Some tourists are easy to spot from a mile away, aren’t they?
You know what we mean:
They dress differently. They seem unfamiliar with the area. They also speak in a different language or accent. It’s laughably obvious. It only takes a quick glance to know they’re not from here.
Search engines see your website the same way, especially when you try to rank it for local search engine results pages (SERPs) before adapting it to the local context.
Google, for example, would know right away in this situation that your website is different from websites that already fulfill your target audience’s search intent. From that criterion alone, Google would conclude that your website isn’t nearly as relevant for local searchers as your competitors.
Google would then rank your website lower, prioritizing competing websites over yours.
In this case, forget about making an impact in the SERPs. Your website barely made a dent.
The smarter approach when seeking to capture organic traffic from new markets is to localize your website content for the local audience.
Doing so not only increases your site’s chance of ranking well but it’s a much better way to market your offerings to your target market.
Read on as we share what content localization is, the search engine optimization (SEO) benefits it can have, and our five-step guide to localizing your website content for SEO impact.