Search engine optimization is already very complex in itself, and entering into the international domain adds even more challenges. However, with the right knowledge, you can effectively deal with these challenges and nurture favorable results for your website. In this blog post, we are sharing some common challenges with international SEO and how to solve them. Let’s get started!

Challenges related to language

There are various challenges related to language that you will encounter while implementing international SEO. Let's learn about them one by one:

Clone & Go

The most initial step to making your website global is by translating the content of your website. While it may sound simple, but that really is not the case. People think that creating an international website is just cloning a site for another marketing using a translator. Anyone new to this practice might fall for this misconception. These online translators may sound like a good deal, but they ignore grammatical, cultural and wording differences. If you still choose to go ahead with online translator, you might end up spending extra to fix in the future.

So, what is the right approach?

You should prioritize the language or countries that you want to target, and then start off with your Tier 1 markets/languages. This means you should not clean your website into numerous languages, but only for the regions you are targeting.

Translate Only Once

When creating a different version of your website, you surely would want to maximize your investment but don’t be tempted to create a bunch of different language sites targeting each and every country. Having these kinds of translations also adds unnecessary load to your servers and creates duplicate content and targeting issues.

What you can do is map the right language for each country so that you are maximizing your efforts correctly.

Choosing between popular and right

Most people concentrate on the keyword with the highest search volume when localizing a website. However, this will lead to poor translations in some cases because some words may be used differently in a different cultural context.

While targeting high search volume sounds logical, it is definitely not the best way for determining the most suitable word in a given content. More significant roles are played by cultural and linguistic nuances, especially with regard to translation between European and Asian languages, many of which have grammatically and culturally significant differences.

Thus, it would be ideal to hire native speakers or an agency in the same place because they are familiar with those variations; they would know exactly the right words that suit a target audience and give an expression of meaning similar to what one intends for the source material.

The local site is not optimized.

Website owners invest a lot initially while creating and optimizing their original website for multiple countries/languages. However, they generally tend to ignore the ongoing optimizations, which is a big mistake.

2. Geo-targeting challenges

Geo-targeting sends content or advertisements to the user according to their geographical location. Data such as IP addresses, GPS, or Wi-Fi signals can pinpoint the location of a user. Geo-targeting allows a business to tailor its marketing effort more precisely, delivering content, offers, or ads tailored to a region, a city, or even neighborhoods.

The restaurants chain may utilize geo-targeting to display a promotion available for a particular location but only to the users of the particular radius. Similarly, an online store may publish the content or the price for the local language, local currency, or regional preference.

It increases relevance and engagement by matching the context to the content that leads towards more effective marketing and enhanced conversion rates.

Geo targeting forms a great part of international SEO. However, many end up doing it all wrong just because of the following mistakes:

Language Tags Are Incorrect

Content is significant to your website, thus when carrying out international SEO, you have to ensure it is reaching the right market. If you only have a single version of a language that is, for example, the Spanish or English version your content will be too vague and reaches everyone. However if you target specific regions, or even countries, you have to ensure your content is set up in the right regions.

For example, a .co.uk domain is provided for the UK website, but a .com is universal and can be used by any country.

If you are a newbie in international SEO, you might ask why it's not good enough to simply use language tags such as "English" or "Spanish." The answer is that Google doesn't believe them because they're usually incorrect. Many tools for websites, particularly on WordPress, automatically set the wrong language or country code. Sometimes, these codes are even written incorrectly so it is not always safe to leave the system to do it for you.

Rank & GEO Reporting

Make sure that your rank reports ain't just depicting how many of your pages ranking on the first page or also if the right pages are ranking in specific market.

Faulty IP Detection

Incorrect IP detection occurs in international SEO whenever a wrong decision regarding the source of origin a user is made on a user's IP address by the website. This would eventually display a version that may show a different language or content which will definitely not be preferred by a user.

For example, a Canadian user may be directed to the US version of a website instead of the Canadian one. Such a mistake may infuriate users and degrade their experience, which in turn leads to higher bounce rates and lost global traffic opportunities.

What Causes Faulty IP Detection?

There are several reasons why IP detection may go wrong. Most causes of this error are caused by reliance on outdated or even inaccurate geolocation databases that map IP addresses to the physical location. Another common cause is the use of shared or dynamic IPs.

This means that several users can share the same IP address, and sometimes users using a VPN or proxy can confuse the system, making it believe they are in a different country. Websites that default to location detection without considering browser language settings can also cause this issue.

How to Fix Faulty IP Detection

To fix faulty IP detection, follow these steps:

1. Use current geolocation databases. Update them as necessary to ensure the database containing information about IP addresses remains current.

2. Use user selection to enable either a language version or region version of the site; this is especially better when compared to just IP-based detection. There should also be a clearly visible drop-down or menu allowing selection.

3. Use Hreflang Tags: The hreflang tags in the website's code will communicate to the search engines regarding the existence of different language and regional versions. This ensures that the right version of your site appears in the SERPs for users in that region.

4. Browser Language Settings: Remember the user's browser language preferences when using IP detection. This increases the likelihood that users will see content in a language they can read.

5. Monitor and Test Regularly: Regularly test your website with tools or services simulating visits from other countries to catch IP-related issues as soon as possible.

Fixing faulty IP detection improves the user experience, provides better engagement, and enhances the overall strength of an international SEO strategy.

Mixed Hreflang

If your website is targeting a different country or language, missing hreflang tags will confuse users and search engines because those tags tell them which version of the site to serve to which audience. Missing hreflang tags mean a French visitor may get the English version of your site or a person in Spain may end up on a version intended for people in Mexico.

That will frustrate your visitors so they can leave your site at their own convenience. Another issue that will arise between search engines and the different versions of your site that it might treat them like duplicate versions of your content. All this will ruin your rankings. In the long run, missing these tags can mean much fewer visits, sales, and lost chances of connecting to your international audience.

Why It Happens

One of the most frequent reasons for missed hreflang tags is that people simply do not know anything about them or how critical they are to international SEO. In a case in which someone tries to apply it mistakes start happening, such as leaving all different versions of one page and mixing target audiences between versions.

Sometimes, adding these tags can be difficult when using certain tools or platforms to build your website, especially if it has many pages or languages.

How to Fix It

Start by making a list of all the countries and languages that your site caters to. This might be an English version in the US and a Spanish version in Mexico. Make sure the search engines understand that this is different.

All versions of your site should link to each other, so search engines know they're all part of the same set of pages, just translated for different audiences.

In very large sites with many pages and variations by language, this can be more easily done if information is structured, for instance, by means of a sitemap.

Once you’ve set this up, use tools like Google Search Console to check if search engines are showing the right versions of your site to the right audience. Taking the time to do this helps improve your site’s visibility internationally and ensures your visitors get the best experience.

Duplicate Content

International SEO's enemy is duplicate content, which can confuse search engines, with Google being the most affected. Its challenge is usually the same or almost similar content across many pages or websites, where the search engine cannot determine which version to rank.

Visibility is then diluted along with rankings and traffic lost. Sometimes, search engines might even penalize a site if they suspect the duplication is intended to manipulate rankings. This issue becomes more prominent for international websites when targeting multiple regions or languages.

What Causes Duplicate Content in International SEO

It usually happens when businesses serve audiences from various regions of the world without making distinctions between regional or language-specific pages. For example, if the same content is used for pages targeting different countries, like US and UK, then it results in duplication.

How to Overcome Duplicate Content

To address duplicate content in international SEO, start by implementing hreflang tags correctly. These tags tell search engines which page is meant for which region or language, reducing confusion. Additionally, create unique content tailored to each region to reflect local preferences and cultural nuances.

If duplicate content is inevitable, use canonical tags to point search engines to the main version of a page. Another way to do this is proper URL structuring, such as separating the address of each language-for example, example.com/fr for the French version.

Avoid automatic redirects, though, because they might sometimes mislead search engines as they can redirect people according to location. Allow users hand-picking of language of choice or region of access from a menu.

Any duplicate content fix will overall improve ranking, user experience, and even more efficient delivery to the desired audience.

Conclusion

Businesses are now increasingly expanding their reach beyond domestic borders in an interconnected world. International SEO plays an integral role in helping businesses grasp global markets and gain significant mileage. So, by facing international SEO challenges effectively, businesses can unlock a wealth of opportunities and gain a competitive advantage.

Businesses can totally leverage the global markets by actively dealing with international SEO-related issues. That implies language, culture, currency, and search engines' local algorithms. International SEO strategy well invested will help businesses grow sustainably and gain long-term success. Without having the comprehensive knowledge of what challenges you might face and how to deal with them, your efforts might go all totally in vain.