Are you planning to expand your business to multiple countries? Or looking to start an Export Business?

As we know, Export Business is the process of trading goods produced domestically and sold abroad. This business can be highly profitable for both entrepreneurs and the selling country. To build an Export Business, an exporter needs a website for marketing purposes to introduce products according to the target market location.

Having a business website is a strategy employed by export companies to make it easier for customers to find product information through search engines like Google, Bing, Yandex, etc. If you are an exporter, work for an export business, or are looking to expand your business internationally, this article is perfect for you if you want to build and grow your Export Business through a website targeted to one or several countries using an International SEO strategy or Global SEO.

What is International SEO?

International SEO is a strategy for optimizing a website to better determine the language and location based on the target audience. This way, audiences can easily find informational pages based on the country or language they use.

Why Do You Need International SEO Strategy?

Imagine if the website you’ve built is not targeting the intended market, or the audience you’re reaching doesn’t understand the product content due to language discrepancies with the target country. Your website’s function as a marketing tool would be suboptimal, or even ineffective. Surely, you want to avoid this situation, right?

By applying this strategy, your web pages can easily appear in search results for users in the target market countries.

Understanding How International SEO Works

When search engines index a website, they capture geotargeting signals provided by the website. Geotargeting involves targeting different keywords from various countries. By tracking the IP address of each user performing a search, search engines match the results with the language and location of that user.

6 Ways to Leverage International SEO for Your Business Website

Conduct Preliminary Research

Just like building an Export Business or expanding globally, you need to research which countries have great potential for your target market. If you already have a running website, you can also use demographic data such as the countries your visitors are from, the languages they use, which countries have high conversion rates on your site, etc.

Additionally, you should research which search engines are most commonly used in specific countries. For example, in China, people use Baidu.com more, in Japan Yahoo.co.jp is popular, in South Korea Naver is widely used, in Russia Yandex is the main search engine, and so on. If you plan to optimize for other search engines, make sure their user base aligns with your marketing strategy.

The key aspect of research is whether the country has high search volume and conversion rates, ensuring that your website functions not just for presence but also to generate profits.

Keyword Research

Just like with Local SEO, for International SEO, you need to conduct keyword research. Research keywords relevant to your business, trends, search volume, and competition levels in each country.

Apply these researched keywords to the pages and informative content on your website. With this research, your website can rank on the first page of search engines for your targeted keywords.

Create URL Structure for Your Domain

You can use several URL structure options to target specific countries on your website. These include:

• Country Code Top-Level Domain (ccTLD): A domain representing a country, typically consisting of two letters to indicate the country where the website is registered. For example:

  • doxadigital.id
  • doxadigital.us
  • doxadigital.my

  Advantages: Strongest signal for search engines and easiest way to rank locally in that country.

  Disadvantages: High maintenance costs and each site has different domain authority.

• Sub-domain: You can also use sub-domains to show your international website. So, international content is placed on a “third-level” domain, which might differ from the main domain. For example:

  • id.doxadigital.com
  • sg.doxadigital.com
  • uk.doxadigital.com

  Advantages: Easier to maintain compared to ccTLD.

  Disadvantages: Weaker signal for search engines and users prefer to browse locally.

• Sub-directory: International content is placed in a specific subdirectory or subfolder of the root domain. For example:

  • doxadigital.com/id
  • doxadigital.com/fr
  • doxadigital.com/th

  Advantages: Easier maintenance compared to ccTLD, and the domain authority remains the same as the main domain.

  Disadvantages: Weaker signal for search engines and users prefer to browse locally.

• gTLD with Language Parameter: Generic Top-Level Domains (like .com, .net, or .org) targeted to specific language speakers by adding a URL parameter. For example:

  • doxadigital.com/?lang=id-id
  • doxadigital.com/?lang=en-us
  • doxadigital.com/?lang=en-uk

Use HREFLANG Tags

Use the hreflang tag to tell search engines which language is used. For example:

<link rel="alternate" href="https://doxadigital.com/jp" hreflang="jp-jp"/>

The example above tells search engines that an alternative content version is available in Japanese.

By using hreflang, search engines will not index the alternative content (only the main content) but rest assured, the alternative version can still rank in the target country and language according to the signal provided.

Customize Your Export Business Website Content to Match Local Languages and Cultures

Create content that provides information relevant to the target audience. Use the local language, currency, time zone, and contact information to signal to search engines that your content is suitable for that audience. Be mindful of language and cultural nuances—avoid ambiguous or sensitive content. Ensure your content aligns with the culture of the target country.

Read Also: How to Optimize a Website?

Apply the Best SEO Strategies

The next step is to optimize the SEO for your Export Business website. SEO optimization helps search engines read and understand (index) your content, ranks your website for a specific keyword, and recommends your site to international visitors. Strategies include On-Page, Off-Page, and other technical optimizations.

Read Also: How AI Affects SEO and How to Optimize Your Website?

Tips

• Do not use automated translators for local language translations. Collaborating with professional translators, native speakers, and others will make your website more culturally and linguistically appropriate.
• Ensure that navigation, content, and help desks on your website use the targeted local language.
• Avoid using cookies or scripts to display different language versions of pages. Search engines cannot crawl such dynamic content, and human users may not be able to see it.

Conclusion

As we know, SEO offers many benefits for business. With SEO, you can implement a long-term organic marketing strategy that is relatively cost-effective and efficient. Whether you already have an Export Business or wish to expand globally, creating a website requires special attention. You can also hire a Professional SEO Service to help with implementing International SEO strategies on your Export Business website.

Wisnu Wardhana( SEO Specialist )

Halo! Perkenalka, nama saya Wisnu Wardhana, Saya adalah seorang SEO Specialist dengan lebih dari 5 tahun pengalaman dalam industri digital marketing. Selama bertahun-tahun, saya telah membantu berbagai perusahaan, mulai dari startup hingga perusahaan besar, untuk meningkatkan visibilitas online mereka dan mencapai tujuan bisnis melalui strategi optimasi mesin pencari yang efektif.

Saya memiliki keahlian dalam analisis kata kunci, optimasi on-page, pembuatan konten berkualitas, dan pengembangan strategi backlink yang kuat. Dengan pemahaman mendalam tentang algoritma mesin pencari dan tren terbaru dalam SEO, saya selalu berusaha untuk memberikan solusi yang inovatif dan hasil yang terukur bagi klien saya.

Di blog ini, saya akan berbagi wawasan, tips, dan praktik terbaik seputar SEO yang dapat membantu Anda memahami dan menerapkan strategi yang tepat untuk meningkatkan peringkat situs web Anda. Mari kita jelajahi dunia SEO bersama dan capai kesuksesan online yang lebih besar!

Terima kasih telah mengunjungi profil saya. Jangan ragu untuk menghubungi saya jika Anda memiliki pertanyaan atau ingin berdiskusi lebih lanjut tentang SEO!