international seo slides at #smx munich: how to identify, fix & monitor misalignment issues

#INTERNATIONALSEO AT #SMX MUNCHEN BY @ALEYDA FROM @ORAINTI

HOW TO IDENTIFY, FIX & TRACK INTERNATIONAL SEARCH RESULTS MISALIGNMENT ISSUES

HALLO MNCHEN


SPEAKER

BLOGGER SHARER@aleyda +aleydasolis

SEO

IM ALEYDA SOLIS



One of the biggest International SEO challenges is to effectively target your content to its relevant

country and/or language audience


TL;DR INTERNATIONAL TARGETING

This is an English Bulldog: Speak to him

in British English & show him a co.uk ccTLD


LETS ANALYZE A FEW INTERNATIONAL RESULTS


ARGENTINA VACATIONS FROM THE US

All .com domains in

English


RESTAURANTES INDIOS CENTRO DE LONDRES FROM ARGENTINA

What is a Spanish ccTLD

doing on the first result?


CAR HIRE SOUTH AFRICA FROM AUSTRALIA

And all these South

African ccTLDs in Australian

SERPs?


AND CAR HIRE SOUTH AFRICA FROM THE UK?

The same! South African ccTLDs in

UK SERPs


COMPRAR IPHONE FROM ARGENTINA

And these Spanish ccTLDs in Argentinian

SERPs?


MOVISTAR FROM PANAMA

And these Colombian,

Argentinian & Peruvian ccTLDs in Panaman SERPs?


INTERNATIONAL RESULTS MISALIGNMENTS ARE COMMON

Ive seen enough!


INTERNATIONAL RESULTS MISALIGNMENTS ARE COMMON

Content in the same language

targeted to different country

Similar terms in different languages

or brand queries

Big gap between domain authority from

different international

sites Low number of relevant results targeting the

specific country


HOW TO IDENTIFY MISALIGNMENTS ISSUES?

1


USE THE ORGANIC TRAFFIC SEGMENT IN GOOGLE ANALYTICS LOCATION REPORT


IDENTIFY ADDITIONAL COUNTRIES BRINGING YOU ORGANIC TRAFFIC TO YOUR SITE

WHATS THEIR VOLUME?

& THE BOUNCE RATE?

DO THEY CONVERT?

DO YOU HAVE A SITE VERSION TARGETING

THEM?


CREATE SEGMENTS FOR THE TOP COUNTRIES ORGANIC TRAFFIC


DRILL-DOWN AND IDENTIFY THE CONTENT ATTRACTING TRAFFIC FOR EACH ONE


GO TO GWT, SELECT THE COUNTRY AND CHECK THE QUERIES RANKING FOR THOSE PAGES


AND THEIR IMPRESSIONS, POSITION & CTR FROM THE COUNTRY


VERIFY THESE YOURSELF BY USING A PROXY OR INTERNATIONAL SEARCH SWITCHER


CHECK THE MISALIGNMENT ISSUES FROM YOUR COMPETITORS BY USING SEMRUSH, SIMILARWEB, SEARCHMETRICS, SISTRIX


HOW TO FIX MISALIGNMENTS ISSUES?

2


THE BEST IS SEPARATE EACH INTERNATIONAL VERSION CONSISTENTLY AND PLACE THEIR CONTENT IN EACH STRUCTURE


THE BEST IS SEPARATE EACH INTERNATIONAL VERSION CONSISTENTLY AND PLACE THEIR CONTENT UNDER EACH ONE

DONT TARGET OTHER COUNTRIES

WITH A NON-RELEVANT CCTLD:

YOURBRAND.DE/MX/

DONT MIX INTERNATIONAL CONTENT ACROSS DIFFERENT

WEB STRUCTURAL AREAS: YOURBRAND.COM/ES.HTML VS.

YOURBRAND.COM/ES/PRODUCTO-A/


OUCH!


BE AWARE OF NON-GEOTARGETABLE CCTLDS

https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/1347922?hl=en


REGISTER & GEOTARGET YOUR SUB-DIRECTORIES & SUB-DOMAINS IN GWT IF YOURE COUNTRY TARGETING


AVOID AUTOMATIC REDIRECTS & INTERSTITIALS WHICH CAN CAUSE CRAWLING ISSUES


ITS BETTER TO RECOMMEND IN A NON-INTRUSIVE WAY


IMPLEMENT HREFLANG ANNOTATIONS TO SPECIFY YOUR CONTENT LANGUAGE & COUNTRY TARGET OF EACH PAGE


IMPLEMENT HREFLANG ANNOTATIONS TO SPECIFY YOUR CONTENT LANGUAGE & COUNTRY TARGET OF EACH PAGE

BETTER TO IMPLEMENT IN HTML

HEAD: THEYRE ALWAYS SEEN

XML SITEMAPS ARE THE SECOND BEST

OPTION: THEY CAN BECOME TOO BIG, REPETITIVE AND NOT ALWAYS TAKEN INTO

CONSIDERATION


BE CAREFUL TO ADD NON-RELEVANT OR ERRONEOUS CODES


CREATE THEM BY USING THE HREFLANG TAG GENERATOR

http://www.internationalseomap.com/hreflang-tags-generator/


& THE MEDIA FLOW HREFLANG TOOL FOR XML SITEMAPS

www.themediaflow.com/tool_hreflang.php


ALWAYS VERIFY WITH GOOGLES SPECIFICATION

https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/189077?hl=en


USE SCREAMING FROG OR DEEPCRAWL TO VALIDATE THAT YOU HAVE CORRECTLY ADDED HREFLANG TAGS


MONITOR YOUR HREFLANG ANNOTATIONS WITH GWT INTERNATIONAL TARGETING REPORT


& NOT FORGET TO USE THE HTML LANG & CONTENT LANGUAGE META TAGS

www.w3schools.com/tags/ref_language_codes.asp

MAKE SURE YOUR CONTENT IS FEATURING THE RELEVANT TERMS TARGETED TO EACH COUNTRY


EVERY ELEMENT OF THE SITE PAGES & CONTENT SHOULD BE ALIGNED & LOCALIZED


DO AN INTERNATIONAL KEYWORD RESEARCH WITH NATIVE SPEAKERS

keywordtool.io/semrush.com/


AVOID THE TEMPTATION OF AUTOMATIC TRANSLATION


CREATE CONTENT & PROMOTE IT INTERNATIONALLY TO BUILD COUNTRY & LANGUAGE RELEVANT LINKS


ITS NOT ABOUT THE

VOLUME BUT LANGUAGE &

COUNTRY RELEVANCE


HOW TO MONITOR MISALIGNMENTS ISSUES?

3


SET ALERTS IN GOOGLE ANALYTICS!


TRACK THE SERPS FOR THE TOP QUERIES & COUNTRIES WHERE YOU HAVE IDENTIFIED ISSUES

SERPWOO DOES IT EASILY


YOURE NOW READY TO AVOID MISALIGNMENT ISSUES


REMEMBER: BE CULTURALLY EMPATHIC & ALSO AUTHENTIC

What the heck is this?

DANKE #SMX MNCHEN!


international seo slides at #smx munich: how to identify, fix & monitor misalignment issues

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