Geotargeting is one of the first things to come into the mind when we talk about international SEO. Its proper implementation holds huge importance for bringing traffic from international audience.
The factors like domain, hosting, localization, hreflang and IP detection are usually discussed in the context of technical SEO. But then, the websites are not created for search engines. These are created to reach to the audience that consumes content.
When we talk about global websites, we usually hope to reach and interact with the audience from different nations. And so, there are laws and regulations which the website owners need to take into consideration.
Proper compliance with the rules and regulations and keeping in focus the interests and behaviors of the audiences in different localities make the global website management quite an uphill task. Moreover, it certainly remains to be a challenge for the global websites to stay competitive against the local websites.
Data & Privacy-Related Laws & Regulations
It is not going to be possible listing all of the laws and regulations which need to be followed in different countries around the world. Nevertheless, the two most important set of laws and regulations for website owners include:
- Privacy and Data Protection
- Website Accessibility
Policy, law, guidance or any other type of conditions can be different for different regions, countries and/or states.Some regulations are applied to all of the websites while most of the others are applied to the websites that have specific scopes such as Government and Public Sectors.
European Union (EU)
The most talked about set of regulations for privacy and data protection is the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).GDPR regulates the use of personal data by an individual, company, or an organization.
In California
The state of California has passed a regulation law which is known as California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). Many of the companies expect other states to pass such resolutions in the future. Some of the sites have started showing cookie consent message to the users.
In Japan
Japan passed Act on the Protection of Personal Information in 2005. This document was amended in 2016. And it came into full force since 2017. This act authorizes websites to post a privacy policy along with other requirements.
It has also become a requirement for the e-commerce sites to post information stated by Commercial Transactions Law. It doesn’t matter if your Japanese website is being managed in the US. As long as it meets these regulations, there should not be an issue.
