For businesses looking to expand their customer base internationally, e-commerce localization can feel daunting. There’s a massive amount of content that needs to be translated. Deciding which languages to translate your website into and for which target markets. And, to maximize your chances of success in each locale, you’ll need to consider your international e-commerce SEO strategy.
International SEO for e-commerce is critical to the success of your website. And while it may seem challenging, it doesn’t have to be a big leap.
Here are five core components of an effective international e-commerce SEO strategy – and what you need to do to implement each one effectively.
UNDERSTAND YOUR CURRENT WEBSITE PERFORMANCE
A good place to start is looking at your website performance in the US market. While search and buying behavior trends in international markets change significantly, reviewing your domestic website analytics can be helpful.
Use your preferred analytics tool to identify your top-performing pages based on unique visits, new vs. returning visitors, session duration, and conversion rate. You can also filter by geography based on the markets you are curious about. It can give you insight into which pages and products users in this country are familiar with.
Identifying the top pages can help you best utilize your budget when translating content that gives you the most return. Avoid the temptation to translate everything unless there’s a clear benefit to doing so. Consider which parts of your website are most relevant to your target markets. Focusing on top-performing pages as a starting point can help manage your translation process and budget. Doing so will also ensure you translate and optimize content that’s most relevant to each target market.
You may see that you are already getting traffic and conversions from international customers. This data can also help you make the case for which content needs to be localized and into which languages. Be sure to also consider low-performing pages or product pages that are domestic only and can be excluded from fully localized websites. Ultimately, translating a smaller volume of high-intent, relevant content will yield the best short-term results unless you have data to justify a full-site, high-volume translation strategy.
Before you begin translation, take time to understand the local market landscape in each of your target locales. Depending on your product set and target countries, this may be as simple as a quick review of consumer trends with a resource in the market. Or specific markets may require deeper market insights to assess the competitive landscape. This will determine which products are likely to be well-received—and which will not. This step will also provide key insights into how to drive traffic to your website through organic and paid digital marketing, once you have localized and launched your market-specific e-commerce website.
Taking time to understand the local market landscape before you begin translation can help you prioritize markets that are most likely to respond to your offering. And which markets have the most accessible search and social platforms to help you drive engagement and conversions.
EFFECTIVE INTERNATIONAL E-COMMERCE SEO STRATEGY
When tackling SEO for e-commerce, it’s challenging to find unique, culturally-relevant keywords for 100-300+ pages without a high degree of keyword overlap. So, you’ll need to be selective about which pages you optimize.
1. Category Pages
Category or collection pages are typically associated with the broadest range of non-branded keywords. This creates opportunities for large search volume. They are natural entry points as consumers navigate to individual product pages. These pages must be properly localized—both in language and visual experience—to support the international customer journey.
Category pages can also allow you to showcase to consumers in a new market the full range of products you offer. They can allow you to begin ranking for product terms in a new market. Even before the product is available in a target market. Optimizing your category pages in this way can be a proactive, powerful move. In this way, you can rank for search terms, provided you have a clear plan to launch the product in the near future.
2. Product Pages
While you will want essential product pages localized for engagement and conversions, remember that they are not necessarily critical for search optimization. Optimizing your category pages for search is a much more effective approach and consumers will navigate to individual products from there.
3. Blog/Editorial Content
Blog content can certainly boost your international SEO strategy, but it’s not a critical first step to launching an international website. Once localized websites are up and running, prioritize a set of blog content to help drive awareness/intent. As you look to drive international growth in your priority markets, SEO-informed blogs and editorial content can be a game-changer at a local level.
INTERNATIONAL SEO
International SEO involves keyword research, defining landing pages, keyword mapping to landing pages and translating/integrating key terms into main content and meta data.
Your international consumers won’t search, engage and convert online in the same ways as domestic consumers. To do it right, you must address the nuances, intent and local behavior of your target international consumers.
While the principle may seem basic, failing to adopt best practice international SEO is a common mistake for companies trying to attract qualified traffic to their global websites. International keyword research and search optimization are crucial. It should be done by market-specific specialists, either in conjunction with translation or conversely, for translated content. Without it, your brand could miss the most relevant and popular keywords.
OTHER WEBSITE ELEMENTS TO PREPARE FOR INTERNATIONAL MARKETS
Your checkout or purchase engine doesn’t play a role in SEO. But it’s clearly a critical part to consider in the international customer journey. It would be a major oversight if international customers made it all the way to checkout and then hit a language barrier. You’ll want to ensure this aspect of your website is localized for usability and to align with local payment trends and expectations.
Similarly, avoid creating frustrations for your international market customers by providing local after-sales support. An FAQ page can be a simple way to offer local after-sales information. It can also enhance brand advocacy, if you’re not yet ready to invest in something as complex as a local chatbot.
TECHNICAL SEO FOR E-COMMERCE
Assuming you’ve completed all domestic technical SEO optimizations, there will be additional, international-specific optimizations to deploy. You’ll need to first choose how to structure your localized websites. You have a few options. Use a gTLD (generic Top Level Domain), use a subdirectory structure or a subdomain. Or, you could choose a ccTLD (country-code Top Level Domain). There’s no one-size-fits-all approach. It’s always best to research the benefits and drawbacks of each to determine the best fit for your specific business.
A technical SEO checklist will ensure localization elements are implemented prior to launch. (Think about hreflang tags, new sitemaps, direct indexation checks and UAT testing.) All of these components are critical to the success of your localized websites.
Post-launch, international SEO audits will ensure your technical setup, along with all on-page optimizations, are implemented correctly to set you up for success right from day one.
IN CONCLUSION
Launching an international ecommerce website can feel daunting. Simplify your approach by breaking the entire initiative into manageable, iterative localization phases, informed by data-driven decisions about what and when to localize.
Choosing partners with expertise in domestic marketing localization will help ease the burden on your in-house resources. And it will also provide critical insights that help make your international expansion a success.
A successful launch and positive ROI will make it easier for you to localize into new markets, as well as expand your international digital marketing strategy to drive growth and long-term engagement with international consumers.
