How to position a website abroad?
Companies direct their offer to foreign customers often. As a consequence, the websites have to be positioned in many languages to draw attention. What such process looks like? What do I absolutely need to know? You can find the overseas positioning guide below!
Build your website in accordance with foreign positioning
The first thing that requires determination is the URL of the website.
A separate domain
Every solution has both advantages and disadvantages, although it cannot be skipped that crucial determinant is availability of the domains with the specific URL. Should it be free to use, you will settle up your website on separate domains, for example:
pageX.us, pageX.de, page.fr, etc.
Such solution guarantees a conflict-free image on foreign markets, and provides you with specific potential in dedicated positioning for a given language. You can form a separate link profile for each domain, which might maximize the effectiveness of SEO activities to carry out.
Unfortunately, it often comes along with costs. The issue of the annual domain fee does not seem that important, because investments are carried out on several fronts, which means SEO website optimization „from the scratch”. Even though, if the domains remain free and the budget is quite stable, this solution is the most lucrative in the long run.
Subdomains
When the method described above becomes unavailable due to the URL being taken, subdomains remain an alternative, that is placing the prefix in the proper domain.
us.pageX.com, de.pageX.com, fr.pageX.com etc.
The solution described above puts emphasis on links strength and topical authority on one website, while positioning abroad becomes much more difficult – the chance to overcome competing phrases remains negligible, but you can still display the website for long tail keywords successfully. The one with an extensive link profile and the older domain may even speed up the indexation process to separate domains. On the other hand, such a solution will not be characterized by optimal SEO strength in the long run.
The use of subdomains shows the greatest potential when the PRL of the domain ends with „.com”. Thanks to this, the website image will be a bombshell as in case of regional domains (for example: fr.webX.us).
Subfolders
In such case, the URL looks just like:
pageX.com/us, pageX.com/de, pageX.com/fr, etc.
This solution bring both advantages and disadvantages of creation of the subdomains, while the difference just seems to be visual. This thesis was confirmed by John Mueller, a Google Senior Webmaster Trends Analyst. In his opinion, the search engine cope with the indexing of subfolders and subdomains – none of those is promoted.
Content creation – multilingualism
We have just reached a laborious stage – beware, as there are no shortcuts now! A multilingual copywriter knows exactly what is the difference in case of every language. Firstly, do not make use of translators! Why is that? Such solution generates low-quality content, mistakes, and incorrect sentences. If we want our websites to catch recipient attention and encourage users to take advantage of our offer, then the content has to be created from scratch for every language.
Copywriting or translation?
People who want to position their company website abroad do wonder what service to use. The answer is as easy as ABCD:
When there is no content published on the website, you need to ask a copywriter to have engaging content in a native language developed. All you need to present your offer on foreign markets is a professional translator who may adapt your text to the target country you chose.
However, it is worth using services when the translator knows positioning rules well. Thanks to the interpreter, translating the content into another language do not result in valid SEO. Although copywriting and language translations are two different professions, those intend to complement when promoting the company abroad.
There are exceptions. These are related to the specific character of the offer. Should every country need a separate substantive articles (that depends on specific standards or regulations according to the offer), then only the copywriters will take the initiative. They do not prepare content on the basis of existing materials, but create it from the scratch. Fortunately, more and more offers related to English, German or French copywriting are appearing on the market.
What type of content works the best for foreign markets?
Whether is the website extensive, a comprehensive translation will be too expensive. Of course, much content means better positioning, however, it is worth establishing a hierarchy of which texts should you develop at the beginning to maximize the effect with a minimum financial outlay.
We recommend dividing the work into stages for optimal sales potential. Those are:
- home page/contact
- offer/pricing
- portfolio (not obligatory)
- offer subpages/landing page
- blog articles
Along with such layout, the page begin to present the most important content in the target language with no expenses. Either offer subpages or blog articles require a greater investment, as both could be capital intensive and time-consuming. The reason why is that those types of texts are characterized by an extensive form, so it is worth developing them.
How to do permanent foreign positioning?
Once your website is complete and has been translated into the target languages, the further SEO activities need to be considered to improve visibility in the search engine permanently. In such aspect, positioning abroad is no different.
Content published on the website should be developed permanently through the substantive articles for the blog and subpages.
At the beginning, it is worth making use of long tail key phrases to bypass strong competition and generate traffic using the niche inquiries of the users.
As the website develops, you are free to move on to more persistent phrases, but the actions should be selected along with your range of possibilities. These, in turn, could vary on the domain you choose, as we have stated at the very beginning, as well as the budget, competition abilities and the specifics of a given market. Along with the economic development, not only the number of searches increases, but also the competition, which, as you already know, is the basic determinant that influence results (because number of places visible in Google remains strictly limited).
Therefore, whether the web page is indexed higher and higher abroad, the activities are identical to those on US market. Price is the exception – obtaining links and creating content in other languages will be more expensive.
Summary
- First, you have to decide which domain to choose. Every solution comes along with separate costs, specific SEO potential and possible scale of activities.
- The content published on every website must remain unique, however, obtaining it from the translator is not a good idea. The image plays an important role. Pay attention to the offer effectiveness – hand over duties to professional copywriters and translators.
- Positioning and SEO abroad do not differ from those on the domestic market, even though their price increases.
Comments
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