Hire International SEO Consultant

Who Is International SEO?

This is not a complicated process, nor is it hard to understand what this option is all about. International SEO only helps search engines find the countries you want to do marketing in.

The only real difference between national and international SEO is the URLs. Everything else should be the same. It also helps identify which language you use for your business.

The big question for you to answer is ‘Do you need to go international?’ Not every business should do this as you may be opening yourself up to the stiffer competition or find no one is interested in your products in those countries.

But if you decide that you should go international, then you should go. One of the most tell-tale signs is that your website is attracting a large contingent of visitors from different countries around the world.

When you decide to go international, here are 3 keys to help you attract even more visitors to your website:

1. Specify your target country and/or region with an international-friendly URL structure (country targeting).
2. Establish which language your pages are targeting with the use of language tags (language targeting).
3. Create and maintain content in your target users’ language(s). These are the raw materials with which you’ll actually rank.

These are areas that your international SEO expert can help you with. They will have the right knowledge and expertise to make sure you do not fall flat on your face. With their help, you can make a positive impact and start expanding your market share.

Pros And Cons For Website Construction For International Marketing

A good international SEO consultant can help you navigate through the negatives of this move. His or her help can get you past the trouble spots and get you to the positives without too much hassle.

ccTLDs (example.us)

Pros:

1. The clearest signal to all search engines
2. The easiest way to rank locally

Cons:

1. Expensive to maintain
2. Each site has independent domain authority

Subdirectories (example.com/us)

Pros:

1. easier to maintain than the previous option
2. consolidates your domain authorities

Cons:

1. weaker signal to all search engines
2. users like local browsing

Subdomains (us.example.com)

Pros:

1. Easier to maintain

Cons:

1. Weaker signal
2. Main dilute domain authority
3. Users like browsing locally

There are probably more of both for each option. The key is to ask your international SEO consultant for all the details. This would be one way to tell if they know what they are doing or not.

Do not be afraid to ask tough questions. Just make sure you get the right answers. International SEO operations are not more complicated than national or local SEO. They are just different. Your international SEO expert should be able to walk you through all the danger points and lead you to the rewards

The International SEO Strategies

These are probably not all of them but they give you a good idea of what is involved. You will notice that they are basically the same as national SEO strategies but with a twist.

1. International Keyword Research– Even though English is the lingua franca of the world, it does not mean that every international citizen will use English in their searches. They may but they may not spell those words correctly.

Instead, they will use words familiar to them and your international SEO expert should have a good idea of what those words are or know how to recognize them when they pop up in their research.

This research is very vital to find the right keywords that help direct traffic to your door. You need to always use keywords when you want to build traffic.

2. Creating A Website Structure Plan- There are some key questions that you need to ask and answer. One is do you use one domain for all countries or do you use multiple ones dedicated to different countries?

You need a plan to construct the right amount of websites and your top international SEO agency should have those plans already. Plus, those agencies should have experts to help guide you through the different questions you need to answer.

Check each agency you contact for this project to make sure they know about these questions and what the right answers are. There may be more than one right answer since all stores are not the same.

3. Optimizing Content– Nationally or internationally, content is still king. The only difference is you have to create content that is valuable for the international visitors that reach your website.

Your content has to work with the non-English search engines to increase your visibility in your target countries. This effort needs to target those search engines most westerners do not know about because they do not live or use the internet in their target countries.

The citizens of those countries do not use search engines like Yahoo, Bing, and so on. They like their own as they meet their needs.

4. Multilingual SEO – This is a must as the majority of the world doe snot speak English as a first language. You have to be able to reach your international target audience in the language they use most often and understand the best.

A good international SEO company knows this already and should have multi-language experts on staff to meet this critical need. This is another key question you need to ask before you sign on the dotted line.

An agency is no good to you if it cannot meet the challenges that come with international SEO efforts and content needs.

5. Implementing Technical Solutions– When you go international, there are a myriad of differences that needs to be taken care of than you would have to do if you stay locally. For example, your international SEO expert should master hreflang attributes, URL redirects, and local links and tags for the best results.

Make this another question you ask of the different international SEO agencies you are contacting for possible hiring. If they do not know these things, they won’t be much good to you. Never be afraid to ask tough questions. That is how you find the best international SEO agency.

6. Centralized Reporting– Trying to rank high in different languages can be overwhelming if you are going it alone and doing it yourself. However, the company you hire should provide you with a simple centralized report to keep everything simple and understandable.

The company needs to deliver its reports in such a way that you know what is happening and if changes need to be made. Don’t forget that good customer service is essential to have between you and the company you hire.

The company needs to be available to answer your questions, give sound advice, and make sure they are a good support to you in your international SEO efforts. Don’t just take their word for it as companies are known to say one thing but do another after the contract has been signed.

Ask about all of these key points and see if there are any more. You can judge the skill and knowledge of an international SEO services company by the answers they provide. Take your time as the international market takes some getting used to and you need a top expert to help you navigate the field.

What Not To Do When Looking For An International SEO Agency

There are things or mistakes you need to avoid doing when you are making this search. You do not want to be in a hurry as those are the times when those mistakes happen the most.

Here is a list of things not to do when making your leap to the international SEO stage:

1. Assume A Top Google Ranking Indicates The Company Is At The Top Of Its Field- This is one of the biggest mistakes you can make. Often, those first listings on the result page are not the best in the field, they just use unethical methods to get the ranking.

They rank high because they know how to manipulate the system. Take your time and go through the list, even to the 2nd page if necessary to ensure that you find the best in the field.

2. Pick A Fixed Cost Package– This is not a good idea because you may be missing out on SEO approaches that will work best for your store and website. Going custom is the best option because every business has different needs and requirements.

A one size fit all fixed plan is not generally going to work for your business. You will be wasting money if you go with this mistake. The fixed plan company may not be prepared to handle SEO in the manner you need it handled.

It is best to move on from such companies and continue to seek out those who do custom approaches to international SEO. You need a company that understands your business and can create a good unique SEO plan and then charges you correctly.

3. Accepting Misleading Credentials– These can appear in many forms. The most popular formats may be those companies that claim to be a partner with Google or have connections with that search engine company.

Don’t believe them as far as anyone knows there are no Google SEO partners, Adsense aside. Then having connections in the company to manipulate the rankings is unethical and most likely illegal.

Run from those companies that make these types of and similar claims. For the health of your business and its business reputation you want to keep everything above board and honest.

4. Avoid Long-Term Contracts– Like the previous point, this is something you want to shy away from. Those companies trying to lock you into a long-term contract are looking for money and do not have your company’s best interests in mind.

You may receive inferior SEO strategies or fail to receive good customer service or support. Plus, if you sign up for a 12-month or longer contract, you can’t leave the company. You are stuck with inferior workmanship.

If the company is top-notch you won’t have to sign a long-term contract as you will see their great work and you will stick with them for a long time.

Tips For Finding The Best SEO Company

No matter how good you are, getting tips to help you achieve a good end result is always needed. There is no shame in getting tips either, especially when you are looking for a top international SEO agency.

You may not know who is or isn’t good thus those tips will help you filter out the bad and keep the good. Plus, if you are new to the SEO game, these tips can help you focus better on what you are looking for.

1. Make Sure You Have Clear Goals– Not only does this help you find a great agency to work with, but it also tells the agency that you know what you want and everything is clear.

There is no confusion between the two of you.

You have to decide on what type of service you need or want. Will it be a one-time audit? Long-term work and so on. Whatever it is, you need to know so you can tell the experts what you want and what you want to achieve.

This set of clear goals helps your ROI perform better as well.

2. Look For Agencies That Offer Free Consultations– Once you got your goal or goals decided upon, look for those agencies that provide an initial free consultation. This is not hard to do as most international SEO companies offer this.

The reason you do this is that it helps you get to know the company as well as the people it employs. Getting to know the people and how they think is important as you are trusting them with your international SEO efforts and you need to know f they will work hard for you.

It also tells you if you are hiring the right SEO company or not.

3. Check Their Track Record– You can tell a lot about the company by the brands that hire them. Big brands have strict policies for hiring SEO companies and if you see big brands in their track record and it has been a successful corroboration then you know you have a good company on hand.

Do not be afraid to get the track record so you can see if the company is the best to work with and your international SEO strategies are in good hands. BUT this is not 100% guaranteed.

Some companies are just starting out or prefer working with lesser brands. They still give good service but either never had the chance to work with the bigger brands or they prefer not to. Each international SEO agency has its own protocols they like to follow and big brand rules may not fit in with those.

4. Ask About The Techniques Or Methods Used– This is very important as you need to stay away from unethical SEO practices. Your business website may be penalized if the company you hire uses those unethical means to get you ranked.

Also, modern SEO practices have changed over the years and keep on changing. You do not want to get stuck with a technique or method that was outdated 2 years ago or even 2 months ago.

Make sure to ask about these techniques and if possible, check with former clients to see if they were satisfied or not, and so on. Also, contact some current clients to see how the company is doing with them. This is all-important so you can make the right business SEO decision for your company.

5. Communication Issues– Last but certainly not least, you need to find a company that communicates well with you. Ask them about their support services and how they do their reporting.

Then ask them how you are to get in touch with the people who are doing the actual work. Or how to get in contact with the owner or CEO of the company. These little details are important especially when you find out there is a problem with your strategy.

Then do not forget to ask about when those reports will be sent to you and how they will be transmitted to your company. Make a list of questions to ask to make sure the communication channels are open and clear.

To be a success, top international SEO consultants know how to communicate and they do it well. They know where their money comes from and it is in their best interests to communicate well with their clients.

Some Tips On Using The International Market

These are tips that you or your top international SEO agency should do on your website. They make reaching your target audience better:

1. Do Not Use Machine Translators- As good as they are, they are still not very good, especially when translating into difficult languages like Chinese or an African language.
2. Make sure that your navigational tools, content, help desk information and more are all written in the primary language of the country you are looking to expand into.
3. Do not automatically transfer a visitor to your website to the primary language of the country you are targeting. You never know if the user is an English speaker living in France or some other country. It is okay to ask first if they want to be transferred to another site in their primary language or stay with English.
4. Avoid using any cookies or scripts that show different language versions of a given page. Search engines cannot crawl those types of dynamics and humans may not be able to see them either.
5. Also, make sure not to use any language that will be deemed offensive in the country you are targeting. Major corporations have found this out by accident and have lost sales and trust because of it.

Some Final Words

There is nothing complicated about international SEO strategies. The key is to hire the best international SEO agency you can find. They are out there and they are not hard to find if you use the tips mentioned above.

Make sure to check our company out. We are one of the better international SEO companies you can hire. We have over 20 years in the industry and can help you with your international strategies with ease.

Give us a call and see why we are different and better. We love to construct unique SEO plans so you have the best strategies for your company. Make sure to have your questions ready so they all get answered in a timely manner. Don’t hesitate to call now so you do not lose out.