andre alpar - the state of seo and content marketing in europe

#INBOUND16Andre Alpar – @andrealpar

THE STATE OF SEO AND CONTENT MARKETING IN EUROPEDifferences, similarities, specifics, pitfalls, tips and tricks for working the “old continent”

Andre Alpar – Nov. 9th, 2016


1. Introduction

2. Comparing European countries

3. Examples for European country specifics

4. Results of exclusive mini survey

EXAMPLE AGENDA


1 INTRODUCTION


Andre Alpar is a serial enterpreneur that is active as a digital marketer since 1998

Andre Alpar• First online business in 1998• 30+ business angel investments• 3+ years leading role at Rocket Internet• Conference host, podcaster, book author …

Performics Berlin• Founded late 2009• Part of Publicis since late 2014• Berlin office: 170 ppl - Native speakers of 15

languages• Performics since Sept. 2015• Agencynetwork: 250 ppl in total in Germany.

2200 ppl worldwide.


2 COMPARING EUROPEAN COUNTRIES


The internet speed across Europe doesn't correlate with the countries‘ wealth

Pos. Country Speed

1 Romania 55.67 Mbps

2 Netherlands 46.88 Mbps

3 Sweden 45.59 Mbps

4 Lithuania 45.51 Mbps

5 Latvia 39.15 Mbps

… … …

23 Ireland 19.75 Mpbs

24 Cyprus 9.85 Mpbs

25 Greek 8.87 Mpbs

26 Italy 8.73 Mpbs

27 Croatia 7.30 Mpbs


There are strong differences in social media usage depending on educational level

Biggest correlation gap between social media usage and educational level:• Turkey• Greece• Portugal

No gap between social media usage and educational level:• Luxembourg• Denmark• Switzerland

Germany only country with „upside down“ conditions


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In Europe social media plays a much smaller role in everyday digital livescompared to the US


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“Inbound marketing” is a large topic in the EU as well but strong country differences

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“Content marketing” is a large topic in the EU as well but strong country differences

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IE, PO, FR, ES doesn't correlate to the other countriesMost of the countries are more interested in Content Marketing



How about competitiveness in SEO / the SERPs? No Data - No Comparison! We have something!

• A representative set of 250.000 keywords

• Top 100 positions captured

• Aggregation on Domain-level

• (First data set provided in Q4/2012 for countries: USA, UK, FR, DE, AT, CH, IT and ES

• (New / exclusive) data set provided in September 2016 for countries: USA, UK, FR, DE, AT, CH, IT, ES and (now new) BRA, TR, NL and PL

• Data kindly provided by


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Number of Domains in Top 100 positions in millions

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Number of domains successfully competing for top 100 positions in test set shows German and English markets as similarly competitive


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Inspecting the average number of keyword an exemplary domain ranks for paints a similar picture


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The number of different URLs in the top 10 paints a similar picture but showing different nuances


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Number of Domains in Top 10 positions in Millions

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When looking only at top 10 position (those who matter most traffic wise) the picture changes slightly: Germany is significantly most competitive


3 EXAMPLES FOR EUROPEAN COUNTRY SPECIFICS


While Onpage SEO works pretty similar for all countries, Offpage SEO can be astonishingly different

• In international SEO there is often an emphasis on Offpage SEO because it differs strongly from country to country

• Technological part of Onpage SEO should be international from the start and content / translations are relatively easy to get

• Successful international Offpage SEO campaigns result from good processes - which is not something every SEO likes

International CM & SEO

Onpage!

Offpage!


The Netherlands (Holland) have their “own” very country-specific types of pages: the Startpaginas

• Ranking very well

• Used for navigation! “an entry point to a specific topical space”

• Most popular Startpagina provider has significant type in traffic

• Different providers of Startpaginas

• Needed in the “natural” Dutch link-mix


Offpage SEO in Poland is dominated by automated link-exchange systems that violate

• Many (!) providers of automated link-exchange systems (comparable to Linkvault popular around 2002)

• „Rotating“ link exchange systems

• Awareness of violation of Google guidelines

• Huge „penalty waves“ in 2012 Slow change process


In Russia, everything is different when doing Offpage SEO

• Yandex dominates – Google only second

• Yandex reacts less / slower to links

• Important ranking factor: listing in Yandex web directory

• Huge link buying / selling networks

• Russian SEOs favorite links: “Rotators”


Germans are SEO Nerds & Nuts!

• “Reengineering something unknown” seems to go really well with the German engineering DNA

• Much information in German available (little mingling with English SEO world) / Little “interference” from other countries in SERPs

• Some really good SEO Tools are from Germany (May not have fancy UIs but more and more accurate data)

• My tools: SeeRobots, LinkParser, WP youtube activator, WP SEO image renamer, RatingSpy

• Lots of measuring, experimenting and testing! Sharing in closed circles e.g. Skype exclusive chats.

• Personal guess: a good part of real spam in the Google.com index is “made in Germany”

• Supposedly Germans use the Google Spam Report form most - Examplary effect: Criteria others may not even look at: crawlers that evaluate anchor text of all external links – also monitor after link is acquired


No European country is like another - Europe stands for diversity in SEO and content marketing as well (as in politics)

• More search volume for competitive generic phrases e.g. “hotels new york” in English than native language in Turkey and Greece

• RU: Large link rental networks and rotators -Yandex is more defensive when it comes to links

• TR: Almost no .com.tr domains. Almost all are CNO domains

• GR: Are searching for valuable transactional keywords in English

• FR: No Translation - Different wording• South America: Almost always hosted in the USA• Exotic writings: Internal workflow/management

systems like…• .fi and .no domains can only be owned by

companies• In RO web directories are still a thing see

https://twitter.com/cognitiveseo/status/781904686655889408


4 RESULTS OF EXCLUSIVE MINI SURVEY


1. How do you think SEO differs between the US and your

country?

2. How do you think content marketing differs between the

US and your country?

3. Does your country a) take similar “but a little later” paths

when it comes to developments in digital marketing as in

the US or b) are there always specifics in your country?

4. What percentage of digital marketing budgets are

invested into SEO?

5. What percentage of digital marketing budgets are

invested into content marketing?

15 industry (one per European country) experts were asked:


“The language and population number is a huge challenge, We are 6 million people in Denmark, which is equivalent to the population of Massachusetts (Boston state) only.”

“I do not think there are big differences in the methods of Denmark and the United States.”

“In the US you can make niche business of selling "footballs to people without feet's", it will not work in Denmark because the niche is not big enough.”

Søren Riisager from Denmark – SEO boss and partner at WebJuice.dk


Luke Fitzgerald from Ireland – Head of SEO at Wolfgang Digital

“The US SEO community is a lot more open and transparent in its activities than the average Irish agency. “

“There's still a big gap to bridge and I guess workplace culture plays a prominent role in these key differences also.”

“It's clear to see the age-old poetic wisdom of Irish storytelling has a prominent role to play within modern content marketing initiatives.”

“We definitely a lead from the US if we're honest about it.”


Slavisa Gacic from Norway – Co-Founder Nettrafikk – @SlavisaGacic

“The biggest diffrence between Norway and US and other countries is that RankBrain and machine learning/artificial intelligence have not influenced the Norwegian SERP as much as they have in other countries.“

“Old-school marketers as well as marketing budgets have begun to focus more on digital/content marketing and SEO.“

“In the past two years there has been a big shift and the split is now around 60% traditional and 40% digital.“


AJ Huisman from the Netherlands – Founder of Y Content – @AJHuisman

“The biggest difference in timing is that in NL most marketers are still building the business case for Content Marketing.“

“In the US the marketing automation and content planning/collaboration tools as part of Content Marketing is further developed then in the Netherlands.”

“The Netherlands we are a at least one maturity stage behind the US, where the US is a adolescent, here in NL we are still young - about 12-18 months behind.“


Cosmin Negrescu from Romania– Founder SEOMonitor.com – @ncosmin

„In Romania we can even count agencies that offer SEO services on the fingers of one hand.“

„The competition is generally lower and, consequently, it’s easier toconquer the SERP real estate.”

“Marketers have too little experience with content marketing. But I’mnot complaining, since this is an opportunity for us.“


Andrea Pernici from Italy – CTO Search On Media Group – @andreapernici

“The only great difference is that usually US based companies have more global opportunities and less "legal" limitations.”

“On the contrary Digital Marketing Agencies are very fast to adapt in Italy, but customer are not rapid the same.”


Balazs Gandera from Hungary – CEO INTREN Kft. – @gandibp

“We mostly use multi-lingual SEO, most of the cases English or German next to Hungarian.”

“It is relatively easier to gain positions in the local market.”

“As I see, there is a low-level of independence for example in TV or ATL campaigns and a high level of independence in digital activities.”

“To put it an other way, it is often a task to manage this and still not think in "silos", to stay relevant and close to customers in a market far from the US.”


Andraž Štalec from Slovenia – CEO Red Orbit – @andrazstalec

“One thing is for sure. All the major Google updates are implemented much latter than in US.“

“Market is not saturated and more "soft" SEO techniques still work.“

“Local SEO is still not a big thing. It's like living in the bubble :)“

„US consumers are used to more direct and "pushy" approach as Slovenian users are more conservative.“


Alexandra Tachalova from Russia – Founder digitalolympus – @AlexTachalova

“SEO in Russia is nothing like SEO in the US.“

“In Russia, SEO is a more technical practice. People here love to automate processes to make them scalable.“

“It is quite upsetting for me to admit that purchasing links is still a hot topic here“

“The US that the Russian search market belongs to Yandex.“


Philippe YONNET from France – Director search-foresight – @Cariboo_seo

“They are less focused on marketing stuff, and they're very interested in black hat techniques, even if they don't use it on their websites.“

“In the past, buying links and manipulating pagerank was limited to competitive sectors“

“White hat SEO may work better in France than in the US.“

“French SEO love to take part at SEO contests.“


Neil Mccarthy from France – Agency Owner – @goodnessneil

“The dominance of Google (95% to 97% market share) in France must make a big difference to how SEOs work. Bing France recently refuted claims that “Google” is the most popular search query.“

“Unfortunately the increasing importance of written content and the decreasing success of backlink spam has led to a lot of French SEOs being responsible for a lot of bad content!”

“But France had a separate path into the web at the beginning with the Minitel and a lot of multimedia development (interactive CDROMs remember) in the late 90s.”


Yiğit Konur from Turkey – CEO of SEOZEO – @YigitKonur

“In Turkey, brands prefer to promote their current pages and don't have a tendency to create 10X content to attract more links.”

“We still have a long way to go for content marketing! “

“In technical-side, Turkish SEOs are really powerful!”


Cezary Lech from Poland – MaxROY.com

“In Poland SEO is still more about acquiring links than technical SEO and developing great on-site content.”

“Content Marketing is a new gold rush word, but a the end it's more about buying sponsored articles than developing own content and giving value to the readers.”


Magnus Bråth from Sweden – CEO of Brath AB – @AlfaMagnus

“We did a small study that showed 7-9 times harder competition in the US compared to Sweden.”

“Content marketing is less evolved in Sweden and done with much smaller budgets in a lot of cases.”

“Sweden has produced more SEO's with experience of these highly competitive segments than any other country.”


Will Critchlow from UK - founder and CEO at Distilled – @willcritchlow

“In general, most things are very similar between the US and the UK these days.”

“The biggest difference is that the UK audience reads US media much more than vice versa.”

“UK content marketing can often target general English-speaking audiences and get amplified by the US and UK markets.”

“For its size, a surprising amount of world-leading thinkers come out of the UK - in SEO specifically (and especially technical SEO) there's never been much gap in my experience.”


Andre Alpar from Germany – CEO at Performics

I‘m right here in front of you! Will

tell you what I think „live“ ;-)


SEO 15%

Content marketing8%

Rest of digital marketing

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SEO expenditure higher than Content Marketing expenditure


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similar but delayedcountry specificmix of both

Most countries take similar but delayed paths when it comes to developments in digital marketing compared to the US


The US is the leader in Digital Marketing – European countries lag

several month / years delayed

Country Month

HU 6-12

DE 12

NL 12-18

PL 12-24

FR 24

TR 24

RU 36-48

RO 24-36


• Don‘t ever think of Europe as „one“

• The opportunity in Europe is huge!

• Use available information on market specifics to prioritize well

• Always work with native speakers and marketers with local knowhow

• Adapt your strategies to local characteristics

• Have fun

Summary


Thank you for listening! Let’s stay in touch!

• www.performics.de

• Paul-Lincke-Ufer 39/4010999 Berlin

• [email protected]

• Follow us: TwitterGoogle+Facebook


THANK YOU.


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Highest social media usage rate in USA


Miscellaneous

• RU: große Linkvermiet-netzwerke und „Rotatoren“, Yandexdefensiver mit Links

• TR: fast keine .com.tr Domains. Fast alles CNO Domains• GR: suchen kostbare transaktionale Keys auf Englisch• Südamerika: fast immer in USA gehostet• Exotischen Schriften: interne Workflow-

Managementsysteme wie

• RU: Large link rental networks and rotators• RU: Yandex is more defensive when it comes to links• TR: almost no .com.tr domains. Almost all are CNO domains• GR: are searching for valuable transactional keywords in English• South America: almost always hosted in the USA• Exotic writings: internal workflow/management systems like…


Why do German companies internationalize for so many countries?

• A lot of competitors in Germany• Good performance in Germany good performance in each

country internationalized• Good trading conditions e-commerce in FR no retour quote

• GER in US?• Pfade:• AT / CH dann UK dann EN / NL • PL / IT / ES• Was lohnt noch? IT in CH? NL in BE? ES


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In Europe there are more people interested in inbound marketing


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When looking only at top 10 position (those who matter most traffic wise) the picture changes: UK & Germany are even more competitive than the US


In France, Spain and Italy a lot less Domains are competing for 100 positions in test set – US seams to be most competitive

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When looking only at top 10 position (those who matter most traffic wise) the picture changes: UK & Germany are even more competitive than the US


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Bekomme aktuelle kein SV für Twitter gezogen

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andre alpar - the state of seo and content marketing in europe

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