International SEO Strategy
Hello,
I am looking into an SEO strategy to launch a website targeting english speakers in South America. (Not all, about 6 specific countries with languages inc: Spanish, Portugese, English).
Product: online learning course in English language. Target: South America, english speaking potential students
Based on the language and cultural diversity throughout South America, as well as resources involved to create multiple ccTLD websites I am opting for a generic TLD (.lat or .com) with subfolders for country targeting (website.lat/br, website.lat/ar, website.lat.pe etc). I intend to create separate properties for each subdirectory in Google Search Console to use the geotargeting feature and use HREFLANG tags for en-br, en-ar, en-pe etc to avoid duplicate content.
Each of the subdirectories will have localised content but it will all be in English. Do you think this is likely going to work? I understand it is not ideal for SEO performance but given resources and requirements seems to be the best option.
Or would it be better to just stick to a generic TLD (website.lat) and have one english version without any geo targeting?
Thank you, Koo
Thanks for your reply @seolman
The choice to do geo-targeting really depends on how diverse the markets are. If a page written for Peru won't attract potential students from Argentina, you may have no choice but to create specific targeted pages for each region.
I optimize English language websites for businesses within Latin America seeking clients from the US and Europe, so it's a bit different than your concept. However, some of these businesses also have/seek local clients. In such cases, having links from local (in country) English language websites has been critical to our success in gaining good rankings on searches conducted in country.