English SEO from Poland. To Do or Not to Do, That Is the Question
What is SEO in English all about? What is the difference between Polish SEO and SEO in the UK? Why is it worth outsourcing international SEO to Polish companies and how to choose the best service provider? Let’s delve into this subject!
Table of Contents:
- SEO In The UK – What To Keep In Mind?
- E-commerce In The UK – What Should You Know?
- Doing English SEO from Poland. UK SEO – Is The Game Worth A Candle?
- SEO in Great Britain: The Takeaway
One of the greatest merits of online marketing is the fact that it doesn’t care about boundaries. Any company can freely devise its campaign for international markets without leaving its Polish office. This gives huge possibilities, even to relatively small businesses. On the other hand, there are several elements, among which location is the key aspect that has to be taken into account if you want to ensure the success of your online marketing campaign. The list of important factors includes a thorough analysis of local search engine versions. Each of them has various requirements that affect the results of the English SEO process.
So what should you know about the SEO industry in the UK which is considered to be one of the most challenging markets?
SEO in the UK – what to keep in mind?
You already know who is searching for your website online and what methods are used for this purpose. How to reach high Google positions to guarantee that your page is noticed by as many potential customers from the market as possible? What should proper SEO in England look like?
1. Website content vs. location
Adjust your website content to the location. Prices and shipping costs should be provided in pounds, all pieces of information need to be published and sent out in English. Select the right time zone to ensure that the clock on your website shows the correct time and the bot sends purchase confirmations with the correct date. A correctly optimized website should display relevant local addresses, phones and other contact details.
2. Linguistic correctness
SEO in the UK is different from SEO in the US. First of all, linguistically. British and American English differ in certain aspects noticeable by the British. Therefore, if you target your activities at the UK market, remember about appropriate spelling of certain words (e.g. write “honor” instead of “honor” or “through” instead of “thru”).
3. Website optimization
A website not adapted to modern mobile devices, with incorrect code, interface that’s not transparent or with poor quality content, heavy graphics, and long loading time won’t be successful in any country and the UK isn’t an exception to the rule. Optimization of your company website should be the starting point of any SEO activities.
4. Local hosting in the UK
It’s beneficial for the Google rankings if your website address has a local IP, which means being hosted on a local server. This is how search engines geo-locate the site. Hosting your optimized page on a local server reduces the page load time and its response time. This, in turn, supports SEO by decreasing the bounce rate, which indicates the number of times a user, impatient with waiting, abandons the site.
How to find proper hosting? The current guide and ranking presented by Techradar should help you with this task: Best web hosting services in the UK.
5. Local domain in the UK
A ccTLD (country-code top-level domain) means two letters after the dot in the name of your web address. In the UK market, .uk or co.uk would be the best choice. The .gb extension isn’t actually used anymore. A well-suited domain will support the English SEO process performed from Poland by indicating the geolocation of potential recipients of your content and improving website positions in the indicated market. Thanks to having the .co.uk domain, Google will “recognize” it as directed at the UK market. However, it’s also possible to manually enter this information in Google Search Console:
6. External linking
Any SEO process, including doing SEO for the UK market, involves a necessity to build an external link database. When it comes to international SEO, it’s important to make sure that links come also from local sites. One of the techniques advocated by SEO specialists involves adding entries to website directories. You can benefit from the UK directories, however, sometimes they might be quite costly. To access directories, check out the following lists:
- http://www.web-directories.ws/Regional/Europe/UK/
- http://www.paulhoda.co.uk/list-of-all-web-directories-hosted-in-uk/
- http://www.directorycritic.com/uk-directory-list.html
If you plan to go international, you need to remember that each and every market is different and unique – not only in terms of language differences. Take into consideration cultural diversities, habits, user needs, or methods of making purchasing decisions. Something that works well in one place may be a total disaster in the other. A thorough analysis of the target market and industry is the real key to effective SEO. The situation is no different in the case of the British market and we experienced it while working for Faretti, a manufacturer of elevator shoes for men. The SEO process required us to show quality research skills, to conduct a thorough analysis of the market and customer needs and, finally, to devise an accurate list of long-tail keywords based on the acquired data. As far as the Faretti website is concerned, we encountered a huge mistake that may have effectively hindered the process of building page traffic – inadequate units of measurement. The height of the shoe elevator was given in centimeters and as you probably know, Brits use inches. Therefore, we offered a modification that allowed us to increase the visibility of phrases related to the target units of measurement.
E-commerce in the UK – what should you know?
The UK e-commerce market is the third-largest in the world with a value of 70.4 billion GBP (7 times more than e-commerce in Poland!). According to experts, it’ll exceed 100 billion by 2024. 19% of all purchases in the UK are made online. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, this number will certainly continue to increase.
Search engines in the UK
According to data acquired by Statista.com in September 2020, Google.co.uk is chosen by 86.59% of internet users in the UK. Bing (9.96%), Yahoo (1.87%), and DuckDuckGo (0.78%) are far behind. Still, SEO in the UK shouldn’t be based solely on Google – it’s worth optimizing your site to make sure that it’s Google-friendly, but it’s also important to focus on Bing and Yahoo indexing scripts, even though the gap between them and the Californian giant has been increasing over the years.
Mobile devices in the UK
The fact that more than 60% of all Google searches in the UK is done on mobile devices is another thing that should be borne in mind. Mobile devices are having their days of glory. It’s impossible to reach high search results positions without appropriate website optimization and mobile-friendliness. The mobile issue is even more important since the Mobile-First Index, which rewards mobile sites, came into effect in early 2018.
English customers – who are they and what are they like?
It’s all about youngsters. 99% of people aged 16 and 24 are active internet users. However, don’t forget about seniors. 71% of Britons over 65 years of age are keen to use the internet. Internet users in the UK are most likely to buy clothes, household goods, tickets, movies, music, books and newspapers as well as groceries and electronics. For these purposes, they frequently use Amazon, eBay, Argos, ASOS and Tesco.
Doing English SEO from Poland. UK SEO – is the game worth the candle?
The internet is a global village that allows remote operations in any market, especially in the post-pandemic reality. As a result, both Polish and English SEO professionals can present a similar level of expertise and quality of SEO services. On the other hand, there are certain differences between particular markets and their approaches to SEO activities. In this respect, the UK market significantly differs from our home market. SEO strategy isn’t an option but an absolute must-have in the process of developing a website and marking your online presence. The competition is pretty sizable and local stores have been conducting effective SEO activities for years, therefore, there is a lot of work you need to do to ensure the successfulness of your online business. There is no time to waste!
Important: before choosing an agency and starting to expand into the UK market, conduct quality research and choose an SEO agency that will really achieve the predefined results and not burn your budget. Don’t make an ad hoc decision. Check out our entry: How to choose an SEO agency. 10 things you need to keep in mind.
Doing SEO for online stores and websites operating in the UK may turn out to be cheaper and more effective when you cooperate with an SEO agency from Poland. The differences in rates are huge – the average cost of cooperation with an SEO agency in the UK is at least 800 – 1000 pounds. Moreover, external linking and guest blog posts are significantly more expensive than in Poland. Together with an SEO agency from Poland, you can conquer the British e-commerce market more efficiently. So yes, the game is worth the candle!
SEO in Great Britain: the takeaway
What is the key to success when it comes to doing SEO for websites and online stores operating in England? Among other things, you should remember about proper website optimization, choice of the domain and hosting, external linking, or linguistically correct content tailored to the recipient. All of this can be done remotely.
Do you want to start conquering the UK market? Don’t hesitate to contact us!
To learn more about international SEO, visit our subpage.
What I personally see very often is when websites mix British English with American English. Not sure how brits react to companies that do that.