Myth-Busting: Global Geo-targeting

Google

Presented by:

ANNE KENNEDYInternational Search

StrategistManaging Partner, Beyond InkGlobal Partners - Nordic

eMarketing

Anne Kennedy• Search Marketing consultant

for 15 years for hundreds of companies

• Founded Beyond Ink, Helium, Joblr.net and SEONews.net

• Specialized in architecture then -- Launched Zillow.com with 67 million pages -- now International --search Marketing in 20+ languages around the world

• Advisory board SES and SEMPDX; speaker worldwide for 10 years, SES, SMX, PubCon, International Search Summit, International Classified Media, Association

Writer: WebMarketingToday.com, SearchCowboys, Whitepapers and new book “Global Search Engine Marketing - fine-tuning Your Search Engine Results”

Global Search Media 2011

Search Engine Location FactorsTop Level Domain

www.yourcompany.auor www.yourcompany/auor au.yourcompany.com

+ Hosting+ Language+ Location information and/or Google Places+ In-Country Links from sites with in country ccTLD’s+ WebMaster Tools Geo-location Mapping

Bot Looks for ccTLD

• Country-coded Top Level Domain• Or directory extensions on your.com domain– credits link value of your.com– accepts same set of country-code extensions, e.g. your.de, your.com.au, your.in

– verified in WMT under your core domain• Or subdomain, e.g. in.your.com

– requires separate verification in WMT

Generic or International TLD

• E.g. your.com or your.net• Google Support Forum says

• Google needs other signals!

IP Location

• Carries weight for generic domain– a .com hosted in Japan is a Japanese site

• Low level signal can be overridden– Webmaster Tools, hreflanguage tags

• Local Hosting – may add speed of delivery of pages– quick response may increase visibility

• Exception: Great Firewall of China

How to Find a Good Host in PRC

• Find a domain that is ranking well

• Find servers on whois• suss out host

– Thanks Bill!

Language• Signals your target country

– but many languages shared by countries

• English content on non-English domain

• Use the hreflanguage tag:– for multiple language versions of a website, each language must use rel=”alternate” hreflang=”x”.

– A page in German needs to have a rel=”alternate” hreflang=”x” link to the English and Spanish version and the English and Spanish version must include a link pointing to the German site.

Using the hreflanguage tag

• http://www.yours.com/ – contains the general homepage of a website, in Spanish http://es-es.yours.com/ – is the version for users in Spain, in Spanish http://es-uk.yours.com/ – is the version for users in United Kingdom, in Spanish http://en.yours.com/ - is the generic English language version

• Use the following markup to specify language and region: <link rel=”alternate” hreflang=”es” href=”http://www.yours.com/” /><link rel=”alternate” hreflang=”es-ES” href=”http://es-es.yours.com/” /><link rel=”alternate” hreflang=”es-UK” href=”http://es-uk.yours.com/” />

• <link rel=”alternate” hreflang=”en” href=”http://en.yours.com/” />

Inbound links

• Powerful authority in any country– From local domains– With anchor text in relevant keywords

– To local content on your site – With local keywords in the content

How to Find In-Country Links

• Open Directory Project dmoz.org– 1.9 million listings in 46 languages, from Afrikaans to Ukrainian•www.dmoz.org/World

• Wildcard search – E.g. for lists of directories in Argentina use•www.web directory site:*.com.ar -Google•Google Translate helps you find your way around results in a foreign language

GWT Geo location

• Reads mapping in your Google Webmaster Tools account

• Sets Results to that Country ONLY– do not use if you want to target multiple countries with a single language (not recommended)

How to Map in GWT

• Geo-targetable domains listed at Google Webmaster Tools forum answer here.

Avoid Duplicate Content Filters

• WMT geo-location• In-country links• Unique page titles and directory URLs in the language you are targeting

• Rewrite your session ID’s!

What Not to Do

• Fallback English Content + foreign domain

• Make up extensions -- your.com/lasp

• Link to your own sites only:– your.in + your.de + your.co.uk all >your.com

• Rely on mostly on US links

How to Target Adwords

1.Set up a separate campaign for each country

2.Use location targeting and Language targeting to reach expats- e.g. Brits living in Spain

AdWords Clarity Tips• 1. Set up a separate campaign for each country

• 2. Use location targeting and Language targeting to reach expats– e.g. Brits living in Spain

• Create keyword list & ad text in same language

• Allow for time zones

• Adwords Resource– Google Support Forum and click on AdWords

A discount for you . ..

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Beyond InkPortland Maine & Portland Oregon, USA

Reykjavik , London, Rome, Beijinganne@beyondink.com| Tel: +1 207 671 6131

Anne KennedyInternational Search StrategistMANAGING PARTNER | Beyond InkGlobal Search Partner: Nordic eMarketing

Thanks!

@GlobalSEMPro