Your First Steps in Conducting a Successful International SEO strategy

Your First Steps in Conducting a Successful International SEO strategy

Phil [email protected]

14th october 2014

How popular is SEO today?

Conclusions:

■ it’s still present■ reached its maximum

potential■ stagnates rather than

falls

What happened?

■ Pingvin, Panda, Caffeine, Hummingbird etc...

■ dynamic SERPs■ marketing automation■ auto triggered email

campaigns■ priority of user

behaviors

SEO | search engine optimization

SEO search trends (US)

What value can SEO offer? 1/2

Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) ■ the highest value customers arrive through organic searches (54% higher than average)

■ proves to be most loyal customers

Custora 2013: ■ 72 mill customers ■ 86 ecommerce sites ■ 14 topics

http://blog.custora.com/2013/06/e-commerce-customer-acquisition-snapshot/

What value can SEO offer? 2/2

Acquisition channel growth ■ nearly 16% of customers acquired through organic search, exceeding all other channels like CPC, Email or social media channels

Custora 2013: ■ 72 mill customers ■ 86 ecommerce sites ■ 14 topics

http://blog.custora.com/2013/06/e-commerce-customer-acquisition-snapshot/

Your International SEO steps and strategy

1. Current site performance

(optional)

2. Market research

3. Piloting your products / services

4. Secure your brand

5. Localized keyword research

6. Competitive research

7. Multilanguage & country targeting

1. Current site performance - Google Analytics

Google Analytics Geo-Location Performance Report



1. Current site performance - Google Analytics

Google Analytics: User Language Report


1. Current site performance - Google Webmaster Tools

Pinpointing opportunities:

■ high nr. of impressions■ average rankings too

high ■ zero clicks (no traffic)


1. Current site performance (optional)

2. Market research






2. Market research - Google Global Market Finder

■ a quick view on different markets

■ ranks of countries based on their export opportunities

■ recommended bids ■ strongly suggested

to double check Google’s automated translations


http://translate.google.com/globalmarketfinder/g/index.html?locale=en

User search & purchase behavior

■ roles of search engines in the purchase process

■ purchase behavior across countries and product categories

■ consumers research and purchase behavior


2. Market research - Consumer Barometer

http://www.consumerbarometer.com/#?app=home&viewMode=0

http://youtube.com/v/JaxyEQcfUAA

■ 50% of consumers in Poland used search engines prior purchasing a product or service


2. Market research - Role of search engine in the purchase process

■ Only 7% of Polish consumers purchasing health products online


2. Market research - Purchase behavior across countries and product category

■ Only 23% of online purchasing people in Poland


2. Market research - Consumers research and purchase behavior



2. Market research






FEW PRODUC

TS

SEPARATE LANDING

PAGES

MAX 3

COUNTRIES

PPC ADWORDSCAMPAIGN

■ landing pages (ex. Instapage)■ A/B testing (ex. VWO)■ online surveys (ex. Qualaroo)



http://www.instapage.com/

https://vwo.com/

https://qualaroo.com/



2. Market research






MANNASZAPPAN.HU

MANNA.HU MANNA.COM

301 REDIRECTVS VS

OK, on Hungarian market different niche

■ .com domain registration if available■ social media accounts (Twitter, Facebook)■ bulk registration (ex: KnowEm.com)■ trademark registration (USPTO, WIPO)



http://knowem.com/

http://www.uspto.gov/trademarks/teas/

http://www.wipo.int/trademarks/en/



2. Market research






Tools:

■ Google Keyword Planner

■ Yandex Wordstat

■ Baidu Index

■ Seznam Search

■ Bing Keyword Tool

■ Naver Trend

POSITIONLY



https://adwords.google.com/KeywordPlanner

http://wordstat.yandex.com/

http://index.baidu.com/

http://search.seznam.cz/stats?collocation=test

http://www.bing.com/toolbox/keywords

http://trend.naver.com/

http://positionly.com/infographics/search-engine-marketing-industry-report-2014

http://positionly.com/infographics/search-engine-marketing-industry-report-2014


5. Localized keyword research - Third-party tools



2. Market research







6. Competitive research - Google SpreadSheet

■ a quick view on most competitive domains in a certain topic defined by a list of relevant keywords

■ bit.ly/1s1Xkj7

Topic: organic skin care

https://www.google.com.au/search?pws=0&gl=AU&hl=en&q=

http://bit.ly/1s1Xkj7


6. Competitive research - other alternatives

1. Use of URL parameters

pl 1: google.com/webhp?pws=0&gl=us&hl=en pl 2: google.co.uk/webhp?pws=0&gl=uk&hl=en pl 3: google.fr/webhp?pws=0&gl=fr&hl=fr

3. Use of VPN and proxies (ex: HideMyAss)

2. Ad Preview and Diagnosis Tool

https://www.google.com/webhp?pws=0&gl=us&hl=en








https://www.google.co.uk/webhp?pws=0&gl=uk&hl=en








https://www.google.fr/webhp?pws=0&gl=fr&hl=fr








http://bit.ly/1D6GC75

https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/148778?hl=en



2. Market research







7. Multilanguage and country targeting - URL structure

Country specific Domains (ccTLD)ex: domain.hu, domain.ie, domain.pl

Pros:

■ automatically geotargeted by Google■ easy separation of sites■ server location irrelevant

Cons:

■ could be very expensive■ in some cases it might be difficult to

obtain all the ccTLDs you need ■ more infrastructure is needed ■ maintenance could be difficult

■ EURODNS - bulk registration of over 500 TLDs)

https://www.eurodns.com/international-domain-names/cctlds/



Subdomains (with gTLD)ex: hu.domain.com, ie.domain.com, pl.domain.com

Pros:

■ manually targetable in Google Webmaster Tools

■ you can have different server locations■ easy separation of sites

Cons:

■ the .com TLD might be already registered*

■ might not be recognisable by users ■ you can loose linkjuice on domain level

* in case you have a registered trademark, you can claim ownership of the .com domain



Subfolders (with gTLD)ex:domain.com/hu/,domain.com/ie/,domain.com/pl/

Pros:

■ all content under one gTLD domain■ low maintenance costs ■ manually targetable in Google

Webmaster Tools

Cons:

■ the .com TLD might be already registered*

■ might not be recognisable by users

* in case you have a registered trademark, you can claim ownership of the .com domain



Use of parameters ex:domain.com/?loc=ru

Pros:

■ not recommended

Cons:

■ there’s no any option for geotargeting your site

■ might not be recognisable by users


7. Multilanguage and country targeting

hreflang HTML tagging <html><head><link rel="alternate" href="http://example.com/en-ca" hreflang="en-ca" /><link rel="alternate" href="http://example.com/fr-ca" hreflang="fr-ca" /><link rel="alternate" href="http://example.com/en-gb" hreflang="en-gb" /><link rel="alternate" href="http://example.com/en-us" hreflang="en-us" /><link rel="alternate" href="http://example.com/en-au" hreflang="en-au" /><link rel="alternate" href="http://example.com/" hreflang="x-default" />

</head><body>…</body></html>

en-ca■ English language■ Canada as geolocation

fr-ca■ French language■ Canada as geolocation

x-default■ ex. English language■ any other geolocation

which hasn’t been defined with hreflang tagging

http://example.com/en-ca

http://example.com/en-ca

http://example.com/fr-ca

http://example.com/fr-ca

http://example.com/en-gb

http://example.com/en-gb

http://example.com/en-us

http://example.com/en-us

http://example.com/en-au

http://example.com/en-au

http://example.com/

SEO is not everything, Nay …

“SEO here SEO there but making a difference matters most”

Srirachahuyfong.com

Erno Laszloernolaszlo.com

http://www.huyfong.com/

http://www.ernolaszlo.com/

Few bad examples

Ilcsi (ilcsi.com)

Language function being used:

HU: ilcsi.com EN: ilcsi.com/home RU: ilcsi.com/...pdf

ilcsi.hu

http://help.webzona.hu/

Few bad examples

Univer (univer.hu)

Language function being used:

HU: ➢ .hu/➢ .hu/?Lang=hu

RO: .ro (non-www nem működik) RU: .hu/ru EN: .hu/en

univer.com

Some further useful recommendations

■ seasonal products (Australia vs Europe)

■ avoid automated translations

■ avoid automated redirects based on language (cookies) or IP

address

■ use UTF8 compatible CMS or eCommerce platforms

■ use local currency on geotargeted product pages

■ try to adapt to local purchasing behaviors

■ learn more about local business directives and rules

■ use separate XML sitemaps for each geo or language versions

■ define achievable and relevant business goals

■ “don’t bite off more than you can chew”

Phil [email protected]@fimre

hu.linkedin.com/in/fulopimre/

bit.ly/PhilAmery

THANK YOU

Your First Steps in Conducting a Successful International SEO strategy

Marketing

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