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Should Your Business Be Investing In International SEO?

Published on January 8, 2014
Tags: SEO

SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is at the heart of many online marketing campaigns for businesses of all shapes and sizes, but when is basic SEO enough? When should you think about expanding your SEO efforts to include other countries? When should you start to seriously consider putting time and money into an international SEO campaign? Here are a few tips to help you decide what the best approach is for you and your company.

Why should anyone look into International SEO?
Putting it extremely simply, a lot of businesses these days are international, so why shouldn’t your online marketing strategy be? Optimising your site for search engines all around the world is a big step – one that shouldn’t be taken lightly – but most business owners think that in the years to come, it is going to become a necessity for large businesses who want to go (or who already are) global. If, for instance, you’re focusing all your SEO efforts on Google, you’re missing out on a huge number of people on the other side of the world. For example, Chinese search engine Baidu is the most popular search site in the country, and considering the amount of internet users in China (540 million internet users and 388 million mobile internet users), it would be foolish to leave it out of any international campaign.

By looking at the bigger world picture, businesses will inevitably generate more traffic, experience more conversions, and therefore receive a greater ROI. Businesses will also be able to build their brand for a global audience, reaching foreign clients who otherwise might not have even heard of them.

Why shouldn’t your company start an International SEO campaign?
Of course, international SEO isn’t for everyone. If you own a small company with only a small number of staff and a small marketing budget, it may not be in your power to invest money in a global campaign. It’s also worth noting that without a viable PPC (Pay Per Click) campaign in place, any international SEO efforts could be a waste of money. Investing in PPC ads, relevant landing pages, and SEO can be pricey, and it’s a big risk if you haven’t worked our your online marketing strategy right down to the very finest details.

Not all businesses should dive head-first into the world of international SEO. If you have successful SEO and PPC campaigns working in your own country, it can be a good idea to expand, but you have to make sure that the timing is right and that you have all of the resources to cover it. By spreading your marketing efforts too thin, you could risk jeopardising the successful SEO campaign you already have. By trying to reach everyone in the world, you could end up reaching no one.

If you don’t have the resources to employ a full-time SEO staff member, there are several online companies who can help you out on an ad-hoc basis. Web development firms will be able to give you advice on all kinds of online marketing, as well as running SEO and PPC campaigns for you.

By Chelsey Evans

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