Bill Hunt - Global Search

Global Search Marketing
Your just a click away from the world!
SEMNE CT Meeting
March 31, 2010
Bill Hunt

International Opportunity
85% of Small Medium Businesses in US and Europe indicated search engines offer them the best mode for market expansion
65% of Fortune 100 generate more than 50% of their revenue outside the US
70% of all Google queries were in a language other than English
Search is the least inexpensive mode of entry of any form or global expansion.

plane ticket
flugticket
vlucht
billet d’avion
航空券
항공권
volo
vuelos
Drive targeted leads to your international sites
Target Users at the Time of Interest in their language
www.yourcompany.com
in English / Japanese / French / Korean / German / Italian / Spanish / Dutch

Global Search Challenges
But, with the increased awareness and demand comes new challenges…
Search breaks down traditional geographic barriers leading to potential customer frustration due to language, navigation or ecommerce issues
Content owners now compete for keywords, awareness and traffic based on who has the better optimized content resulting
Advanced creative techniques can be counterproductive to search requirements
Grass roots programs create duplication and waste
4

Opportunities

Business Opportunities
Going Global = More Business Opportunities

Opportunities - Regins

Opportunities - Languages

Opportunities - Countries

Why Go Global?
Demand is already coming to you
Log file analysis
Sales and leads
Language and communication ability
Customer service
Infrastructure (channel partners)
Internet usage and E-commerce
Market place interests and product categories
New Markets & Demand for Products
Emerging markets or advancing technology opportunities

Review the Opportunities
http://www.google.com/landing/exporttool/
https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

Planning & Challenges

Objectives and Goals
Determine the Business Objectives for Global Websites and Global PPC Campaigns
Target audience
How to measure the success
Size and budget of campaigns
In-house, Out-sourced, or Hybrid
Create a Project Road Map
Research target markets and be prepared

Target Engines
Google – 62.4%
Yahoo – 12.8%
Baidu – 5.2%
MSN(bing) – 2.9%
Naver – 2.6%

There are some challenges…
Different market means different:
Rules
People
Culture
Behavioral Patterns

Regional Challenges
Different outlet
social media, blog, etc.
Market trends
Different search behaviors
Different seasonal behaviors
fiscal year
shopping, vacation seasons
difference in products to push
Purchasing options
credit card, COD, offline
Content regulations
gov regulations
trademark, etc.

On-going Challenges
Ranking Reports
Campaign Maintenance
Foreign Customer Services
Legal / Contracts
How to stay
“Competitive”
in foreign market

Key Elements of Search – any language
Ensuring your site is search friendly which allows spiders to visit and index the content on the site
Ensuring your pages include the keyword phrases actually used by searchers
Ensuring the pages of your website are as compliant as possible with the search engine scoring algorithms
Ensuring compelling and action oriented descriptions that encourage visits
Ensure a well defined and user friendly conversion path

Technical Challenges
CMS settings
Geo targeting, ccTLDs
Index problem
Duplicate content
Different target engines
Languages / localization
Right to Left
Double byte character set
Tools (multi-lingual)
Domain, sub-domain
Hosting
Link building

Infrastructure Issues

Leverage Templates for Scale
Maximize reach across the organization & globe
Focus on top level templates
Optimize the templates when developed
Ensure the optimal page elements are pulled into the template correctly
Leverage Style Guides and Business Rules
Forces overseas offices to comply with optimized formats
Give you way to monitor implementation of the program

Template and top-level content optimisation
Correct use of Header tags
Page Title and Meta Data recommendations
Fully indexable navigation?
Can search engine’s follow all of the links?
Ensure all parts of the page are indexable
Enhancement of cross-links to distribute link equity
Sony.de
Sony.fr
Etc.

Global SEO for IBM Software Online Catalog
IBM Software Online Catalogs are currently available in 235 countries translated in 23 languages. Product ordering is currently available in 33 countries around the world
Hungarian
Italian
Korean
Norwegian
Polish
Russian
Slovakian
Spanish
Swedish
Turkish
Japanese
Traditional Chinese
Danish
Languages
Brazilian Portuguese
Chinese Simplified
Croatian
Czech
Dutch
English
Finnish
French
French Canadian
German
Countries who can order
Countries with catalogs only
Countries not enabled
Goals:
Be the “go to source” on the web for all IBM software
Rank well without significant local interaction and optimization
Drive incrimental traffic and conversions from brand and generic terms

Optimizing the Catalog
Working with geo teams to determine current rankings in local search engines and geo-specific terms to optimize for
Altering templates to allow addition of geo-specific keywords to titles, headings, and spiderable text
Reducing redirects and simplifying URL structures to increase performance of pages as well as spiderability
Created country-specific XML site maps to push inclusion
Results:
82% of Tier 1 phrases in all markets ranking on first page
Majority of traffic now from Search
Exponential increase in sales immediately after indexing
Source: IBM Presentation SES San Jose 2009

Barriers to getting global sites indexed
Popups can’t be indexed
Pull-down country maps can’t be crawled
Restrictive JavaScript for language detection
Restrictive Robots.txt and meta robots

Location and Language Detection
Country Detection Methods
Top Level Domain, IP of server/host, detected language
Language Detection
Most engines an detect top 3 languages automatically
93% of European searchers restrict to “language”
Engines using Searcher IP detection to present local relevant content

GEO Targeting for Google
Pages in Germany “.de”
All web
Pages in German language
Sitemap
Country setting

Fixing Location & Language Barriers
Use correct Meta language tags
<html lang=“de"> or <html lang=“en_gb">
<meta http-equiv="content-language" content="ja">
Use correct Character Set meta tags
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content= "text/html; charset=shift-jis"> -- Japanese
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type“ content="text/html; charset=windows-1251"/> -- Russian
Use local domain names .de .fr .co.uk
They can be hosted in the US
At least a few pages on the local market domain

Maximize WW Link Architecture
Link Equity is the amount of positive value your website receives from the totality of “links” or “votes” for your content from internal and external sources which is the foundation of Google’s Scoring Algorithm.
Leverage enormous power of WW Sites to build link equity
Leverage Partners and Distributed content to increase link equity
Helps define the global server strategy as well

Linguistic Issues

Benefit of Website Globalization
Standard site design and management
Linking strategy
Cost saving
Time efficiency
Manpower reduction
Standardizing brand image and business strategies

Localization Challenges
Languages:
Different spellings
“localise” or “localize”
Different meanings
“football” or “soccer
Currencies
Metrics
Address
Local Legal Requirements
Business & License information
Hours & Locations
Return Policies

Mistakes With “Word for Word” Translation
Not translated
「ホテル名」
「US$200以上」
「US$40以下」
「US$ｘｘ以上、US$ｘｘ以下」
「全てのホテルを表示する」
「111件中1番目から20番目のホテル」
???
Wrong character
「ホテル名」
This should be on the right side of the currency box.

Don't force US keywords on the local offices - share with them the logic behind the recommended KWs (w/data) and let them add their own local touches
Educate them on the value of the words and why to look beyond branded terms
Share well performing words in local markets with all markets for potential new opportunities (closed feedback loop)
Don’t translate keywords but identify the best words for the local market.
Keyword Research

Keywords
Keyword Research in each market
“America (USA)”
アメリカ: 110,000
アメリカ合衆国: 14,800
米国: 4,400
合衆国: 720
“Baby carrier”
ベビーキャリア:1,600
抱っこ紐:12,100
抱っこひも：6,600
だっこひも：2,900
だっこ紐：1,300

Keyword planning in each language
Don’t just translate the English words
Add all of the variations to expand keywords
20% of keywords in campaign are not popular or wrong translations
70% of Google queries are from outside the USA!

Keyword Organization & Management
Organize your keywords by:
Languages
Locations
Target audiences
Purchase cycle
Importance
Brand name
Product name
Model numbers, etc.
Set up separate account with different target language/location for each market to avoid bidding against yourself

Managing the Localization Process
Cheap translation is just that… cheap translation!
Translators are NOT optimizers
Many translators don’t even use the Internet
Few translators understand keyword research
Few translators integrate keyword research into their process
Review basic optimization techniques with team
Teach them to understand key techniques and concepts
Help copywriters combine search techniques with marketing copy
Maintain keyword prominence and density
Often substitute words and phrases “it, our product, we”
Understand “correct word” is not always “optimal word”

Glossary Development
Blended L10N & Optimization Process
Content Translation
Localization
Step
Page QA
Page
Updates
Keyword Optimization
Algorithm Compliance
SEO Step
Ensuring the final page has all the key elements needed for ranking well.
Identify, analyze and refine optimal keywords
Use SEO best practices to ensure translated content is optimal for scoring
Scope
Critical Keyword List
External Demand
On-site Search
Current Position
Content Availability & User query centric
Primary
Tasks
Keyword Occurrence
Keyword Density
Keyword Prominence
Descriptive Sentence
Ensure complete translation
Ensure proper language tags
Ensure optimal placement of keywords

Localized PPC Ad Creative
Write effective ads for each market
Double byte characters = A half the space
Check competitors’ ads
Use dynamic insertion cautiously

Team & Organizational Issues

Winning Hearts and Minds
Build a Culture of Search
Set expectations accordingly -- local teams often don’t have as much resource and asked to do many other tasks
Develop your own local awareness.
Remember, you’re from headquarters and you’re supposed to be there to help.
Not knowing what the major local search engine (or language, or major holidays) are doesn’t make for a good foundation.
Where you have them, trust your local teams.
Educate, Empower, and Trust Them: They have the cultural context and local market knowledge.
Provide global resources and support (basic search knowledge, central infrastructure optimization, etc.)

Brand
Brand
Brand
Brand
Web
Marketing
Site Arct
Europe
Latin
America
Asia
Japan
Centralized Team Structure
Manages
Coordination of centralized team
Overall Search Strategy
Search related Training
Integration of Paid and Organic Search
Agency Relationships
WW Search Manager
Website Liaison Role
Coordinate with site framework and design
Consulting with Site Infs. team on metrics, flow & function
Support web strategy & Web 2.0 efforts
Compliment web marketing initiatives
Brand Search Strategists Role
Brand specific keyword research
Brand level page auditing and optimization
Coordination with Development Team
Both outsourced and internal resources

Global PPC Management Tools
Search engines have best global bid tools
Few tools work with double-byte keywords
Kenshoo & Make Me Top
Few tools roll up all global campaigns
Few tools work with local search API’s
Deploy tracking tags on international sites
Many analytics tools can’t display double-byte
Resources are scarce in many markets

Deploy Performance Metrics
Leverage Scorecards for governance to ensure consistent global performance goals are achieved.
Helps prioritize resource allocation
Forces all business units to make an effort
IBM’s global search performance increased 500% when BU level performance metrics implemented

Deploy Performance Metrics
Performance by business unit for critical keywords

Key steps to a successful global program
Demonstrate the business opportunity for search
Ensure translators and localizers understand search fundamentals
Research and deploy the optimal keyword strategy
Integrate search attributes into the development and localization workflow process
Research the target markets for regulations, trends, statistics, popular engines and social outlets
Take advice from local experts and local offices, and make necessary adjustments to your campaign strategies for each market

Enabler – Get a Handy Reference
“Buy this book, read it, and then read it again.”--Chris Sherman, Search Engine Watch
Helps guide you through developing your program
How to form your team and manage for success

Thank You.
eMail: bill@whunt.com
Twitter: billhunt
Blog: www.whunt.com
Site: www.back-azimuth.com

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Bill Hunt - Global Search

by Jonathan Hochman on Apr 01, 2010

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Bill Hunt - Global Search — Presentation Transcript