your first steps in conducting a successful international seo strategy

Your First Steps in Conducting a Successful International SEO strategy

Phil Amery@fimrephilamery.com

14th october 2014

How popular is SEO today?

Conclusions:

■ it’s still present■ reached its maximum

potential■ stagnates rather than

falls

What happened?

■ Pingvin, Panda, Caffeine, Hummingbird etc...

■ dynamic SERPs■ marketing automation■ auto triggered email

campaigns■ priority of user

behaviors

SEO | search engine optimization

SEO search trends (US)

What value can SEO offer? 1/2

Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) ■ the highest value customers arrive through organic searches (54% higher than average)

■ proves to be most loyal customers

Custora 2013: ■ 72 mill customers ■ 86 ecommerce sites ■ 14 topics

What value can SEO offer? 2/2

Acquisition channel growth ■ nearly 16% of customers acquired through organic search, exceeding all other channels like CPC, Email or social media channels

Custora 2013: ■ 72 mill customers ■ 86 ecommerce sites ■ 14 topics

Your International SEO steps and strategy

1. Current site performance

(optional)

2. Market research

3. Piloting your products / services

4. Secure your brand

5. Localized keyword research

6. Competitive research

7. Multilanguage & country targeting

1. Current site performance - Google Analytics

Google Analytics Geo-Location Performance Report

Your International SEO steps and strategy

Your International SEO steps and strategy

1. Current site performance - Google Analytics

Google Analytics: User Language Report

Your International SEO steps and strategy

1. Current site performance - Google Webmaster Tools

Pinpointing opportunities:

■ high nr. of impressions■ average rankings too

high ■ zero clicks (no traffic)

Your International SEO steps and strategy

1. Current site performance (optional)

2. Market research

3. Piloting your products / services

4. Secure your brand

5. Localized keyword research

6. Competitive research

7. Multilanguage & country targeting

2. Market research - Google Global Market Finder

■ a quick view on different markets

■ ranks of countries based on their export opportunities

■ recommended bids ■ strongly suggested

to double check Google’s automated translations

Your International SEO steps and strategy

User search & purchase behavior

■ roles of search engines in the purchase process

■ purchase behavior across countries and product categories

■ consumers research and purchase behavior

Your International SEO steps and strategy

2. Market research - Consumer Barometer

■ 50% of consumers in Poland used search engines prior purchasing a product or service

Your International SEO steps and strategy

2. Market research - Role of search engine in the purchase process

■ Only 7% of Polish consumers purchasing health products online

Your International SEO steps and strategy

2. Market research - Purchase behavior across countries and product category

■ Only 23% of online purchasing people in Poland

Your International SEO steps and strategy

2. Market research - Consumers research and purchase behavior

Your International SEO steps and strategy

1. Current site performance (optional)

2. Market research

3. Piloting your products / services

4. Secure your brand

5. Localized keyword research

6. Competitive research

7. Multilanguage & country targeting

FEW PRODUC

TS

SEPARATE LANDING

PAGES

MAX 3

COUNTRIES

PPC ADWORDSCAMPAIGN

■ landing pages (ex. Instapage)■ A/B testing (ex. VWO)■ online surveys (ex. Qualaroo)

Your International SEO steps and strategy

3. Piloting your products / services

Your International SEO steps and strategy

1. Current site performance (optional)

2. Market research

3. Piloting your products / services

4. Secure your brand

5. Localized keyword research

6. Competitive research

7. Multilanguage & country targeting

MANNASZAPPAN.HU

MANNA.HU MANNA.COM

301 REDIRECTVS VS

OK, on Hungarian market different niche

■ .com domain registration if available■ social media accounts (Twitter, Facebook)■ bulk registration (ex: KnowEm.com)■ trademark registration (USPTO, WIPO)

Your International SEO steps and strategy

4. Secure your brand

Your International SEO steps and strategy

1. Current site performance (optional)

2. Market research

3. Piloting your products / services

4. Secure your brand

5. Localized keyword research

6. Competitive research

7. Multilanguage & country targeting

Tools:

■ Google Keyword Planner

■ Yandex Wordstat

■ Baidu Index

■ Seznam Search

■ Bing Keyword Tool

■ Naver Trend

POSITIONLY

Your International SEO steps and strategy

5. Localized keyword research

Your International SEO steps and strategy

5. Localized keyword research - Third-party tools

Your International SEO steps and strategy

1. Current site performance (optional)

2. Market research

3. Piloting your products / services

4. Secure your brand

5. Localized keyword research

6. Competitive research

7. Multilanguage & country targeting

Your International SEO steps and strategy

6. Competitive research - Google SpreadSheet

■ a quick view on most competitive domains in a certain topic defined by a list of relevant keywords

■ bit.ly/1s1Xkj7

Topic: organic skin care

https://www.google.com.au/search?pws=0&gl=AU&hl=en&q=

Your International SEO steps and strategy

6. Competitive research - other alternatives

1. Use of URL parameters

pl 1: google.com/webhp?pws=0&gl=us&hl=en pl 2: google.co.uk/webhp?pws=0&gl=uk&hl=en pl 3: google.fr/webhp?pws=0&gl=fr&hl=fr

3. Use of VPN and proxies (ex: HideMyAss)

2. Ad Preview and Diagnosis Tool

Your International SEO steps and strategy

1. Current site performance (optional)

2. Market research

3. Piloting your products / services

4. Secure your brand

5. Localized keyword research

6. Competitive research

7. Multilanguage & country targeting

Your International SEO steps and strategy

7. Multilanguage and country targeting - URL structure

Country specific Domains (ccTLD)ex: domain.hu, domain.ie, domain.pl

Pros:

■ automatically geotargeted by Google■ easy separation of sites■ server location irrelevant

Cons:

■ could be very expensive■ in some cases it might be difficult to

obtain all the ccTLDs you need ■ more infrastructure is needed ■ maintenance could be difficult

■ EURODNS - bulk registration of over 500 TLDs)

Your International SEO steps and strategy

7. Multilanguage and country targeting - URL structure

Subdomains (with gTLD)ex: hu.domain.com, ie.domain.com, pl.domain.com

Pros:

■ manually targetable in Google Webmaster Tools

■ you can have different server locations■ easy separation of sites

Cons:

■ the .com TLD might be already registered*

■ might not be recognisable by users ■ you can loose linkjuice on domain level

* in case you have a registered trademark, you can claim ownership of the .com domain

Your International SEO steps and strategy

7. Multilanguage and country targeting - URL structure

Subfolders (with gTLD)ex:domain.com/hu/,domain.com/ie/,domain.com/pl/

Pros:

■ all content under one gTLD domain■ low maintenance costs ■ manually targetable in Google

Webmaster Tools

Cons:

■ the .com TLD might be already registered*

■ might not be recognisable by users

* in case you have a registered trademark, you can claim ownership of the .com domain

Your International SEO steps and strategy

7. Multilanguage and country targeting - URL structure

Use of parameters ex:domain.com/?loc=ru

Pros:

■ not recommended

Cons:

■ there’s no any option for geotargeting your site

■ might not be recognisable by users

Your International SEO steps and strategy

7. Multilanguage and country targeting

hreflang HTML tagging <html><head><link rel="alternate" href="http://example.com/en-ca" hreflang="en-ca" /><link rel="alternate" href="http://example.com/fr-ca" hreflang="fr-ca" /><link rel="alternate" href="http://example.com/en-gb" hreflang="en-gb" /><link rel="alternate" href="http://example.com/en-us" hreflang="en-us" /><link rel="alternate" href="http://example.com/en-au" hreflang="en-au" /><link rel="alternate" href="http://example.com/" hreflang="x-default" />

</head><body>…</body></html>

en-ca■ English language■ Canada as geolocation

fr-ca■ French language■ Canada as geolocation

x-default■ ex. English language■ any other geolocation

which hasn’t been defined with hreflang tagging

SEO is not everything, Nay …

“SEO here SEO there but making a difference matters most”

Srirachahuyfong.com

Erno Laszloernolaszlo.com

Few bad examples

Ilcsi (ilcsi.com)

Language function being used:

HU: ilcsi.com EN: ilcsi.com/home RU: ilcsi.com/...pdf

ilcsi.hu

http://help.webzona.hu/

Few bad examples

Univer (univer.hu)

Language function being used:

HU: ➢ .hu/➢ .hu/?Lang=hu

RO: .ro (non-www nem működik) RU: .hu/ru EN: .hu/en

univer.com

Some further useful recommendations

■ seasonal products (Australia vs Europe)

■ avoid automated translations

■ avoid automated redirects based on language (cookies) or IP

address

■ use UTF8 compatible CMS or eCommerce platforms

■ use local currency on geotargeted product pages

■ try to adapt to local purchasing behaviors

■ learn more about local business directives and rules

■ use separate XML sitemaps for each geo or language versions

■ define achievable and relevant business goals

■ “don’t bite off more than you can chew”

Phil Ameryphil@philamery.com@fimre

hu.linkedin.com/in/fulopimre/

bit.ly/PhilAmery

THANK YOU