Multilingual SEO for your e-commerce website

If you have an e-commerce website and want to sell your products and services overseas you need a specific SEO strategy for the markets you want to enter. In order to be found on search engines in other countries, it is not enough to duplicate the exact same SEO strategy you have used for the UK. Users in different countries have disparate online behaviours and search intents that you better know in advance. 

Where to start from?

Follow these steps to sell overseas with an effective SEO strategy for your multilingual e-commerce 

1. Analyse your multilingual e-commerce website

The first step if you want to sell your products and services overseas is certainly to make sure that your website is accessible and easy to browse for your target countries. A key factor is to verify that the structure and domain of your website are appropriate to be indexed in different countries. What does this mean? That if your e-commerce site has a national top-level domain (.co.uk) you will only be indexed for Google UK. Therefore, for an effective multilingual SEO strategy you should opt for an international top-level domain (.com or .eu) so you can also be indexed in other countries.

2. Study local markets and competitors 

It is a mistake to think that your potential customers are the same in every country. Despite the UK being close to many European countries, the differences in culture and habits of people living in those countries are countless. Hence, it is crucial to get to know your new clients, analyse their search and purchasing behaviour to optimise your website accordingly. Another key factor before starting is to analyse how your local competitors behave: are their products/services similar to the ones you offer? Do they have additional features that may be useful to be more appealing to a certain country? These analyses are the starting point for an effective e-commerce SEO strategy.

3. Start from search engines 

Users’ search behaviour is influenced by several factors, the first and most important to consider in multilingual SEO are certainly the language and the country or region of origin. For an e-commerce website it is essential to know if a product or service is searched in the market of interest and if the search intent is the same or if it changes depending on the market. From multilingual keyword research you may realise that your products have a very low search volume in certain countries, instead you may find new ideas to win a foreign market.

4. Translate your e-commerce and customise your communication 

There are two mistakes to avoid when doing multilingual SEO for e-commerce websites: partially translating your website and poor superficial translations, which do not take into account cultural and linguistic differences among countries. If you want to sell overseas you need to customise your communication and create useful content according to the country you are targeting. Make sure that the content of your e-commerce is not the result of some automatic translation tools, think about your target audience, adapt your content to meet its needs and expectations, otherwise optimisation will make no sense.

Setting up an effective multilingual SEO strategy requires a deep analysis of the local market, digital expertise and international knowledge. If you have an e-commerce website and want to explore new opportunities in the digital world you can contact us - no strings attached!  

Ready to boost your e-commerce internationally?