In the face of AI chatbots emerging as a viable means to information and all of our answers, it s tempting for businesses to ignore a tried and tested route of receiving traffic to their business websites – Search Engine Optimisation. However, it is too early for companies to draw down their investments into SEO, despite the fact that the future of the traditional blue links on search engine results pages seems uncertain.
Traditional search engines are still prevalent among internet users in Europe. Of the 203 million users, many consumers actively use search engines to navigate the internet. Moreover, with the number of internet users expected to grow to 215 million users by 2027, it is expected that the number of search users will increase. And with it, the number of potential customers for businesses in Europe.
Despite the roll-out of AI and its integration into search engines and our smart devices, it is expected that the results that search engines produce will link back to websites. Nurturing a strong internet presence through SEO is still essential for attracting customers to your web resources. An effective SEO strategy focusing on your target market in Europe can improve your brand recognition and give you a competitive advantage in a very competitive market.
Moreover, SEO is still a cost-effective marketing option for businesses in Europe, whether large or small. Compared to other marketing avenues, making an effort to rank highly on search engines places your website on an enviable list of thousands, and sometimes millions, of potential buyers.
Finally, investing in SEO also ensure your website provide the best user experience. Part of SEO is dedicated to UX optimisation, ensuring your website is usable on mobile phones, fast, and reliable. As such, have an SEO optimised site bodes well for retaining users, which, in turn, improves the bottom line of businesses in Europe.
Knowing that SEO is important for businesses in Europe, how do you go about it if you’re a European business? Let’s dive in!
How to do SEO Right in Europe
#1: Understand Your Target Audience
For businesses to maximise the return on investment from their SEO effort, they should build their efforts on a solid foundation. That means understanding their target audience. A good place to start is to understand which search engine to target.
On a wider scale, Google is the dominant force in the European search engine market, with an over 91% market share in 2023 and 2024 (https://www.statista.com/statistics/1386805/search-engines-market-share-all-devices-europe/), followed by Bing and Yandex.
However, your target market might use a different mix of search engines. For instance, in the Czech Republic, Seznam is a popular search engine. In Norway, Bing is a popular search engine, especially among the older generation of internet users.
#2: Localise Your Content
For many, their first intuition is to focus on the issue of language in their content optimisation efforts. There is a good reason for this. Europe has 50 countries with many different languages. There are 23 official languages in the European Union, with many more in the wider continent. However, the issue of language is also nuanced.
Take the Netherlands as an example. Its official language is Dutch. However, within its population, many people also communicate in Frisian. Another example is Belgium, which has three official languages – Dutch, French, and German. Moreover, there are nuances in the Dutch, French, and German spoken in Belgium. In Spain, the official language is Castilian Spanish. However, Basque, Catalan, and Galician are also widely spoken in some parts.
As such, as an SEO, you need to understand the language of your target market, and its nuances as part of your localisation efforts. For businesses in Belgium, use Belgium-specific dialects of German, Dutch, and French to create your content, depending on the dominant language in your target geography.
Localise the keywords, meta-tags, and content to ensure it resonates with the audience. For local businesses, weaving in region-specific language variations will enhance trust among your target audience while improving the visibility of their content.
In the same vein, localise your content to suit local cultures and preferences.
As you can imagine, using a single language will not suffice. You need multilingual optimisation of your website to communicate effectively with as large of your audience as possible. Obviously, your content should be offered in as many languages as possible in Europe, depending on your target audience.
If your target audience and market is France, where the entire country speaks French only, you can make do with just one language. However, if your target market is Belgium, Switzerland, and other countries with more than one language, you should multilingually optimise your website for better communication and to gain trust with your market.
#3: Conduct Focused Keyword Research
You need to conduct keyword research while focusing on the local target audience. A strong content plan should be developed only after understanding the region-specific keywords used in the target location.
#4: Build Local Links
Link building is still an essential part of SEO. However, in the context of Europe-specific SEO, you need to build links that are relevant to your niche. The links should preferably emanate from websites within your target market. You can get local links by guest posting for local blogs and business websites.
#5: Comply With General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
Complying with GDPR is essential for businesses to operate in Europe. Businesses must ensure their web properties adhere to the GDPR guidelines, especially if they collect consumer data for tracking and marketing purposes.
#6: Domain Optimisation
If you intend to target a specific country such as the UK or Ireland as your market, using a country code top-level domain (such as .ie or .co.uk for companies targeting the UK and Ireland markets only) is advantageous according to Del SEO Dublin. However, suppose you’re targeting several countries in Europe. In that case, it is better to use top-level domains (TLDs), better known as dot-com domains, with subdirectories targeting different languages, countries, or both. For instance, you can have:
example.com/fr
example.com/en
example.com/es
example.com/de
Such a domain and URL structure will consolidate your domain authority into one web property, ensuring you maximise your ROI on your SEO investment.
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