Best Shopify SEO Practices For International Expansion
The latest market figures showcase that the international ecommerce sector will collectively reach a whopping revenue of approximately $4.89 trillion by the end of this year. In fact, these numbers will continue to grow exponentially over the next few years, making global trading a hot spot for online retailers and booming businesses out there. It’s high time to acknowledge your business needs and develop an international SEO strategy that can help you keep up with the advancement.
Before moving on, you must know what international SEO is and how it works for growing enterprises. This way, you will be able to come up with the best Shopify SEO techniques and connect with your customers worldwide proliferating your brand in a far more adaptable way.
What is International SEO?
International SEO entails the practice of Shopify store optimization for different countries and languages, so the search engines can identify the regions you are willing to target. In simple words, some of the most efficient SEO strategies thrive on content localization, user target preferences, and multilingual link building.
Best Shopify SEO practices include the following:
Adopt the perspective of a local user
Comprehensive techniques and new means of marketing ask you to consider a lot of things and thinking like a local is one of them. The initial market research of global SEO should begin with a territorial assessment, especially when you have Google Analytics as the ultimate free web tool. It can guide you with ongoing organic search visibility in various nations, so you can easily prioritize your strategic steps according to those regions.
Don’t skip the part where you consider different languages and currencies for global SEO implementation. Throughout this phase, you will be able to perform broad research on the keywords and analyze the scale of competition in numerous locations. Remember, that key search terms in different parts of the world are significantly different. This part of research gets even more discrete for non-English countries.
While Google search engines rule the majority of the world, some countries have their web platform for it. In China, users rely on Baidu whereas Russia has Yandex as the go-to search engine. You will need to set your global SEO goals accordingly before starting to develop your Shopify store.
Plan the URL structures for global markets
The URL structure of your portal will lead search engines to determine the relevance and target pattern of your website. The following URL structures will help you get a better idea:
- Country-Code Top-Level Domains (ccTLDs)
This form of URL structure uses a two-letter code for optimization so the search engine can identify the location for which the website is registered. These URLs help target various countries regardless of the distinct languages. It can be explained with the example of Adidas with different portals in different countries. The URL https://www.adidas.de suggests its target in Germany.
- Subdomains
A subdomain is extracted from the prominent website address and generally includes the country code in front of the domain name. These subdomains streamline the navigation of numerous sections in a Shopify store and organize the content thematically. This sort of arrangement works for a website that needs language adaptation for all targeted countries. https://fr.gymshark.com/ is an example of a subdomain.
- Subdirectories
A Subdirectory is used to manage the subset of a website’s content. It is placed to the right of the main URL as shown in https://www.apple.com/uk in which ‘uk’ represents Apple’s UK subfolder
Since each of these URL structures has its uses, you need to stick with just one of them. Make sure that this URL selection is followed consistently throughout the entire global SEO planning because that’s how Shopify SEO will be able to bring actual results.
Make use of Hreflang tags
Shopify stores that run on a global scale contain duplicate content which often happens due to the same product existing on subdomains and subdirectories. To prevent this discrepancy from affecting search engine rankings, you can consider using Hreflang tags. Created in the form of HTML attributes, these tags inform search engines about the alternate versions of a specific page developed to target different languages and locations.
Get creative with your content
The content strategy for a globally active Shopify store should be tremendously discrete than ordinary curation practices. While creating content, you will need to keep a wide range of languages and popular terminologies at the core. Google Translate tool wouldn’t be of any help in this concern as it generates mistakes. You can either hire a native speaker or connect with a translation expert to create quality content in various languages.
Invest your time in link building and outreach campaigns
When you are trying to link with your buyers worldwide, make sure that you have a link-building campaign brewing up on the side. Try to cover well-known online magazines and promotional platforms through guest posting, podcasts, and social media alliances with influencers to spread the word about your brand.
Your Shopify SEO Agency
If you are willing to leave a mark on the world with unstoppable branding and boost your Shopify business on a global scale, then implement the aforementioned Shopify SEO best practices in your brand development campaign. These techniques will help you with suggestive targeting, enhanced customer experience, and increased conversions
We’re one of the world’s leading Shopify Design & Development, Consultancy partners and have delivered a wide range of large bespoke design & development, migration projects and also helped a host of household names grow on the platform. Our SEO specialists intend to assist leading brands to obtain international recognition with technology consulting and bespoke solutions. If you want like to discuss working together on a Shopify/Shopify business, reach out to us today!