International eCommerce shops have changed the economy in many countries. Instead of purchasing from local stores, buyers are now looking to large web platforms such as Amazon and Temu. The age of successful boardwalk stores is now over, and we have to look forward to a more digitalized market.
Unfortunately, while the prospect of having a large global eCommerce store sounds alluring, developing such a business is everything but. To carve your place in the market, you have to go against large global conglomerates. These businesses spend millions of dollars on their PPC and SEO strategy, something that most online stores can’t compete against.
Just so you understand what we’re talking about, Amazon spent $20 billion in the last decade on ads. During the same period, Alibaba spent 76 billion Yuan (equivalent to $10 billion). Given the situation, small brands are forced to work smarter, not harder.
A good way to change your luck is by investing in international SEO efforts. These strategies allow you to maximize your budget and still get a certain amount of organic traffic to your eCommerce website. If you’re interested in this approach, we suggest you read this post from top to bottom!
What is International eCommerce SEO?
Global eCommerce SEO is used to improve the performance of your international webshop, so it appears higher in search results. A common SEO strategy involves processes such as keyword research, content creation, and link building.
The main goal of an international eCommerce SEO strategy is to make your site rank in various regions and countries. This is a tall task, which is why you need to hire top marketing experts, such as MiroMind.
As you can presume, international SEO is much more complex than your traditional strategy. You have to create several versions of the site, catering to various audiences. Besides changing the language, you also need to introduce different currencies, modify the transaction process, and improve landing pages for a specific culture.
How Does International SEO Differ From Other Strategies?
SEO presumes different complexity and focus depending on its localization. For example, running a small service brand in your city is completely different than having a large online store. With that said, here’s how different methodologies differ:
Local SEO Strategies
Even if you’re not an expert, you can easily optimize your website for local search results. The process starts by creating a profile on Google My Business. After that, you need to acquire positive reviews from your clients.
The great thing about local SEO is that it provides you with highly-converting traffic. If you do everything right, you’ll be featured in Google 3-Pack. Unfortunately, as you’d like to reach as many clients as possible with your web shop, this method isn’t ideal for an eCommerce business.
National SEO
National SEO opens up your store to users from your home country. So, if you live in a large country such as the US, you can have a very successful business just from this traffic.
The good thing about national SEO is that you don’t have to mess around with different languages. Your content always stays in its original form. You also don’t have to implement different payment providers or adapt to the legal framework of other countries and regions.
International SEO
International eCommerce SEO opens your business to a global marketplace. It is a perfect solution for businesses that want to target multiple countries and audiences. However, to get the most out of this approach, you need to make sure your products are suitable for different areas.
The most important steps of international optimization is ensuring search engine crawlers understand your content. Google’s robots need to identify your target audience and countries and present the website to specific areas.
How to Develop an International SEO Strategy?
While not every eCommerce business relies on an international strategy, many of them can benefit from this approach. With global methodology, you cater to users from various countries, who have different customs and use a different language from yours.
The most important thing is not being too hasty with the implementation of a global strategy. Many web stores can have a nice future by simply catering to their domestic market. In the end, implementing an international SEO approach will require that you have several versions of the website modified in multiple languages.
As for the technical aspects, here’s what you need to do:
- Check the data in Google Analytics and Google Search Console. Learn where your website visitors come from and if they’re interested in your products.
- Learn more about the country’s economy and people’s ability to afford products such as yours.
- Assess the local competition. See if the country has similar web stores in the local market. You should also check the availability of large international stores such as Amazon and eBay.
- Together with your financial team, make a breakdown of the budget. Consult with marketers to see how much a one-year campaign (the minimal investment) would cost.
- Learn about the country’s preferred search engine. It makes a big difference whether they’re using Baidoo, Google, or Yandex.
If you need assistance with this part, we suggest you contact us. MiroMind has had numerous international projects under its belt, and we know how to optimize sites for foreign search engine rankings.
7 Best International eCommerce SEO Practices
To get the most out of your project, we suggest you implement these international SEO best practices:
1. Analyze the Home Market
You should never pick countries at random. Instead, you should make a comprehensive analysis of each domestic market and its ability to accommodate your brand. As mentioned, some of the main things you should focus on are as follows:
Check the volume and difficulty of relevant keywords.
Analyze other available online stores.
Assess whether you can transfer your business easily to this market.
Learn about preferred search engines, available payment processors, and expected fees.
Learn more about domestic regulation and, in particular, anything that might hinder your project.
Software such as SEMRush and Ahrefs can prove to be invaluable in this particular case. These platforms do a great job of analyzing international traffic and providing other insights for your online shop. Among others, we suggest you analyze the SEO metrics of local providers and your ability to overtake them in SERPs.
2. Find Ideal Website Focus
Another thing you need to consider is whether to have a country-specific or language-specific website. Choosing one or another can have a major impact on your profitability.
Generally speaking, language-specific sites are an excellent choice if you don’t want to waste too much time. These sites utilize the same language, content, and layout for a set of countries. For example, if you’re a US brand, you can use the same platform to cater to the UK, Australia, and Canada.
Still, many businesses prefer spreading their reach and including other countries such as China, France, or Germany. In these cases, you’ll need a country-specific site. You’ll have to create either a new site with a local domain or a different website version for the local populace. To make the most out of it, you have to change the language, currency, and make other modifications.
3. Choose Domain Structure
Selecting the proper domain structure is vital for any international marketing strategy. You have to decide whether to use a country code top-level domain (ccTDL), subfolder, or subdomain.
- ccTDL
You’ve probably seen this domain structure numerous times. If you choose a ccTDL approach, you’ll have to create a completely new online store for a particular country. While this requires more work, it will have a fantastic impact on click-through rates and conversion.
Using ccTDL is especially popular among online shops. An example of a ccTDL URL would be www.MiroMind.de (for Germany) or www.MiroMind.it (for Italy).
While this method converts at a higher rate, it comes with more costs. You’ll need a new provider and domain. Running a separate ccTLD is exhausting, as you’ll need to have a new team to run the blog and create landing pages. Given this is a different domain, it won’t benefit from progress and, specifically, links you’ve built on your main website.
- Subdomain
If you opt for a subdomain, you don’t have to create a new site from scratch. Instead, you just need to expand the original website for new audiences. An example of a subdomain would be www.de.MiroMind.com.
The good news about subdomains is that they don’t require as much work or financial investment. They also do a good job separating content in different languages. However, many people struggle ranking them.
- Subfolders
Subfolders are like subcategories within your site, similar to the way you’d be using a blog category. An example of a subfolder is www.MiroMind.com/de or www.MiroMind.com/it. Many webshops love this classification as it doesn’t require as much micromanagement.
Unfortunately, Google often struggles to assign geographic focus to subfolders. As a result, you might struggle to attract the target audience from specific countries.
4. Optimize for Local Search Engines
Despite all the changes to SEO, one thing remains the same: Google dominates the Western world. Nevertheless, that doesn’t necessarily mean that people in your target country will use this search engine. We’ve previously mentioned Russian Yandex and Chinese Baidoo, but there are other popular platforms abroad.
If you want to get the most out of your international SEO strategy, you must adapt to the specific requirements of popular local search engines. Learn which system is the most popular in the target country and adapt your marketing efforts accordingly.
5. Address Technical Aspects
International sites simply won’t work if you don’t implement certain technical processes. Like with any other SEO strategy, you need to set up a foundation upon which you’ll build everything. That said, here a few things that you need to address on the backend:
- Hreflang Tags
By implementing these tags, you make sure Google shows the right website version and language. Given taht multilingual sites have lots of content that’s same or similar, you need hreflang to differentiate between them. Most importantly, these tags prevent you from incurring massive SEO penalties that would debiltate your business.
- Loading Time
Another common issue international eCommerce shops face is the loading time. When a site is hosted internationally, it will take additional time for foreign visitors to open the page. A slow loading speed will lead to a higher bounce rate and, with that, lower placement in search engines.
The best way to tackle the issue is by relying on a CDN or content delivery network. CDNs have numerous servers in different countries, allowing users to access the original content faster.
- Local Content and Links
If you have separate websites for each country, you’ll need to build them up in the same way you would the original one. While you can repurpose some of the content from the original site, it wouldn’t be bad to create articles relevant to the local audience. Similarly, make sure to modify each piece so it is more suitable for the specific foreign culture.
Similarly, you’ll need new backlinks. The best thing would be to get links from that particular country, as they would have more impact on your rankings. In other words, you’ll have to run a separate outreach campaign for this project.
6. Use Local Keywords
The fact certain keywords work on a particular market doesn’t mean they’ll be relevant in other places. International keyword research stands out as one of the most vital parts of optimization. In the end, if you’re creating contact that no one’s going to read, there’s no point in doing SEO in the first place.
That said, here are a few tricks for researching local keywords:
- Use reliable software for keyword research.
- You can use the same list of keywords as for the original site, but make sure to translate them.
- Focus on volume and difficulty as the two most important metrics.
- Learn more about local user intent and why someone uses a certain phrase.
- Determine if a keyword can lead to conversion.
- Spy on local competitors to simplify the process.
- Check the SERP to learn more about a keyword and its viability.
If you have experience doing market research in your home country, you’ll probably have no trouble finding lucrative phrases for international audiences. Many processes are similar as with the traditional SEO; just make sure to consider local factors such as language and culture.
7. Audit Your Content
Content creation and repurposing stands out as one of the biggest costs for international sites. In an ideal world, you’d like to transfer as many articles to your new domain as possible. However, you must keep in mind that many of them won’t be suitable or might require extensive overhaul.
So, to get the most out of your effort, the MiroMind team suggests you perform a comprehensive audit. Conduct this step in conjunction with keyword research, to maximize your user engagement and conversions.
- Analyze Best-Performing Articles
The good thing with international sites is that you usually have a good starting point. If you have a well-optimized domestic site, you can check what worked and what didn’t. See which articles performed the best and led to most conversions. You have to establish whether this concept would also work in international markets.
The general rule is that people react similarly to quality content. So, you should repurpose the “winners’ on your site and post them on international blogs. Learn what makes these posts great and implement these lessons in future posts.
- Learn About Local Audiences
Even if certain web pages are relevant in your home country, that doesn’t mean they’ll enjoy the same level of success abroad. Learn what makes the foreign users tick, and inquire about their unique interests and culture.
By catering to the preferences of the target market, you can create powerful articles from scratch or repurpose the old ones. Interestingly enough, some of the content that hasn’t performed well in the home market might gain a new life abroad.
- Create Articles From Scratch
A good portion of your posts will have to be made from scratch. Many of them will revolve around popular local keywords. While new pieces will take a lot of time for your team, some of them might provide valuable traffic from search engine results pages.
Last Thoughts
International SEO strategies are a perfect solution for brands that want to grow beyond their local borders. Creating different versions of your site, or completely new websites, will allow you to tap into international markets and their audiences.
Unfortunately, due to the complexity of the transition, you’ll need to take your time creating a winning international SEO strategy. Find the best search engines in foreign countries, discover new keywords, and repurpose content for global users.
And if you ever need international SEO services, you can always contact MiroMind!