Search Engine Optimisation - Wednesday, October 1, 2008 10:51 - 0 Comments

SEO Strategies - Going Global

Following up from yesterdays post about different online strategies being used by many top entrepreneurs, the next point is about going global.

One of the biggest advantages of an online presence is that it is accessible from all over the globe. This has always been promoted as one of the key positives of the internet in general, reaching a global audience. Your SEO and other online marketing can also still be managed from home too, reducing your need to involve foreign companies to be involved with advertising and promotions.

As development software becomes more and more advanced, smart marketers are always improving the targetting of their websites based on where a visitor is coming from. This includes the local language, local news and information and products that are more suited to certain cultures, trends and living standards in different countries.

Global targetting can also help a website be found on Google, because you can tell Google what content of a website is appropriate to a certain country and that they should include in that countries search engine indexing.

Leigh Jasper from Aconex, which is a software company, says that his website detects where a user is from based on their ip address. They can then show localised content to these people so it is always more relevant and interesting to them. This includes case studies of local clients, which helps establish them as local suppliers in many markets.

For E-Commerce stores, this type of approach also allows you to display products in the local currency so no confusion about currency conversions will be made. This also increases the buyer confidence in your products as they have a more local feel.

There are different options available, by either using domains specific to different countries or have one website with seperate sub-domains based on the countries you wish to position yourself in. The later is probably better from an SEO point of view, because all of your effort can be focused on just one website.

If you would like to share experiences marketing to foreign countries online, feel free to share them here.