One of the most important steps in content creation is keyword research. This helps you understand your target audience and what they are searching for. You can then align your content creation to their needs. When you use the keywords they are using to search for products and services in your niche, you can rank higher on the search engines, attract more traffic and create an online brand.
If you are targeting a global market, you should do keyword research for this international audience. Otherwise, if you rely on the same seo strategy you use for your local audience, you will fail in your SEO goals. This article will look at how best to do keyword research for the international market.
What is International Keyword Research?
This is the process of identifying keywords in foreign languages and optimizing your site for them. For instance, if you have a site in English and would like to target the German market, you will need to identify keywords in German that you can optimize your site for.
The process of finding international keywords is the same as that of the local market. Basically, you want to identify the keywords your audience in that market is using. However, you must avoid translating your current keywords into a foreign language, as this will not work.
Comprehensive international keyword research involves localizing the identified keywords and ensuring they are viable for their target market. Unless you do this, it will be hard to rank for international keywords.
Identify Keywords
The first step towards optimizing your site for the international audience is finding the target keywords. In this step, you will do it in the same way you do local keyword research. Some of the parameters you can use to identify the keywords to target are:
- Search volumes. You will want to know the number of people searching for that particular keyword in a month.
- Keyword difficulty. This measures how hard it is to rank for that keyword.
- Search intent. You will want to find out why people are searching for that keyword. If your goal is to make sales, you should target money keywords.
Translate the Keyword
The reason you are translating a keyword isn’t to use it the way it is but as a starting point for researching your keywords further. It will give a rough idea of the seed words you can use for your detailed keyword research. While you can do the translation manually, there are also tools that can help you with the translation.
Localize Your International Keyword Research
As we noted earlier, translating a keyword will not capture local and societal nuances. You will not accurately capture how your target market uses that keyword. For instance, in the UK English, a supermarket is a place to buy groceries. In the U.S, it’s common for a person to say they are going to the grocery store.
Therefore, you must ensure each keyword is localized for the locale. This involves adapting the keyword to the local context.
Dig Deeper Into Your Localized Keywords
After localizing your keywords, you will realize they look different from what you translated. Therefore, research them further to determine their viability for your local audience. For instance, if the search volume for one of the localized keywords is low, you can change it to another.
You should put the keywords in a keyword research tool to determine if these are best suited for your audience. Find out if the search intent aligns with your content creation goal. Are people using the keywords to get certain information if they want to purchase a product?
Partner With An International Marketing Specialist
It can get hard to keep finding new keywords for your international audience. Whenever you want to create content, you must follow the above steps. The same applies to every market you want to target.
This is why you may want to work with an international seo agency or a freelancer SEO specialist to help with your keyword research and localization. They will help you find the numerous keywords to target in different markets.
Pitfalls To Avoid In International Keyword Research
Here are some of the common mistakes that people make when researching international keywords:
Using Directly Translated Keywords
While translating your keywords is a good start, direct translation isn’t always accurate. Some words out there do not have an exact equivalent, or they may not have an equivalent meaning. So, using such keywords will not work.
Looking at The Search Volumes Only
A keyword with a high search volume is a good choice for identifying the keywords worth targeting. However, some keywords may have high competition and may not be worth targeting.
Not Doing Keyword Research Regularly
What people search for isn’t necessarily what they will be searching for in the future. Regular changes will occur due to changes in culture, tastes, and new languages. Therefore, you will need to keep doing keyword research. You will need to understand the change in search trends in the location and change your strategy to reflect this.
Final Thoughts
Investing in international SEO can help you gain a competitive edge over your competitors. It can help your content reach new audiences and get traffic from international sources. However, you should be careful not just to translate the keywords from free research tools. Instead, you should ensure that your phrases are localized for the search engines. Use this guide to do your keyword research and uncover highly competitive keywords.
