Conquering International Search Markets: #InternationalSEO at #SMConnect

#internationalseo at #smconnect by @aleyda

Your guide to conquer the search worldINTERNATIONAL SEO


#internationalseo at #smconnect by @aleyda #internationalstrategy for #mnsummit by @aleyda from @orainti

Ciao #SMConnect



SPEAKER

BLOGGER SHARER@aleyda +aleydasolis

SEO

I’M ALEYDA SOLIS


#internationalseo at #smconnect by @aleyda #internationalseo at #smconnect by @aleyda

I DO INTERNATIONAL SEO

ME TOO


GOING INTERNATIONAL MIGHT BE KEY TO EXPAND YOUR SEARCH GROWTH BUT CAN BE COMPLEX



WHICH COUNTRY OR LANGUAGE SHOULD YOU TARGET & WITH WHICH CONFIGURATION?


HOW DO YOU CONNECT WITH YOUR NEW AUDIENCE?


HOW DO YOU COMPETE WITH HIGH AUTHORITY LOCALS & ESTABLISHED MULTINATIONALS FROM SCRATCH?

This is your site


HOW DO YOU CONFIGURE THEM ALL TO AVOID MISALIGNMENT ISSUES?


A PROCESS IS NEEDED TO AVOID THEM

MARKET POTENTIAL VALIDATION

TARGETING SELECTION

CONFIGURATION &

DEVELOPMENT

PROMOTION & CONNECTION

1 2 3 4


THE GOAL IS TO MAKE YOUR INTERNATIONAL WEB PRESENCE & SEO EFFORTS SUCCESSFUL

ROI > COSTS

#internationalseo at #smconnect by @aleyda 1

START BY VALIDATING THE POTENTIAL TRAFFIC & PROFITABILITY OF YOUR VIABLE INTERNATIONAL MARKETS


IDENTIFY YOUR CURRENT SITE BEST PERFORMING COUNTRIES AND LANGUAGES

which are the top countries & languages from a traffic & conversions perspective?


HOW MUCH OF YOUR THE INTERNATIONAL TRAFFIC COMES FROM ORGANIC SEARCH RESULTS ALREADY?


AS WELL AS YOUR YOUR ORGANIC SEARCH VISIBILITY PER COUNTRY


CHECK WHICH ARE THE TOP CURRENT INTERNATIONAL MARKETS FOR YOUR COMPETITORS

USE SIMILARWEB


AND THE OVERALL TOP COUNTRY MARKETS FOR YOUR INDUSTRY


CHOOSE THOSE TOP INTERNATIONAL COUNTRY & LANGUAGE MARKETS TO ASSESS

Other Traffic Drivers

Seasonality & Trend

Search Engines Devices

Competitors Authority

KeywordsOrganic Search Traffic

Volume & Share

COUNTRY CURRENT ORGANIC SEARCH TRAFFIC COMPETITION LEVEL SEARCH VOLUME

OPPORTUNITYSEARCH TREND IN

MARKET


IDENTIFY THE POTENTIAL ORGANIC SEARCH FOR EACH COUNTRY


YOUR MOBILE TRAFFIC, SEASONALITY & TREND


… THE MORE SOURCES YOU USE TO VALIDATE, THE BEST!

USE SEMRUSH, SISTRIX,

SEARCHMETRICS


DO A KEYWORD & COMPETITION RESEARCH FOR THEM

Use KeywordTool.io & KWFinder along Google’s tools to validate volume &

trends

http://keywordtool.io


IDENTIFY DIRECTLY IF THERE ARE BIG MISSED OPPORTUNITIES

USE SISTRIX


USE TRANSLATION SUPPORT TOOLS ALONG TRANSLATORS & NATIVE SPECIALIZED SPEAKERS TO DO THE ANALYSIS


VERIFY IF THERE’S ENOUGH ORGANIC SEARCH TRAFFIC TO COMPENSATE PROFITABLE WEB OPERATIONS

Cost of international Web projectNumber of Conversions for a break-even Average conversion value

=

No. of Conversions for Break-evenNumber of visits for a

break-even Average Conversion Rate=


USE THE INTERNATIONAL ROI CALCULATOR TO MAKE IT EVEN EASIER

http://www.aleydasolis.com/en/international-seo-tools/roi-calculator/

http://www.aleydasolis.com/en/international-seo-tools/roi-calculator/


IT’S TIME TO MAKE A DECISION REGARDING THE INTERNATIONAL SEARCH MARKETS TO TARGET

>Your International traffic potential Visits & Conversions for a break-even

Yes No

Continue with the international Web & SEO project

Might be too early

Buy & secure your ccTLDs for future activity

For most important countries

Create custom alerts in GA

Create a pilot project prioritizing main pages


NEVER RELY EXCLUSIVELY IN AUTOMATIZED TOOLS TO DO THIS FOR YOU… YOU NEED TO VALIDATE!


IF YOU FOLLOW THIS CRITERIA YOU WILL AVOID HAVING “TOO MANY VERSIONS YOU CAN’T SUPPORT”


ESTABLISH YOUR INTERNATIONAL TARGETING & OPTIMIZE YOUR ONLINE EXPERIENCE FOR IT


SHOULD YOU TARGET COUNTRIES OR LANGUAGES WITH YOUR WEB PRESENCE?

Is location a factor that influence your Web operations?

Yes No

Is there enough traffic & conversions to target each country?

Language Targeting

Yes No

Country Targeting

You can start with


HERE’S A LANGUAGE VS. COUNTRY TARGETING EXAMPLE

VS


CHOOSE YOUR INTERNATIONAL WEB STRUCTURE ACCORDING TO YOUR TARGETING & COMPETITORS

ccTLDs

Sub-Directories

Sub-Domains


WARNING! DON’T USE PARAMETERS TO ENABLE THEM


BEWARE OF USING COOKIES OR SCRIPTS SHOWING DIFFERENT INTERNATIONAL VERSIONS IN THE SAME PAGE

In Spanish In English


BEWARE OF USING COOKIES OR SCRIPTS SHOWING DIFFERENT INTERNATIONAL VERSIONS IN THE SAME PAGE

In Spanish In English


FOR COUNTRY TARGETING

ccTLDs

www.yourbrand.es

www.yourbrand.es/categoria-a/

Sub-directories

www.yourbrand.com/es-es/

www.yourbrand.com/es-es/categoria-a/

Sub-domains

es-es.yourbrand.com/

es-es.yourbrand.com/categoria-a/

http://www.yourbrand.co.uk







* Ideal alternative to geolocate if competition is not too high * Require more technical resources * Require more efforts to grow popularity

* Require less technical resources * Require less efforts to grow popularity * More chances to get all versions penalized if something goes bad * More efforts to geolocate

* Require more technical resources * Require more efforts to grow popularity * Better than sub-directories to organize larger & more complex sites* More efforts to geolocate

ccTLDs

Sub-directories

Sub-domains

FOR COUNTRY TARGETING


VERIFY WHICH EXTENSIONS ARE TREATED AS GENERIC

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

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


IF YOU’RE USING SUB-DIRECTORIES OR SUB-DOMAINS TO COUNTRY TARGET, REGISTER & GEOLOCATE THEM


FOR LANGUAGE TARGETING

Sub-directories

www.yourbrand.com/es/

www.yourbrand.com/es/categoria-a/

Sub-domains

es.yourbrand.com/

es.yourbrand.com/categoria-a/

http://www.yourbrand.com/es/


http://www.yourbrand.es

http://www.yourbrand.es


FOR LANGUAGE TARGETING

* Require less technical resources * Require less efforts to grow popularity * Deeper url structure * More chances to get all versions penalized if something goes bad

* Require more technical resources * Require more efforts to grow popularity * shorter URL structure which can be better for larger sites

Sub-directories

Sub-domains


FOR EXAMPLE


BESIDES WEB STRUCTURES PROS & CONS: WHICH STRUCTURES ARE USED BY TOP SITES IN MARKET?


THE EXTENSIONS OF PAGES RANKING FOR THE MOST POPULAR TERMS IN YOUR INTERNATIONAL INDUSTRIES

In certain countries like China, a ccTLD & local IP will be much

more important


AS WELL AS THEIR THEIR LEVEL OF AUTHORITY VS. YOURS


USE THESE INTERNATIONAL EMULATORS, PROXYS & HTTP STATUS TOOLS TO VERIFY YOUR INTERNATIONAL SERPS


IF YOU HAVE ACCESS TO SITES TARGETING THESE MARKETS ALREADY: HOW EXTENSIONS USAGE AFFECT CTR?


SELECT THE WEB STRUCTURE THAT WILL ALLOW YOU TO PERFORM BETTER, KNOWING THAT YOU CAN MIGRATE

High Authority Domains with a Mix of ccTLDs & gTLDs?

Start with a sub-directory in your current gTLD that you can later migrate to ccTLD


SELECT THE WEB STRUCTURE THAT WILL ALLOW YOU TO PERFORM BETTER, KNOWING THAT YOU CAN MIGRATE

Using a gTLD for your Italian version & want to enable an English one?

If you want to prioritize your English market in the future, migrate it to the root & take Italian to sub-

directory or ccTLD


CONFIGURE, DEVELOP & OPTIMIZE YOUR SITE TARGETING


ONCE YOU CHOOSE YOUR TARGETING IT’S A MUST TO BE CONSISTENT WITH EVERYTHING ON YOUR SITE


1

2

3

4

7

Title & Meta Description

URLs

Phone, delivery info, currency

Menu & navigation elements

5 Headings

Price

6 Images ALT description

LOCALIZE YOUR WEB CONTENT & OVERALL EXPERIENCE WITH THE TARGETED KEYWORDS & PRODUCTS


EVEN IF THEY’RE IN THE SAME LANGUAGE


ALSO FROM A DESIGN & BRANDING PERSPECTIVE

VS


AS WELL AS INDICATING YOUR INTERNATIONAL TARGETING WITH THE META AND HTML LANG TAG

http://bit.ly/binglang

http://bit.ly/binglang


WITH HREFLANG ANNOTATIONS, SPECIFYING EACH PAGE LANGUAGE & COUNTRY TARGET & ALTERNATIVES

http://bit.ly/googlehreflang

http://bit.ly/googlehreflang


THE BEST ALTERNATIVE IS TO INCLUDE IT IN THE HEAD AREA OF THE HTML


… IF YOU WANT TO AVOID THIS, THEN ONLY ADD THOSE THAT ARE REALLY NECESSARY


BE CAREFUL WITH USING INCORRECT VALUES


INCLUDING NON-RELEVANT OR MISTAKEN URLS


OR NOT ADDING THE RETURN TAGS


USE THE HREFLANG GENERATOR BASED ON GOOGLE SPECIFICATION TO AVOID HREFLANG ERRORS

http://www.aleydasolis.com/en/international-seo-tools/hreflang-tags-generator/

http://www.aleydasolis.com/en/international-seo-tools/hreflang-tags-generator/


http://bit.ly/hreflangsitemap

YOU CAN ALSO INCLUDE HREFLANG IN SITEMAPS… BUT DO IT ONLY WHEN YOU CAN’T IN THE HTML

MAKE SURE TO

CONSOLIDATE XML

SITEMAPS TO BETTER

MONITOR THEM

http://bit.ly/hreflangsitemap


GOOGLE WEBMASTER TOOLS WILL WARN ABOUT SOME OF THEM


www.screamingfrog.co.uk/seo-spider/

BUT YOU SHOULD VALIDATE YOURSELF BY USING AN SEO CRAWLER THOUGH

http://www.screamingfrog.co.uk/seo-spider/


onpage.org

ONPAGE.ORG HAS ALSO AN IN-DEPTH INTERNATIONAL & TRANSLATION REPORT

http://onpage.org

http://ONPAGE.ORG


DON’T FORGET ABOUT THE URLS, ALTHOUGH BEWARE OF IDNS & NON-LATIN CHARACTERS IN URLS

Use latinized URLs for Russian & Chinese


BE CAREFUL ON ASSUMING TOO MUCH ABOUT YOUR USERS INTERNATIONAL TARGETING THOUGH…


IT’S BETTER TO SUGGEST YOUR INTERNATIONAL VERSIONS; OTHERWISE, WARN WHEN REDIRECTING & USE 302 REDIRECTS


REMEMBER THAT INTERSTITIALS ARE INTRUSIVE & MIGHT CAUSE CRAWLING ISSUES TOO


IF YOU IMPLEMENT THESE CONFIGURATION, YOU’LL AVOID MISTARGETING YOUR USERS


UNDERSTAND & INCREASE YOUR POPULARITY AMONG YOUR INTERNATIONAL AUDIENCE


START BY IDENTIFYING TOP SOCIAL NETWORKS, OVERALL TRAFFIC SOURCES & REFERRERS


WHICH ARE THE MOST LINKED PAGES (AND CONTENT) OF YOUR COMPETITORS…


THE MOST POPULAR AND HIGHLY SHARED TOPICS, IDENTIFYING WHERE AND WHO SHARED THEM


AS WELL AS THE CONTENT CHARACTERISTICS PER NETWORK


WHICH ARE THE RELEVANT & AUTHORITATIVE SITES THAT YOU CAN OUTREACH PER COUNTRY & LANGUAGE


USE NATIVE OUTREACH PEOPLE, INFLUENCERS TOOLS & (LOW-COST) PR FIRMS TO CONNECT


POPULAR TOPICS &

KEYWORDS

TRAFFIC CHANNELS

CHARACTERISTICS

AUDIENCE SHARE AND SEARCH BEHAVIOR

LOCAL INFLUENCERS

& TOP REFERRERS

WITH ALL THIS YOU CAN ESTABLISH A CONTENT, SOCIAL & LINK BUILDING STRATEGY FOR YOUR TARGET MARKETS

POPULAR CONTENT

CHARACTERISTICS

LOCAL COMPETITORS

PROFILE


MAKING THE MOST OUT OF LOCAL ACTIVITIES & CULTURAL NUANCES


AND CONNECT WITH THE LOCAL AUDIENCE


NOT ALL RESULTS WILL BE THE SAME, BUT YOU DON’T NEED THEM TO BE THE SAME!

A total of 46 links have been built as follows: •  41 Links from .com to .co.uk link reclamation •  2 Links from UK Relevant Directories •  2 Links from 404 link Update •  1 Link from Sponsorship

in the uk in GermanyA total of 20 links have been built: •  9 Links from .com to .de link reclamation •  7 Links from German Relevant Directories •  3 Links from 404 link Update •  1 Link from Educational Resources

in franceA total of 8 links have been built from the following strategies: •  1 Link from .com to .fr link reclamation •  3 Links from French Relevant Directories •  4 Links from Educational Resources


REMEMBER THAT THE KEY IN INTERNATIONAL TO GROW … IS BECOMING A REAL LOCAL AUTHORITY


THANKS! DO YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS?

NOW IS YOUR TIME

Internet

Conquering International Search Markets: #InternationalSEO at #SMConnect