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What is International SEO?

International SEO is the process of optimizing your website for other countries. If you intend to go international, especially if you are running an ecommerce business, International SEO allows search engines to easily identify which countries and languages you should target for your business.

Do You Need to Do International SEO?

If your business or website is focused on a global audience, then you will need to start thinking of implementing international SEO to your website for different countries.

 

Strong international SEO process can help your business to scale and reach new foreign audiences. Thus, if you are looking beyond Singapore, it may be time to make some changes to your website to prepare for international SEO.

 

To start doing International SEO, you first need to determine which countries do you wish to expand your reach. Some countries native language is not English and this requires you to build native content in order to rank in that country’s search engine. Hence, part of International SEO work is to localize content and optimize for different languages.

International SEO Best Practices

To launch your international SEO plan, here are some best practices that OOm adopts for our international SEO clients:

 

 

  1. Choose Your Target Country. This is the first thing that you should do before starting any International SEO process. Choosing “global” targeting might not be productive, especially if your website’s Domain Authority (DA) is low. If your website’s DA is low, you should carefully select the target country that you wish to start with so you can concentrate the entire effort on these countries to get results faster.

 

  1. Define the Right Url or Domain Structure Type. There are a few types of URL structure you can adopt: Country Code Top-Level Domain (ccTLD), Subdomain or Subdirectory. Each of these URL structure types has its own pros and cons. Do speak to a professional SEO agency to understand the differences.

 

  1. Select Language According to Your Targeted Audiences. If you are targeting, for example, Indonesia, you can choose to optimize for both English and Indonesia Bahasa language.

 

  1. Use Hreflang or Language Meta Tags to Indicate Which Language Your Content is Available. Hreflang are bits of code that tells Google that an alternate version of the content is available on your website. Make sure the content on your website is in the primary language of the region that you are targeting and please do not use machine translations.

 

  1. Create and Localize Your Content to Your Target User’s Language and Culture. Create content that is suited to your target user’s country and culture. Use local slang, currency and contact information on the web pages for the respective country that you are targeting. When you are creating content, it is important to take note of any cultural differences or religious beliefs so that you do not offend anyone in your target region.

 

  1. Host Your Website on a Local Ip If You Are Using a ccTLD. If you are choosing ccTLD as your preferred URL structure type, do remember to host your website on a local host with local IP.

 

  1. Build Links From Local Websites. Link building plays an important role to deliver success in SEO. In an International SEO process, you must build links from local websites so as to achieve better relevancy.

What is a ccTLD?

ccTLD stands for Country Code Top Level Domain. For example, .sg, ,my, .th are examples of Country Code Top Level Domain (ccTLD). A ccTLD shows users and search engines in what country or territory a website is registered. In each of the following examples, the ccTLD is bolded:

 

www.oom.com.sg

www.sample.sg

www.sample.co.uk

 

Why does choosing the right ccTLD matter in SEO? By choosing the right ccTLD, you are informing the users and search engines that your website is specifically built to target that particular country and this is very useful if you are implementing international SEO to your website.

Choosing Between ccTLD or gTLD Domain Names

gTLD stands for generic top level domain. Some examples of gTLD are: .com, .net, .org, etc. Part of international SEO requires you to determine the domain strategy for your website. If you decide to use ccTLD, you will have to manage several country-level domains. If you choose a gTLD and group all international versions of your web content on one global domain, it might save you tons of resources. ccTLD and gTLD each have its pros and cons when it comes to international SEO strategy. Do speak to our SEO consultants and we are able to advise you further.

Promoting Your Website Internationally using International SEO

International SEO allows you to reach out to the global audience with your website. If you wish to conduct business globally, having a right international SEO strategy in place is one of the key success factors. Leverage on our SEO experience and outsource your international SEO work to us. We have proven track records to help your business achieve SEO success with our international SEO strategy.

In-House SEO Team to Work on Your International SEO

By having an in-house SEO team, we are able to control every part of the international SEO process to deliver the highest quality work for you. Since 2006, we have been providing SEO work for our clients and we know what works for you.

Our Clientele

We care greatly about our clientele. Our clients are an expanded mix of SMEs and enterprises. Check out some of the companies we’ve helped recently through our diverse portfolio.

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