Geo-Targeted SEOLocal & International SEO

AgendaOverview

Why geo-target your results?How to people see local results?

Optimizing WebsitesOrganic ResultsUniversal Search ResultsMap ResultsLocal Directories

Measuring ResultsSummary

OverviewA brief background

Why Geo-Target Results?The obvious:

Many customers look for products & services in their local area.Properly segmentize market with specific local marketing offers to increase conversions.

Search engines:Search engines do not have the exact same results in different cities within a country, nor are they the same in different countries.

International SEOSelling Global

Selling to the world. You business is not necessarily located in different countries.

Going InternationalMore of a localized approach within different countries. (International where your business is located in “Inter-Nations”)

Performs better in international SEO.

Searching within the different search engine’s

country /language versions.

International SEO ConsiderationsTechnical

Language settings & configurations, ISO language codes, ccTLDs, IPs & hosting, link partners, etc.

Marketing & WritingTranslation is extremely important.Automated translations will not work.

SEO

TechnicalKnowledge

Writing SkillsMarketing Knowledge

International Marketing BlundersPepsi

US: Pepsi brings you back to life.China:

Come alive out of the grave with Pepsi.Pepsi will bring your ancestors back from the dead.Bring dead ancestors back from heaven.

International Marketing BlundersClairol

US: Mist StickGermany: Mist is a slang term for TAE!!! As in kadiri, stick ng tae!

ElectroluxScandinavian Manufacturer of Vacuum CleanerUS printed brochures: Nothing sucks like an Electrolux!

Good International Localization ExamplesBerliner Stadtreinigungsbetriebe

Company in Germany. The company name translated means: Berlin City Cleaning Services.The German word kehr means sweep.

McDonaldsAustria: Not every country knows what a drive thru is.

Content Translation

LiteralSource text is

translated into the nearest equivalent of the target language.

Modified LiteralTranslation follows the

grammatical rules of the target language, but is still

literal. If used wrong, it may fail to correctly express the meaning of the source text.

IdiomaticPreserves the meaning of

the source text and expresses it in a natural

way in the target language.

Unduly freeTranslation is too "loose"

and strays from the meaning of the source

text.

International Search Engines

62%

77%

62%60%

57%

How do people see local results?Organic Results

w/ Geographic Keywordsw/out Geographic Keywords

Embedded ResultsMap ResultsLocal Directories

Conventional SEO & Local SEOConventional SEO Local SEO

Plain Search Engine Results Local Search Engine Results

Not only title, description and URL. Aside from a map, this also has:• reviews of various sites• star ratings • address• phone number• and websites are optional.

Map WebsitesBenj, nawawala tayo,

i-MapQuest mo nga.

42.2 Million Unique Visitors

41.5 Million Unique Visitors

JANUARY 2009JAN 2008 TO SEP 2008Map Website Main Players

OCTOBER 2011

Source: TMP Directional Marketing/ComScore http://searchengineland.com/relying-on-print-yellow-pages-most-local-customers-turn-to-the-web-15082

Online Search Higher thanPrint Yellow Pages starting 2008

Increase in Local Search Queries

Source: TMP Directional Marketing/ComScore http://searchengineland.com/relying-on-print-yellow-pages-most-local-customers-turn-to-the-web-15082

Local Search Drives Action

“aerial companies naples fl”

“facilities maintenance and construction companies in florida”

“building maintenance companies naples florida”

“water leak specialist naples,fl”“below grade waterproofing florida”

“naples general contractors”

Increase in Long Tail Queries

Mobile Search Integration Opportunity

Best ROI in Local Segment MarketingMarketingSherpa shared that SEO had the best ROI among all marketing strategies targeting local segment compared to:

Email MarketingPPCDirect MailPROnline Advertising (banners)Print Advertising.

Local Optimization of Websites

Organic, maps, Internet yellow pages

Geo-Targeted SEO: Organic ResultsOnPage SEO

Creatively use your geographic location keyword in your onpage elements

Title TagMeta DescriptionHeading TagsMain ContentInternal Links

Always remember PandaIf it look unnatural, it’s probably bad. Remember do not overdo it.

OffPage SEOGet links from websites targeting the local area or country you are targeting.Use your location keyword in the anchor text.Good sites to look for:

Local directoriesNiche industry directories with a location categoryIndustry related local organizationsProper ccTLDs for international websites.

Local Maps SubmissionsGoogle Places

http://www.google.com/places/

Yahoo Local Listingshttp://listings.local.yahoo.com/

Bing Business Listingshttp://www.bing.com/businessportal

Mapquesthttp://listings.mapquest.com/apps/listing

General GuidelinesMake your profile as complete as possible.When choosing a category, use pre-existing local categories, instead of creating new ones.Always use the opportunity to add images and videos to your profile if allowed.For all happy customers of a company listing, proactively ask them to add a positive review on these map listings.

More Local OnPage SEODedicated website or page per location.Avoid duplicate content or even similar content.Use the <address> tag.Use schema.org markup for rich snippets. Not only for location and contact information but also for reviews and ratings.Use a standard phone number format. (123)123-1234Have the location address on every page. This can be added to the footer.

More Local OffPage SEOAside from links, Google pays attention to citations.Any mention of the company name, and address, phone and all other contact information is a citation.

Local DirectoriesBlogs, Press ReleasesForum PostSocial Media

Off Page Link Building / Citation BuildingPrimary Data ProvidersSubmissions to Review SourcesSubmissions to Local & Industry-Specific DirectoriesParticipating in Local Online Community (Local Blog Topics)IP Address Location

InfoUSAAcxiomSuperpages.comCitysearch.comYellowpages.comLocalizeInsiderpages.comYelp.comMerchantcircle.comUniversal Business ListingLocal.comTrueLocal.com

CitySearchYelpInsiderPagesSuperPagesTripAdvisorMerchantCircleMSN/LiveLocal.comAsk.com

IP Address Location – A minor effect but…Site you are optimizingWhere you are getting links from

I have rarely seen a major effect from IP address for sites hosted in the US targeting another country.I have seen a major effect in a site hosted in Canada that needed to target the US.

International SEO – TLDs and ccTLDsIt is best to use country code top level domains of the countries you wish to rank in. This helps ranking in the respective country level Google versions.

International SEO – Subdomains vs. FoldersA ccTLD is best, but if this is not available, or the company just does not want to use it, you are left with subdomains or folders.From a ranking point of view, subdomains are more ideal than folders.It is easier to create separate robots.txt entries, XML sitemaps, and other location specific settings separate from the other pages.

example.co.uk

uk.example.com

example.com/uk

International SEO – Language vs. LocationIt is best to prioritize location over language in URL structure.Languages can be set in folders. And countries are either it’s own ccTLD or a subdomain.

example.ca/enexample.ca/fr

ca.example.com/enca.example.com/fr

International SEO – Duplicate ContentTwo different countries with the same or even different language may run into duplicate content issues for pages with the exact same or similar content.ccTLDs helps inform search engines that the other versions are targeted for other countries.Last Sept 9, 2010, Google announced the alternate Link tag will help resolve this issue.

<link rel="alternate" hreflang="en" href="http://example.co.uk" />

<link rel="alternate" hreflang="en" href="http://example.com" />

In the examples above, ccTLDs would be preferred.The hreflang values are based on the ISO 639-1 language codes.

International SEO – Language <html> and Meta TagsUse two letter language code for <html> tag and meta tags

<html lang="fr" xml:lang="fr" xml ns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" />

<meta http-equiv="Content-Language" content="fr" />

These tags specifically help search engines identify the local nature of the webpage and help assign the pages to specific geographic locations.

Resource:ISO two letter country codes

Measuring ResultsProving Success

Web AnalyticsEvery web analytics platform runs differently.

Google AnalyticsOmnitureWebTrends

What do you want to track to determine local SEO effectiveness?

Segmentizing incoming traffic by:

Local landing pagesGeographic identifiers in keywords.Use Custom Variables to segmentize automatically.

SummaryTrying to put everything in a nutshell

SummaryLocal search has show us not only is it very targeted, it has been increasing in popularity/usage and has a high amount of conversion.

Learn how to track your success by properly segmentizing your data.

When doing local SEO, you are basically doing the following:

Onpage ranking factors, mainly using the location keywords, and some basic code changes.Offpage linking from locally relevant sites.Increasing citations from other websites mentioning your address and phone numbers.Submissions to Maps and other local directories.

Questions?Thank you.

Benj Arriolawww.linkedin.com/in/benjarriolawww.facebook.com/benjarriolawww.twitter.com/benjarriola

InternetMarketingIncwww.internetmarketinginc.comwww.internetmarketinginc.com/blog/

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