Mastering SEO Localisation: Tips and Best Practices

SEO localisation has become an essential strategy for online businesses aiming to reach new audiences and thrive in international markets. 

When executed correctly, it goes beyond simply translating website copy word for word: it involves adapting your entire digital presence to resonate with local cultures, customs and consumer behaviors. 

From optimising keywords to reflect how native speakers actually search, to tailoring your brand messaging, SEO localisation ensures that content feels natural in a new cultural context. It helps brands stand out in competitive global landscapes.

In this article, we’ll explore the specific benefits of localising your content strategically, such as building stronger customer trust, boosting search engine rankings in your target regions and driving higher conversion rates. 

What is SEO Localisation?

SEO localisation means adapting your website copy and search engine optimisation (SEO) for your online visitors according to their local country and local language. 

Perhaps you have physical businesses or a chain in multiple countries. Or you have an e-commerce business and you’ve noticed a lot of website traffic and customers coming from outside your domestic market. 

In both cases, you will need to tailor your website so it appeals to your target audience in their native language, taking their culture and online behaviour into consideration. 

Let’s say you have an online toy shop based in the UK. Over time, you begin to receive many orders from the US, Germany and the UAE. In order to  appeal to customers from these regions, you decide to use SEO localisation by:

• Adding translations of your website in American English, German and Arabic. 
• Making sure the translations reflect the local way of speaking in the other countries.
• Using localised language for SEO, such as meta titles, meta descriptions, alt image text, title tags and external links.
• Using SEO keywords unique to each customer’s region.
• Changing currencies depending on a customer’s region.
• Changing imagery depending on a customer’s region.

The Importance of Localising Your Website 

Localising your website is similar to hosting guests at your home. 

You want your guests to feel comfortable and at ease. To impress your guests, you might speak to them in their native tongue, adapt meal times to the times they are used to eating, try cooking some of their local dishes and ensure that they have the things they need to enjoy their stay.

For example, when I booked a bed and breakfast in Sardinia, the host asked where I was from before my visit. When I arrived, she had stocked the kitchen with English breakfast tea, milk for cereal, tea and coffee, local biscuits, bathroom toiletries and a heat fan. 

These small, personalised touches made a big impact and were very much appreciated. They also prompted me to leave a positive review.

It works in the same way with online businesses. Audiences from different geographical regions will be far more engaged if you use SEO localisation, simply because the content is more familiar to them.

That’s not all. Localising your website is also beneficial for:

1. Better organic traffic 
2. Better user experience
3. Better customer trust
4. Better conversions
5. Better reach in international markets

People relate to content that’s geographically, culturally and linguistically relevant to their region. This is something you don’t want to overlook as part of your international content marketing strategy. 

Plus, SEO localisation techniques can help improve search rankings  in other countries where you might be looking to expand your market. 

Believe me, it’s worth the effort, and your audience (and business) will thank you.

SEO Localisation vs. Translation: Key Differences

Translation is directly translating content from one language into another. As it doesn’t account for local search behaviours online, it’s not useful for SEO in another country. Its primary goal is to help the audience understand the website content on a basic level. 

SEO localisation, on the other hand, considers many more aspects that would be useful to online visitors. As a result, customers relate better to the content, stay on a website for longer and have a higher chance of converting. 

For example, some websites have promotional banners that include text inside an image, with a discount or offer. 

With translation, the images aren’t considered. But with SEO localisation, each country gets its own banner, with text in the relevant language. 

We can see this with an online pet shop based in Spain. They have a translation of the menu, headings and copy from Spanish into English, but their promotional banners stay in Spanish. 

Benefits of SEO Localisation

Is it worth setting up an SEO localisation campaign for your online business? Let’s look at the benefits of SEO localisation.

Increased Visibility in Local Search Results

SEO localisation improves search rankings for specific countries, by conducting keyword research to identify trending keywords in the relevant language. 

For example, say you had an online candle business in the UK and wanted to expand into France. You might decide to translate your website into French. But now that the language has changed, your English SEO strategy won’t work. 

To see what French consumers search for on Google when buying candles online, you’ll need to do keyword research in the French market.

But how does this benefit your candle business? Using keywords for French consumers will rank your website on Google.fr and increase the volume of traffic to your online shop. More website visitors mean more chances for customer orders.

Enhanced User Experience for Diverse Audiences

User experience refers to how much a visitor to your website enjoys searching, browsing, purchasing and looking for information. 

Is it easy to find the products? Is it easy to find information such as the returns policy, exchanges and faulty goods? Is your website well-built, fast to load and visually attractive?

These are all things that you’ll need to consider to create a site that really works for your intended audience. 

Customers will enjoy using a site far more if it’s in their native language, of course. But much more goes into a great user experience than language alone.  

Take this online furniture shop, for example. The business is based in Canada and it wants to sell in the US and the UK. Since they all speak English, the company might think there’s no need to localise the websites for each region.

But this would be a big mistake. Although similar in terms of language, British, American and Canadian English all have their own ways of using words, with specific slang and colloquialisms that don’t translate. They also use grammar differently.  In Canada, a couch is sometimes called a Chesterfield. But it is always called a couch in the US, and a sofa in the UK. 

Consider the delivery information, offers and promotions for each country, the currencies you display and the tone of the website copy. While North Americans are used to heavy sales pitches, Canadians aren’t, and neither are British customers. 

Boosted Conversion Rates Through Targeted Content

Providing a better user experience via content that’s carefully targeted for different regions will equate to higher conversion rates. 

When people see content they relate to it makes them feel as though they’re in the right place. And that means there’s a higher chance they will stay on your site, browse and ultimately place an order.

If a British person visits a furniture e-commerce site, they will notice if the language is different, even if it’s in American or Canadian English. 

Everything from the vocabulary to the spelling and grammar needs to be localised. Other aspects of the content should also be tailored to each region, too. Companies need to check that they’re using appropriate imagery, including content relevant to local customs and holidays and using local humour, phrases, idioms and slang.

Common Mistakes to Avoid in SEO Localisation

There are some common pitfalls to avoid when planning your SEO localisation strategy. The mistakes we see most often include: only using machine or AI translation, not considering regional dialects and slang and not performing a competitor analysis.

Relying Solely on Machine Translation

Those who speak or study another language will understand the difficulties of translation. A piece of text rarely translates from one language into another exactly word for word. 

Some languages are similar, for example, Italian and Spanish. But even though they are both Romance languages with roots in Latin, they have different grammar rules, sentence structures, idioms and phrases. 

For this reason, human translation is necessary for accurate translations of website copy. Although AI translators such as Google Translate and Deepl can help, they are not advanced enough to produce perfect translations every time.

For example, if a UK website wants to translate “order anytime” into Spanish. Google Translate tells us it is “ordenar en cualquier momento,” but this is incorrect. 

By localising this phrase for Spain by a native speaker, it would be “pide a cualquier hora.” The word “pide” is used more commonly when placing an online order. 

“Cualquier hora” literally translates as “any hour,” which is said in the same context as “any moment.”

Ignoring Regional Dialects and Slang

Using the wrong terminology when speaking to a target audience is a fast way to make them feel alienated and confused. Even when using certain words in different parts of the same country.

For example, a supermarket in the UK might create a promotional campaign on its website asking, “What’s for dinner tonight?” In the South of the UK, this makes perfect sense. But customers in the North typically call their evening meal ‘tea’, and refer to their midday meal as ‘dinner’, so the same slogan simply wouldn’t work. 

A company selling carbonated drinks in the US could easily trip up in the same way. In most parts of the US, such drinks are known as ‘soda’. But in the Midwest they’re called ‘pop’. 

Neglecting Local Competitor Analysis

An SEO competitor analysis is essential for the audience and region you want to target. Why? It provides inspiration, shows you how to position your business and ultimately enables you to create a successful strategy that will outrank local competitors. Choose 3-5 of your biggest competitors and log the following research into a spreadsheet:

• How are their websites structured? Are they using subdomains or subdirectories for each country?
• Hreflang – are they using these tags, and how?
• Is their website fast to load?
• Perform an SEO website audit using SEMRush, Ahrefs, Moz, Sitebulb, or Screaming Frog.
• Which SEO keywords are they targeting? Check their meta titles and descriptions, headings and image alt text.
• Where are they getting backlinks from?
• Analyse their content – have they localised it for different regions?

Tips for Effective SEO Localisation

Now that we’ve learned about SEO localisation, here are some top tips to make your campaign as effective as possible. We’ve listed our go-to advice on the best ways to research local keywords, choose culturally sensitive content, optimise tags, build links and use tools to localise SEO. 

Research Local Keywords and Search Behaviour

There are a few ways to find out which local keywords to target:

• Use Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush, Ahrefs and Moz to search for keywords in a certain region.
• Consider working with an SEO and localisation expert in your target region to  draft the best possible translations of your products or services.
• Think about local search engine preferences. Google isn’t the top choice everywhere in the world. Yandex is used in Russia and Baidu is used in China, for example. 

Adapt Your Content for Cultural Nuances

We’ve spoken about the importance of making your content unique to cultural nuances. But what content are we talking about here? Everything, essentially. 

Localise all website copy to the local language, including meta titles, meta descriptions, headings, menus, product and services pages, about us pages, blog articles, image alt text, case studies and advertising copy.

Optimise Meta Tags and URLs for Local Languages

Meta tags and URLs are the first thing online users will see before visiting your website. 

Meta titles and descriptions are shown in search engine results to help users decide which links to browse. 

It includes a summary of the webpage and a type of heading, along with the page URLs listed below. The copy is therefore extremely important and has the power to make or break a potential sale. 

When localising a meta title and description, you need to make sure it’s an accurate translation. You have about a short amount of time to impress an online user who is browsing Google results. If your “preview” in the search results is bad, you won’t get many clicks.

Hreflang tags tell search engines which language and region your webpage is intended for. They are pieces of code that sit in the head section of each page on your website. 

It will look something like this:

<link rel=”alternate” hreflang=”language-region” href=”URL” />

For a British target audience, this would be:

<link rel=”alternate” hreflang=”en-gb” href=”https://www.yourwebsite.com/uk/page” />

For an American audience, this would be:

<link rel=”alternate” hreflang=”en-us” href=”https://www.yourwebsite.com/page” />

For an Italian target audience, this would look like:

<link rel=”alternate” hreflang=”it-it” href=”https://www.yourwebsite.com/it/pagina” />

Build Local Backlinks and Directory Listings

Backlinks are a big part of an SEO strategy to improve your domain and page authority for search engines. 

Backlinks are when another website includes a link to your website on their website. Search engines see this as credibility – like a friend recommending you.

How do backlinks work for SEO localisation?

• List your website on local online directories.
• Don’t forget to set up Google My Business.
• Use local SEO keywords in your online directory profiles.
• Try blogger outreach and list paid guest posts on local websites with a link back to your website.
• Submit press releases to local news outlets and industry publications, including a link to your website.
• Partner with local influencers.
• Feature posts with a link to your website on local forums.

You will receive more organic, free backlinks when you increase the amount of valuable and engaging content you localise and publish.

Best Practices for SEO Localisation Success

Finally, here’s some extra advice to maximise your SEO localisation impact. How can you find accurate translations? Should you track how well your campaign is doing and how? Should you consider mobile users? And what about calls to action? 

Collaborate with Native Language Experts

We’ve established that it’s beneficial to use native language experts, but how do you find them? Start with these recommendations:

• Search for freelance native translators and localisation experts on Fiverr, Upwork, LinkedIn, X and other freelance platforms.
• Search Google for local translators.
• For translators with marketing or SEO knowledge, search for SEO localisation writers or localisation content writers in the language you need.
• Ask for recommendations from people you know or on LinkedIn.
• If you have a big project, you can hire an international SEO agency that will not only find native translators but also take care of the technical aspects.

Continuously Monitor and Update Your Localised Content

Like all content marketing, old news is bad news. Keep your localised content up-to-date so it’s continually relevant to your audience. 

That means updating older blog articles and information on webpages, including product pages and refreshing your content with the latest SEO research for each local market.

Publish new blog posts and news articles regularly to improve your SEO optimisation. Use SEO research tools (Ahrefs, SEMrush, Moz, Google Keyword Planner) to include your SEO keywords according to what’s trending or a new opportunity you’ve identified.

Leverage Analytics to Measure Success

Measuring your website’s performance within local target markets will allow you to check the progress of your SEO localisation strategy, and see whether it’s performing well or you still need to make adjustments. 

Ways to measure your success:

• Use Google Analytics to track website traffic from different countries.
• Check the bounce rate, time on site and pages per session using Google Analytics to see how long your target audience stays to browse your website.
• Monitor your keyword rankings using SEMrush, Moz or Ahrefs.
• Work out the conversion rate using Google Analytics for different regions and languages to see what percentage of your website visitors make a purchase.
• Log the page speed regularly to check it’s loading quickly enough. Slow page loading times lead to poor SEO. 

Prioritise Mobile Optimisation for Local Search

According to DataReportal, in 2024, almost all internet users worldwide (96%)   used a mobile device to access the internet. 

So, there should be no questions about whether or not you should make your localised website mobile-friendly.

Here’s how to optimise for local searches on mobile:

• Have a responsive design so your website layout automatically adjusts to a smaller screen.
• Include mobile payment methods popular in the target country, such as PayPal, Apple Pay and Google Pay, which is popular all over the world. . Alipay and WeChat are commonly used in China, Bizum is the go-to choice in Spain, MobilePay is used in Denmark and Paylib is well used in France.
• Include hreflang tags for mobile users, e.g. <link rel=”alternate” hreflang=”en-us” href=”https://m.yourwebsite.com/us/product” />

Customise CTAs for Local Audiences

In some countries, calls-to-action (CTAs) can be more direct than others. A call-to-action is a command at the end of a webpage or online content that tells the reader what to do next.

In the UK, US, Australia and Canada, these might be:

• Shop now
• Get the look 
• Browse new arrivals

These are direct, action-oriented statements that focus on immediate purchase.

Meanwhile, in France, CTAs might be: 

• Découvrez la collection 
• Voir plus
• Inspirez-vous

Do you notice these are more subtle, emphasising discovery and inspiration?

In Spain, CTAs typically look something like this:

• Comprar ya
• Añadir a mi bolsa
• Compra el look

Much like in English-speaking countries, Spanish CTAs are very direct.

Optimise for Local Voice Search

Voice search is becoming more popular with the use of smartphones and smart home devices. Fortune Business Insights said the global smart speaker market value was USD 12.4 billion in 2023.

People are increasingly using the Amazon Echo, Google Nest, Apple HomePod, Sonos One and Bose Smart Speaker 500, all of which feature voice assistants like Alexa, Google, Siri and Bixby.

So, think about how people might use voice search compared to online searches.instead of typing “ladies winter clothing Australia,” for example, a person would say aloud, “Hey Siri, tell me which websites are good for buying ladies’ winter clothing in Australia.”

How to optimise your SEO localisation for voice searches:

• Think about conversational keywords in your target country and language. People often speak for longer than they might type in Google, so you should also consider long-tail keywords.
• Question phrases, including who, what, where, when, how and why, are common and should be in your keywords.
• It’s a good idea to write a list of FAQs, with common questions and answers about your business and products.
• Test how well you prepare for voice searches using voice assistants to ask about your business and products.
• Write blog posts and articles including information that voice searches might be looking for.

Learn More About SEO Localisation With Eskimoz

Researching, planning and executing a great SEO localisation strategy is always worth the effort and time that goes into it. 

Ready to let the professionals help you? Eskimoz is a renowned international SEO agency with niche skills in building and optimising SEO localisation campaigns. 

Contact us to talk about your project.