Did you know that 88% of businesses experience better rankings after acquiring international backlinks? Also, the links increase organic traffic by 40% and domain authority by 30%.

The stat shows that when done right, backlinks from country-specific websites can open up new traffic sources and boost your domain authority across markets. 

In this blog, we've rounded up the proven strategies that work when acquiring international backlinks. We'll also share 11 handy tools to speed up the process.

Want to take the guesswork out of link-building? Partner with link-building experts who have spent years perfecting their strategies.

With over 10 years of experience in growing brands, we at Profit Engine can create a tailored, AI-powered link-building plan to analyze the competition for each target market. We will help you secure manually vetted links on trusted and regional websites.

Let’s explore your link-building strategy together to establish international authority.

What Is Global Link Building?

International (global) link building is similar to regular link building, which involves getting other websites to link to you.

The only difference here is that the links are from websites in other countries.

Here's why international link building matters:

• Boosts Your Search Engine Ranking: High-quality international backlinks help you rank in that country and expand your organic search across multiple search engines and markets.
• Drive Referral Traffic: The links from local websites help you gain exposure and prompt visitors from target countries to visit your site, increasing your potential clients and conversions.
• Strengthens Your Global Visibility and Credibility: When authoritative international sites link to yours, it boosts your brand visibility and increases your reliability globally.

Difference Between Local and Global Link Building

When you’re building links nationally, you should focus on local authority and national SEO signals.

When it comes to internal link building, it's essential to consider targeting multiple countries, languages, and cultural expectations.

Let’s break down the main differences between the two below:

How to Build an International Link Building Strategy

You can expand your brand’s reach globally through a well-crafted link-building strategy that should involve these three steps:

1. Determine Your Goals

You should set specific goals and KPIs that guide the strategies you employ. The goals can be to:

• Increase domain authority
• Increase referral traffic from international sources
• Improve the search rankings of specific keywords targeted at a particular market

2. Develop a Location-Specific Outreach Approach

Create a system to connect with potential link partners in each market. You should also tailor your outreach emails to increase the likelihood of positive responses.

The approach could include:

• Partnering with multilingual specialists for accuracy and country-specific social norms.
• Preparing personalized email templates for each target audience and language.
• Building a contact list of potential partners, journalists, and bloggers.

3. Set a System to Track Link Building Success

Use tools like Google Analytics and Search Console to understand the effectiveness of your link-building efforts for each market. 

Some of the metrics that are important for link building are:

• Organic traffic and search engine rankings for key terms
• Domain Authority (DA) and Page Authority (PA) to get insights into the overall site’s strength
• Engagement metrics like bounce rate and time on your website assess the traffic quality from backlinks

Best Global SEO Link Building Tactics

Generally, your global backlink tactics should include hreflang tag optimization and country-specific content creation.

Let's expound on six tactics and how to implement each of them:

1. Use Localized Content Marketing

Craft multilingual assets that match local needs, cultural references, and relevant events.

Remember, each region has its unique approach to searching and interacting with content. So, make the content feel like it was built for them by optimizing it for the popular platforms in the target countries.

• Interactive tools that use local examples and holiday tie-ins.
• Original research reports and region-specific case studies to showcase success in different markets.
• Infographics that tell the story to the local audience.

2. Optimize for a Localized Link Outreach

Reach out to native websites via personalized, professional, and culturally correct emails. Here are some pro tips you can use for outreach:

• Hire outreach specialists from the particular international market.
• Match each country’s preferred email etiquette.
• Check culturally relevant details, such as phrases and wordings, which can significantly impact the success rate of your outreach.

3. Partner with International Influencers

You should build relationships with trusted voices in the region, whether it’s bloggers, industry experts, or influencers. Look for the ones that have already built trust with your target audience.

Here you can:

• Find guest posting opportunities in your specific country code top-level domains (ccTLD).

For example, if you're looking for SaaS guest posting opportunities in the UK, search for ‘UK SaaS + write for us.’

• Co-create content and data-driven insights.
• Offer exclusive insights in round-up articles.
• Engage with local communities and LinkedIn group discussions.

4. Leverage Local Directories and Citations

You can target reputable directories to establish your domain's trust and enhance your visibility in that region quickly. You should:

• Find well-known directories that have localized versions, such as Yelp, TrustPilot, or Yellow Pages. For example, when you search 'Yellow Pages Spain', you get 'Paginas Amarillas.'
• Get backlinks from Wikipedia by identifying sections that need citations relevant to your target region. Wikipedia is widely translated and mirrored, so a single backlink can boost your global link equity.

5. Monitor Unlinked Brand Mentions

Another easy tactic to build global links is to track websites already talking about your brand or product, but without a clickable link on their website. 

Here's what you should do:

• Go to Ahrefs Content Explorer and search for your brand, marketing slogan, and product name, excluding the results that appear on your page.
• Filter the results by the language, country, traffic, and DR.
• Once you find the site's owners, contact them and ask them to add the link.

6. Reverse Engineer Competitors' Backlinks

Use the SEMrush Region tab and Ahrefs Geo filter to conduct a competitor analysis and obtain a report of your top competitors' backlinks. 

• Filter it according to geography, the industry, DA/PA, traffic, and unique referral domains.
• Use these tools to see the keywords your competitors are ranking for and how they earn those links in specific locations.
• Replicate their strategies, for example, by pitching to the same sites for guest posts or creating high-quality content to outdo their top LinkedIn blogs.

Tools for Managing Global Link Building Efforts

The best link-building tools streamline your outreach process and identify linking opportunities. They make it easy to manage your campaigns across different languages and time zones.

Here’s what should be in your toolkit:

Why Hire Profit Engine for Global Link Building

Global link-building can be challenging due to the need to combine all the strategies and tools we've discussed. 

Besides, global markets have unique characteristics, and what has worked for you in local markets might not work for you in an international market.

That’s why you should consider Profit Engine's link-building services. Here are some additional reasons that make us stand out:

1. Impressive Case Studies and Proven Results: We've been using smart link-building tactics for over 10 years to help businesses in different industries increase domain ratings and organic traffic.
2. Expertise with Global Markets: We understand how to acquire links across multiple regions, including the United States, Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom. Our services are also tailored to the exact business needs, whether you're an ecommerce or a B2B SaaS brand.
3. Thorough Link Vetting: Our team manually filters links using a 16-point checklist to evaluate their DA, traffic trends, traffic source diversity, and relevance to your target niche and country.
4. Tailored Link Building Strategy: We'll create a personalized link-building strategy that aligns with the global market, enhancing your brand relevance in each market.
5. Link Building Partnerships: We have a network of global contacts for link-building, including bloggers and media outlets, expanding your reach beyond the local market.
6. Data-Driven AI Strategy: We leverage our AI Link Protocol to analyze your competitors' backlinks, the link quality, and calculate the required number of links per page. This helps in better planning and high link acquisition outcomes.
7. Continuous Monitoring: You can rely on our advanced analytics to provide you with insights into your international link performance and inform ongoing optimization efforts. If any of the links fail, we'll replace them at no additional cost.

Book a free strategy call and let's map out your custom international link-building campaign today.

Mistakes to Avoid in Global Link Building

While creating SEO global link-building strategies, there are a ton of mistakes that might not generate backlinks and harm your site in the long run.

Here are the common pitfalls that can be costly:

• Translated Content: Just because you can do a quick Google translation to your desired language doesn't mean that the audience of that target country can understand your content, and it might be insulting to some.

Solution: Get a native to translate your content so it aligns with your target market.

• Non-Localized URLs: Many directories in other countries only link to the root URL and the URL for your country. For example, if your site is yoursite.com/fr/, they might link to yoursite.com, missing the location (in this case, French) benefit.

Solution: Even if the content is localized, clearly communicate in outreach emails that the backlinks should point to your localized links. 

• Not Monitoring International Performance: A common mistake is not tracking the performance of alternate language pages and overlooking trends in the local search behavior.

Solution: Monitor organic traffic by country, the click-through rates (CTR), the ranking by country and language, and conversion rates.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

When you start implementing international SEO link building, you might have some questions. Let’s answer some of the common ones:

What Is the Role of Country-Code TLDs in Global SEO?

Check out how ccTLDs help in global SEO:

• Shows search engines that your site is intended for a specific country, regardless of where it’s hosted.
• Build trust with users, and they are likely to engage with your website if it matches their country code.
• Helps with local link-building since websites are likely to link to your site with their country code, as it's more geo-relevant.
• Improves your search ranking for local queries.
• Prevents confusion when you're targeting multiple countries.

Should I Build Separate Link Profiles for Each Language Version of My Site?

Yes, you should build separate link profiles for each language version of your site, especially if you’re targeting different regions or countries. 

How Does Google Treat Links From Non-English Sites?

Google treats links from non-English sites as valid ranking sites. More than the language, Google emphasizes that the links should be topical. 

These links improve your domain authority and overall backlink profile. They also boost the rankings on local SERPS. 

What Metrics Should I Track for Global Link Building ROI?

Here are a few metrics that measure the success of your international link-building:

1. Local organic rankings
2. Traffic from the target country
3. Country-wise clicks and impressions
4. Engagement metrics like conversions and time on site

Conclusion

The key factors for international link-building that shape the value of your links are relevance, language, and user intent.

So, you should leverage techniques like influencer outreach, localized content, and unlinked brand mentions to earn high-quality and relevant backlinks that boost your trust and authority.

However, as your business expands beyond borders, you may not always know how to acquire good quality backlinks from that region. That is why hiring a global link-building agency can save you a lot of time and money.

At Profit Engine, we can collaborate to create a data-driven link-building roadmap tailored to your niche and goals. From the UK to Australia, we implement tiered backlinks campaigns, manual niche edits, and carefully sourced guest posts.

Book a strategy call and let’s grow your brand worldwide.