International SEO is the process of optimizing your website so that users find the best result based on their location and language. An important digital strategy for companies that do business in different localizations and/or different languages.
Objectives of International SEO
Thinking about targeting different countries or languages? Here are a few objectives of this process:
- Guide development with an international perspective & audience language/localization;
- Improve Search Visibility accross different countries avoiding keyword cannibalization;
- Manage different SEO Projects according to language, localization & device.
Relevance of targeting different countries and languages
You should have the content in the relevant language of each country you target, and perform proper keyword research for each to better understand which topics are the most popular ones in each, and optimize the content accordingly. - Aleyda Solis
An International SEO process can help your business identify the best international markets, define the best web structure & geolocate your international web versions.
Web structures
There are a few URL structures webmasters can employ to target a particular country with their websites. They include using a country code top-level domain (ccTLD), a subdomain, a subdirectory or subfolder, a gTLD with language parameters, or even using a different domain name entirely. Let’s take a closer look at each one of these options:
ccTLD
indicates the country
Subdomain
third level domain; no link equity.
Subdirectory
internationalized content subdirectory, subfolder, rootdomain.
