What is the best way to optimize a website for a local business who also wants to get international clients?

[cdghouston]

Hello everyone,

I have a client who is an endocrinologist in Houston, TX and wants to also target clients who are in Spanish speaking countries such as Mexico and beyond. They have informed me that a good chunk of their clientele is in that region and they want their website, while optimized locally to also be optimized to be found in these countries. What is the best way to dual optimize a website for both the local area and internationally? I am a bit lost on this. Any help or suggestions is appreciated.

 

[fisicx]

I'd have local versions of the website in the target countries

 

[Stefan Somborac]

If you search for "endocrinologist", the search intent isn't clear. Do you want to know what an endocrinologist is, or do you want to find one? So, Google will (probably) return a page that answers both those questions; it will have some general information about endocrinologists, plus a map pack and some local pages.

With an implicit query like this, any local results are based on your location when you perform the search.

If you search for "endocrinologist near me", your intent is clear. Google will (probably) return a page that doesn't have the general information describing what an endocrinologist is, and just provides a map pack and local links to help you find a nearby endocrinologist.

(Run these searches to see it for yourself!)

A search for "endocrinologist Houston" has a similar local intent as "endocrinologist near me". Even if you're not in Houston, Google understands what you're looking for.

And with an explicit query like this, any local results are based on the city explicitly named in the search, and not where you're located when you perform the search.

Point being: You can't optimize for implicit queries; the location for those results is implied by your location at the time of search. But you can optimize for explicit queries! So, be sure to optimize for "Houston", "Houston endocrinologist", etc.

(I'm sure having those pages in Spanish would also be helpful, but multi-language content is outside of my wheelhouse, so I'll leave it to someone else to weigh in on that.)

 

[cdghouston]

I'd have local versions of the website in the target countries

This is probably the easiest way to do this. I would duplicate the existing site (put it on a subdomain of the existing site), put it in Spanish and then change the keywords a bit to optimize it for certain countries.

 

[cdghouston]

If you search for "endocrinologist", the search intent isn't clear. Do you want to know what an endocrinologist is, or do you want to find one? So, Google will (probably) return a page that answers both those questions; it will have some general information about endocrinologists, plus a map pack and some local pages.

With an implicit query like this, any local results are based on your location when you perform the search.

If you search for "endocrinologist near me", your intent is clear. Google will (probably) return a page that doesn't have the general information describing what an endocrinologist is, and just provides a map pack and local links to help you find a nearby endocrinologist.

(Run these searches to see it for yourself!)

A search for "endocrinologist Houston" has a similar local intent as "endocrinologist near me". Even if you're not in Houston, Google understands what you're looking for.

And with an explicit query like this, any local results are based on the city explicitly named in the search, and not where you're located when you perform the search.

Point being: You can't optimize for implicit queries; the location for those results is implied by your location at the time of search. But you can optimize for explicit queries! So, be sure to optimize for "Houston", "Houston endocrinologist", etc.

(I'm sure having those pages in Spanish would also be helpful, but multi-language content is outside of my wheelhouse, so I'll leave it to someone else to weigh in on that.)

I have a translator plugin installed on the website to switch between English and Spanish, however even if I were to optimize the site based on the location like you mentioned, what would be the best way to also ensure the website is optimized for Mexico and other Latin American countries while still being optimized for Houston?

 

[Stefan Somborac]

@cdghouston - Say you were going to travel to Paris. Before you leave, you do some research. You might search for "best cafe in Paris" or "Paris bakery". It doesn't matter where you're sitting when you do that search, Google is going to show you Paris results.

If you optimize each page on the site for Houston, then anyone, anywhere in the world (Latin America or otherwise) might find your content when they search "endocrinologist Houston" or other keywords that contain "Houston".

I think there's value in that.

As far as what big brands do with optimizing for countries and languages, I don't know those details. However, they might not even matter for a business like this that has local intent. (Versus a brand that wants global visibility.)