Languages and Countries: Growing Internationally the Right Way

KATE MORRIS

@katemorris

@katemorris

$$$$$$

It Doesn’t Happen Overnight

@katemorris

Download the International Search Strategy Guide

http://dis.tl/14GdPoh

Getting to Know the Players

Global Search Engine Operations

Google Operates by Country

This isGoogle Estoniagoogle.ee

Not by Language

Not Google

Estonian

They offer Google Estonia in popular languages of that country.

@katemorris

Google Keyword Tool

Keyword: [mobile security] Language: All Language: English Language: French

Country: All 9,900 9,900 9,900

Country: United States 2,900 2,900 2,900

Country: France 720 720 720

Country: Canada 210 210 210

No mention of language

All Bing.com

But they are country focused.

@katemorris

You should use the Geo-Targeting feature for sites or sections of a site that have

been created for an audience in a specific country. You generally don’t need to

geo-target sites (or site sections) that are aimed at a global audience or that apply

to multiple countries.

Vincent Wehren

Senior Program Manager

April 29, 2013

http://www.bing.com/blogs/site_blogs/b/webmaster/archive/2013/04/26/geo-targeting-and-language.aspx

Searcher Process

@katemorris

A searcher queries “Иннаиркова” are they:

A. A person living in Russia.B. A person living in Belarus.C. A person living in the Ukraine.D. A person living in Kyrgyzstan.E. Someone who speaks

Russian, we don’t know where they are at this point.

@katemorris

A searcher queries “Иннаиркова” are they:

A. A person living in Russia.B. A person living in Belarus.C. A person living in the Ukraine.D. A person living in Kyrgyzstan.E. Someone who speaks

Russian, we don’t know where they are at this point.

@katemorris

# Countries per Official LanguageLanguage World Countries

English 59 India, United States, Pakistan, United Kingdom, Canada …

French 29 France, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Canada, Madagascar

Arabic 26 Egypt, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Morocco

Spanish 21 Spain, Mexico, Colombia, Argentina

Portuguese 10 Brazil, Portugal, Mozambique, Angola

Russian 8 Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Abkhazia*, South Ossetia*, Transnistria*

German 6 Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg

Italian

4

Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City

Malay Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Brunei

Swahili Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Democratic Republic of the Congo

South African Official Languages:

Afrikaans, English, Southern Ndebele, Northern Sotho, Southern

Sotho, Swazi, Tsonga, Tswana, Venda, Xhosa, Zulu

India has 23 Official Languages

Searchers Don’t Always Click on Home Country ccTLDs

@katemorris

SERP Turkey + Mechanical Turk

@katemorris

FTP Client

Var 1 Var 2 Var 3 Var 4 Var 5 Var 6 Total

filezilla-project.org/ 0 3 0 2 0 1 6

www.smartftp.com/ 1 1 1 2 1 0 6

www.ftpclient.co.uk/ 2 1 2 2 2 0 9

lifehacker.co.uk/5039956/five-best-ftp-clients 1 0 3 0 0 1 5

Total 4 5 6 6 3 2 26

@katemorris

Things to do in Las Vegas

Var 1 Var 2 Var 3 Totalwww.vegas.com/attractions/

3 2 7 12www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attractions-g45963-Activities-Las_Vegas_Nevada.html 3 5 4 12www.timeout.com/las-vegas/features/78/20-great-things-to-do-in-las-vegas 2 3 2 7

Total 8 10 13 31

@katemorris

Skipping Rope

Var 1 Var 2 Var 3 Var 4 Var 5 Var 6 Total

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skipping_rope 2 6 4 1 2 5 20

www.amazon.co.uk/Bestselling-Jump-Ropes/lm/R1C8R7UHACBDH6 1 0 1 0 0 0 2

www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=3407981 0 0 1 1 0 0 2

Total 3 6 6 2 2 5 24

@katemorris

Test for Yourself

Picking a Strategy

@katemorris

There are Three Options

Translate OnlyGeo-Target Only

Translate & Geo-Target

@katemorris

Does your business change in different countries?

YesNo

Are you targeting countries that have different languages than your native

language?

Would it make sense to an international visitor to see different site

content?

Are there multiple official languages for

any of these countries?

Do you plan on offering the site content in all

official languages?

Do you have the resources to differentiate the content?

Geo-Target Only

Translate/HREFLANG Only

Geo-Target and HREFLANG

Yes

Yes

Yes

YesYes

No

No

No

No

Geo-target Only

@katemorris

This solution is best for businesses that:

• Change their product or services based on the customer country

• Willing to change some content to target a new country based (US vs. UK language usage)

• Don’t have the need or resources to offer multiple translations of the geo-targeted content.

@katemorris

Example Site

@katemorris

Does your business change in different countries?

Yes

Are you targeting countries that have different languages than your native

language?

Are there multiple official languages for

any of these countries?

Do you plan on offering the site content in all

official languages?

Geo-Target Only

Yes

No

Yes

How Do I Geo-Target?

Make sure the content and marketing are different and targeted.

@katemorris

It took this site almost 2 years to rank with a ccTLD

India Site

Main Site

What about URL Structure?

Subdomain

Directory

ccTLD

Parameters

Link Building is a little harder for

these two options

Set Up Google Webmaster Tools Country Targeting

Set Up Bing Webmaster Tools Country Targeting

Don’t Use HREFLANG

What about product pages???

@katemorris

Don’t use IP detection for country targeting.

But do verify …

Outreach is best from someone native to the country.

Translate Only

@katemorris

This solution is best for businesses that:

• Don’t change their business offering in different countries (not e-commerce).

• Want to get international traffic without having to change the content based on the user’s country.

• Don’t have the resources to build out country targeted content.

@katemorris

Example Site

@katemorris

Does your business change in different countries?

No Would it make sense to an international visitor to see different site

content?

Translate/HREFLANG Only

No

Tips for Dealing with Translation Only

Don’t Machine Translate

Manual Translation is Costly but Best

Put HREFLANG in XML Sitemaps

Bing uses the Language Meta tag<meta http-equiv="content-language" content=“ISOCODE">

http://www.bing.com/blogs/site_blogs/b/webmaster/archive/2011/03/01/how-to-tell-bing-your-website-s-country-and-language.aspx#pi4774=2

What about URL Structure?

Subdomain

Directory

ccTLD

Parameters

@katemorris

Don’t use ccTLDs,otherwise it’s up to you.

Geo-target and Translate

@katemorris

This solution is best for businesses that:

• Change their product or services based on the customer country

• Willing to change some content to target a new country based (US vs. UK language usage)

• Have a need or desire to offer language translations of their geo-targeted content.

@katemorris

Example Site: UK

@katemorris

Example Site: Canada

@katemorris

Does your business change in different countries?

Yes

Are you targeting countries that have different languages than your native

language?

Are there multiple official languages for

any of these countries?

Do you plan on offering the site content in all

official languages? Geo-Target and HREFLANG

Yes

YesYes

How do I Translate and Geo-Target?

@katemorris

Use HREFLANG inside the country targeted content.

United StatesFocused Content

(English)domain.com/en-us

SpainFocused Content

(Castilian Spanish)domain.com/es-es

United States Focused Content

(American Spanish)domain.com/es-us

Canada Focused Content

(English)domain.com/en-ca

France Focused Content

(French)domain.com/fr-fr

Canada Focused Content

(French)domain.com/fr-ca

HREFLANG HREFLANG

NO

HREFLANG

NO

HREFLANG

NO

HREFLANG

@katemorris

Content is Country Focused

United StatesFocused Content

(English)domain.com/en-us

SpainFocused Content

(Castilian Spanish)domain.com/es-es

United States Focused Content

(American Spanish)domain.com/es-us

Canada Focused Content

(English)domain.com/en-ca

France Focused Content

(French)domain.com/fr-fr

Canada Focused Content

(French)domain.com/fr-ca

Same but translatedSame but translated

@katemorris

The translated content should not be the same across countries.

United StatesFocused Content

(English)

domain.com/en-us

SpainFocused Content

(Castilian Spanish)

domain.com/es-es

United States Focused Content

(American Spanish)domain.com/es-us

Canada Focused Content

(English)

domain.com/en-ca

France Focused Content

(French)

domain.com/fr-fr

Canada Focused Content

(French)domain.com/fr-ca

Some content will be similarbut not the same.

Oh and all that stuff I mentioned before …

Set Up Google Webmaster Tools Country Targeting

Set Up Bing Webmaster Tools Country Targeting

Put HREFLANG in XML Sitemaps

Bing uses the Language Meta tag<meta http-equiv="content-language" content=“ISOCODE">

http://www.bing.com/blogs/site_blogs/b/webmaster/archive/2011/03/01/how-to-tell-bing-your-website-s-country-and-language.aspx#pi4774=2

@katemorris

Don’t use IP detection for country targeting.

But do verify …

Don’t Machine Translate

Manual Translation is Costly but Best

@katemorris

Translate Only Geo-Target OnlyGeo-Target and

TranslateDoes your business change in different countries? No Yes YesWould it make sense to an international visitor to see different site content?

No Yes Yes

Do you have the resources to differentiate the content?

No Yes Yes

Are you targeting countries that have different languages than your native language?

N/A Yes Yes

Are there multiple official languages for any of these countries?

N/A Yes YesDo you plan on offering the site content in all official languages?

N/A No Yes

Above All:Optimize for the User

@katemorris

Do what works for them, not you or search engines.

@katemorris

Download the International Search Strategy Guide

http://dis.tl/14GdPoh

Thanks.Any questions?

KATE MORRIS

kate.morris@distilled.net

@katemorris