The Apex Internet Blog

International SEO for multi-country websites

In their ongoing quest to provide their users with the most relevant search results possible, the major search engines are designed to search results that are tailored to the geographic location of the user. This means that someone searching for a particular keyword phrase from inside Australia will most likely see a different set of results compared with someone searching the same keyword from inside New Zealand.

Given that users in different countries will see a different set of search results for the same keyword search, it's vital that businesses looking to target customers across multiple countries have a robust international search engine optimisation (SEO) strategy in place.  For example, let's say you have a range of products that you sell online in New Zealand and you decide that you want to break into the UK market. To do so you'll want to make sure that your website (and hence your products) can be found online by prospective customers searching for your products in the UK (e.g. via Google.co.uk), as well as prospective customers searching from inside New Zealand (e.g via Google.co.nz).

So, what options are available to you if you're embarking on an international SEO campaign? First it's important to understand how search engines decide which results to show users from each different geographic location.

How do search engines determine which results to show to searchers from different countries?

Understanding the impact the following factors can have on your international SEO efforts is critical to achieving online visibility across multiple countries.

• Top Level Domain: Using the country-code top level domain (ccTLD) for the region/country you're targeting (e.g. '.co.nz', '.com.au', '.co.uk') is a key factor in helping the search engines identify which country your company's website is relevant for and which search queries your site should appear against. For example, if you're targeting New Zealand, it makes sense to use a 'co.nz' top-level domain.

• Hosting  location: While not as big a factor as having a ccTLD that matches your target country, the geographic location of your hosting can influence the ability of your site to achieve search engine visibility in your targeted country. From a SEO perspective websites perform best when they are hosted in the same country as the audience they are targeting. For example, if you have a UK website such as www.company.co.uk and a NZ website such as www.company.co.nz, each one should ideally be hosted in the country it is targeting.

• Links: When determining geographic relevance the search engines also factor in the location of sites that link to yours. Therefore to rank well in a specific country you should ensure you've got a number of relevant links coming to your site from other sites located in the country you are targeting.

• Google Webmaster Tools geo-targeting setting: Google Webmaster Tools provides the option for you to indicate which country your site is targeted at. For example, if your website utilises a global top-level domain such as a .com or a .net but your site targets users in New Zealand you can use the geo-targeting setting in Google Webmaster Tools to notify Google that your site is targeted at a New Zealand based audience.

• Language: It makes sense not just from a search engine performance perspective, but also in terms of usability if your site uses the native language of the audience you are targeting.  For example, if you're targeting a French audience, then use French for the copy throughout the website.

• Local address information: Displaying your contact information on your website (local phone numbers and a local physical address) for the country you are targeting is another on-page factor that can help when trying to reach a geographically targeted audience.

What's the best strategy for achieving international SEO success?

Creating a successful international SEO strategy begins with determining the best approach.  Unfortunately there's no 'best' solution, and the approach you do take will often be dependant on your company's structure, resources and requirements.

• Approach 1: Create a website with a ccTLD for country you are targeting and populate it with relevant content with a local flavour. For example if you're a NZ-based company with a New Zealand targeted website (e.g. 'www.examplesite.co.nz') and you want to expand into the UK, then by using this approach you would need to create a new website that uses the '.co.uk' top level domain and is ideally also hosted in the UK.

• Approach 2: Create unique content targeted to your target location and display this content in a sub directory of your existing website – for example 'uk.examplesite.com'

• Approach 3: Create unique content targeted to your target location and display this content in a subfolder of your existing website – for example 'www.examplesite.com/uk'

While Approach 1 is probably the most ideal solution overall, Approach 2 and 3 are best if you don't have the resources to manage building and maintaining two separate websites.

For a review of the pros and cons of each approach take a look at the following post courtesy of Google titled working with multi-regional websites.

International SEO and how to handle duplicate content

When targeting several countries that share the same language there is the potential for duplication of content across each website.  Using local country ccTLDs is good way to minimise the risk of content duplication, as is creating unique content tailored for the geographic audience you are targeting. Google’s Webmaster Tools settings should also be used on each domain (or subdomain or subfolder, depending on your approach) to show Google which site is targeted to which country.

Conclusion

When it comes to international SEO there are a number of options available to you (subdomains/subfolders/top level domains, target country hosting etc). Every situation is different and as such we advise a measured approach that considers all of the factors. As with all things SEO-related there’s no one size fits all solution - you have to find the best mix for your circumstances and goals.

Related reading

You can learn more about achieving search engine visibility in country specific search engines by reading our earlier post titled How to Gain Rankings in Country Specific Search Engines.

 

 

Categories: Search Engine Marketing, Search
Posted on: 17th Jun 10 by Mark Vassiliou
Post Comment

Name:
Email:
Comment:
Please Enter This Verification Code: