Many online businesses operate within a global market. However if you have decided to use search engine optimization to drive the business forward what are the steps you should take? There are many website owners that mistakenly buy a .com domain as a starting point believing that this will offer a gateway into new international markets. However this is not the way to go.
You need to understand how search engines work to fully understand why this is not a good approach. Every search engine is primarily geared up to search out information that is specific to their searchers. If an internet user is located in France and uses French as their primary language then the search engine will want to provide search results in French from within France. This means that the most effective SEO strategy is to set up multiple sites which target each country territory specifically.
Follow these simple steps to achieve effective international website optimization:
List all the countries that you want to do business with and find domain names that are specific to each of them. This means finding www.company.fr for France, www.company.de for Germany and so on. This helps Google to know that you are targeting countries geographically with a tailored website.Another method of making sure that Google and other search engines know which country is being targeted is to use a server based in each particular territory. This requires some research to identify the relevant hosting companies.Use the native language for the content of each website.
List global offices for your company relevant to each country site.All the above ensure that Google recognises that the sites are focused on specific locations and reduces issues regarding content duplication.
At www.searchengineoptimization.co.uk we provide expert Google SEO for both domestic and international website optimization.