
- Choosing not to have your content automatically translated
- Avoiding using cookies or scripts to show different-language versions of a page
- Encouraging users to leave reviews of your product or service
- Creating a local Google Business Profile to align with your business’s local presence
- Localizing checkout and shipping factors
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The importance of monitoring and analytics
Monitoring the results of your SEO efforts is a must. Use Google Search Console, part of Google Analytics, to view and manage your site in Google searches. Also, the Search Console can help you watch your hreflang tags and discover any errors. Apart from this, keep a keen eye on the following metrics to determine your performance.
After this, you can make the necessary adjustments:
- Organic traffic: This is the number of organic page visits. Track traffic from specific countries during a given period.
- Country-specific keyword rankings: Track the performance of your keywords. See how they rank in local search engines. Do this for every country. This can help you optimize your content further.
- Bounce rates and time spent on site: Keep an eye on how many visitors leave your site after viewing only one page. Also, check how long they stay on your site per region or country.
- Conversion rates: Conversion rates mean different things for different businesses. Some may want to watch the number of sales. Others may want to boost subscriber figures by collecting email addresses. Ensure you have identified the right conversion rate metrics to track and perform your analysis.
- Competitor analysis: Study how you perform against competitors in every country you aim to rank. Check things like keyword rankings, backlink profiles, and organic traffic. This can help you see opportunities for improvement.
- Backlink analysis: You can get a good idea of your website’s strength by assessing the quantity and quality of backlinks from domains across countries. Be sure to check their relevance and authority figures.
Remember that monitoring your website’s metrics is an ongoing process. You should schedule regular checkups using your preferred SEO tool.
Ensuring a quality user experience and pristine core web vitals will help with international expansion.
It is also worth noting that Google’s International Targeting Report has been discontinued. Therefore, you may need other ways to track your SEO efforts and performance.
Wrapping up
Going on the global stage is exciting. It is also a lot of hard work. You can reach global audiences and tap into new markets with global or international WordPress SEO.
There are many things you can do to help your SEO efforts. Yet, the three most important ones are technical SEO, localizing content, and building links.
Targeting many languages and countries can seem like a hair-raising experience. There are so many different factors to consider. But, the best practices outlined in this article should help you on your journey forward.
Do not forget that SEO is an ongoing process that requires continuous refinement and adaptation. For the best results, quality localized content and high-quality links are also needed.
Finally, measure and track your metrics and key performance indicators. The beauty of SEO is that it is adaptable. Good luck on the road to international expansion.
