International SEO - How to rank similar keys for differents countries
-
Hello MOZ friends.
I work in an digital marketing agency in Argentina and since we have a lot of traffic from other Spanish-speaking countries like Mexico and Spain, we want to rank specific keywords for these countries.
We were thinking of putting new versions of the homepage in subfolders, for example /es/ for Spain, /mx/ to Mexico, etc. In these new subfolders we would place a very similar version of the homepage with a few minor modifications to work specific keywords in each country. For example, in Spain it is more searched "marketing online", and "marketing digital" is more used in Mexico and Argentina.
I have understood that to implement this we would be to place a label hrflang on the homepage directing visitors and crawlers to the correct version of each country. Is it ok?
Another concern is, whether they are very similar pages, Google does not take it as duplicate content ..
I read this:
https://moz.com/blog/the-international-seo-checklist
And i am not completely sure about using subfolders for each country, but i dont know how to position diferents keywords for diferent countries.
Regards,
Juan Ignacio Retta -
I agree. Never automatically redirect, but rather ask users what language they prefer and set a cookie.
-
Thank you for your answer!
This article in point 4 aleyda solis says we should not redirect traffic as do most do, but suggest to visitors that there is a version of another country / language.
What do you think about this ?http://www.aleydasolis.com/seo/posicionamiento-buscadores-internacional/
-
It sounds like you want to put up different regional translations of the homepage up. This is not really geo-targeting, but translation since nothing else is changing about your content to target it to countries like Mexico and Spain.
You are right in placing them in subfolders and using hreflang between the different homepage versions. As long as you tag all of them and point out the different translations, you will be fine.
-
First of all, though they are duplicate content but it won't harm your site. According to Matt Cutt, there are 25-30% Duplicate content on the whole web and it's natural. So it won't be a problem. Reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQZY7EmjbMA
Secondly, to rank with different keywords, focus on your anchor text. Try to get Inbound links from spanish site with "marketing online" and "marketing digital" from mexico. It'll not only increase your rank on SERP. But also increase your site Authority.
Thanks
-
Hi Jaume,
unfortunately we dont use Wordpress, we use a php template developed by ourselves..
-
Hello Juan Ignacio ; if you use a CMS like WordPress , I recommend using the plugin wpml payment for multilingual sites.
I do not worry too much about the issue of duplicate content in different languages.
Simply optimizes the pages for each language with their language tags , etc ..
Wpml perefectamente also synchronizes with gorgeous Yoast SEO plugin
Saludos.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
International SEO: reposting my own posts to different ccTLDs versions of my website
Hello there Moz community! Moz has been super helpful for me and the team, keep up the good work! I have searched online for answers regarding my specific situation, but I haven't found any. I'm asking my fellow Moz users in hopes of an answer. Maybe this thread will help others too. I currently have this domain: https://eco-reusable.com/ I would like to target Ireland and the UK with my keywords so I have just bought eco-reusable**.IE** and eco-reusable**.CO.UK** My questions are: 1. In order to rank as high as possible for Ireland, do I create a new website for eco-reusable.ie using the same pages but changing all the content slightly so it is not duplicate content OR do I point the eco-reusable.ie domain to eco-reusable.com? By having two sites, we will add more hours but we don't mind if that will be of benefit in the longrun for ranking high in Ireland. I have the same question for eco-reusable.co.uk
Local Website Optimization | | Gael_Regnault
If we have to create three websites and make similar content (not duplicate), we will if it will be better for ranking high in ireland for .ie, in the UK for .co.uk and for the rest of the world for .com 2. If we create three websites, can I safely "copy/paste" my blog posts without being punished by Google for duplicate content? If so, how much variation do we have to have for each of the three sites if we are writing blogs that are the same context. Thank you in advance! 🙂0 -
Local SEO Over Optimization
We are targeting a bunch of services for our local business that works in and around their location. I'm concerned about over optimization and need some guidance on whether these points should be resolved. The company is based in a city and works mostly in the city but also in the surrounding areas. Currently, the site has 6 services pages (accessible via main nav) targeting the same location i.e. “Made Up Service London”, “Imaginary Service London” (with URLs and H1 tags etc. in place containing this location). However this is soon going to become 9 services pages, I am concerned that the repetition of this one location is starting to look spammy, especially as its where the company is based. Initially, I also wanted pages targeting the same services in other nearby areas. For example “Made Up Service Surrey”, “Imaginary Service Essex”. This has not happened as the info available has been too sporadic. I was going to add links to relevant case studies into these pages to beef up the content and add interest. To that end, we came up with case studies, but after a while, I noticed that these are also largely focused on the primary location. So out of 32 case studies, we have 19 focused on the primary location again with URL’s and H1 tags etc containing the location keyword. So in total, we have 25 pages optimized for the location (soon to be 28 and more if further case studies are added). My initial feeling was that the inclusion of pages targeting services in other locations would legitimize what we have done with the main pages. But obviously we have not got these pages in place and I question whether we ever will. What is my best course of action moving forward?
Local Website Optimization | | GrouchyKids1 -
I cant rank well on google or bing
hi guys, I hope I can make some sense to you guys with what is occuring with my website. I am an absolute novice here. I used a drag and drop website 3 or 4 years ago, not sure exactly at the moment when i purchased the domain. however I did pretty well using paid search on both google and bing for quite some time and fairly descent in my area long beach, ca for organic for some of my keywords ( tv install, tv wall mount installation , and tv mounting service). At some point I noticed a drop last year and so this year I decided to try and do a better job on my website by making it mobile friendly and the whole https thing. I basically had to redo it and then after I was finished, the company I use for my website then transferred my website over to original domain. www.coastlinetvinstalls.com Now, If i do a search for some of the keywords im trying to rank for on google , I show up on the first page in my area on some days, and on the google maps for my local business in my area. On bing, however, Im nowhere to be found for any keywords I used to rank for. It use to be the opposite before I did this whole website fix up or whatever you want to call it. I would be on the first page for anything related to my keywords. Wat happened with bing ? any insight would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance,
Local Website Optimization | | Matt160 -
Should I use Rel-Canonicals links for a News site with similar articles each year
Our small town news site provides coverage in a lot of seasonal areas, and we're struggling with the current year's content ranking above previous years. For instance, every year we cover the local high school football team, and create 2-3 articles per game. We'll also have some articles preseason with upcoming schedule and general team "talk". We've seen where articles from past seasons will rank higher than the current season, presumably because the older articles have more links to them from other sources (among other factors). We don't want to delete these old articles and 301 them to the newer article, since most articles include information/stories about specific players...and their families don't want the article to ever come down. Should we rel-canonical the older articles to the newer one, or perhaps to the "high school football" category page? If to the category page, should we rel-canonical even the new articles to that main category page? Thanks for the help.
Local Website Optimization | | YourMark.com0 -
Company sells home appliances and commercial appliances. What is the best way to differentiate the two on our site for the best user experience/SEO?
Should we structure it starting at the homepage with the user selecting for home or for business, that way they have to make a selection before moving further OR should we somehow differentiate in the navigation using the top menu tabs, dropdowns, etc?
Local Website Optimization | | dkeipper1 -
Hiring an SEO Company
I am looking to hire an SEO company each have there own ideas and strengths. My concerns are what is good and what is bad. Here is one company where their Silver Package fits within our budget. But there are a lot of features on here we do know if is it good or bad SEO. I attached the packages they send us. If we were to hire an SEO Company to do our offsite SEO, what should we be looking for that is considered whitehat seo for 2015? zCJowNb
Local Website Optimization | | TIM_DOTCOM0 -
How slow can a website be, but still be ok for visitors and seo?
Hello to all, my site http://www.allspecialtybuildings.com is a barn construction site. Our visitors are usually local. I am worried about page speed. I have been using Google Page Insight, and Gtmetrix. Although I cannot figure out browser leveraging, I have a 79 / 93 google score and for gtmetrix 98/87 score. Load times vary between 2.13 secs to 2.54 secs What is acceptable? I want to make sure I get Google love for a decent page speed, but for me these times are great. Bad times are like 7 seconds and higher. I have thought about a CDN, yet I have read horror stories too. I have ZERO idea of how to use a CDN, or if I need it. I just want a fast site that is both user and Google speed friendly. So my question is, what is a slow speed for a website? Is under 3 seconds considered ok? or bad for seo? But any advice is greatly appreciated.
Local Website Optimization | | asbchris0 -
How to rank in Local Google Without physical address and phone number?
Can We Rank Well in Local Google without Physical address and Phone Number??? If Yes. How??
Local Website Optimization | | Dan_Brown10