A Comprehensive Guide to Multilingual & Multinational SEO

multinational seo best practices
  1. 1. Introduction
  2. 2. The International Search Landscape
  3. 3. Planning, Research, Resources and Goals: Laying your Foundation
    1. a. Is your business ready to go international?
    2. b. What are your available resources?
    3. c. Does your business have an international audience?
    4. d. What are your company’s goals for your international presence?
  4. 4. What are some Known International Ranking Signals?
  5. 5. What are your Targeting Objectives
    1. a. Language Targeting
    2. b. Country-specific Targeting
  6. 6. Determine your International Site Structure
    1. a. The pros and cons of ccTLD’s
    2. b. The pros and cons of Subdomains
    3. c. The pros and cons of Subdirectories
  7. 7.What structure should you choose?
    1. a. Should you focus on Language or Geographic Targeting?
    2. b. Best Case Scenario for Geographic Targeting
    3. c. Subdirectories: The Next Best Thing
    4. d. What about Subdomains?
    5. e. Plan for Scalability!
  8. 8. Why Localized Professional Translations are a Must!
  9. 9. Serving the God of UX: Elements of Successful International Usability
    1. a. Translate your URL’s
    2. b. Link your Country/Language versions visibly on every page of the site(s)
    3. c. Use unique Titles, Descriptions, and Headings
    4. d. Include Local Contact and Support Information
    5. e. Use Google’s Local Business Center
    6. f. Use Country-Specific Currency
    7. g. All of Navigational Elements and Images should be translated
    8. h. Optimize Images and Alt tags
    9. i. Comments and Reviews
  10. 10. How to Prevent Duplicate Content Issues and Penalties
    1. a. Geo targeting in Webmaster Tools
    2. b. Use Hreflang Tags to Avoid Duplicate Content
      1. i. Create a separate sitemap for each country targeted site/section
      2. ii. Start by Creating a Spreadsheet Grouping Translations or Localizations into sets
      3. iii. Create an XML Site Map with your URL’s grouped into Sets
      4. iv. Using the Right Country and Language (ISO) Codes
      5. v. Using X-Default
      6. vi. Using Tools to Create your XML Site Maps
      7. vii. Hreflang Summary
    3. c. What about Canonical Tags?
  11. 11. Content Marketing and Link Earning
    1. a. Content Marketing
    2. b. Outreach for Link Earning
    3. c. Earn Local Links
    4. d. Earn links in the Targeted Language
    5. e. Competitor Analysis
    6. f. Promote your content via Social Media and Paid Amplification
  12. 12. Tracking your International Marketing Efforts
  13. 13. Best Practices: Do’s and Don’ts of International SEO
  14. 14. Conclusion: Go Forth and Internationalize!

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