Story Based Question
You run a global online marketplace for handmade crafts, and your products are gaining traction in different countries like Germany, Canada, and Japan. Your website is growing, but you’ve realized that it’s hard to focus on all regions at once. You’re unsure about where to invest your SEO efforts first. Should you prioritize regions with the most traffic, the most competition, or maybe the highest conversion rates? You’re now wondering: How do you prioritize countries or regions for your international SEO strategy?
Exact Answer
To prioritize countries or regions for international SEO, you should:
- Analyze existing traffic to identify where your website already performs well.
- Assess market potential in each region by looking at factors like search volume, competition, and consumer behavior.
- Evaluate local SEO factors, such as competition, search engine preferences, and user intent.
- Consider your resource capacity, including localization efforts and budget.
Explanation
When you’re running an international SEO campaign, it’s tempting to go all in on multiple regions at once. However, a scattershot approach is often less effective. To prioritize regions effectively, you need to use data, market potential, and your available resources.
1. Analyze Existing Traffic
Start by looking at your website analytics. Identify where you’re already getting traffic and conversions. This gives you a good sense of where to start focusing your SEO efforts.
- Why This Matters: Regions where your website already performs well are easier to scale up. They might require less effort to see continued growth compared to entirely new regions.
- Action: Use tools like Google Analytics to find which countries bring in the most traffic and have the highest engagement rates. This shows you where your current audience is.
- Example: If you notice that users in Germany are already engaging well with your content, that’s a good indicator that Germany could be a priority country for further SEO investment.
2. Assess Market Potential
Once you know where you’re performing well, it’s time to assess the market potential of different countries. You’ll want to identify regions where demand for your product is high, but the competition isn’t too fierce.
- Why This Matters: High search volume combined with low competition gives you the best chance to rank higher and get traffic. The market size tells you how much return you could get on your SEO efforts.
- Action: Use tools like Google Keyword Planner or SEMrush to check search volume for your target keywords in different regions. Also, evaluate the competitiveness of ranking for those keywords.
- Example: If Canada has high search volume for handmade crafts but low competition compared to the US, it might make sense to focus on Canada first for faster rankings.
3. Evaluate Local SEO Factors
Different countries have unique SEO characteristics. Some regions might use a specific search engine (e.g., Baidu in China, Yandex in Russia), and local competitors could impact how easily you rank. Local search habits and user intent can also differ, affecting your SEO strategy.
- Why This Matters: Understanding how users in each region search, what they search for, and which search engines they use will guide your SEO efforts. Plus, knowing the competition level in each region will let you determine how tough it will be to rank.
- Action: Research the local search landscape for your target countries. Check if specific search engines dominate or if there are unique local factors you need to account for.
- Example: If you want to target Japan, you’ll need to account for Google Japan’s preferences or even Yahoo Japan’s dominance in some cases.
4. Consider Your Resource Capacity
SEO takes time and resources, so be realistic about how many regions you can target at once. Localization efforts, such as translating content and adapting it to regional preferences, require investment. Similarly, building backlinks and creating region-specific content requires a consistent effort.
- Why This Matters: Focusing on too many regions at once can dilute your efforts. Prioritizing regions based on your available resources ensures you can fully optimize for each market.
- Action: Assess your budget, staffing, and time available for each region. Focus your efforts on the regions where you can make the most impact with the resources you have.
- Example: If you have a strong team for French content but limited resources for Spanish, it may be better to prioritize France first, then expand into Spain later.
Example
Let’s say you sell handmade jewelry online and want to expand internationally. You’ve got traffic from Germany, Brazil, and Canada but are unsure where to prioritize your SEO efforts.
Germany (Existing Traffic + Market Potential)
You’ve already seen great engagement from Germany, with steady growth in organic traffic. Germany also has strong demand for handmade jewelry, and the competition is moderate.
- SEO Action: You should prioritize Germany. Invest in localized content and keyword research specific to Germany, and optimize for Google.de.
Brazil (High Market Potential + Lower Competition)
Brazil has high interest in handmade jewelry, but the competition for these keywords is lower than in other regions like the US.
- SEO Action: Brazil looks like a good candidate for expansion. Focus on local content and localized keywords to take advantage of lower competition.
Canada (Existing Traffic + High Competition)
While Canada is a strong market with steady traffic and relatively high demand, the competition for handmade jewelry is fierce. However, you already have some ranking here, so continued investment could yield good returns.
- SEO Action: Keep improving rankings for your existing content and work on long-tail keywords where competition is lower.
Prioritizing countries for international SEO is about balancing existing traffic, market potential, local SEO factors, and available resources. By focusing on regions where you can make the most impact, you’ll be able to expand your reach without spreading your efforts too thin.