What’s this session about?

Launching in a new Market: SEO

Challenges and Checklist

Head of SEO

Rahul Gupta

@rpgupta87

Highlights from CupoNation

CupoNation facts:

● Active in 15 markets with 30+ platforms● 20,000 vouchers and deals published on CupoNation

websites● Approx. 200 employees● 40+ SEO employees

2012

Poland

Brazil

India

2013

Germany

Austria

Norway

Sweden

Finland

France

Italy

Spain

Russia

2014

Australia

Singapore

Switzerland

Capable of launching a platform in a new market within 2 weeks!

How do we do it?

Target Audience

Target Channels

Content for Users

Smaller onsite elements

Technical SEO

Teams & Processes

Segmentation & Processes

Before we proceed, remember this...

What & Why

How do we do it?

Target Audience

Target Channels

Content for Users

Smaller onsite elements

Technical SEO

Teams & Processes

Know your audience before they arrive

Consumer behaviour in your new market

First impression matters

How do we do it?

Target Audience

Target Channels

Content for Users

Smaller onsite elements

Technical SEO

Teams & Processes

Select the right traffic channels

Be focused rather than Omnipresent

Platform optimized

Find your local Influencers

Reach out to the experts in your niche

Hire a local PR/SEO agency

Competitor’s Backlink Profile

Look into competitors’ backlinks

Low hanging fruits

Influencers, publishers & communities

How do we do it?

Target Audience

Target Channels

Content for Users

Smaller onsite elements

Technical SEO

Teams & Processes

Content creation: In-house Vs Outsource

What?1. Determine resource requirement for your content creation

process2. Complete the keyword research inhouse3. Assess several content agencies in the local market

Avoid1. Working with freelancers or agencies that use article

spinning tools2. Writers who are not located in your market3. Content creators that are not affiliated with your niche4. Allocating the content creation task to in-house employees

who have no expertise in storytelling5. Be aware of spelling versions for different countries (English

in UK Vs USA) + use of transliterations

How do we do it?

Target Audience

Target Channels

Content for Users

Smaller onsite elements

Technical SEO

Teams & Processes

Prioritize & bundle your products

Use external sources to prioritize

Site Structure & Indexation logic

What sets you apart from the rest?

Use onsite space efficiently

Work on your USPs

Display legal elements & local trust badges

Why?1. Gain trust of your local audience2. Provide better UX, by not displaying unnecessary legal elements3. Avoid penalties from local authorities

What?1. Research about the must required legal elements on website2. Read the local online marketing laws & take necessary actions. eg: register

your contests with authorities3. Also, research about the dos & don'ts in the new market to avoid being

misinterpreted or hurt local sentiments

Stock photos are stock photos!

Give your company a local face (no stock photos!)

How do we do it?

Target Audience

Target Channels

Content for Users

Smaller onsite elements

Technical SEO

Teams & Processes

Do you need to automate anything?

Evaluate & identify repetitive tasks

Automate heavy tasks before launch

Technical SEO checks & monitoring tools

Technical SEO checks• Site crawl errors & Broken links• Internal duplicate content• Meta title & meta desc errors• Duplicate content (with competitors and also with

your other country sites) & href lang• Buy domains with variations of your brand name

locally, geotargeting, hrefs• Social media pages created & contact details

updated• robots.txt, sitemaps, check outgoing links• Indexation, Internal linking, canonicals• Image alt text, Image rights, Image size• No content or link cloaking• Emulate different browsers (research which

devices are used widely in your new market)• Block bad/scraper bots• Page speed

Monitoring tools

• Google Analytics/ Additional traffic data

tools

• WMT (for all search engines & for all

variations of your site)

• Pingdom / Webpagespeed accounts

• Third party conversion optimization

scripts

• Keyword rankings

• Monitor your competitor’s website

design changes (wayback machine),

subscribe to all competitor social media

pages & newsletters

• Google alerts for your & competitor’s

brand name

How do we do it?

Target Audience

Target Channels

Content for Users

Smaller onsite elements

Technical SEO

Teams & Processes

Teams & Processes

IT Team

Design

Team

SEO & Content Team

Project

Manager

Business

Manager

Teams & Processes

IT

Team

Design

Team

SEO & Content

Team

Project

Manager

Business

Manager

1. Templates

2. Guidelines

3. Roadmap

4. Alignment Method

5. Quality Checks

6. Sign Offs

7. Launch (Yeahh!)

Teams & Processes

SEO & Content

Team

Content Writer Technical SEOOutreach

responsible

Define your 6 monthly goals Basic KPIs for target setting

• Brand search volume

• Organic traffic

• Leads

• Community members

• PR mentions/links

• Onsite Content

• Bounce rates

Lastly, don’t forget to set goals!

In next 6 months, I want

to be mentioned in the

top 10 consumer

magazines of Asia!

Find the detailed Checklist here (with helpful resources)

http://bit.ly/1BGOITI

Final checklist

Target Audience

Target Channels

Content for Users

Smaller onsite elements

Technical SEO

Teams & Processes

And thats how we launch websites in CupoNation ;)

Thank you for being an amazing audience!Questions?

CupoNation Selfie, Munich Office (HQ) The “Wall of Flags” at CupoNation

Additional Slides

Additional Slides

Google Consumer Survey

Consumer Barometer tool

Collect keyword ideas from1. Brainstorming2. Google adwords/ Google suggest3. Competitor’s keywords (Traffic data - Similarweb; Ranking data - Searchmetrics;

Anchor text data - Majestic)

What to consider1. Calibrate your perception about intention of user by checking the websites already

ranking for your selected keywords2. Anticipate CTRs for top 5 positions of a keyword type to draw a realistic traffic

estimation (do not be blinded by search volumes alone)3. Singular/Plural/Synonyms/Stop words/Long tails - All possible variations!4. Most recent search volumes instead of standard last 12 months average

Keyword research

Google Trend data

Right keyword selection

Select right language versionsWhy?

1. Different spelling versions of the same word can show

different results in google

2. Displaying wrong spelling versions of common words on your

site can impact user trust

Be aware of the spelling versions

CupoNation: USPs displayed to consumers

Use trust signs familiar to users

Reflect local sentiments within your design

GoalAvoid confusion or misinterpretation of your brand in the new

culture

What?1. Research about the dos and don'ts within the culture of

your new market2. Conduct survey with test subjects to evaluate your design,

fonts, colours

Go for local SEO/PR/Digital agencies

Why?

1. Local firms can give you consultation regarding stories you can tell in the market and also help you

understand the user behaviour in the market

2. Introduce your brand to local opinion leaders, evaluate your content plan, give you insights about

local events (calendar)

Give your company a local face

Why?1. Goes a long way in terms of relevancy & trust factor for your content

What?1. Use local country relevant images on website2. Show that you are global with subtle hints - International team

section, flags of other countries where you are present3. Avoid using generic stock photos, rather invest in good photoshoots

which tell the story of your brand

Launch with good PR/Social Media effort

List of Journalists/Influencers

Prepare pre-launch teaser content

Create buzz around your launch!