Mastering your own home country’s SEO is one thing, but to have an international SEO presence, you’ll need an entirely new strategy. It’s not enough to simply translate all your content into a different language – to have your website properly positioned in other languages, you’ll need new keywords and phrases, as well as a good understanding of foreign cultures.

If you’re trying to expand your business to the EU, here’s what you should know about European SEO practices.

What is International SEO, and how does it work?

Local SEO services focus on beating your domestic competition in Google searches – but it is not an indicator of how visible your website is on an international level. International SEO aims to create a strong brand presence on the Internet, gathering organic traffic from multiple countries.

European SEO, as the name suggests, aims to conquer SERP positions in major European countries. Google and other search engines match search results to the user’s geographical location and system language – a user from France might see a whole different set of search results than a user from the UK, even though they might be searching the exact same term.

By using SEO and quality content effectively, you can conquer more than one target region at a time – but how?

Differences in SEO across the European Union

Language is definitely the main difference between local SEO and European SEO. Your home country’s language won’t be enough, since if you want to reach foreign markets, you’ll also need alternative language versions of each page and article. However, you should NEVER directly translate your existing content!

Each country and region has its own SEO peculiarities. Different keywords and phrases are popular, and some which might have been powerful in your local SEO might end up absolutely useless for European SEO. When transforming content from English to other European languages, a lot of research is required to pinpoint effective phrases, in addition to a great knowledge of both the source and target language.

Conquer the EU market with a European SEO strategy

For online businesses, European SEO can be a powerful strategy for growing your online presence. More visits from foreign markets means a stronger international market presence and a wider customer base, leading to more conversions. With high-quality, engaging content written in a variety of languages by native speakers, you can not only increase your visibility, but also build brand identity in new markets.

European SEO is multilingual. No matter which markets you want to target, you’ll need a copywriter for each of them. With a European SEO agency like SmartWeb Group, you can have your articles and blog posts written for you by a professional native copywriter and published on high-authority websites that will be valuable assets in your link building strategy. If you want to conquer the European market, always go with reliable and trusted SEO and copywriting agencies.