Effective Cross-Continental Web SEO: Not as Hard as You Think!

Vũ Khôi

Author at Wotech Electronics Blog

Effective web SEO in foreign markets is not hard, so don't frown at the first few obstacles! Right here, we have smart, truly one-of-a-kind strategies that will get you ready to conquer new territory.

5 "killer" effective web SEO techniques to conquer foreign markets

If you are tired of effective web SEO articles that are too formulaic and need to learn something more practical, don't skip this article. Useful advice from international experts will broaden your horizons!

#1 One rarely mentioned secret of effective web SEO: don't translate!

An effective web SEO method few people mention is paying attention to language. If your business is a sub-brand, a local branch of a large corporation, or wants to attack foreign markets, be extremely careful with translation.

It is fair to say that language translation is one of the most dangerous traps in multinational SEO, and it matters even more than technical issues or cultural risks. That is why you should not be careless about the process of converting your web content into another language.

Example: "Car insurance" in English is "car insurance"; in French it is "assurance voiture" — with "voiture" being "car" and "assurance" being "insurance". However, most French people type "assurance auto" into the search box, where "auto" is an abbreviation for automobile. So translating the keyword "car insurance" the conventional way, without research and study, goes against the market in this case. And this can happen in any language, not just English or French.

The way to solve this problem is simple. You just need to create a new keyword in the language of the target market (just as you did with English or Vietnamese). That requires you to learn the common language of the target market, or find someone who specializes in that market's language — a person professionally trained in marketing with real language research.

See also: What is responsive web? Comparing the similarities and differences with adaptive web?

#2 "Localizing" language: An effective web SEO method for "cross-continental" websites

On another side of the language issue in the quest for effective web SEO, we also need to pay attention to content management. Specifically, some businesses invest a great deal of money in producing interesting content in Vietnamese, then do the localization superficially and cheaply without thinking about its impact on SEO.

To solve this, you can team up with an agency in the target country to carry out the conversion. A typical case study is Harley Davidson's slogan localization. The company's tagline at the time was "Thunder of America". When it came to Vietnam, the agency working with Harley localized the tagline as "Rền vang mọi nẻo đường" (Roaring across every road). Clearly, the Vietnamese version of the tagline did an excellent job, going far beyond the limits of simple translation. Investing seriously, creatively, and with real insight into localization shows customers that you care about them, which builds goodwill.

If your workforce is not large or capable enough to do this, you can turn to professional agencies — places with top-notch writers, such as us here at Markdao!

For effective web SEO, you cannot turn a blind eye to the market

No one can do effective web SEO without a firm grasp of the market. Market positioning is always one of a business's life-or-death issues. If you want your website to succeed and make its mark in a new market, you must master the following principles:

#3 Want effective web SEO? Get a good grip on the market's language and tastes!

For effective web SEO, first and foremost, you must grasp the market. Of course, you can absolutely research the target market using existing reports from secondary sources. However, as the old saying goes, "better safe than sorry." When you actually set foot in a new, promising land, you need carefully, clearly thought-out strategies for developing the website.

Rather than wasting resources building many different websites, you can focus on studying the distinctive cultural colors of a specific market. Cultural distinctiveness generates wonderful stories, and culture is the magical magnifying glass that helps you see clearly into customer insights. Good keyword research serves not only to make web SEO more effective but also to understand what potential customers are thinking and which product is the best one to push on the website.

Example: If you want to sell bánh xèo (Vietnamese sizzling pancakes) to Koreans through your website, you should try to find out what Koreans search for on the Internet. There is a truth here: they usually type bánh xèo in English because that is how they most easily find it online — if they have never been to Vietnam.

Or in another example, you sell mắm rò — a specialty of the Huế people — on your website. But your business base and target market are in the northern region, where mắm rò is called mắm tôm. If you keep the original name, your keyword may not match customer search behavior, causing you to lose ground to competitors.

So the question is: How do you get a grip on the market?

To know, you must ask; to be good, you must learn. To succeed at SEO, you must research the market. Just like getting to know a new friend, you need to spend time learning about them — even talking and conversing directly with them to build understanding — and then give them what they need while receiving from them what you want.

#4 More effective web SEO also includes choosing a suitable domain name

Quite a few people believe that choosing a dot-com domain (abc.com) boosts effective web SEO. However, local domains (xyz.kr) can bring more benefits than you think. They are better for web SEO because they provide the most complete information to search engines. They also feel closer and more trustworthy to the local customer base you are targeting.

#5 If you want effective web SEO, always remember that local backlinks are a gift

Missing out on local links is a regrettable shortcoming for many international websites. Backlinks are always the crux of Off-page SEO, and with today's Google Map SEO trend, local backlinks will surely be your "strategic weapon."

As shared above, backlinks are an effective method for doing web SEO well. But you will not get what you want by building backlinks recklessly, or by launching in new countries and creating new websites to link with the old website.

See also: Google Map SEO – How to leverage Google Places for SEO?

One thing you need to understand is that a domain divides its rating equally among the domains it links to. For example, a domain with DR of 10 linking to three other domains can affect your website's DR more than a DR-80 domain linking to a million other domains. For instance, a website in England will suffer reduced performance if it has an identical copy in Ireland and Australia. There are several ways to solve this problem, including sacrificing the smaller websites to protect the big one. Decide whether you really need to rank well in Angola, or whether you should aim for high rankings in the US?

The 8 tips above will be a representative guide if you want to do effective web SEO to take your product/service out to the wide world. Don't worry if it all seems too hard, because Markdao is always here, ready to help you!

Related Articles