International SEO - Be Wizard 2011

International SEO:The Challenges Facing International Brands
Hannah Smith

About Me Slide Will Go Here...
Lead SEO at Distilled
11 years in marketing
5 years – retail marketing (POS / Sales Promo)
3 years – direct response (press / direct mail / sponsorship)
3 years online – (SEO, PPC, CRO)
Email: hannah.smith@distilled.co.uk
Twitter: @hannah_bo_banna
LinkedIn: uk.linkedin.com/in/hannahsmith

What I’ll Be Covering
What is the challenge?
TLD / Sub Folder / Sub Domain
Branding considerations
Ranking Factors for International SEO
Image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/umisef/586964512/sizes/m/

Good rankings in one country don’t necessarily ‘translate’ - even if there’s no language barrier...

French Results (France)

French Results (Canada)

UK Results

US Results

Why?
A ‘good’ result for the USA; is not necessarily a ‘good’
result for the UK & vice versa:
BestBuy – top USA result
Don’t ship to the UK
All prices in $
Play – top UK result
Don’t ship to the USA
All prices in £

This is true of all markets...
So how do you get a site to rank in other countries?

Geotargeting
Geo-target via:
Country Code TLD - www.yourdomain.it
Or
Generic TLD - www.yourdomain.com
Plus
Sub Folder www.yourdomain.com/uk
Or
Sub Domain www.uk.yourdomain.com
You can also geo-target sub-folders / sub domains and submit country / language specific sitemaps in in Google Webmaster Tools see - http://www.seo-chicks.com/1463/geotargeting-on-the-same-domain-using-xml-sitemaps.html

Brand Recognition
Is your brand internationally recognised?

Brand Comprehension
Does your brand ‘translate’?
Insurance.co.uk
Insurance.ie
Insurance.it
Assicurazione.it
Image cedit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mtrichardson/4626549119/sizes/z/

Pros & Cons – ccTLD – www.yourdomain.it
Pros
Strongest geo-targeting signal
Cons
New site with no strength so it may not rank at all
You’ll need to put in some serious link building effort
Can be difficult to purchase ccTLD

Pros & Cons – Sub Folderwww.yourdomain.com/uk
Pros
Domain strength is passed to sub-folders
A single site will normally be stronger than many
Cons
Likely problems with the ‘wrong’ content ranking e.g. yourdomain.com ranking in the UK rather than yourdomain.com/uk

Pros & Cons – Sub Domainwww.uk.yourdomain.com
Pros
There aren’t any...
Cons
Little or no strength passed from the domain
Likely problems with the ‘wrong’ content ranking e.g. yourdomain.com ranking in the UK rather than uk.yourdomain.com

Which Approach is Right for you?
If your brand ‘translates’ and/or is internationally
recognised either:
ccTLD
Or
Sub Folder
If your brand does not ‘translate’ you may be better
off with a new trading name and an associated ccTLD

ccTLD vs Sub Folder
ccTLD
Large brands which will generate links naturally
And...
Brands with local teams / time / resource etc to build links
Sub Folder
Where ccTLDs are unavailable
Where there’s a lack of local teams / time / resource

Multiple Languages
Don’t forget countries with multiple languages!
ccTLD solution:
www.yourdomain.ca/en
www.yourdomain.ca/fr
Sub folder solution:
www.yourdomain.com/ca/en
www.yourdomain.com/ca/fr

Other Ranking Factors for International SEO
Local Links
Language
Physical Address / Telephone Numbers / Currency
Hosting

How to get Local Links...
If possible, get a local to build links for you
Find local link targets with commands like ‘business blogs site:co.uk’
Local directories
Local partnerships
Local customers
Local news
Local sponsorships
Local events

Language
Beware of cheap translation services
Language usage is different from country to country e.g. US v UK; Canada v France etc
Create language specific content for each country – don’t be tempted to replicate

More Local ‘Signals’
Make sure you’re sending the right signals to the
search engines...
Include local:
Addresses
Telephone numbers
Currency

Hosting
If possible – host in your target country
Or
Cache a copy of your website at a proxy IP
NB – not likely to make a massive difference, but
it may tip the balance in your favour...
Further reading:
http://seogadget.co.uk/proxy-caching-for-seo/

When the Search Engines Get it Wrong...
Unfortunately the search engines won’t always serve
the correct content (you can check this in Analytics)
You can use an IP redirect to serve the correct content
BUT!
Search engines tend to come via a US IP
So, make sure they can crawl all of your content in every language

Key Takeaways
To rank internationally you’ll need to:
Geotarget – use ccTLDs or Sub Folders (NOT Sub Domains)
Split countries into multiple languages if you need to
Build local links
Highlight other local signals – addresses / phone / currency
Consider local or proxy local hosting options

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International SEO - Be Wizard 2011

by Hannah Smith

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International SEO - Be Wizard 2011 Presentation Transcript