Have the right strategy and setup in place 📈
- think about your asset size and the competitiveness of the market
- use subfolders or subdomains
Conduct Keyword Research 🔍
- understand how your international audience searches online and what keywords they use
- long tail searches in Europe are not existent to the extent compared to the States. Examples, based on ahrefs:
> US: 439k matching terms keywords around “lawn mower” with 2.6m volume
> DE: 32k matching terms keywords with 658k volume
Use a local team to get the localization of the keywords right 🌐
- a GPT/DeepL-based approach won’t work (yet)
- work with a local team to ensure the localization of keywords and content is culturally appropriate
- adhere to local laws to avoid getting sued, e.g. imprint/ GDPR
- auto translations might hurt your brand and rankings
Integrate local advertisers and partners 📰
- you probably have to switch your advertising partners and onboard new ones
- don’t underestimate the language barrier
- use a local team to build out relationships with partners
Internationalizing your website is a complex process! Leverage GPT/AI tools to do the heavy lifting, finetune via local teams and take the time to plan and execute the right strategy ✨