How to improve SEO for global sales

Internet Retailing

21st Oct 2016

Australian online retail sales exceeded $20 billion for the first time earlier this year. While still a minority of overall retail sales, e-commerce spending is growing five times faster than tradition retail spending, according to NAB’s online retail sales index.

Tapping into the international consumer market is one way online retailers can increase their reach even further. Global cross-border e-commerce sales are expected to reach $424 billion by 2021, according to Forrester.

Jim Stewart, CEO of digital marketing firm StewArt Media is often asked how to leverage existing international web traffic. He suggests three simple steps to optimise SEO and increase international traffic to your website:

1. Leverage existing traffic
If you want to increase SEO rankings and website traffic, you can check which phrases are already doing well in other countries. This can be done with the Google Search Console. Clicking on Search Analytics will allow you to see the number of ‘clicks,’ ‘impressions,’ and your ‘position.’ From here, you can see where you rank comparatively.

2. Target your phrases
Look for phrases which relate to your organisation and compare them with Google trends. Once you’ve established which phrases you want to target in other countries, go back to your site and work out what needs to be changed in order to get those phrases ranked higher. In addition, if you have a blog with readership from other countries, consider talking about the customers that are using your product in those regions and how they feel about them.

3. Remove specific international targets
If you’re already getting sales from other countries but want to leverage that traffic, go to the Google Search Console and look for ‘international targeting.’ If your business runs on a Top-Level Domain (TLD), such as .net or .com, you can choose to target users from a specific country. However, if you’re looking to reach a larger international audience, you can choose to target no specific country. This will ensure that you’re not limiting your reach in audiences.