Best Way to Create SEO Content for Multiple, International Websites
-
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!
-
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.
-
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
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
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
-
Should I have multiple websites for my different brands or one main website with different tabs/areas?
My client creates apps. As well as the apps they create themselves, they have made some of their own that cover various different topics. Currently they have individual websites for each of these apps, and a website for their app making business. They are asking whether they should just have one website - their app building site, which also includes information about the two apps they've built themselves. My feeling is it's better to keep them separate. The app building site is trying to appeal to a B2B audience and gain business to build new apps. AppA is trying to help carehomes and carers to streamline their business, and AppB is trying to help workplace and employee welfare. Combining them all will mean lots of mixed messaging/keywords even if we have dedicated areas on the site. I also think it will limit how much content we can create on each without being completely overwhelming for the user. If we keep them all separate then we can have a very clear user journey. I would of course recommend having blog posts or some sort of landing page to link to AppA and AppB's websites. Thoughts? Thank you!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | WhitewallGlasgow0 -
Best SEO Practices for Displaying FAQs throughout site?
I've got an FAQ plugin (Ultimate FAQ) for a Wordpress site with tons of content (like 30 questions each with a page full, multi-paragraphs, of answers with good info -- stuff Google LOVES.) Right now, I have a main FAQ page that has 3 categories and about 10 questions under each category and each question is collapsed by default. You click an arrow to expand it to reveal the answer.I then have a single category's questions also displayed at the bottom of an appropriate related page. So the questions appear in two places on the site, always collapsed by default.Each question has a permalink that links to an individual page with only that question and answer.I know Google discounts (doesn't ignore) content that is hidden by default and requires a click (via js function) to reveal it.So what I'm wondering is if the way I have it setup is optimal for SEO? How is Google going to handle the questions being in essentially three places: it's own standalone page, in a list on a category page, and in a list on a page showing all questions for all categories. Should I make the questions not collapsed by default (which will make the master FAQ page SUPER long!)Does Google not mind the duplicate content within the site?What's the best strategy?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | SeoJaz0 -
Internal Duplicate Content - Classifieds (Panda)
I've been wondering for a while now, how Google treats internal duplicate content within classified sites. It's quite a big issue, with customers creating their ads twice.. I'd guess to avoid the price of renewing, or perhaps to put themselves back to the top of the results. Out of 10,000 pages crawled and tested, 250 (2.5%) were duplicate adverts. Similarly, in terms of the search results pages, where the site structure allows the same advert(s) to appear under several unique URLs. A prime example would be in this example. Notice, on this page we have already filtered down to 1 result, but the left hand side filters all return that same 1 advert. Using tools like Siteliner and Moz Analytics just highlights these as urgent high priority issues, but I've always been sceptical. On a large scale, would this count as Panda food in your opinion, or does Google understand the nature of classifieds is different, and treat it as such? Appreciate thoughts. Thanks.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Sayers1 -
What's the best way to A/B test new version of your website having different URL structure?
Hi Mozzers, Hope you're doing good. Well, we have a website, up and running for a decent tenure with millions of pages indexed in search engines. We're planning to go live with a new version of it i.e a new experience for our users, some changes in site architecture which includes change in URL structure for existing URLs and introduction of some new URLs as well. Now, my question is, what's the best way to do a A/B test with the new version? We can't launch it for a part of users (say, we'll make it live for 50% of the users, an remaining 50% of the users will see old/existing site only) because the URL structure is changed now and bots will get confused if they start landing on different versions. Will this work if I reduce crawl rate to ZERO during this A/B tenure? How will this impact us from SEO perspective? How will those old to new 301 URL redirects will affect our users? Have you ever faced/handled this kind of scenario? If yes, please share how you handled this along with the impact. If this is something new to you, would love to know your recommendations before taking the final call on this. Note: We're taking care of all existing URLs, properly 301 redirecting them to their newer versions but there are some new URLs which are supported only on newer version (architectural changes I mentioned above), and these URLs aren't backward compatible, can't redirect them to a valid URL on old version.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | _nitman0 -
Content Internal Linking ?
Should we internally link new content to old content using anchor tags (keywords) related to pages from all new blogposts or should be keep rotating the blogposts like link from some blog posts & not from others. What ratio should we maintain. Right now i keep 2 links maximum from a 300 words posts or 3 in 500 words posts maximum. But linking from each new blog posts will be good?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | welcomecure0 -
SEO effect of content duplication across hub of sites
Hello, I have a question about a website I have been asked to work on. It is for a real estate company which is part of a larger company. Along with several other (rival) companies it has a website of property listings which receives a feed of properties from a central hub site - so lots of potential for page, title and meta content duplication (if if isn't already occuring) across the whole network of sites. In early investigation I don't see any of these sites ranking very well at all in Google for expected search phrases. Before I start working on things that might improve their rankings, I wanted to ask some questions from you guys: 1. How would such duplication (if it is occuring) effect the SEO rankings of such sites individually, or the whole network/hub collectively? 2. Is it possible to tell if such a site has been "burnt" for SEO purposes, especially if or from any duplication? 3. If such a site or the network has been totally burnt, are there any approaches or remedies that can be made to improve the site's SEO rankings significantly, or is the only/best option to start again from scratch with a brand new site, ensuring the use of new meta descriptions and unique content? Thanks in advance, Graham
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | gmwhite9991 -
Urgent Help - Ecommerce URL best practice for SEO
Guys i need some urgent help here as we need to get this sorted out soon. We have a page similar to wayfair shop the look: www.wayfair.com/Shop-The-Look/ What are the best practices for URL structure if we applies 2-3 filters? Is wayfair style good for SEO? FYI: We create our crawlable, link friendly AJAX website using pushstate() but unsure of the structure for this case. We followed http://moz.com/blog/create-crawlable-link-friendly-ajax-websites-using-pushstate advice.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | WayneRooney0 -
One website, multiple service points
Hi all Wondering if anyone could offer an opinion on this..am talking to a new client who offer kitchen installation and design. They have a central headquarters and cover a 100 mile radius of their location. A lot of search terms they are aiming to target - Kitchen Design, Kitchen Fitters etc offer localised results. This is where my issue lays. I have worked with plenty of clients in the past which have physical presence in multiple locations and have marked up the site so that the site ranks for each of the stores, but trying to make one site appear in many locations where it doesn't have an address is a different issue completely. Not only do they only have one address, they also only have one phone number. We will target, as best we can, the non localised keywords but need to work out what to do to cover the locations 20/30/40 miles from the office which they cover. I welcome any opinions on this please.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Grumpy_Carl0