Your blog can have worldwide appeal and attract readers from around the globe. As a result, there are numerous considerations and strategies that a blog author should consider when marketing their posts. However, the majority of bloggers do not to take into account the various factors that are involved with marketing internationally. This piece will go over three crucial tips that every blog writer should factor into their online marketing strategy.
Tip #1 – Understand How People Find Your Blog (Search Engines?)
Most people find your blog posts and articles using search engines. This is not always the case and it is important for a webmaster to first look at analytics to determine how people are actually locating their blog and its posts. However, for most bloggers, since the majority of traffic does result from search engines it is vital to understand the different ones used by international audiences.
Marketers targeting Australia face a simpler landscape. Australians search using Google 93% of the time. Thus, a blogger targeting individuals in this country deals with fewer components. Bloggers focused on this audiencecan are fortunate in the respect that they can mostly ignore Yahoo and Bing. Conversely, bloggers promoting to regions that do not speak English are likely to face even more challenges. For example, Baidu dominates the Chinese marketplace and uses an algorithm much different than other search engines. Thus a blogger must develop content in another language and also adjust such factoring into account the different algorithm used by China's leading search engine. Such large differences amongst regions illustrate the importance of knowing your audience. Suddenly, marketing seems much simpler when only reaching out to residents in one nation.
Tip #2 – Realise that Different English Speaking Audiences Spell Differently
Depending upon the country and region your blog targets it is important to realise that different English speaking audiences spell words differently. Notice how ‘z’ is often replaced with ‘s’ as with the word ‘realised’ above.
A small spelling change to a rather insignificant word may not make much of a difference with the initial marketing efforts, but improper spelling can alienate visitors once they reach your blog. However, words more fundamental to the subject can result in material impacts. The SEO industry, in which I work, serves as a perfect example. When residing in the United States SEO companies often market around the phrase search engine optimization. Now that I am in Australia, the same type of businesses must use the phrase search engine optimisation (with the ‘s’ instead of the ‘z'). Should I accidentally blog about optimization it is much less likely to receive the same attention and positive publicity since far fewer individuals in Australia use this spelling.
Tip #3 – Other Avenues of Marketing Your Blog Besides Search Engines
Despite the fact that most blogs derive the majority of visitors from search engine traffic, it is crucial not to focus solely on SEO. Ironically, SEOMoz which is leading website for online marketers, claims to receive most of its traffic via links from other websites rather than traffic from the search engines. Furthermore, there are many other marketing techniques that other guest bloggers on Ileane’s blog point out in various posts. A couple I found particularly interesting are Kharim’s post on how to increase the flow of traffic coming from your blog and James’ post about blog traffic strategies. Basic Blog Tips contains a wealth of other strategies worth implementing.
An important question to ask yourself is, ‘How can I apply this strategy internationally?’. A suggestion referenced in both posts above is to use forum marketing. A smart idea with that strategy is to conduct research on the various forums in each country. Individual forums with the largest market shares will likely vary even more wildly based upon region and industry than those of search engines. Therefore selecting the appropriate forums to invest your marketing efforts is crucial. That is why understanding how people currently find your blog is vital, but more important is learning new ways that people can discover your blog.
Obviously, there are many more than three tips that bloggers can apply to market their content internationally. Please share your advice in the comments section below! Also, I welcome feedback on the tips provided in this post. Do you agree with them or am I misguided? Can you provide me with additional insights? I am eager to hear more about other bloggers’ experiences with international markets and how you're marketing your blog.