international seo strategies
Post on 18-Aug-2015
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International SEO RoadmapIntroduction
1
When you're looking at your site traffic and you realize that a good share of your visitors are either coming from other
countries or speak other languages, it might be time to think about international SEO (which is essentially
geotargeting).
Moving into new territories and categories is a radical strategy that can create major potential for incremental
business growth. To succeed, it requires a precise understanding of market dynamics, consumer behavior and the
competitive landscape of the specific markets that you target.
In this presentation, we’ll discuss an international SEO roadmap to help you manage a campaign with a multi-national
or multi-lingual target audience and identify an upselling opportunity for an existing client.
IDENTIFY TARGET OPTIMIZE PROMOTE MEASURE
International SEO RoadmapIdentify: Your International Seo Potential
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Validate your client’s company characteristics from an
international perspective:
Review your client’s existing web content & development
structure (can they support a new website development
project if necessary?), digital marketing goals, business
model, company operations, geography, cultural & language
factors, pricing & currency factors.
These are some questions you might ask yourself:
Ecommerce: Can my client offer international shipping and accept payment in international currencies?
Lead Generation/B2B: Can brand representatives support communication in multiple languages (demos, ‘contact us now’)?
Location-Based (Brick & Mortar Locations): Does my client’s business model support international expansion?
Brand: Can my client’s product/goods be distributed to other countries? (Manufacturer versus Distributor)
International SEO RoadmapIdentify: Your International Seo Potential
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Take into consideration your current site International activity:
Segment by country/language: Identify visits, conversions & conversion rates. Is there a t rend? Ident i fy most popular/h ighest converting pages/products. Traffic sources, channels, & device types. Use Google Analytics.
Identify your site current international search visibility:
Segment by Country/Language: Identify impressions, clicks & CTR. Is there a trend? Identify top queries, pages and current ranking keywords. Use Google Webmaster’s Tools, SEMRush, & BrightEdge.
Total Revenue By Country
$0
$40,000
$80,000
$1,731.50
$8,002.46
$14,882.41
$43,744.16
$1,841,950.32
United States Canada Australia UK Germany
Analyze Current
SEO Activity & Visibility
ORGANIC KEYWORDS RANKING (CANADA)
KEYWORD POSITION VOLUME
colorful socks 3 40
cool socks 13 480
funky socks 40 390
fancy socks 28 210
crazy socks 93 210
International SEO RoadmapIdentify: Your International Seo Potential
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Research your international industry search activity:
Search engines (Google? Baidu? Yahoo?) Country & language (what of multiple language speaking countries?). Devices. Competitors. Search terms, volume, trend & seasonality. Use Google Trends, Wikipedia, SEMRush, BrightEdge, Google Keyword Planner.
Top Search Engine
4%
8%
88%
GoogleBingOther
First Language
17%
23% 60%
EnglishFrenchOther
Use Google Trendsto identify consumer search demand
International SEO RoadmapTarget: Your International Search Audience
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Set your International Target:
Country Target if your visitors location is a factor that influence your site operations and there are enough potential traffic and conversions per country. If not, language target.
Because of the differences in local dialects, i.e. “cell phone” in the US versus “mobile” in Australia, or “color” in the US versus “colour” in the UK - it is recommended to country target for optimal results.
Understand your International Audience behavior & characteristics:
Demographic characteristics, cultural factors, online buying preferences. Use tools and studies like TNS Digital life, ComsCore data mine and Google Consumer Barometer.
How does this country’s behavior differ from users in the US?
Studies on Consumer Behavior can Drive your SEO Strategy
International SEO RoadmapTarget: Your International Search Audience
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Identify & Research your International Competitors:
Most popular products & content (Competitor Content Analysis), identify their ranking keywords, unique selling proposition, weaknesses & strengths, other marketing activities, online community. Use Alexa, BrightEdge, SpyFu, SimilarWeb, SEMRush, Buzzsumo, Open Site Explorer and Majestic SEO.
Define your International SEO Strategy:
With the previously identified information you can set the best SEO strategy, the keywords & pages to promote and define goals to target for each International market.
Identify Top Performing Competitor Marketing Initiatives
International SEO RoadmapOptimize: Develop An Internationally Optimized Site
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Make your International content indexable with its own Web structure:
Don't use cookies or scripts to show it t h r o u g h t h e s a m e U R L ( U R L Parameters).
Enable a specific Web structure for each country or language:
• For country targeting: ccTLDs, Sub- Directories or Sub-Domains to target each country.
• For language targeting: Sub- Directories or Sub-Domains to target each language.
STRUCTURE EX. PROS CONS
Country- Specific (recommended for single
country campaigns)example.ie
Clear geotargeting Server location irrelevant Easy separation of sites
Authority does not pass between domains without the use of links
SEO efforts are therefore increased greatly for every new ccTLD used
Requires more infrastructure Strict ccTLD requirements (sometimes)
Subdomains with GTLDs de.example.com
Easy to set up Can use Webmaster Tools
Geotargeting Allows different server locations
Easy separation of sites
Users might not recognize geotargeting from the URL alone
Authority does not flow (to any significant level) between subdomains.
Subdirectories with GTLDs
(recommended for multi-country/multi-lingual
campaigns)
example.com/de/
Easy to set up Can use Webmaster Tools
Geotargeting Low maintenance (same host) One domain means one SEO
campaign; building authority to the one country directory will
have a positive, indirect impact on other countries.
Users might not recognize geotargeting from the URL
Single server location Seperation of sites harder
URL Parameters (Dynamic Serving Content URLs)
site.com?loc=de Not recommended
URL-based segmentation difficult Users might not recognize geotargeting fro the
URL alone Geotargeting in Webmaster Tools is not possible
The website structure will largely depend on the client’s business model, country/languages we are targeting, and budget/scope of the SEO campaign. Some countries have very strict ccTLD making it hard to go this route. Others have a low amount of internet users and can cause issues obtaining links from other ccTLD’s.
International SEO RoadmapOptimize: Develop An Internationally Optimized Site
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Localize / translate your International Website:
• Titles, meta descriptions, headings, navigation, text content and images, URLs, prices, currency, delivery information, etc.
• Managers/Analysts will be connected with native speakers to avoid translation mistakes and make the website attractive for the targeted market.
• Internationalized domain names can be tricky: It might be better to transliterate for non-ASCII characters (the process of exchanging non-Latin characters for similar-looking letters in the Latin alphabet) depending on the search volume of keyword phrases.
www.düesseldorf.de Versus www.duesseldorf.de
International SEO RoadmapOptimize: Develop An Internationally Optimized Site
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Make your International Web versions easily findable:
Featuring a visible and crawlable menu and by suggesting your International versions when they're relevant, not automatically redirecting users.
Indicate your pages language and country targeting:
• Through hreflang annotations: Whether in your HTMLs head area or through your XML sitemaps. Use the Media Flow hreflang tool to add them in your XML sitemap. Verify hreflang tags in the International Targeting section in GWT.
• You can also specify the "content-language" meta tag or html "lang", used by Bing.
• Additionally, if you're country targeting and using a gTLD, use search engines Webmaster Tools geolocation feature.
Example of an language annotations using the HTML link element in the header
International SEO RoadmapPromote: Grow Your International Search Popularity
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Research your international competitors link building strategies:
Identify their link sources and the existing popularity gap.
• Link volume, sources & types. Linked content. Link quality vs. quantity. Link trend over time. Social Activity & Profile.
• Keep in mind than competition is usually lower than in the US and algorithmic Google updates take much longer to impact international Google search engines.
• Use Buzzsumo, Open Site Explorer, MajesticSEO, Search Metrics, Link Risk, Social Crawlytics, and Ahrefs.
International SEO RoadmapPromote: Grow Your International Search Popularity
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Research your international audience profile:
Identify their behavior and characteristics to be able to connect with them.
• Favorite content topics & formats. Most popular social networks. Favorite media & blogs. Industry influencers.
• Use Followerwonk, Topsy, Simply Measured and Google Trends.
Identify competitors top influencers by geo-location (Followerwonk)
International SEO RoadmapPromote: Grow Your International Search Popularity
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Create & promote useful and easy to consume assets to connect and build popularity among your International audience:
• Learn to leverage local sites & cultural factors. Track the response behavior in different countries. Build a relationship with local influencers & media. Identify what works better in each country to scale.
I.E. Infographic distribution has a longer placement cycle outside the US
• Analysts will be paired with an experienced native speaking link builder/local agency for manual outreach & strategy in non-English language SEO campaigns.
• Use GroupHigh, BuzzStream, Link Prospector, CognitiveSEO, Ontolo, Outreachr, Link Risk, Google Alerts.
International SEO RoadmapPromote: Grow Your International Search Popularity
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Align your company's activities for link building:
Your current product, content, marketing and even, operations activities to connect with your international audience.
Learn quick, be constant to become an authority:
Win the popularity race against your competitors by learning quick to connect with your audience, optimizing and being constant with your link building actions to become an authority in your international industries.
Don’t forget that you can still target low-hanging fruit for clients that already have an international presence:
*Nofollow links – turn non-equity to equity passing links *Optimize anchor text of links *Common/Non-common Linking sites among competitors *Convert brand mentions to links *Broken links – find links for your site and competitors to get them to link to your site
International SEO RoadmapMeasure: Your International Seo Activity
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Track your International Web presence independently:
Set each Web version in Webmaster tools & rank tracking software for the relevant search engine. Enable profiles for sub-directories & sub-domains in Google Analytics. Create independent properties for each ccTLD.
Research your search visibility, performance & visitors behavior to make decisions:
Gather, segment and analyze the relevant metrics for each international Web version:
• Keywords & pages. Language, location, device & sources of traffic. Rankings, visits, conversions.
• Pay special attention to currency settings, cross-domain tracking, country & language traffic alignment.
Use BrightEdge, WebCeo, ClientSEO Reports.
For Ecommerce please note that Google Analytics does not support all local currencies. In some cases, ecommerce data
will be inaccurate.
International SEO RoadmapA Few Things To Look Out For:
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Opportunity Broadcasting for International SEO - one-sheeter template to upsell international SEO to existing clients
Finalized International SEO Deliverables & Audit
Advanced International SEO Keyword Research Workshop
Baidu & Yandex Ranking Factors Discussion
Questions? Please Contact Me!
Mariel Martinez
SEO Manager
Wpromote
mariel@wpromote.com
310. 321.4095 Direct
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