Best Way to Create SEO Content for Multiple, International Websites

[cody109]

I have a client that has multiple websites for providing to other countries. For instance, they have a .com website for the US (abccompany.com), a .co.uk website for the UK (abccompany.co.uk), a .de website for Germany (abccompany.de), and so on. The have websites for the Netherlands, France, and even China. These all act as separate websites. They have their own addresses, their own content (some duplicated but translated), their own pricing, their own Domain Authority, backlinks, etc.

Right now, I write content for the US site. The goal is to write content for long and medium tail keywords. However, the UK site is interested in having myself write content for them as well.

The issue I'm having is how can I differentiate the content? And what is the best way to target content for each country?

Does it make sense to write separate content for each website to target results in that country? The .com site will still show up in UK web results still fairly high.

Does it make sense to just duplicate the content but in a different language or for the specific audience in that country?

I guess the biggest question I'm asking is, what is the best way of creating content for multiples countries' search results? I don't want the different websites to compete with each other in a sense nor do I want to spend extra time trying to rank content for multiple sites when I could just focus on trying to rank one for all countries.

Any help is appreciated!

[cody109]

I understand that some keywords or phrases may differ in each country. Like stated: centre vs. center. So if some of the keywords differ, then I would see how writing completely different content for each individual site would be necessary.

However, some phrases/keywords are still the same in each country. For instance, the company sells desks. Desks are referred to just that in both countries. If I write an in-depth article on desks for the US site, say maybe "100 Desk Ideas" or "The Complete Guide to Desk Ergonomics", should I then not use that same post on UK site (even if the keywords are the same)? If I post the article on both sites, would I pretty much just replicate the same article on the UK site (maybe changing a few words here and there to fit the correct UK vernacular)? Would Google see that as duplicate content? Or would it just be better for the US site to rank that post for that keyword?

I'm still just trying to figure out the best method for producing content that doesn't compete with each other, ranks appropriately in its corresponding country, and avoid having to create extra content if we don't need to.

The US site still ranks in UK results and gets about 5,000 UK visitors (from a total of 120,000 monthly visitors). While the UK site gets about 3,000 monthly total. The US site has a DA of 33 and the UK a DA of 15. So the US site will even sometimes outrank the UK site even in UK search results and you can see it even brings in more UK traffic. I'm trying to figure out the best way to utilize each site's content.

[Aleyda]

Hi there!

The best way to create content targeted to each of the countries audiences is to develop a keyword/queries and competition research for each one of them, to identify how the users search in each one of them. Note that even if there are many countries speaking the same language the terms might be different due to localization (centre vs. center, flat vs. apartment, trousers vs. pants, etc.), seasonality, audience preferences, etc.

Here are a few guides where I share how to start doing international SEO where I include tips and steps for the initial analysis:

• https://blog.kissmetrics.com/how-to-international-seo/
• http://www.seerinteractive.com/blog/international-seo-strategy-guide/

The tools that you will use and the way you will do the keyword research is the same than the one you would do it for English in the US... as most of the keyword/competition research tools support other countries too, from Google Keyword Planner, to SEMrush, SearchMetrics, KWFinder, KeywordTool.io, etc. what is important is that you choose the right language/country combination when doing the research and if you're not a native speaker, that you hire one to support you, as it's important to have a real understanding on how you will target your international target audience.

If you have any other doubt, just let me know!

Aleyda

[LoganRay]

Regarding your thought about ranking the US website in both US and UK, and directing UK visitors to a UK version will work, however you won't be able to do that with redirects or a different version of the post. Doing that would change the URL, which would affect which page gets indexed. It's possible to change content of a page based on location without changing the URL, which is what you'd have to do in order to keep indexing in line.

I do still think that your best bet is to use the UK domain and treat it as its own entity just as you're doing with the other countries.

[cody109]

So are you recommending reproducing content that is written on the US site and simply rewriting it slightly for the UK site? It seems like in this case, I would mostly just change certain keywords and vernacular to suit the UK audience and search results. This method would be used instead of coming up with completely different and new content for each site?

I'm still not sure if this is the best method. I wonder if there is a way to focus on ranking the US website and content in both the US and UK search results. Then, if someone from the UK visits the site via a search engine it directs them to a UK version of that blog post. I'm not sure if such a method exists but maybe it does?

I'm still just trying to find the best for producing content for this company that will rank in both market's search results.

[LoganRay]

Hi,

Your content should be targeted to the geography, especially regarding keywords. One country might call your product one thing, and another country might have another phrase for it, even when translated, i.e. 'biscuits' in the US vs. UK. You might also need to speak more directly to the audience, there could be different ways to connect with each of the audiences for which you are writing. Do some research on each of the markets that will be reading this content and see if there's anything that you can learn to better target the message.

Your country code TLD approach is a great start, as you're already giving search engines information about the location which your sites target. As additional measures, you can set geography in Search Console, and use the hreflang tag. A combination of all of these things will help ensure your content gets indexed in the country-specific Google.

For more information on this topic, check out this international SEO guide.