Relying solely on content and technical SEO is no longer enough to achieve sustainable success, especially for businesses operating in multiple markets.
While these elements are crucial, they fail to fully account for the diverse factors influencing a website’s global performance.
The complexities of managing SEO across different regions, languages and market conditions add layers of challenges, many of which fall outside the direct control of local SEO teams.
To effectively navigate these hurdles, companies must adopt process changes that promote consistency, reduce friction and enhance performance across all markets.
This article will explore how integrating uniform frameworks, centralized reporting and streamlined processes can help maintain and improve SEO performance on a global scale.
1. Ensure consistent reporting
Performance reporting is the first area that begs for consistency in many global search programs.
Too many companies lack consistent reporting across their markets, making it impossible to roll up data to understand global, regional and market performance.
Finding opportunities that can be leveraged in other markets is even more challenging.
In one of my initial global team meetings with a client, I observed how search teams from various markets presented their reports in completely different formats.
Many reports included similar data points, such as keyword rankings and some Google Search Console metrics. Still, only a few mentioned organic traffic and none provided ROI metrics, such as search-influenced leads or sales.
To address this inconsistency, we created a standardized reporting template that all markets could adopt.
This template could be easily integrated into the global reporting dashboard, enabling management to assess market performance and identify areas that require additional resources.
After establishing a consistent reporting framework, the next step is to expand the data set to include additional search variables.
One of my preferred metrics to monitor is the global performance of “always on” keywords. These keywords represent the business’s core offerings across different markets and must consistently appear in search results.
For example, a global search manager at a company like Lenovo or Dell might want to track how many markets rank in the top positions for a key product category like laptop computers, helping to identify areas of focus and potential keyword cannibalization.
By centralizing data, you can spot market or regional trends to apply in other areas, adding value.
For instance, during a meeting in Japan, a global manager noted significant traffic boosts from blog posts that highlighted how their product outperformed competitors.
This strategy was successfully implemented globally. Additionally, analyzing data on a global scale and encouraging markets to report increases and anomalies can reveal new opportunities.
2. Centralize SEO development tickets
Companies with centralized web development often struggle to manage multiple, conflicting support tickets, particularly when SEO responsibilities are decentralized to local teams or agencies.
This decentralization leads to inefficiencies, as teams spend significant time consolidating and prioritizing tickets, especially when requests conflict or need further clarification.
A centralized review process minimizes ticket redundancy and ensures that changes to key SEO elements do not negatively impact other markets. For instance, there have been cases where a local SEO team or agency has requested changes based on the latest techniques or aggressive strategies, which could lead to penalties affecting all markets.
While advising on a global search project, I examined Jira tickets submitted by local SEO teams and agencies.
I found a dozen tickets, some over six months old, all requesting the same task: correcting links in the header to prevent 404 errors.
The requests varied in detail, from simple fixes like “fix the links in the header” to one that specified exact links needing revision, but only for the local market.
By reviewing these requests centrally, we developed a comprehensive solution that framed the issue as a global concern. This resulted in the ticket’s acceptance and implementation in the next sprint.
Dig deeper: How you can deal with decentralization in international SEO
3. Be consistent in your approach and philosophy
The ticket review highlighted a significant inconsistency with the organization’s SEO philosophy and best practices. Many requests included outdated techniques that could undo existing positive changes.
Companies with a Search Council have a structured process for reviewing and approving market requests.
Even without formal procedures, in-house SEOs should assess the requests for their validity, viability and impact at both local and global levels.