Using SEO to drive traffic from Western European countries to your website

Suppose you need to draw traffic to a website selling industrial goods and want to attract audiences from Western European countries like France, Germany and Spain. How do you do it? Read this step-by-step guide and find out.

The first phase is crafting a plan.

1. Internal optimization

Building a semantic core

1. Work out a list of goods that are in demand locally.
2. Develop keywords based on your list and use Google Ads to confirm the volume.
3. Study your competitors using Google search. Don’t forget to check which keywords are helping their websites rank higher in the search results list.
4. Cluster the keywords to see which pages match user queries and what other pages you need to create. We recommend using the following table template.

Localizing the semantic core

1. Find out how users in your target GEO search for specific services and goods.
2. Contact your client representatives who are familiar with the dynamics of local demand and can suggest synonyms and GEO-specific words or consult you on any language peculiarities.
3. Contact local experts to build a keyword base. Freelancing platforms like Upwork are good for this, but make sure to provide a test task to check whether candidates will be able to perform their duties as needed.

A native speaker can help you choose the best keywords in a local language for your landing page based on the original, English-language keyword list. This way, keywords are selected according to how local users search for goods and services. Involving a native speaker in the semantic core building process is key to effective SEO.

Developing meta tags in local languages for an effective Google search

1. Create a technical task for a local language expert you are considering hiring. SEO experience isn’t necessary if the expert will only be working with title and description tags.

Guide
TITLE AND DESCRIPTION

Title

— The title must contain a keyword.
— The keyword must be placed as close as possible to the beginning of the tag.
— The title length must be approx. 80 characters including spaces.
— Each page must be unique.
— Place the company name at the end of the title.
— To divide parts of the title, use the en dash ( “–”, not “-” or “|”).

Meta description

— The description must also contain a keyword, but using the main keyword is not obligatory, unlike the title. You can use any keyword from the list.
— The length of the description must not exceed 200 characters.
— The description should be catchy and motivate users to visit your website.

Check Google’s recommendations for creating a perfect title and description for your website.

Text localization

There are two approaches for localizing text:

1. Hire local copywriters and write a technical task from scratch based on your keywords. This solution requires significant time and resources.
2. Translate your texts into GEO languages and ask local copywriters to sprinkle keywords across the translated texts. The final product must be readable, with keywords that truly belong in the text. This step takes less time if your texts are in English.

2. SEO for Google Search: Technical aspects

1. Make sure your website property is added to Google Search Console. This will help you learn more about how Google indexes your website.
2. Add Google Analytics Counter to your website and link it to the Google Search Console.
3. Make sure to configure the Robots.txt file correctly. You must be able to access all necessary sections. All unnecessary sections must be kept out of indexing. Check these instructions from Google for using Robot.txt.
4. Keep test domains and subdomains, if any, out of Robots.txt indexing as well.
5. Index your pagination pages. Make sure to specify a canonical with a link to the first page for all pages, starting from the second page.
6. Confirm there are no technical duplicates of the main page, for example, /index.php or /index.html.
7. Make a htaccess rule to avoid duplicates with multiple slashes.
8. Check the HTTPS connection:

— There must be no links to HTTP resources.
— Use 301 redirects to move all website pages from HTTP to HTTPS.

9. Your website must not have any mirrors merged with other domains. If there are such mirrors, use 301 redirects to fix this.

10. Make sure mirrors with “WWW” and without “WWW” are merged correctly (use 301 redirects to migrate from one mirror to another).

11. If a page can be accessed via two or more URLs, specify canonicals with the primary URL for duplicate pages.

12. Make sure your URL uses lowercase symbols and contains the Latin alphabet only. Examples:

— site/catalog/test-seo — correct
— site/CaTaloG/TesT-sEO — incorrect
— site/каталог/тест-сео — incorrect

13. Make sure the Sitemap.xml file is forming correctly and updated regularly. Check these instructions from Google for building and submitting a sitemap.

14. You can use PageSpeed Insights to check if the site’s loading speed is close to the green zone or has a score of 90–100.

15. Optimize the images used on the website. If their file sizes are too big, compress them.

16. All downloadable images and documents must be indexed (JPG, JPEG, GIF, PNG, WEBP, PDF, DOC, DOCX, XLS, XLSX, TTF, WOFF, EOT).

17. Adjust your website content for mobile devices.

18. Check that there are no 404 errors on your site by running a mass check for external links.

19. Make sure that any 404 error pages show the error code. The page must provide a “Home page” button, and can be designed in the same style as the website.

20. There must be no pages with 4XX or 5XX codes.

21. All critical HTML markup errors must be fixed. Use a validator to check your markup.

22. Your website must use a breadcrumb scheme.

23. Use micro-markup. The Open Graph protocol is one of the most effective ways to optimize a semantic markup and drive new audiences from social media to your website. What’s more, micro-markup allows search engine robots to identify the available information types on the site and structure the data for social media.

3. Optimization for a specific GEO

1. Set up a region of your website in the Google Search Console. Indicate that the main office is located in Germany, Spain or France, depending on the target GEO.
2. Create a profile on Google My Business.
3. Add office addresses to catalogs, address books and maps.
4. Set up a contact micro-markup on the “Contact us” page, website header and website footer. Check if the page supports rich results here.
5. Make sure the “Contact us” page indicates the local address, phone number and email. Add an interactive map showing how to get to the office, if possible.
6. Don’t forget to specify the company’s legal information.

4. Link building

Backlinks are essential to building a strong online presence and improving search engine rankings. While there are various techniques to acquire backlinks, natural link-building is highly valued by search engines and can lead to long-term success.

Here are some key points to consider when link-building to promote your site in EU countries such as France, Spain and Germany.

First, you need to assess the quality of a site’s backlinks.

The Links Report section in Google Webmaster Tools is an excellent place to begin investigating your site’s inbound links. It provides valuable insights into the number of links directing to your site. Additionally, you can utilize tools such as Ahrefs, Moz, SEMrush or Majestic to conduct a comprehensive backlink audit. These tools offer in-depth analysis and metrics related to your site’s backlink profile.

It’s crucial to prioritize identifying poor links and take proactive steps to either remove them or have them marked as “nofollow”. Start by thoroughly assessing your backlink profile to identify unnatural or low-quality links. Once identified, have these links removed by utilizing the Disavow Links tool, which allows you to disassociate your site from those backlinks.

When using the Disavow Links tool, it’s recommended to use a domain-wide operator for sites with complex URL structures or obvious spam sites, such as those featuring gibberish content or displaying text of low editorial quality. By disavowing the entire domain, you can efficiently address the issue at a broader level.

For further guidance and insights on effectively utilizing the disavow tool, we encourage you to watch Google’s video on mistakes to avoid. This video provides valuable information and strategies to ensure the optimal use of the disavow tool in managing unnatural backlinks.

Create high-quality, link-worthy content

The foundation of acquiring backlinks is naturally to create valuable and engaging content that others would want to link to. Focus on producing well-researched articles, blog posts, infographics or videos that either provide unique insights and actionable tips or solve common problems in your industry. Quality content naturally attracts backlinks from other websites seeking to reference and share valuable resources.

Guest blog on reputable websites

Find reputable websites that accept guest contributions and have a solid online presence. When writing guest posts, ensure that you provide valuable information and include a relevant link back to your website in the author bio or within the content itself. This approach helps establish your authority and generates natural backlinks from trusted sources.

Engage in influencer outreach

Identify influential individuals or opinion leaders in your industry and establish a genuine connection with them. Engage with their content, share their articles and provide insightful comments. Building relationships with influencers can lead to opportunities for collaboration, such as guest blogging, interviews or co-creating content. These collaborations often result in organic backlinks, as influencers tend to promote and share the content they are involved in.

Leverage social media platforms

Social media platforms are not only great for promoting your content but can also be effective for acquiring backlinks. Share high-quality content on platforms like X, LinkedIn and Facebook, and engage with your audience. When your content strikes a chord with individuals, it’s more likely to be shared across websites, blogs or social media profiles. As a result, this organic resonance can generate natural backlinks as others find value in your content and voluntarily link to it.

Participate in industry forums and communities

Engage in online forums and communities relevant to your industry or niche. Contribute meaningful insights, answer questions and provide helpful resources to establish yourself as an authority in the field. Whenever the opportunity arises — and it’s relevant to the ongoing discussion — consider incorporating a link to your website within the conversation or in your forum signature. By including a link in this manner, you can provide additional information or resources to other forum users, enabling them to navigate your website easily if they find it valuable.

For more information on how to acquire organic backlinks, check this article.

SEO specialist Ekaterina Kutsova, Link-building specialist Anzhela Arakelyan