International SEO
Broaden your horizons or grow your existing markets with an expert international SEO strategy.
Let’s take the first step. We’re ready.
International SEO for global reach
Multilingual or multinational – getting your product in front of international markets effectively requires deep technical know-how and an understanding of market specific nuances.
Tried and tested technical expertise
When it comes to getting your site seen in new markets, we know what works. We’ve been doing it for over 20 years.
Whether you’re planning on using a subdomain, subdirectory or country-code top level domain (ccTLD), such as .co.uk, we can advise on the best option, based on your objectives and resources, before guiding you through the implementation.
Don’t know your hreflang tags from your canonicals? Trust us as your international SEO partners to ensure best practice is followed and your site is technically sound.
Transcreation, not translation.
Users want content written for them, not translated word-for-word from content written for someone else. We’re advocates of transcreation – a method of reproducing content for multiple languages, but in a way that is truly localised.
We work with partners who are not only native speakers, but native dwellers, so they can communicate your key messages more effectively.
Transcreation not only serves your users, but search engines too. It provides the likes of Google with a better contextual understanding of your content and enables you to rank better for the keywords that your potential customers will actually use.
Thorough research conducted by native speakers is vital to unearthing keyword gems that will get you found organically.
A deep understanding of global search
What works for Google, might not work for Baidu. It’s fair to say that, while Google’s market share is huge, many other search engines come into play when we start thinking globally.
Don’t miss out on sales. Optimise intelligently with Hallam as your international SEO agency to cater to the search engines your markets are using.
Take your product and brand, global.
Getting your brand in front of new markets is a dream for many companies. But without the proper structure and guidance it can be an increasingly costly slog. We can help you navigate the intricacies and common pitfalls.
International SEO expertise
Going big or starting small, it’s important not to make basic mistakes at the beginning of your internationalisation journey. Starting on the right foot will help prime your site for future success and expansion, which is why you need experts in your corner.
To your goals and beyond
From the start, we can counsel you on which site or domain structure is right for you, research your target markets and create a strategic plan that pulls in all the skills and knowledge our full service agency has to offer.
Whether you need us to be hands-on or simply point you in the right direction, you’ll have a dedicated international SEO expert ensuring best practice and technical considerations are addressed.
How we work, works
We’re in the business of results. Take a look at our recent work, or get in touch to learn more about how we did it.
Let’s take the first step. We’re ready.
Frequently asked questions
What is international SEO?
International SEO is the process of optimising a website’s content and structure to rank better in search engine results pages (SERPs) for more than one language or country, in order to attract relevant organic traffic. It uses various techniques and strategies including:
- Content localisation – creating content that is culturally relevant and linguistically appropriate for the target audience in different countries and regions
- Keyword research – identifying the keywords and phrases that people use to search for products or services in different languages and countries
- Website structure and architecture – optimising a website’s technical structure, including URLs, meta tags, sitemaps, and hreflang tags, to ensure that search engines can understand the website’s content in different languages and regions
- Backlinks – building high-quality backlinks from relevant websites in different countries and regions to improve the website’s authority and relevance
- Local search engine optimisation – optimising a website’s local business listings, such as Google Business Profile, to improve the website’s visibility in local search results
What are the benefits of International SEO?
The benefits of international SEO, if done correctly, are:
- Your products, services and brand will be more visible in your target geographic markets through improved rankings
- Your content will speak the language of your users and your business
- You can reach a larger international audience, leading to increased brand awareness, traffic and revenue
- You’ll provide a better user experience to international customers, improving customer satisfaction and retention
- Increased brand recognition and credibility in different countries and regions
- It’s more cost effective compared to other types of international marketing
What are key international SEO best practices?
Key best practices for International SEO include:
- Proper implementation of hreflang tags, including return tags
- A well considered site/domain structure that is appropriate for the resources available
- Carefully chosen and researched keyword optimisation, individually tailored to each target market
- A site that’s built for speed, user experience and search engine crawling
- Transcreated, multilingual content that truly speaks the same language as your users
- Imagery and iconography that represents your customers and their values
Find out more about essential internationalisation tasks.
How does international SEO differ from local SEO?
International SEO and local SEO are two different approaches and serve different purposes with some key differences being:
- Local SEO is focused on reaching users in a specific geographic area, such as a city or region, while international SEO is focused on reaching users in multiple countries and languages.
- Local SEO targets location-specific keywords, such as “best restaurants in Nottingham,” while international SEO targets keywords that are relevant to multiple countries and languages.
- Content for both strategies is localised differently with local content being more relevant to a local audience and international content being more relevant to a global, larger-scale audience, also in different languages for different regions that are culturally relevant to them.
- Technical optimisation is different too. Local SEO is all about local business listings and including local keywords in content, title tags and headings, whereas international SEO requires a global site structure and hreflang tags.
- Local SEO requires businesses to focus on local marketing strategies, such as building local citations and reviews, while international SEO requires businesses to focus on global marketing strategies, such as building high-quality backlinks from international websites and leveraging social media platforms that are popular in different countries.
What is the best way to measure international SEO efforts?
Measuring the success of international SEO efforts can be challenging because it involves multiple languages, countries, and search engines. However, there are several KPIs that we can help you track to measure the effectiveness of your international SEO efforts:
- Organic traffic from different countries and languages
- Rankings of international keywords for different countries and languages
- Conversion rates to help you understand revenue and leads for different countries
- International backlinks and authority
- Engagement metrics, such as time spent on a page, to help you understand how international audiences interact with your website
