Google Workspace and Office 365 both offer impressive suites of productivity software and services. If you are not experienced with either side, then you might be looking at the right option to streamline your business operations.

In this guide, we will compare Google Workspace vs. Office 365 to help you decide which one is better for your business.

What Are Google Workspace and Office 365?

After you make a website, the next step is usually to get a professional business email address.

Unlike your @gmail.com or @outlook.com email, a professional business email address is branded with your company name: name@yourbusiness.com

While most WordPress hosting companies offer a free business email address, they can’t compete with the powerful business tools that Google Workspace and Office 365 provide. These platforms have more reliable emails, file storage, documents, spreadsheets, calendars, notes, video conferencing tools, etc.

Google Workspace includes Gmail, Google Drive, Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Calendar, Keep, Hangouts, and other Google apps that you probably already use and love.

They also have unique offerings such as Apps Script and AppSheet for building custom solutions without coding and Jamboard for whiteboard brainstorming.

Microsoft’s Office 365 includes Outlook, OneDrive, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, One Note, Skype, and other Microsoft apps.

Using cloud productivity suites allows you to save money on maintaining software licenses and installations, running an IT department, and more.

All your data is stored in the cloud, which makes it easier to access files from anywhere using any device. This is great if you are running a remote company or traveling while managing your WordPress blog.

Google Workspace vs. Office 365 Comparison Chart

It can be confusing to evaluate both productivity suites unless you can visually see the differences. That’s why we’ve put together a side-by-side comparison for a quicker overview.

Why Do You Need Google Workspace or Office 365?

Just about every type of business could benefit from Google Workspace or Office 365, whether you run a small business website, local business, or online store.

Here’s just a handful of reasons to use productivity suites:

• Collaboration: Team efficiency comes down to collaboration. Important decisions are made through collaboration tools such as sharing files, instant messaging, and video and audio conferencing.
• Cloud-based file storage: Files are arguably the backbone of any organization. Documents, PDFs, spreadsheets, and other files help run the operations of a business. There’s nothing wrong with legacy apps, but transferring files elsewhere can be difficult, which is why cloud-based options are better.
• Business email: Every business needs an email to connect with their customers, partners, and employees. While you could go with a free ‘@gmail.com’ option, it’s better to have your domain name in your email so it looks more professional.

That said, both suites offer a ton of features that allow you to run your business efficiently and grow. Let’s take a look at those features and see how Office 365 and Google Workspace stack up.

Feel free to jump forward to any section that you’re most interested in:

Google Workspace vs. Office 365 Pricing

Every business has a lot of expenses, including software tools, which is why pricing is an important factor to consider. You want to choose a solution that fits your budget.

Let’s compare the pricing of Google Workspace and Office 365 to find out which one offers the most value for your money.

Google Workspace Pricing

Google Workspace comes with three simple pricing plans.

• Business Starter – $6 per user per month for 30 GB cloud storage per user.
• Business Standard – $12 per user per month for 2 TB cloud storage per user.
• Business Plus – $18 per user per month for 5 TB cloud storage per user.

That said, all users get a free trial for their first 14 days.

Once you reach the Business Plus plan, you get access to enhanced security and management tools. For example, Google Vault lets you easily search, manage, and export an organization’s email, chats, and other data. Beyond that, there’s advanced threat protection to protect sensitive data from malicious attacks and malware.

Office 365 Pricing

Office 365 comes with three different pricing plans for medium and small businesses.

• Microsoft 365 Business Basic – $6 per month per user
• Microsoft 365 Business Standard – $12.50 per month per user
• Business 365 Business Premium – $22 per month per user
• Microsoft 365 Apps for business – $8.25 per use per month

All Microsoft 365 plans are paid on an annual basis. That said, there is a one-month free trial to see if it’s a good fit.

Microsoft 365 comes with 1 TB of cloud storage on their basic plan, with access to all of the main apps and a custom business email. The Business Standard comes with more advanced programs, such as the ability to run webinars and even new video editing and design tools with Microsoft Clipchamp.

Their Business Premium Plan is where you get advanced cyber threat protection against phishing attacks and viruses.

Winner: Tie. Both Google Workspace and Office 365 are priced competitively. Depending on which apps your business needs, one may tip the scales over the other. For example, Google offers unique apps like Sites, which is a page builder tool, while Office 365 has a video editing software called ClipChamp.

Professional Business Email

Both Google Workspace and Office 365 allow you to create professional business email accounts using your own domain name. Besides a custom domain, professional email offers enhanced security and features to scale your business, like more storage and a number of users.

Google Workspace – Gmail for Business

Google Workspace allows you to register a domain name or use your existing domain name to create email accounts. You can also create up to 30 email aliases for each user.

Gmail is best if you’re looking for collaborative and time-saving features. For example, it’ll automatically send notifications to you when you’re tagged in another Google app, making it easy for teams to work on documents, projects, and presentations.

There are also dynamic emails in Gmail, allowing the recipient to complete an action directly in the email, like responding to a comment or question, replying to an RSVP to an event or meeting, and browsing a catalog.

Overall, the entire interface feels more modern and much easier to navigate, making Gmail easier to use. One of the best features is the AI-driven option that suggests phrases and words as you type and a convenient snooze button so you can delay incoming messages.

If you’re interested in setting one up, read our tutorial on how to set up a professional email address with Gmail and Workspace.

Office 365 – Outlook for Business

Office 365 also allows you to easily create professional email addresses with your own domain name. It offers 400 email aliases for each user.

Outlook is great for people who prefer a desktop email client. Logging online to access your email can be a distraction, which is why having a full-featured desktop version is helpful.

However, Outlook does seem to struggle with search accuracy as well. If, for example, you were looking for a specific email in a chain, Outlook may bring up other emails in that chain as well, making it harder to find.

In addition, the ads are placed to the side of the email app on the Office 365 Business Basic plan.

From an aesthetic standpoint, it’s more distracting for users to deal with, which can slightly hurt the user experience. You’ll need to upgrade to the Business Standard plan for an ad-free experience, while Gmail includes no ads on all plans.

Verdict: Google Workspace, since they offer a better user experience. With the tagged collaboration, no ads, and better searchability, Gmail makes handling emails much easier.

Cloud File Storage and Sharing

One of the main reasons for using a cloud productivity suite is file storage. You can save all your files in the cloud so that you can access them anywhere, using any device, and share them easily.

Both Google Workspace and Office 365 make file storage and sharing easy.

Google Workspace – Google Drive Cloud Storage

Google Workspace gives each user 30 GB of cloud storage with the Starter plan. When you upgrade to the Standard plan, you get 2 TB of storage per user, and with the Plus plan, you get 5 TB of storage per user.

It uses Google Drive to store and manage files. It comes with apps that you can download on your mobile devices, tablets, or desktop. This allows you to easily access files stored in the Drive and even make them available offline.

Google Drive also makes it super easy to share files with your colleagues or anyone else. You can share by email, allow others to just view or edit a file, and even allow others to download them.

Many WordPress backup plugins also allow you to store your website backups on Google Drive. If you have unlimited storage, then you can safely store all your website backups on the cloud.

At WPBeginner, we recommend backing up your entire WordPress site to Google Drive so that you’re prepared for the worst-case scenario.

Office 365 – OneDrive Cloud Storage

Office 365 offers 1 TB of cloud storage for each user with all their plans. This is a lot of storage, but it is not unlimited. Each user also gets 50 GB of email storage, which is separate from your OneDrive storage limit.

It uses OneDrive to store and manage files, and it also comes with desktop, mobile, and web apps. Similar to Google Drive, you can sync files using OneDrive and easily share them.

While Office 365 doesn’t offer unlimited cloud storage like Google Workspace, you probably won’t need that much space. 1TB is a lot for cloud storage for a single user, which many people won’t come anywhere near using, anyway.

Verdict: Google Workspace has more total storage if you upgrade to the Business Standard plan or above. That said, Office 365 offers more storage at a lower price point.

Productivity Apps

Productivity apps are the backbone of most small businesses. It’s where teams collaborate on projects, streamline workflows, and manage data. Both Google Workspace and Office 365 come with the essentials you need, like documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and more.

Let’s take a look at the apps offered by both platforms and how they compare to each other.

Apps in Google Workspace

Google Workspace comes with popular Google apps like Gmail, Google Docs, Sheets and Slides, Google Calendar, Keep, Hangouts, and a lot more.

Google focuses on simplicity and live collaboration. Collaborating with team members is seamless. They also offer real-time co-authoring so that individuals can work on the same document at the same time. That means you can comment, suggest, review changes, and make notes with ease.

These apps work best in a desktop browser on all operating systems. Google also has mobile apps for both Android and iOS. If you are already using an Android phone, then their mobile versions may come pre-installed with your phone.

Google also has offline versions of some apps that would work in your browser. However, their offline functionality is quite limited, and you will have to individually make a file available for offline editing.

Unlike Microsoft’s productivity suite, which includes both web and desktop versions, Google’s tools are exclusively web-based. That said, Google Workspace has a cleaner interface and is much easier to use.

Apps in Office 365

An Office 365 business subscription gives you access to Microsoft Office apps like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneNote. For desktop computers, these apps are still the most feature-rich and complete office application suite on the market.

All Word applications have a lot more pre-built templates than their Google counterparts.

Word alone has 300 different business templates, compared to Google Docs, which only has 55 templates, including business, personal, and educational ones. Plus, Word has more chart types for embedding into documents.

This extends to other apps as well. Excel offers over 80 different templates for different types of budgets, while Google Sheets has 19 templates in total.

Some apps have more advanced functionality than Google as well. For instance, PowerPoint has a QuickStarter feature, which helps you quickly build a beautiful presentation in minutes. Just type in a topic, and it sources facts and research findings for you. It will also suggest layouts, themes, and images to use.

All in all, Office 365’s desktop apps set a very high standard that no web or mobile app has been able to compete with.

Verdict: Tie. Google Workspace is better for ease of use and collaboration. However, Office Workspace excels in templates and has more advanced functionality.

Collaboration Tools

With remote work becoming the new norm, collaboration tools are more important than ever. Team members need video conferencing, chat, messaging, and shared spaces to facilitate internal discussions.

There are a lot of tools to unpack, so we’ll cover what each suite offers.

Collaboration tools in Google Workspace

Workspace offers Google Meet, which is made up of Google Chat and Hangouts.

Google Meet excels in guest access. With this feature, team members can invite external guests to collaborate and join conversations without having a Google account. On the flip side, Microsoft Teams requires guests to have a Microsoft account or be part of an organization.

Another advantage is that Google Meet allows more participants to join in a room for the Plus and Enterprise plans. Up to 500 people can be in a single room.

Comparatively, Microsoft Teams only limits you to 300 participants for all plans.

While it’s not a huge deal, the scales do tip in favor of Google Meet.

However, Google Meet’s main advantage is simply its user experience. It easily syncs within Google’s ecosystem of apps. With its call quality adjustments powered by AI, rest assured that your meetings should run smoothly without audio or visual issues.

That said, Google Chat, the messaging platform, isn’t as easy to use for creating specific channels as Microsoft Teams.

In addition, Workspace has Google Voice, a VOIP service provider that allows you to make cloud-based phone calls. Google Voice is more advanced than Microsoft Team Phone because it offers more advanced features. These include AI-driven automatic voicemail transcriptions for better data management.

Collaboration tools in Office 365

Office 365 features Microsoft Teams as its primary collaboration tool. It works similarly to Slack, where you can communicate in different channels or message individuals directly so that all chats are siloed appropriately.

Also, within each channel, you can further segment by topic or department to help organize communication with your company. The messaging app has tabs where you can attach files or connect third-party services.

Beyond that, Microsoft Teams has a built-in calendar and conferencing within their program. That way, you don’t have to go back and forth to Outlook to figure out when your meetings are.

Then, you can click on the event scheduled in the calendar to join a video or audio conference. The conferencing tool comes with all the features you’d expect, such as recording meetings and sharing screens.

What’s great about Microsoft Teams is that you can use the search box to type in topics, names, or commands to find what you’re looking for.

Beyond the chat and conferencing tool, they also have Microsoft Teams Phone, which allows you to make internal calls. That said, you’ll need to pay for a specific domestic calling plan, an international calling plan, or a pay-as-you-go plan.

In comparison, Google Voice offers free calls to the US and Canada.

Verdict: Google Workspace because it’s intuitive and has more AI-driven features in Hangouts.

Security Measures

Security is one of the major concerns for small businesses when using cloud applications. Let’s see how Google Workspace and Office 365 protect the data you store on their cloud platforms.

Google Workspace Security Features

Google Workspace is built on top of Google’s cloud infrastructure and uses the same levels of security as Google itself. This includes automatic detection of suspicious activity, phishing attempts, and other hacking attempts.

As an administrator, Google allows you to set different policies to prevent unauthorized access to your admin console or any of the user accounts. You can use two-factor authentication and enforce it for all your users.

It also comes with a data leak protection feature where you can set keywords to block any outgoing communication. Google Workspace has built-in spam, virus, and malware detection, which scans all documents and attachments.

Office 365 Security Features

Office 365 features Microsoft Defender, a security app for the entire productivity suite.

It allows you to enable multiple-factor authentication for all user passwords. With multi-factor authentication, users need to provide more forms of authentication before accessing their accounts, compared to the two-factor option that Google Workspace offers.

The most common options are prompts via text message, mobile app notification, or authenticator app.

It also uses its own AI tools to learn each user’s work habits, detect suspicious activities, and flag them if something looks out of place. With the business plan, you get access to Microsoft Defender, a premium security solution that keeps your data secure.

Microsoft also offers extended support towards email authentication protocols such as 365 DMARC. This solution specifically protects against inbound phishing emails sent to your business domain. You can specify to email servers how to respond to emails sent from your domain that fail the authentication checks.

It includes a data loss prevention tool to protect against data theft and leaks. Using the device management tool, your organization can also restrict user access to company-issued devices.

Office 365 also uses Microsoft’s spam, virus, and malware detection tools to scan all documents, emails, and attachments.

Verdict: Office 365 because they offer multi-factor authentication protocols and advanced security analytics in higher-tiered plans. It’s suitable for enterprise businesses with strict security needs or those operating within highly regulated industries.

Customer Support

Google Workspace Customer Support

Unfortunately, Google doesn’t have a great reputation for customer support. It’s extremely hard to connect to a real person to resolve or troubleshoot issues you’re having with their products or tools.

Beyond that, Google only offers web-based support through live chat, help center, and their community.

The main problem with web support is that you must have an internet connection to receive help. While you can purchase enhanced support with Google Workspace, it’s only in their Enterprise plan.

Office 365 Customer Support

On the other hand, Office 365 doesn’t withhold support channels from its users regardless of the pricing plan. All plans offer online and 24/7 phone support. In addition, you get access to technical support for troubleshooting and implementation.

Verdict: Office 365 is best because it also offers phone support, even for the lowest tiers of service.

Google Workspace vs Office 365 – Which One Is Better?

Google Workspace is the better option for most people, including small to medium businesses and startups. Even a complete beginner can master apps like Docs, Sheets, Meet, and Calendar. You can set up everything in just a few clicks, and it’s easy to collaborate with team members.

Office 365 is more suitable for enterprise-level businesses where all employees work from an office using a Windows PC. Their desktop apps are top-notch, especially if you are in a Windows ecosystem.

This comparison is similar to Mac vs. PC or Apple vs. Android. Office 365 provides better functionality in many cases, but it’s much harder to use and learn. Google Workspace is easy to understand and much faster to set up.

We hope this article helped you compare Google Workspace vs. Office 365 to find out which one is better. You may also want to see our list of top WordPress plugins and tools for business websites, along with the best free business tools for small businesses.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post Google Workspace vs Office 365 Comparison – Which One Is Better? first appeared on WPBeginner.

In my years of experience building landing pages, I have learned that intelligent landing page optimization makes a real difference. Elements like social proof, videos, and animated headlines can grab user attention, clearly point them to your call to action, and boost conversions.

Today, I’ll share my advanced landing tips that make the biggest impact on landing page conversion rates.

I will cover quite a few topics in this post. Here’s a handy list so you can jump to the section you are most interested in:

1. Get a Head Start With Optimized Landing Page Templates

There’s a lot involved in creating a landing page optimized for conversions. You can get a head start by using a template that’s already optimized.

Many of the best WordPress page builder plugins offer pre-made landing page designs. These templates use the best practices in layout and design, saving you time and ensuring your landing page is optimized for conversions from the start.

They include all the essential elements for converting website visitors, such as call-to-action buttons, optin forms, pricing tables, testimonials, countdown timers, and more.

For example, SeedProd offers 350+ pre-built website kits and templates, Thrive Architect has 200+ predesigned layouts, and Beaver Builder has 170+ templates.

You will also want to customize the template to fit your branding and include persuasive copy.

For example, by starting with a SeedProd template, the OptinMonster team was able to build and customize a responsive page that suits their brand and style in just 30 minutes.

They incorporated many of the tips we cover below to increase their conversion rate by a massive 340%. They also improved their click-through rate (CTR) by 13.30% while reducing the cost per acquisition (CPA) by 47.20%.

2. Build Credibility Using Social Proof

Imagine you are visiting a landing page for a premium WordPress plugin, and you are not sure if it’s worth the money. Then, suddenly, you see positive testimonials from satisfied customers raving about how easy and effective the app is.

This is social proof, and it can instantly change your perspective. It acts as a positive nudge to increase visitors’ trust and make them more likely to sign up, purchase, or subscribe.

The WPStatistics landing page is a good example of how to leverage social proof. First, it states the number of websites using their plugin as evidence of their credibility.

Next, the landing page reinforces this social proof with more statistics about their plugin’s usage.

The plugin’s total number of downloads, number of active installs, and impressive average star rating are all clearly displayed.

The page also shows multiple testimonials written by customers who are satisfied with the plugin.

These testimonials explain why the reviewers find the plugin helpful, such as its ease of use, GDPR compliance, and useful features. They also display 5-star ratings.

Studies have found that 60% of consumers find user-generated content like this very authentic, which makes them highly convincing. In fact, landing pages with customer reviews or testimonials have conversion rates 67% higher than those without them.

Social proof is a powerful conversion tool because it speaks volumes without you having to say a word. The positive experiences of other users build trust, reduce risk perception, and increase conversions on your landing pages.

Finally, the Imagify landing page takes things one step further by animating the number of users.

Animation can effectively highlight important facts on your landing page. In this case, it gives the sense that the number of users is constantly increasing, which brings us to our next point.

3. Grab Attention With Animated Headlines

Animated headlines are another sure way to grab your visitors’ attention. A splash of movement can significantly increase user engagement and get them focused on your offer.

These dynamic text elements make your main message stand out, drawing visitors’ eyes to crucial information and increasing engagement. But make sure you keep the animation subtle – a little goes a long way.

The OptinMonster team used Seedprod’s Animated Headline Block to easily animate their heading.

They simply chose the text to animate, selected an animation style, and then adjusted the colors to match their branding.

You only have a few seconds to grab your visitors’ attention. In my opinion, animated headlines are some of the most effective ways to grab it fast.

4. Improve User Engagement Using Video

Video content is highly effective on landing pages and can increase conversions by as much as 86%. It allows you to explain your product or service in an engaging way without taking up a lot of space on the page.

That’s why the Jetpack landing page combines social proof with an explainer video explaining why the plugin is so popular and how it works.

Embedded video content is easy to add to a landing page and easy to watch on mobile devices.

Also, videos hold your visitors’ attention more effectively than written text. This encourages people to spend more time on your landing page, increasing your chance of conversions.

5. Incentivize Users With Scarcity Marketing

Have you ever procrastinated on a purchase because you weren’t in a hurry? Seeing the words ‘only 2 left in stock’ might be all the motivation you need to make a decision now.

This is scarcity marketing. It uses the limited quantity available to build anxiety and give procrastinating purchasers a strong reason to buy now. Because so many others have purchased the product, it can also increase its perceived value.

Many of my customers effectively use scarcity marketing techniques. Common strategies include notifying buyers of low stock, discounting a price ‘while stocks last’, offering limited edition products, and limiting the number of participants in a competition, webinar, or event.

Amazon uses scarcity marketing to increase conversions, and so can you. Notice in the screenshot below that they use the word ‘only’ to maximize the effect of scarcity. They are letting the customer know that if they don’t buy soon, then it may be too late. That’s hard to ignore!

6. Use Urgency Triggers to Motivate Action

Urgency is another popular way to trigger a sense of anxiety and incentivize users. It motivates users to act now by showing a limited amount of time before an opportunity runs out.

Time constraints like seasonal sales and limited-time deals encourage potential customers to make a decision more quickly.

You can maximize this sense of urgency by displaying a countdown timer on your landing page close to your call to action button. This lets visitors see how long they have left to claim the deal.

This is even more effective when the timer is clearly visible at the top of the landing page and positioned close to the call to action button.

By incorporating urgency triggers ethically and strategically, you can effectively nudge visitors toward conversion and significantly boost your landing page’s success.

For more ideas on how to do this, just see this guide on how to use FOMO on your website to increase conversions.

7. Engage Users by Adding Personalized Elements

I also recommend optimizing your landing page by tailoring its content for each user. Personalized content is more relevant and persuasive, making visitors feel understood and more likely to convert. In fact, it can boost conversions by 42%.

Imagine how much more engaging it can feel when you mention a customer by name, display prices in their currency, use location-specific words and phrases, and even personalize the call to action.

Many landing page builders also integrate with lead capture tools, allowing you to customize the page based on demographics, behavior, and purchase history. This lets you tailor your landing page’s headlines, images, and CTAs to speak directly to users’ needs and desires.

This personalized experience makes it more likely that people will engage with the page and take the desired actions, such as buying your product or subscribing to your newsletter.

My team has put together a helpful blog post on how to create personalized landing pages to boost conversions that will let you see what’s possible.

8. Reduce Friction With Multi-Step Forms

A complex landing page creates a psychological barrier. Visitors may feel discouraged or overwhelmed and give up before they complete the call to action.

That’s why I like to use multi-step forms to break down a complex process into smaller, more manageable chunks. This makes it easier for visitors to complete and increases the chances of them converting into leads or customers.

To help the user get started, you should start with questions that are easy to answer, such as basic contact information. You can then ask for additional details in subsequent steps, ending with a strong call to action (CTA).

You can make the form inviting by using a conversational tone so the user feels like they’re directly interacting with your business.

Displaying a completion bar will show the user’s progress through the steps. As they see themselves move closer to the finish, they will feel motivated to complete the remaining steps.

In essence, multi-step forms make the conversion process smoother, less intimidating, and more engaging for visitors, ultimately increasing conversions.

The best WordPress form plugins, like WPForms, let you easily create multi-page forms for your landing page.

You can learn more in this guide on how to create a multi-page form in WordPress.

I hope these insights help you improve your landing pages for more conversions. You may also want to see my guest post on the anatomy of a high-converting landing page or this expert pick of the best WordPress landing page plugins.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post 8 Advanced Landing Page Tips to Skyrocket WordPress Conversions first appeared on WPBeginner.

Wouldn’t it be great if you could attract more visitors from around the world to your website and increase traffic?

As the president of a popular WordPress SEO plugin, I’ve seen a growing trend toward the need for localization (adapting your content to a specific target audience) on websites and in online marketing.

I believe that many businesses can unlock tremendous potential by combining basic localization techniques with SEO best practices.

In this article, I will share proven international SEO tips that have helped me and many others, including entrepreneurs, marketers, and bloggers, to attract a global audience.

I will break down the article into step-by-step tips that you can use. If you want, you can also jump to a section by clicking the links below:

Why Target Global Audiences With International SEO?

As the president of one of the biggest WordPress SEO plugins on the market, I have customers from all over the world.

To earn these customers, my team ensures that All in One SEO can be translated easily (50+ languages and counting).

This is just one way to get more global customers, and there are plenty of ways that other businesses can do it.

Here are some of the benefits of targeting global audiences:

• More traffic: Anyone from anywhere can visit your website. Why limit yourself? Going international means your audience can explode in size.
• Understand broader customer needs: It’s not just about getting hits. It’s about understanding what different people need and want. This can help you tailor your content and marketing to convert more users.
• Boost engagement: When you speak someone’s language, literally and culturally, they’re more likely to listen. That means more shares, more sales, and more feedback.
• Stay ahead of competitors: Many businesses aren’t making the most of international SEO yet. Start now, and you’ll be steps ahead.

How to Target Users in Different Regions With International SEO

Over the years working in the SEO industry, I have learned that tiny changes in your SEO strategy can often lead to big and meaningful results.

One misconception about offering localized experiences is that it requires too much time and resources.

My experience has been totally different.

International SEO does require some effort, but it is quite easy, and the benefits are worth your time.

1. Choose Regions You Want to Target

Not all businesses and websites target international audiences.

However, for most websites, a huge chunk of visitors are coming from abroad, even when you are not specifically trying to reach any region in particular.

That’s not to say that you have to make your website available in every language. However, you can determine and target which languages and regions are the easiest low-hanging fruit.

The perfect tool for this is Google Analytics. It tracks your website visitors and shows you who they are, where they are coming from, and what they are interested in.

Many users have reported difficulty finding the reports they need in Google Analytics. I recommend that you use MonsterInsights, which is the best Google Analytics plugin for WordPress.

I use MonsterInsights because it makes Google Analytics so easy. You get all your important reports right inside the WordPress dashboard.

For instance, you get this ‘Top 10 Countries’ report showing where your visitors come from.

In this example screenshot, you can easily see countries where most people speak a language different than your website’s language.

You also see countries where users may speak the same language but have regional differences, such as currencies and cultural and geographical factors.

Reaching those customers by providing them with a more localized experience can bring in more users and revenue from these regions.

For more details, you can read this guide on how to track visitors to your WordPress website.

2. Translating Websites into Local Languages

Once you have found the regions you want to target, translating your website into local languages is the easiest way to offer a better user experience.

Only a decade ago, creating multilingual websites was not easy. However, now you have excellent tools and resources that make it a breeze.

The easiest way to serve multilingual content in WordPress is by using a WordPress translation plugin like WPML.

It is one of the best translation plugins for WordPress and allows you to create a multilingual WordPress website easily.

You can translate your website by yourself or outsource translations. It is not too expensive, and the quality of human translations is typically high.

WPML also offers AI-powered automatic translations on a pay-as-you-go basis. It is built using state-of-the-art language models from Microsoft, Google, and DeepL.

Alternatives: MultilingualPress and TranslatePress

What Should You Translate?

The big question that comes next is whether you should translate a select few pages or your entire website.

From an SEO point of view, here is how I see it:

Translating just a handful of pages means you’re missing out on ranking opportunities in other languages. Having a higher number of translated pages creates more chances to climb the search engine ladder.

Remember, internal linking is a major player in SEO. To make it work on a multilingual site, you need enough translated content to create meaningful links between pages.

So, my advice is: Go for a full site translation. This will boost your SEO and enhance the user experience, which search engines love.

3. Choose URL Structure

When offering different versions of a website to different regions, your WordPress translation plugin will ask you to choose a URL structure.

You can use any of the following URL structures:

• Subdomain URL structure (Example: https://en-uk.yourwebsite.com). The disadvantage of this method is that search engines consider subdomains to be individual websites. Your root domain will not benefit from this structure.
• Subdirectory URL structure (Example: https://yourwebsite.com/en-uk/) This URL structure takes advantage of your root domain’s authority and is good for rankings in many cases.
• Country-level domain names (Example: https://yourwebsite.co.uk). For this method, you will need to register domain names for each country you want to target. The advantage is that ranking in a country with a local domain name is easier. The disadvantage is that this will be treated as a standalone website with little benefit to your main domain name.
• Language parameter in URL (Example: https://yourwebsite.com/?lang=en-gb). This method is not recommended because it makes it difficult for you to manage URLs and for users to realize they are seeing a geo-targeted page version.

In my opinion, a subdirectory URL structure offers the most SEO benefits for small businesses. It is also easier to manage and set up redirects.

4. Keyword Research

Keyword research is the technique used by SEO experts and marketers to find the search terms their target audience is using.

It applies to international SEO as well.

For example, while your website might rank for “Sneakers” in the United States, in the UK, your customers could be searching for “Trainers,” and in Canada, they might use the term “Runners.”

You can see this in action on the Nike website. It has highly optimized pages for ‘Trainers’ on the Nike U.K. store, ‘Sneakers’ on the Nike U.S. store, and ‘Shoes’ on Nike India.

You can select countries while doing your keyword research to find the search volume.

I recommend using SEOBoost for keyword research. It is an all-in-one tool for on-page SEO and keyword research.

Simply enter your main keyword and then select the region you want to target.

It will generate a comprehensive analysis of search rankings, content analysis, and what you need to outrank the competition.

Alternative Tools: Semrush, LowFruits, WPBeginner Keyword Generator

If you haven’t done keyword research before, then you may find WPBeginner’s keyword research tutorial a solid starting point.

5. Optimizing Pages for Multi-Regional SEO

I have seen many businesses beating the competition with effective on-page optimization.

This becomes even more important if you are offering multilingual content targeting different regions.

This is where your WordPress SEO plugin comes in handy.

You will need an SEO plugin like All in One SEO, which helps you optimize each page with different SEO titles and descriptions.

Aside from the copy on your page, post, or product content, you will need to pay attention to SEO settings.

Depending on which translation plugin you are using, you can edit the SEO settings in the translation editor. For example, here is the WPML translation editor, where the AIOSEO settings are highlighted.

Ensure you optimize each page for the focus keyword you chose for that region.

Basically, you will repeat the steps to optimize your blog posts for SEO but for a different locale and region.

Submit Multilingual Sitemaps

Once you have started translating your content into other languages, you need to tell search engines about the translated content.

The best way to do this is with XML sitemaps. These documents tell search engines about all the content on your website, which makes it easier for them to crawl and rank your posts and pages.

If you are using All in One SEO for WordPress, then you can go to the AIOSEO » Sitemaps page to configure sitemaps.

All in One SEO replaces the default WordPress XML sitemaps with advanced features. It automatically includes all your translated content in your sitemaps and even supports RSS, video, news, and HTML sitemaps.

After that, you can go ahead and submit your sitemap to Google Search Console.

Create Multilingual Landing Pages and Homepages

Unfortunately, many businesses often overlook their landing and home pages when thinking about regional user experience.

Including cultural references and location-specific content on your pages can help with conversions. However, overlooking these elements may cause your landing and home pages for different regions to be less effective in converting traffic into customers.

I recommend creating pages using a page builder like SeedProd. It is a beginner-friendly WordPress page builder with an intuitive drag-and-drop design tool.

This way, you can easily create duplicate landing pages and translate them. You can also create separate home pages for different regions.

Basically, this approach significantly reduces the amount of work required without compromising on conversions.

6. Redirecting Users to Regional Content

In my experience, a personalized user experience is great for conversions. For that reason, you might be considering automatically sending users to content made for their region and language.

That’s a big NO!

Google and other search engines discourage setting up automatic redirects for translated versions of your website by detecting users’ IP addresses or cookies.

This is because automatic redirects may stop search bots from crawling all versions of your site and prevent users from viewing content they originally found.

Instead, it’s better to set up a language or region switcher for your multilingual and multi-region content. This will inform users that the content is available in their language or region and give them an opportunity to switch.

Note: All top WordPress translation plugins come with language switchers.

What About Manual Redirects?

In some cases, you may need to set up manual redirects. For instance, if you change the URL structure from a subdomain to a directory URL.

These types of redirects may be necessary because the old URL structure would result in 404 errors.

You can use the All in One SEO redirection manager to set those redirects. It lets you set up site redirects and use REGEX to save time.

Alternatively, you can use the free Redirection plugin to set up redirects. For instructions, see how to set up redirects in WordPress.

7. Let Google Know About Different Versions

Google is pretty good at detecting content in different languages and showing it to users in those regions. However, I still recommend explicitly telling search engines about the language or region of your content.

This can be done using the hreflang HTML tag. Most WordPress translation plugins will automatically add that to the header of your site. It is a tiny string that looks like this:

Why Is It Important?

Let’s say you have three versions of a page, all in English, but they show prices in regional currencies.

The content of those pages may appear quite similar to search engines and could be considered duplicate content.

By adding the hreflang tag to the HTML code, you tell search engines about the different versions of the page to avoid duplicate content.

I hope this article helps you attract a more global audience with your international SEO strategy. You may also want to check out whether AI content is bad for SEO or look at these case studies of websites that doubled their traffic in 6 months.

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The post How to Get More Global Visitors (WordPress International SEO Tips) first appeared on WPBeginner.