Many online businesses offer products and services to a variety of countries all over the world – so why do so many focus only on UK search?

A key aspect of modern SEO is the optimisation of a website for multiple territories. After all, an overseas customer may not use an English search term, and therefore may not find your website, despite the fact that you have what they need.

Are you talking your customers’ language? And, more importantly, does Google know it?

International Domains

If you want to rank in another country, it pays to have the specific domain. With a country code, top level domain, or ccTLD, you can host content for a particular international audience on the domain that google recognises for that region.

From .us and .uk, to .fr and .au all of the major territories of the world have a ccTLD. We don’t know why, specifically, you would need to rank only in Azerbaijan, but if you did the .az domain would come in very handy.

This location specific domain can be used to host content which specifically caters to that region, with the additional benefit of relevance in Google.

Multi-Lingual Content

Hosting separate content on a different domain or sub-domain is going to be most impactful if it’s going to be useful to that audience; and that means making sure it’s written in an appropriate language.

It has arguably never been more important to offer translated/multi-lingual content on your website and there are multiple reasons for doing so. After all, your search marketing efforts might drive customers to a landing page, but if that page isn’t relevant to them, you can say bye-bye business – hello bigger bounce rate.

Fortunately, agencies like Hit Search can offer translation services as part of an existing marketing campaign or as a specific one-time content project.

With customers speaking German, French, Polish or a host of other language, it makes sense that your website should speak them too.

Overseas Web Directories

We know how important links are to a digital marketing campaign, as a ranking indicator to provide domain authority and also as a pure source of traffic from a relevant audience.

International business directories provide an opportunity to drive links to an international domain and improve its search visibility. They could also prove to be a valuable source of custom from the very region the business aims to connect with.

In truth, these are just some of the ways to optimise a website for countries all over the world. If you have any questions about international SEO, content translation or overseas domains, why not contact us online today or call 0845 643 9289?

The Hit Search team is jam-packed with experience of optimising websites for a variety of international territories. Our help could be the key to expanding your audience around the globe.