You have a com.au site that’s ranking pretty well with search engine optimization (SEO), your click-through rates are decent and you’ve got your bounce-backs under control.
However, if you’re an e-commerce business that’s about to go global, a blog that wants to break borders or you manage a site you think can appeal to people who aren’t Aussies, what do you need to know about going global?
What Changes Need To Be Made To Make That Leap?
First, you need to decide if your site has the power to make it in the UK, Canada, the US and anywhere else you’ve got your sites set.
For example, if you create organic products made from local sources, there are probably a lot of global markets for it that are willing to pay those shipping fees. Consider if shipping internationally is worth the hassle for you, and if it is, you’ll need site overhauls.
The Duplicate Site Catch-22
Your first instinct might be to pick up a .com or .org and simply provide duplicate content with country-specific grammar. While this is actually a good idea, it’s also death for SEO.
Duplicate copy is considered spam in SEO best practices, and doing so will likely knock both sites down to the bottom of search results. It’s a tough call, but you might want to permanently switch to a dot-com domain and ensure any trace of the dot-au is out of the picture.
If that’s not possible, understand some global shoppers will be wary of a dot-au address. They might think shipping will be too expensive or otherwise feel unsure about shopping away from a dot-com. You can assuage their fears by adopting a more global voice. Keep away from Aussie slang and lingo.
If your keywords involve words that are grammatically different in other countries, such as “colour” and “color,” you may need to switch back and forth between the two in order to satisfy SEO algorithms.
Keeping Global Tabs
When you decide to go global, it’s always best to work with SEO experts to help you track your success and stumbles. You need to know IP addresses of your customers to see if you’re reaching the right target demographics. If you blog about panel saws but haven’t seen an increase in foreign readers, why not? Maybe your content needs to shift or you need an SEO campaign overhaul.
There are numerous programs to track the success of your website or blog, and many of them are free. A quality option is simply Google Analytics, a user-friendly tool that lets you customize reports to see exactly what’s happening. You can see which pages are performing, which aren’t, and just where your readers are coming from on other parts of the web.
Is it the Design?
The design of your website might also be a problem, since it may do well with local markets but not so well in other parts of the world. Ensure responsive design is being used, there’s plenty of white space for breathing and clean, easy to read fonts. High-quality images and videos can help. Use a web designer with a proven track record and a portfolio that impresses for the best results.
