10 SEO best practices: Boost organic traffic on a global scale

Search engine optimization (SEO) is crucial for connecting businesses to customers. Without a solid SEO strategy, even the most innovative brands can struggle to gain traction in new markets.

As artificial intelligence (AI) and search engine algorithms evolve, they place increasing value on page relevance, credibility, and a positive user experience. Businesses must act to improve their organic traffic and stay ahead of the competition.

This guide will explore SEO best practices to help your business maximize its global reach.

10 search engine optimization tips: Maximizing organic traffic for global success

Market expansion brings new and exciting opportunities, but only if businesses ensure new customers can find them online. Without a strong strategy for search engine optimization, even the best products and services will go unnoticed.

The following best practices will guide your organization toward global SEO success:

1. Create relevant content

High-quality, relevant content is the foundation of any successful SEO strategy. Although search engine algorithms consider many factors, they’re ultimately trying to rank content based on its usefulness to searchers.

Google encourages businesses to publish “people-first content” that matches search intent rather than trying primarily to please search engines. Topics should be focused and relevant to the audience. If visitors to your site don’t find the information they seek—or if the material feels unprofessional—they’ll leave quickly, and your ranking will suffer.

Content creation is difficult enough when writing for a familiar audience, but globally minded businesses must generate equally compelling materials for multiple languages and markets. AI translation can be a powerful tool for SEO. Smartling’s AI translation solutions make it easy to produce cost-effective global content at scale.

2. Find keywords with search potential

Keyword research is another crucial facet of SEO. To create content that addresses readers’ search intent, you must first understand what they’re searching for.

Popular tools like SEMrush, Ahrefs, and Google Keyword Planner help identify high-value keywords with significant search volume. Focusing content on clusters of related keywords will improve your rankings in search engine results pages (SERPs) and drive organic traffic.

3. Use your primary keyword effectively

Your target keyword should appear throughout relevant content in the page title, headings, and body text. However, the text must maintain a natural flow that avoids keyword stuffing, as this can cause readers to view your content as poorly written or inauthentic.

Here are some important areas to include primary SEO keywords:

• Title tag
• URL slug
• Primary and secondary headings
• First 100 words of content
• Image alt text

Smartling’s marketing translation software and services help businesses optimize their content for multiple global markets without sacrificing quality or budget. Marketing teams that leverage Smartling’s tools can reduce the cost of lead acquisition and deliver polished, on-brand, multilingual campaigns worldwide.

4. Optimize page titles and descriptions

A page’s title and meta description are the first things readers see when your website appears in search results. These elements are crucial for boosting click-through rates (CTR) and, by extension, search engine rankings.

Page titles and meta descriptions must be clear and compelling to catch readers’ eyes, and they should incorporate your target keyword. Images need keyword-rich file names and alt text.

5. Enhance site speed and mobile optimization

Page speed and mobile-friendly design are key ranking factors. A slow-loading website can result in high bounce rates and poor user experience.

Your website’s performance on mobile devices is particularly crucial, as far more searches come from phones and tablets than desktop computers. Google even ranks websites based on their mobile performance and content (an approach called mobile-first indexing). You can use tools like Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test to evaluate and optimize your site’s usability.

6. Leverage internal links

Content with links to blog posts and other pages on your website will perform better in search engine rankings and boost your entire domain’s authority. Internal links help both search engines and users understand the site’s structure and find related content. They also tend to keep visitors on your site for longer—another positive factor for SEO.

As a bonus, strategically placed internal links with keyword-rich anchor text can drive traffic to underperforming pages on your organization’s website, boosting their perceived relevance and SEO ranking.

7. Build high-quality backlinks

Backlinks were the foundation of Google’s original PageRank algorithm and are still incredibly relevant today. Links from authoritative sources tell search engines that your website is trustworthy. Think of them as votes of confidence in your page’s quality and relevance.

You can earn valuable backlinks by building partnerships with established, relevant websites and influencers—and, of course, by creating high-quality content that people naturally want to link to.

8. Cater to voice search

Many searchers now use voice assistants, like Apple’s Siri or Amazon’s Alexa, to find information online. Content that focuses on long-tail keywords and concise, direct answers to common questions will typically see enhanced visibility in voice search results.

Here are a few key tips for voice search optimization:

• Use natural, conversational language in content
• Answer common questions using structured FAQ sections
• Implement schema markup, a type of code that helps search engines understand content
• Target local SEO by including location-based keywords
  
  

9. Improve technical SEO

A strong technical foundation is critical for your website’s long-term SEO success. You might have the greatest content in the world, but your website won’t rank if search engines can’t locate it.

Technical SEO makes your website easier for search engines to find and understand. Elements like structured data, canonical tags, and XML sitemaps help them efficiently crawl and index your content. SEO professionals also recommend addressing page speed issues, fixing broken links, and avoiding duplicate content.

10. Monitor performance and adapt

SEO is an ongoing process that requires continuous monitoring and adjustment. Businesses should use analytics tools to fine-tune the user experience, strengthen content, and fix technical issues.

Key performance indicators (KPIs) for SEO include the following:

• Organic traffic growth
• Keyword rankings
• Bounce rates and dwell time
• Conversion rates from organic search
• Backlink profile and domain authority

Search trends change over time, and search engines frequently update their algorithms. These shifts can impact your website’s visibility without warning. Monitoring SEO changes helps businesses react and adapt to maintain strong SERP performance.

Frequently asked questions

What are the three main areas of SEO?

A typical SEO strategy has three primary areas of focus:

• On-page SEO (content): Your content is what your readers see and interact with, and it plays a significant role in how search engines rank pages. On-page SEO focuses on crafting high-quality, engaging content with relevant keywords. It also involves fine-tuning title tags and meta descriptions to improve search engine visibility.
• Off-page SEO (backlinks): When credible websites link to your own, it sends positive signals to search engines about your site’s authority and trustworthiness. Off-page SEO aims to build and promote share-worthy content to earn backlinks from other reputable sites.
• Technical SEO: If your website is slow or otherwise hard to use—particularly on mobile devices—readers will reach for the back button, and your ranking will fall. Technical SEO implements performance optimization and structured data to help search engines crawl your website and understand the context of your content.

What is the golden rule of SEO?

The golden rule of SEO is simple: Create content that provides value to your audience. Search engines like Google aim to deliver relevant information and a positive browsing experience. When your content meets readers’ needs, it’s more likely to rank higher in search engine results.

What is an SEO content strategy?

An SEO content strategy is a plan for creating, optimizing, and distributing content that improves your search rankings and organic traffic. It involves more than simply targeting the proper keywords and phrases. Businesses must develop content that readers find valuable and trustworthy to keep them on the website and earn them as customers. SEO is an ongoing process that requires continuous updates to respond to user behavior and align with algorithm changes.

Is it worth paying for SEO optimization?

Investing in SEO optimization services can yield long-term benefits that are well worth the initial expense. This is particularly true when businesses expand into global markets, where different cultural nuances guide search behavior and keyword research. Professional services specializing in SEO for international markets will increase your organic traffic and brand visibility, generating new leads to deliver sustainable growth.

Level up your SEO strategy and unlock global expansion with Smartling

Implementing best practices for SEO on your website helps your international business climb search results and garner sustainable, organic traffic. By optimizing on-page elements, improving technical performance, and cultivating authoritative backlinks, you can enhance your search rankings and provide a better user experience across global markets.

Smartling’s translation management system helps international businesses manage multilingual search engine optimization strategies through a cloud-based platform that provides unparalleled efficiency, consistency, and scaling.

Take your global SEO strategy to the next level by grabbing a free copy of “The Ultimate Guide to Translating Your Marketing Materials.” This eBook provides essential insights into why translation and localization matter. It also shows you how to get started across various content types.