In thinking about what next topic to discuss, I decided to look at all my existing categories and noticed I only had one single entry about international SEO, and thought, wow considering more than half my work involves some form of SEO/SEM globally, I was pretty surprised I hadn’t written more.

In managing corporate sites for the Asia (APAC) region, including Australia and New Zealand and the European region (EMEA) including South Africa, I find that there are varying challenging aspects to all.

The very basics always remain the same for International SEO:

**Always keep in mind “localization” and the local language MUST be included and correct, which means you need to employ a native of that country to perform your keyword research and write your copy. Do not use Google to translate words that your local audience, who speak that language, will be reading.

A.    Nicely optimized Title tags
B.    Keyword Rich URLs (should be static, eliminate parameters)
C.    Well formulated description Meta Tag
D.    Header 1 tags semantically correct and using (1) single per page
E.    Move excessive JavaScript to an external JS file

Now for those specific to International SEO:

A.    Include ccTLD – this will tell Google and your visitors that your site is specific to that country.
B.    Hosting in country (if this is too expensive or proves to be not possible for various reasons, i.e. your company hasn’t planned for this, etc), or if you can’t register the correct ccTLD, due to lack of resources in country to help support these sites. *(Particularly true in my situation), then creating country sub domains (Italia.companyname.com) or sub-folders is a good option (www.companyname.com/it) – then Geo-target each folder in your Google Webmaster tools area and push for all content in that folder or sub-domain to read in that country language.
C.    Include Meta Language tag – most especially if your site is a .com or like those listed in previous entry.
D.    URLs, should read in country language
E.    Link Building – In-country authoritative links from relevant sites pointing into your site’s deeper pages, using appropriate anchor text, preferably non-branded relevant keywords.
F.    Content – Keyword research done within country, specific language on page, grammatically correct and using correct dialects.
G.    Localization is the key with any International effort. The easiest way to think about International SEO is for you to place yourself in your International audience’s shoes, how would you like the information to read? How helpful would it be if you could find local links and resources in your own country/city?
Keep these things in mind, and it will make your international efforts a great deal easier.