9 Ways to Wreck Your Global SEO Approach
It’s widely known that there are various methods and campaigns that you can use to influence people to visit your blog or website. What’s more, you’ll need to consider a global SEO approach for your website if your business targets an audience that spans multiple nations.
But going global can be an overwhelming undertaking, especially if you are not sure of what do. To help you with this task, visit the international SEO guide. There you will find many tips on how to optimize your site for beyond domestic reach. In addition, it is a good idea to keep in mind the following nine ways you can wreck your global SEO plan:
#1 – Not Utilizing More Than One Translator
Want to make your website sound like a bunch of “gibberish” to an international audience? Just take all the content from your website, use Google Translate, then paste that into your foreign language site. It will definitely sound like a robot is speaking. In other words, it will sound unnatural using Google Translate, and in many cases, completely nonsensical to native speaking people. To help counter this, it would be wise to seek out someone who is fluent in the language of the people your content is aimed at.
#2 – Stay Away From Words of a Particular Nation’s Sites for Fear of Duplicate Content
You may not have assigned a domain extension as used in the UK to a website that is comparable to a domain in the U. S. perhaps due to having your site penalized by Google for having duplicate content especially since there’s no real big difference between the languages. In spite of this, these days Google favors using the rel=canonical link component among various Internet authorities (i.e. domains). Meaning, you can make use of the HTML element (canonical link) that helps webmasters prevent duplicate content by pointing to the specific URL of the domain preferred for indexing. This will render duplicate content nonsignificant, even though it is not required when using different languages. Keep in mind that Google does not regard overseas language interpretations as duplicate content. However, you should be aware that it could become an issue if you have multiple websites with similar dialects.
#3 – Disregard Google’s Webmaster Settings
According to Trimark Solutions, sometimes the person in charge of maintaining a website (webmaster) keeps a specific file (sitemap) on behalf of their entire website, which is not nearly as efficient to maintain and bring up-to-date. You can submit multiple sitemaps using Google’s Google Webmaster tools, so you can submit one for each country your content is intended for. However, it’s needful if you’re only using sub-directories for each of the area websites.
You can concentrate on certain websites or sections of your website to specific localities using Google’s Webmaster tools. To modify these particular settings, log into your Webmaster Tools account, then look under ‘Site Configuration.’
#4 – Think Any Keyword List Works Everywhere
If you create one keyword list and assume it will serve take care of your SEO objectives throughout the various nations your keywords are aimed at, you definitely won’t be targeting your audience in those countries very well. Why? Because a variety of keywords can be more helpful to several viewers depending on where they are located. Besides, even a correct and accurate translation of a search term might not really be what individuals make use of search for a product or service locally.
To help you identify global terms for your international search engine optimization approach, look for the advanced option in Google’s free Keyword Tool that enables you to select your search terms via the general population of a particular nation. Afterwards, input one of your keywords, choose the language and/or country (ies) you’re targeting, then Google will make available a listing of keyword ideas and their associated monthly search volume.
#5 – Render Your Various Websites Difficult to Locate
Although you’re taking all measures possible to send website visitors to the correct website area, it’s still possible for people to end up on your main dotcom page. So be sure that your separate location websites are not difficult to locate. There are a number of ways to counter this. For example, if there are a number of renditions of your site in different languages, add visual prompts via the site’s top navigation area and connect them to your multi-lingual content. You can use flag icons to link to every nation you’re doing business in, plus add links to each country in your site- wide footer area, for example.
#6 – Insert Various Languages to a Separate Hypertext Page (Webpage)
Generally speaking, you shouldn’t mix languages on the same webpage as this will not you’re your website visitors. This will more than likely cause confusion for your users since they may not be able to interpret content of other languages and as a result, they will go back button. Instead, refer back to previous note, and use the site’s header/footer navigation buttons that are linked to parts of your site dedicated solely to that country/language.
#7 – Creating Backlinks to Your Main Homepage Only
Creating backlinks is one of the most important elements of search engine optimization, whether at home or abroad. As such, having numerous backlinks from external websites, gives your site greater standing within search engines as well as a higher ranking. However, when you guest blog or request backlinks, be sure to have more than your site’s homepage linked to. Your overall objective should be to increase backlinks to all of your area sites from sites of the same country.
#8 – Make Cultural Backgrounds
Oftentimes when creating a website, it’s possible to think your clean white design will have a positive connotation designed for all who visit your site. In any case, white is associated with purity and getting married in Europe and the Americas. But, in some parts of Africa and in China and Japan, white is customarily the color of mourning. As such, it is best to understand what appeals to each culture and don’t assume that every country has the same customs as your own.
#9 Overlook Native Competition
If you’re located at your primary headquarters you most likely have an idea of who the competition is. However, as you are actively doing global search engine research, you should be mindful that your competition in various locations are not like your native country.
Remember, when planning to operate overseas or target other nations, be mindful of the aforementioned 9 mistakes that can wreck your global SEO approach.
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