International SEO for more global traffic to your website

Choose the right top-level-domain (TLD)

Before you even start to build your website or engage an agency like Kapwa Marketing for your international SEO, you need to first think about the right domain you want to project. For English-speaking companies this would usually be a .com-domain. Since your preferred .com-domain might already be taken, you could also go for .net or in Australia for com.au or .net.au. In Germany, the most common domain would be .de, and in Switzerland .ch, accordingly. However, if you want to target a global audience, it won't necessarily be the best idea to only have a .de domain or a .ch domain. We would suggest to go for the .com domain, if available, and add subfolders for other languages, i.e. .com/de and .com/ch etc. instead of publishing your English content in the folder .de/en/ or your Russian content in the folder .de/ru/ etc. The main reason for this is that .de domains are geo-targeting Germany - hence it would be really difficult to also rank in other countries with a .de domain.

Subdomains instead of subfolders?

You might also consider using subdomains, i.e. de.your-name.com etc. - provided, your team knows how to set-up the correct hreflang-tag-markup, in case you sometimes use subdomains, and sometimes subfolders for several languages / countries. No matter, if you go for subdomains or subfolders - a correct technical set-up is paramount for your international SEO success!

WPML (WordPress plug-in)

As mentioned before, we usually work with WPML for multilanguage websites that are based on WordPress. It allows us to geo-target properly, include the correct hreflang tag mark-up and also gives us the options to create synchronized menues for the languages we want to have on the website. You can use their WPML translation tool but we prefer to make a copy of our initial version and manually translate everything into another language. .

Yoast SEO

Even for international SEO we prefer to use Yoast SEO, since it also works well with WPML. You might also consider using "All-in-One-SEO" or Rank Math but for some reason we usually use Yoast SEO. When it comes to their "traffic light" system, you do not always need to follow their suggestions - for example meta descriptions can also have more than 160 characters, even up to 220 or 230, dependent on the display and resolution.

International SEO Audit

Before we can start, we will define the "status quo" to find out, if you need a relaunch, or if we can proceed with your existing website. In most cases, at least a "soft relaunch" is required to set-up an effective international SEO campaign with Kapwa Marketing.

In-depth keyword research and competitive analysis

To set-up the international SEO campaign, we conduct a professional keyword research using Google Ads Keyword Planner, and other SEO tools like ahrefs.com, semrush.com and Sistrix. Usually, we base our professional keyword research on a list that our clients come up with after brainstorming with their team, esp. with their sales representatives, since they would usually know best about common questions (FAQ) and USPs as well as challenges that clients might have, and that will give you a good idea of what they might be also looking for in search engines like Google.

First keyword allocation

After we have collected relevant keywords and keyword phrases, we will come up with a first keyword allocation (also called keyword-mapping). A logical website structure will be defined, following best practices in terms of usuability and SEO standards (for example considerung "silos").

Creating optimized SEO content

Once we have found the right website architecture and defined SEO-friendly URLs, we will start writing SEO content. When it comes to international SEO, we can also provide optimised content in various languages like English, German, French, Mandarin Chinese, Russian, Spanish, Portuguese, and more. The SEO content will not only be optimised for search engines but most importantly written for human beings.

Constant data analysis and keyword monitoring

After the launch of the international SEO campaign and / or your optimised multilingual website, we analyse the progress with Google Analytics, etracker, Matomo Analytics, and other webtracking softwares. International keyword rankings can be monitored with professional SEO tools like ahrefs.com or serprobot.com.

Implement actions after data-driven decisions

Our approach is very data-driven, and after we decide on relevant actions, we also implement them together with you. Optimising the layout of landing pages, extending the content with more useful keyword phrases and also working on the offpage SEO are constant activities that will boost your international SEO.