International SEO
Last updated: February 28, 2023
Search Engines in Different Countries
Although Google dominates most of the world when it comes to search engines, there are a few countries that have different search engines that own most of the search market share.
China – Baidu
If you are optimizing for China, Baidu owns the majority of the search market share minus Hong Kong. Optimizing for Baidu can be difficult because it is entirely in Chinese.
Here is a full guide to optimizing for Baidu and how to use its webmaster tools. You should also do the following:
- Host web properties in China
- Register for government-issued ICP numbers
- Submit site through Baidu’s webmaster tools
Russia – Yandex
Things to keep in mind:
- Yandex doesn’t index/crawl sites often unless it’s a publishing site
- They focus on local markets
- They also have their own Webmaster Tools
To see a full list of how to optimize websites for the Russian search engine Yandex, view the following two guides:
South Korea – Naver
Here are a few things needed to optimize for Naver:
- Korean Language Site
- Register, sign up for services, and submit to categories
- Focus on content – having a blog that is up to date is important
- Be social – use Naver’s social network “Cafe”
- Continue using SEO basics
Other resources:
Choosing a URL Structure
Subdomains
Example: Fr.domain.com
- Pros: You can design a different site based on the needs of the language/culture
- Cons: Basically starting from scratch, can’t piggyback off the main site’s authority
Subfolders
Example: domain.com/fr/
- Pros: Uses authority of main domain
- Cons: Stuck within the framework of the main domain
Country Code Top-Level Domains
Example: domain.fr
- Pros: Easily found through country search engines especially with hosting in the same country
- Cons: Resources & investment, lack of authority built from main site, may require physical presence in a country
Common Website Functionality
- Organize and translate menu
- Translate the following:
- Meta Tags and URLs
- Images and Buttons
- PDFs, Videos, Podcasts, and other media
If you are using special characters for languages, add: <meta charset=”utf-8”>
Best Practices for Translation
- Don’t use translation tools. It could be considered auto generated content and go against Google guidelines. If you do use auto translations, use the
noindextag to make sure you will not be penalized. - Enlist local help for language and context
- Language selectors should link to same page but in different languages. Do not just redirect users to the homepage of the new language they choose.
Hreflang and How to Implement It
Many websites serve users from around the world with content translated or targeted to users in a certain region. Google uses the rel="alternate" hreflang="x" attributes to serve the correct language or regional URL in search results.
Some example scenarios where rel="alternate" hreflang="x" is recommended:
- You keep the main content in a single language and translate only the template, such as the navigation and footer. Pages that feature user-generated content, like forums, typically do this.
- Your content has small regional variations with similar content in a single language. For example, you might have English-language content targeted to the US, GB, and Ireland.
- Your site content is fully translated. For example, you have both German and English versions of each page.
Using Language Annotations
Imagine you have an English language page hosted at:
http://www.example.com/
with a Spanish alternative at:
http://es.example.com/
You can indicate to Google that the Spanish URL is the Spanish-language equivalent of the English page in one of three ways:
1. HTML link element in header
In the HTML <head> section of http://www.example.com/, add a link element pointing to the Spanish version of that webpage at http://es.example.com/, like this:
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="es" href="http://es.example.com/" />
2. HTTP header
If you publish non-HTML files (like PDFs), you can use an HTTP header to indicate a different language version of a URL:
Link: <http://es.example.com/>; rel="alternate"; hreflang="es"
To specify multiple hreflang values in a Link HTTP header, separate the values with commas like so:
Link: <http://es.example.com/>; rel="alternate"; hreflang="es",<http://de.example.com/>; rel="alternate"; hreflang="de"
3. Sitemap
Instead of using markup, you can submit language version information in a Sitemap.
If you have multiple language versions of a URL, each language page should identify different language versions, including itself. For example, if your site provides content in French, English, and Spanish, the Spanish version must include a rel="alternate" hreflang="x" link for itself in addition to links to the French and English versions. Similarly, the English and French versions must each include the same references to the French, English, and Spanish versions.
Supported Languages
The value of the hreflang attribute identifies the language (in ISO 639-1 format) and optionally the region (in ISO 3166-1 Alpha 2 format) of an alternate URL. For example:
- de: German content, independent of region
- en-GB: English content, for GB users
- de-ES: German content, for users in Spain
Common Mistakes
Important: Make sure that your provided hreflang value is actually valid. Take special care in regard to the two most common mistakes:
- Missing confirmation links: If page A links to page B, page B must link back to page A. If this is not the case for all pages that use hreflang annotations, those annotations may be ignored or not interpreted correctly.
- Incorrect language codes: Make sure that all language codes you use identify the language (in ISO 639-1 format) and optionally the region (in ISO 3166-1 Alpha 2 format) of an alternate URL. Specifying the region alone is not valid.
Using Analytics
By looking at analytics data you can see which countries people are visiting your site from and make decisions on if it’s worth it to target another language or country.
Logistics to Consider
- Develop content to serve new languages
- Adjust pricing for currencies
- Adjust business considerations (Products, Shipping, Legal, Taxes, etc.)
- Regional Address Differences
- US: State, Zip Code
- Canada: Province, Postal Code
GEO-Targeting
This can be done with Webmaster Tools/Search Console, but may not always be preferred depending on the situation.
When to use it:
1. You are targeting particular markets with TLDs
2. You are targeting particular markets with subdomains
3. You are a local business targeting multilingual audience within your country
When NOT to Use a Geographic Target:
1. You are a local business targeting multilingual audience abroad
