Most multinational brands have their own in-house digital marketing teams that develop a marketing strategy to cater for their global digital brand.  Search Engine Optimization (SEO), although the key to a successful strategy, is not always prioritized and sometimes ignored. An effective international SEO strategy is crucial for the success of your brand, it’s no longer optional, but a requirement.  In this blog, we focus on the importance of global SEO strategy for your brand and provide tips and considerations to succeed. 

At Sandstorm Digital ® Worldwide , we encourage our regional clients to conduct local SEO, optimizing for each country’s spoken languages, culture, behaviours, and local internet policies. When it comes to optimizing the global brand, the tactics change a little, you want a harmonized international message, while maintaining the local flare.  

The main foundational factors to consider for your strategy include: 

Website Structure 

There are three common options for an international website structure.  1) ccTLD (Country Code Top Level Domain) 2) Subdomain, or  3) Subdirectory.  The choice will depend on your specific business and global SEO needs. 

Content Creation

Your messaging and translation are key.  Producing content that applies to your global audience is important, you need to look at cultural considerations and how it may be perceived in various countries/regions.   Hire a professional translator, preferable from the targeted region. Poor translation will automatically discredit your brand.

Keyword Searches & Competitor Analysis

Keyword searches vary by country/region, to target the best keywords effectively, you need to conduct thorough research.  Researching competitors  will help see what they are ranking and provide you with an idea of how to move forward with your keyword strategy. 

Indexing

Your global website needs to be indexed correctly in order to guide search engine crawlers to your site.  Technical SEO needs to be done correctly with the countries/languages to reach multiple regions. 

Data & Privacy Policies

You should be aware of web policies  in different countries and regions as they differ. You and your team can decide how you want to approach them. Although Google ranking is not yet affected by your display of policies, it is important to note that some countries require that your policies on cookies and privacy policy, terms of service or terms and conditions are made available to your users. 

Technical SEO  

It’s straightforward, search engines want to provide their users with the most relevant query requests.  In order to make your website user-friendly, you must also provide search engines with technical signals. The proper usage will ensure a smooth command that will optimize your ranking.  So it’s crucial that your HrefLang Tags, Meta content language, X default tags, and schema markup are correctly inserted. They allow you to cross reference pages with similar content to different audiences

Metrics 

Now that you’ve set the foundation, you want to analyze the data and know what needs to be improved, the best way to monitor is by using a web analytic service such as Google Analytics and Google Search Console, and Tag Manager.

What I mentioned above is a summary of the basics when working on a global SEO strategy.  There are other very important technical factors to examine as well as external factors such as link building, domain authority, and more.  Download the Global SEO Strategy Checklist here to support your success.