How to rank website in specific country in 2023

How to rank website in specific country
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Ranking a website in a specific country is no easy task.

There are variations in how websites are ranked, making it even more important to have a comprehensive understanding of how Google works.

International WordPress SEO strategies are useful for those websites who want to rank website in specific country outside theirs.

The process of internationalization of a website and overall a business requires a proper understanding of both, the international market, and the international digital marketing strategies.

Following up we share some tips that can help you along your process of ranking your website in a specific country.

1. Analyze your current Website status

Are you using a general domain already such as a .com, .net, .org, or are you planning to use a country code level domain?

This is probably one of the questions that should be done before deciding to buy a website.

And it is quite normal to not ask this question at the beginning if internationalization is not the first objective.

So what if I already have bought several domains with the specific country code level domains? 

Then this approach requires a higher level of organization, and also needs more resources.

Resources in terms of time to be able to manage multiple sites, a team who can support the website building process, resources for content creation and link building.

We have examples of websites that are country specific oriented such as Amazon.

If we analyze Amazon, we can see that they have multiple domains with specific country code level domains. There is amazon.com for the USA, amazon.de for Germany, amazon.com.mx for Mexico and so on.

This can be thought to be one of the best implemented International SEO strategies, but of course, it requires a top level of a digital marketing team.

What is an alternative to this type of strategy? Then, the use of subfolders.

Websites that use subfolders for the content in different languages concentrate everything in one main domain.

This type of strategy requires less website management work, and still can help to aim to rank for a specific country.

One great example of a huge International SEO work is from Canva, the online design app.

If we analyze their languages and subfolder structure, we can see how they are implementing the language codes with the locale codes, targeting this a specific country.  

This is another great alternative to rank website in specific country, if the use of multiple domains is not an option.

2. Analyze which is the target country you want to rank for in search engines

Ranking a website in a specific country is a complex task that can be done with the help of a few different tools.

You must also consider the size of your audience, the language of your website, and the country’s search engine market share.

The first step is to find out what the dominant search engines are in that country.

Once you have a list of the top search engines, you can use a tool like SERPScan to see how your website is performing on those engines.

You can also use a tool like Google Trends to see how often your keyword is being searched for.

You can also use a tool like Ahrefs, SEMrush, Writerzen to see which keyword rank and which are driving the most website traffic.

You can also use Google Analytics to track how people are interacting with your website.

To rank a website in a specific country, you will need to gather data about the country’s demographics, search engine trends, and website ranking factors.

Once you have this information, you can use it to create a targeted campaign to improve your website’s ranking.

3. Use a Translation Plugin

WordPress translation plugins provide a way for you to easily translate your website into different languages.

When you install a translation plugin, it will add a new tab to your WordPress admin area.

This tab will allow you to manage your translations and add new translations.

You can also use the translation plugin to automatically translate certain phrases or entire pages.

A WordPress translation plugin can help your website be more internationalized.

It allows you to translate your website into different languages, and it also helps you to add localization to your website.

This means that your website will be accessible to a wider audience, and it will be easier for people to find the information they are looking for.

A WordPress translation plugin is a great way to make your website more user-friendly.

If you are using some other platforms like Shopify, Wix, Bigcommerce, Squarespace, the process can be quite similar as recently most of the plugins are fulfilling the requirements for International SEO.

Some of the most popular translation plugins are WPML, Weglot, Conveythis and Translatpress.

The advantage of using such plugins is that they will support your website automatically for International SEO, as they can help to translate the MetaData, add the Hreflangs, create the proper links for Sitemaps, set the subfolders, and of course do the automatic machine translation for websites.

4. Add your Website Sitemap to Google Search Console, Bing Webmasters, Yandex or Baidu.

To rank a website in a specific country, you will need to get the domain name or the country’s domain name.

Once you have these, and your website with the translated content with their respective language links, you can use a tool like Google Search Console to add your sitemap.

Adding your website sitemap to Google Search Console, Bing Webmasters, Yandex or Baidu will help search engines crawl your website more effectively and index your pages better.

Google is by far the most used search engine worldwide, therefore adding your sitemap to the Search Console is helpful to start ranking internationally.

It used to be needed to do the Search Console International Targeting by selecting the specific country you want to rank for, but as Google is improving and renewing its platform, this area is still with the design of the older version of the Search Console.

You can find the Search Console International Targeting first by going to the Legacy Tools and Reports tab, and then click on International Targeting.

Search Console Legacy Tools and Reports
Search Console International Targeting

Here, Search Console will show you the targeting by language or by country.

Is it required to check the Search Console International Targeting to rank website in specific country? Not necessarily, but certainly it will help for only one country.

But if you are aiming for two countries or more, then it would be better to leave it unchecked.

But don’t forget some other search engines web directories, although they might be less known or used by you.

Microsoft Bing is still a search engine being used worldwide, and can help you to rank in your target country and gain website traffic.

If Russia is your target country, then you must consider Yandex, as it is the most popular search engine used.

Baidu is the search engine used in China, and if you want to add your website to their search console, then you might also seek out a Chinese telephone number, which is needed to register.

These search engines web directories can certainly help if those are your country specific regions.

5. Check your Hreflangs and Country Locale Codes

Hreflang tags are a type of meta tag that help you determine the language of a page.

They’re also used to help determine the country or region of a website’s visitors.

When a browser sees a hreflang tag, it looks for an appropriate language file (usually in the same directory as the HTML document) and uses that to display the page in that language.

If you are using WordPress, Shopify, Bigcommerce, Wix, Joomla, don’t worry about the coding that you have to do.

As mentioned, the plugins such as WPML or Weglot can help automatically to add the Hreflangs.

As well, the Locale Codes will define exactly which country you are targeting.

For example, the code “es_ES” is targeting Spanish from Spain, while “es_MX” is targeting Spanish from Mexico.

Here you can find the list of Country Locale Codes

6. Create content localized for your targeted country

SEO localization content is any content that is specifically written or created for a localized audience.

This could mean anything from blog posts that are tailored to the language of a country, to videos that are specifically designed to be viewed in that country.

By creating localized content, you can help your website rank higher in search engine results for those specific countries.

You can localize by adding the names of cities, regions and of the country.

This can help you attract new customers and increase your website’s visibility.

SEO localization content is content that is written in a specific language to help improve the ranking of a website for a specific region.

This type of content can be written by a team of writers, or it can be written by an individual who is knowledgeable about the region.

It is important to note that not all SEO localization content is created equal.

There are different types of SEO localization content, and each one has its own benefits and drawbacks.

This type of content can be in the form of blog posts, articles, or even videos.

By writing in a country specific local language, you’re making sure that your content is easily found and understood by potential customers in that region.

This can help you rank higher in search engine results for relevant keywords, which can lead to increased traffic and conversion rates in your target country.

7. International Country Specific Link Building

Link building is the process of acquiring links from high-quality websites in order to improve your website’s visibility and rank.

The more links your website has from high-quality sites, the higher up in search engine results it will appear.

Link building can be done through guest posts or gained organically by the high quality content that you create.

It is an essential part of any SEO campaign, as it allows a website to rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs).

Link building can also help a website attract new visitors, as well as convert more leads into customers.

When it comes to International SEO of a specific country, then it is required to gain backlinks from specific locations and that those links have the proper anchor text.

Checking search engine rankings regularly will give you a notice of how well your site is developing in the given country, and in order to remain or improve your rankings, gaining country specific backlinks will support your strategy.

Guest posts are a great way to gain backlinks from specific countries.

8. Use a CDN

As your website might be hosted in your country or near you, and the target country is far from you, then to reduce latency it would be recommended to use a CDN.

A Content Delivery Network (CDN) is a network of servers located around the world that caches and distributes web content for a website.

This speeds up the delivery of pages to the user’s browser, reducing the time it takes to load the page. By caching the pages, the CDN can also reduce the load on the website’s server.

In addition, a CDN can help to deliver the correct version of the page to the user, even if the website is experiencing high traffic.

Cloudflare is one of the most popular CDN available since it has a free plan that can help you to jump start with the distribution of your content internationally.

Cloudflare Argo and Cloudflare APO are recommended so that a cache is created that can deliver the target website to the targeted country faster.

Proof of results of our International SEO Strategy

As our Website relaunched in late 2020, we have focused on creating content, building backlinks and focusing on an International SEO strategy.

We are working on ranking internationally, not only to a specific country, but as far as we have gone, we are gaining positions worldwide.

We highly recommend an International SEO strategy for those website owners who are aiming to rank in specific locations according to their business goals.

International SEO takes time, but doing it properly can make your website grow.

FAQs

Ranking a website on Google is the first step in international SEO. However, there are other factors you should take into account when ranking your website in other countries.

  1. Analyze your current Website status
  2. Analyze which is the target country you want to rank for in search engines
  3. Use a Translation Plugin
  4. Add your Website Sitemap to Google Search Console, Bing Webmasters, Yandex or Baidu.
  5. Check your Hreflangs and Country Locale Codes
  6. Create content localized for your targeted country
  7. International Country Specific Link Building
  8. Use a CDN

Ranking a website in another country can be tricky. You need to make sure that your website is optimized for that particular country. Additionally, you will need to understand the search engine algorithms used in that country. You can use a tool like Google Trends to see how often a particular keyword is being searched for. Once you have determined the keywords that are important to your target market, you can start optimizing your website for those keywords.

There is no one answer to this question since it will vary depending on the specific needs of your business. However, some tips on how to rank a website in another country might include optimizing your website for local search engines, using local keywords in your website’s title and Meta Description, and creating local versions of your website’s pages. Additionally, you may want to consider hiring a localization expert to help you with this process.

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