How to Sell Internationally: Tips for Reaching a Global Market with Your Website

Are you looking to expand your business to the global market? Are you looking for a way to target an international audience with your website? If so, you’ve come to the right place. We’ve written this article specifically to guide businesses looking to expand their reach.

For some businesses, being successful in the local market may be enough. However, those with big dreams still want to introduce their brand to customers all over the world. But unfortunately, many owners and marketers struggle to sell internationally.

The reason why most of them fail to reach a global audience despite having a compelling website is their lack of knowledge about international marketing tactics. That’s what we’re going to teach you in this article. We’ll share with you some proven strategies to reach buyers from other countries using your website. So, without further ado, let’s get started.

Understand the global market first

Remember that entering the global market does not mean targeting every country in the world. Rather, it is about expanding your brand reach to international countries that have a demand for your products or services.

Therefore, before taking any further steps, first spend enough time studying the global market. Start by analyzing the markets of the countries that are most likely to have potential for your business.

You can also keep an eye on your local competitors’ work in other countries to study their international marketing strategies. When choosing locations, consider financial status, geographic proximity, competition, and other barriers. Prefer to target regions or countries that have fewer barriers.

Find local keywords for target countries

Once you have clearly defined the countries to target, the phase of researching local search terms relevant to your business begins. With a list of location-specific keywords, you can localize your website to get noticed by natives.

When researching keywords, focus on finding long-term search queries that people type into search engines. Initially, focus on informational and commercial keywords, as these will help your site reach users with both learning and purchasing intent.

Later, when your site has achieved a significant position in local searches, you can consider integrating transactional keywords. This will help you attract shoppers who want to make direct purchases from your brand. When choosing a keyword, make sure it offers less difficulty ranking for your product or service page.

Create personalized content for a global audience

Once you have established a list of local keywords, you can create engaging content to attract users from different countries. Keep in mind that creating content for an international audience is quite a different process. You need to consider different factors, such as cultural preferences and the level of understanding of each target country.

Keeping these considerations in mind, produce engaging and problem-solving content. Support your articles with proper research papers and also offer practical solutions to the readers. This will help you build a strong connection with international buyers.

In addition to focusing your content on your target audience, you also need to optimize it for different search engines. Optimizing your content will help your site appear in the top search results on different search engines, increasing its chances of attracting organic customers.

Make your site multilingual

Once you have enough content in stock, it’s time to make your site multilingual. A multilingual website allows you to communicate your brand message in users’ native language. It makes your offers easily accessible to them.

With information in their own language, they will be more likely to make purchases on your site. So make sure your site is able to translate content into the target countries’ languages. If your website is on a CMS like WordPress or Wix, you can easily find a multilingual option in its settings.

If your site is customized, you can integrate reliable TMS (Translation Management System) APIs to display the text in different languages. For the convenience of visitors, place a small language switcher button in the header section. You can also consider displaying flags to notify users that the content is available in their language.

Build a strong backlink profile in targeted countries

If your site already has enough backlinks in your home country, that’s great, but it’s not enough to rank internationally. In order for your site to appear in local searches in other countries, you need to build a strong backlink profile there.

For example, if your site has authoritative links in Germany, the weight of these links may be lower in the US. As a result, your site may struggle to rank high in search results. That’s why you need to earn quality backlinks in the local market.

To do this, two strategies can be of great help to you: first, creating shareable content, and second, developing digital PR. Collaborate with relevant sites and ask them to promote your brand on their platform with a link to your site. This will significantly increase the authority of your site and allow it to succeed in local searches.

Using a Content Delivery Network

Imagine if every element of your site is fully optimized for international SEO, but when a user accesses it, it doesn’t load instantly. Wondering how? Well, when your site is accessed from different locations, its speed depends on its distance from the server.

When someone located far away from your main server opens your site, the server struggles to load the web page quickly. This is where the Content Delivery Network (CDN) comes to your rescue. It allows you to distribute your content across different servers around the world.

So, when a user from your target country accesses your website, the closest server will speed up the loading of the site. This prevents your business from losing potential international customers.

The last words

In short, you can’t sell internationally without having a clear plan of what you need to do and how to do it. With a strategic approach, you can easily make a mark in the global market. The practices mentioned above will help you do this effectively.

From choosing target locations to ensuring fast content distribution to multiple audiences, we have discussed everything in detail. We hope you understand these strategies well and apply them to reach customers worldwide.