The Path to International SEO Success
International SEO is all about getting your website to rank for different countries and in different languages.
Hreflang tags an important first step for international SEO. Hreflang tags indicate to Google the language and location preferences of your content. This allows you to target content for English speakers in the United Kingdom or French speakers in Canada.
The hreflang tag is a simple piece of html markup:
<link rel="alternate" href="https://www.yoursite.net" hreflang="fr-ca">
You can set it in the SEO Settings > Header Code section for each page. Learn more about hreflang tags here.
If you've built multiple sites to target different countries, you also want to set up a Google Search Console account for each site. Then, go to Search Traffic > International Targeting, an select the country you want to target from the country tab. This lets you tell Google directly want geo your site is targeted for while your hreflang will be signaling language (and geo).
Another really good signal for geo specific SEO is a ccTLD (a country code top-level domain). ccTLDs are very clear signal of your international intention with content. Hreflang + ccTLD + International Targeting in Google Search Console provides a super powerful set of international signals. If your international targets are also in a different language than your original site, you also need high-quality translated content throughout your pages and in the title tag and meta descriptions.
It's also important to try and obtain localized links. If you get links from other sites with the same language and geo signals that you are trying to target it can be a very valuable sign for international rankings. Reach out to local networks, organizations or small businesses in the areas that you're focused on to try and get these localized links.
You also might want to do some research on the types of search engines used in in the international regions you're targeting. You might be getting the wrong traffic from Google but the right traffic from Bing! Or if you're in Japan you shold probably be focused on Yahoo and in Russia you should focus on Yandex.
Hreflang tags an important first step for international SEO. Hreflang tags indicate to Google the language and location preferences of your content. This allows you to target content for English speakers in the United Kingdom or French speakers in Canada.
The hreflang tag is a simple piece of html markup:
<link rel="alternate" href="https://www.yoursite.net" hreflang="fr-ca">
You can set it in the SEO Settings > Header Code section for each page. Learn more about hreflang tags here.
If you've built multiple sites to target different countries, you also want to set up a Google Search Console account for each site. Then, go to Search Traffic > International Targeting, an select the country you want to target from the country tab. This lets you tell Google directly want geo your site is targeted for while your hreflang will be signaling language (and geo).
Another really good signal for geo specific SEO is a ccTLD (a country code top-level domain). ccTLDs are very clear signal of your international intention with content. Hreflang + ccTLD + International Targeting in Google Search Console provides a super powerful set of international signals. If your international targets are also in a different language than your original site, you also need high-quality translated content throughout your pages and in the title tag and meta descriptions.
It's also important to try and obtain localized links. If you get links from other sites with the same language and geo signals that you are trying to target it can be a very valuable sign for international rankings. Reach out to local networks, organizations or small businesses in the areas that you're focused on to try and get these localized links.
You also might want to do some research on the types of search engines used in in the international regions you're targeting. You might be getting the wrong traffic from Google but the right traffic from Bing! Or if you're in Japan you shold probably be focused on Yahoo and in Russia you should focus on Yandex.
