Building Global Authority: An International Link Building Strategy
Client: An established US-based B2B e-commerce store selling industrial parts.
Challenges We Faced
The client’s new UK and Australian sites (/uk/ and /au/) were technically sound but had zero authority and were invisible:
Weak Local Authority
Their US site had a DR of 70, but their /uk/ and /au/ subfolders were stuck at DR 10 and had no ranking power.
US Site Ranking Abroad
Google.co.uk was ranking their US (/) site instead of their localized /uk/ site because it had more authority (even with correct hreflang tags).
No Niche-Local Links
A Comprehensive International SEO Audit found their /uk/ site had zero backlinks from any .co.uk domains.
Low International Leads
They were getting no new B2B “quote requests” from the UK or Australia.
No Local Trust Signals
The international subfolders lacked region-specific citations, partnerships, case studies, and local mentions, giving Google no confidence that those sites were truly relevant to UK or AU buyers.
Build Your Global Authority
“Is your US site outranking your local sites? Our International Link Building services build the local authority you need to rank in every country.”
Our Approach – How We Solved These Challenges
International Link Building
This was the core. We launched a 12-month global e commerce seo services campaign to build high-authority links from UK-based and AU-based industrial, manufacturing, and business blogs.
Competitor Analysis
We used Ahrefs to analyze the backlink profiles of their local UK and AU competitors to find link opportunities.
E-commerce Content Localization
We slightly modified their “solution” pages to include UK/AU-specific case studies, terminology (e.g., “lorry” vs. “truck”), and social proof.
Technical SEO (Hreflang)
We double-checked that their hreflang tags were correct to ensure the new link equity was supporting the right pages.
Results
| Metric | Before | After | Growth |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ahrefs URL Rating (for /uk/ subfolder) | UR 15 | UR 42 | +180% |
| Niche-Local Links (from .co.uk domains) | 2 | 45% | +2150% |
| Organic “Quote Request” Leads (from UK) | 3/mo | 30/mo | +900% |
Free International Link Audit
“Not sure why your international sites aren’t ranking? Request a Free Link Audit and let our global e commerce seo services team find the gaps!”
Advice for Marketers & Brand Owners
- International Link Building is essential. You must build local links to your local pages to build local authority.
- Your US site’s authority will not automatically transfer to your international pages. You must build authority in each market.
- Use Ahrefs to find and replicate your local competitors’ backlinks.
- Local links are a powerful signal to Google that your /uk/ page is the most relevant result for a UK searcher, finally allowing it to outrank your US page.
Extra Factors That Made It Work
- The International Link Building campaign was the key to signaling local relevance to Google.
- Using local case studies and terminology (E-commerce Content Localization) on the /uk/ page increased conversion rates.
- Our outreach team secured links from several major UK manufacturing publications.
