If you are already having a website that is already up and is also running successfully locally, there are chances that you are on the lookout to expand to the international market. So if you want to have an expansion on your road map, there are several common SEO issues which can hold back your success.
In this article, you will get to know some of the common international SEO mistakes that you could be making and how to avoid them on your website:
- Not considering domains:-
- The first and the basic step that a business owner should consider it when extending the reach of their business site into the international market is to have the proper domain of your website.
- Domains which are specialized in a specific country is not likely to perform well in the international search engines.
- For eg; if you are having a domain name as .co.uk then it would not perform as well in the international search engines because this domain name is the UK focused domain name.
- So, you have to take into consideration the domains so that it can be performed in each of the international markets.
- Assuming English is OK in a particular country:-
- Another big issue for the people taking the first steps to an international market is assuming English is OK for some of the markets.
- Understanding the English language is not equivalent to being comfortable using the language online and on websites.
- Thus, it is not always safe for you to assume that people in a certain location will always be happy to use English as the online medium of communication.
- If people are having some of the plans to spend on your products and services then they are likely expecting from you to communicate with them in their local languages.
- Also, if they are searching the web in their local languages then there are some of the chances that they will not find your products from their country which you are targeting.
- Thus, the people are spending more of their time as they will want to see the content in their own languages, so they are investing in you, so you should also invest in them.
- Automatic translation:-
- Moving on from English, some people think that the easiest way to implement translation on a website is to use some form of automated translation tool and though, this is not recommended.
- Committing this type of mistake completely misses out the languages that you should use.
- You should be careful of the following points;
- Different Chinese territories speak different variations of the Chinese language, so you need to be careful about it.
- Also, the English language varies in the spelling as it totally depends on the country. For eg; the letter ‘z’ in American language is ‘s’ in countries which are using British or Australian English.
- There are some of the other words with the same meaning may be used differently in another country. For eg; Football as Soccer, eggplant as aubergine and many more.
- So, you need to be careful about the automatic translation.
- Problems with Hreflang tags:-
- Mistakes in using Hreflang tags are being considered as one of the biggest concerns of the international website owners.
- One thing which is needed to watch out for these tags is to make sure to use the right format of the code by not making up the language and country combinations.
- Also, make sure that you are not linking through the pages which are different from those in your canonical tags.
Thus, when going international it is very much important to make sure that the things are right from the day one but also to keep an eye on things to make sure that no issues creep in over time. Your international website can help your brand grow and get more businesses but only in that case if they are set up correctly. So, being consciously aware of these mistakes right from the start can save you from the pitfalls. Therefore, making the necessary steps before putting your efforts together on an international website can get your business step the right path to success smoothly.