Aleyda Solis_SearchLove London 2013

From Unknown Foreigner to Local Star

How to succeed at real (not ideal) International SEO scenarios
international seo at #searchlove by @aleyda from @woorank

Raise your hand
if you have International SEO experience


Raise your hand
if you have SUCCESSFUL International SEO experience


Going International
is ATTRACTIVE

NOM NOM NOM!

Going International
can be COMPLEX

CCTLDS OR SUB-DIRECTORIES?
LANGUAGES OR COUNTRIES?


Going International
requires a LOCALIZED approach

DO I LOOK LIKE A NATIVE NOW?


Here’s what I’ve learned
after +5 years of International SEO successes & failures
MY NAME IS ALEYDA SOLIS,
INTERNATIONAL SEARCH MARKETER,
HEAD OF DIGITAL STRATEGY AT WOORANK


Challenge No. 1: Your International Strategy


“We don’t have enough
resources to update all of
our International sites”
WHY DID YOU BUILT THEM THEN?


DON’T TRY TO TARGET MORE THAN YOU CAN SUPPORT: PRIORITIZE
THE MOST BENEFICIAL INTERNATIONAL MARKETS & CONTENT
WITHIN THOSE MARKETS TO START WITH THEM

USE YOUR WEB ANALYTICS TO IDENTIFY YOUR SITE INTERNATIONAL TRAFFIC
BEHAVIOUR: VISITS & CONVERSIONS VOLUME, TREND, RATE & TYPE PER
COUNTRY & LANGUAGE.

CHECK WITH YOUR WEBMASTER TOOLS WHICH QUERIES & PAGES BRING YOU
INTERNATIONAL SEARCH VISIBILITY PER COUNTRY, THEIR IMPRESSIONS,
CLICKS, CTR & POSITION OVER TIME.

IDENTIFY THE SEARCH VOLUME AND TREND OPPORTUNITY FOR THE
RELEVANT TERMS IN THE MOST IMPORTANT COUNTRY MARKETS USING
KEYWORD RESEARCH TOOLS

USE THESE KEYWORD RESEARCH TOOLS

Suggestion
Keyword Finder

IDENTIFY THE SEARCH VOLUME AND TREND OPPORTUNITY FOR THE
RELEVANT TERMS IN THE MOST IMPORTANT COUNTRY MARKETS USING
KEYWORD RESEARCH TOOLS

DON’T RELY ON GOOGLE GLOBAL MARKET FINDER TO
IDENTIFY OPPORTUNITY, IT’S NOT ALWAYS ACCURATE

American English
“Search Engine Optimization”
“User behavior”
“I’m going to check my agenda”

British English
“Search Engine Optimisation”
“User behaviour”
“I’m going to check my diary”

WARNING: THEY LOOK SIMILAR
BUT ARE NOT THE SAME

NATIVE SUPPORT IS A MUST DURING ALL THE INTERNATIONAL SEO
PROCESS, EVEN AT THE START AND WHEN IT’S IN YOUR OWN
LANGUAGE BUT TARGETING TO OTHER COUNTRIES

TECHNICAL
FEASIBILITY &
SUPPORT FOR MULTI
COUNTRY / LANGUAGE
SETTING

ONGOING NATIVE
SUPPORT BUDGET &
AVAILABILITY

MULTILINGUAL
CONTENT
DEVELOPMENT &
UPDATE

INTERNATIONAL
PRICING & CURRENCY

INTERNATIONAL
PRODUCT / SERVICE
DELIVERY

INTERNATIONAL
LEGAL & OPERATION
CONSTRAINTS

VALIDATE WHAT’S REQUIRED FROM A BUSINESS, TECHNICAL,
CONTENT & LANGUAGE SUPPORT PERSPECTIVE TO OPERATE
IN THE IDENTIFIED TOP MARKETS

WITH THE PREVIOUS DATA YOU CAN VALIDATE THE FEASIBILITY &
CALCULATE THE BREAK-EVEN POINT & EXPECTED ROI FOR EACH
MARKET, USING THE INTERNATIONAL SEO ROI CALCULATOR

http://www.internationalseomap.com/roi-calculator/

WITH THE PREVIOUS DATA YOU CAN VALIDATE THE FEASIBILITY &
CALCULATE THE BREAK-EVEN POINT & EXPECTED ROI FOR EACH
MARKET, USING THE INTERNATIONAL SEO ROI CALCULATOR

Your International SEO potential
Yes

Continue with the internationaL SEO project

>

Visits & Conversions for a break-even
No

Might be too early
1. Buy & secure your ccTLDs for future activity
2. Create custom alerts in Google Analytics for important countries

REMEMBER THAT YOUR GOAL IS TO BE PROFITABLE:VALIDATE IF YOUR
INTERNATIONAL SEO PROJECT IS VIABLE AT THE MOMENT FOR THE
MOST IMPORTANT IDENTIFIED MARKETS

Challenge No. 2 - Your International Targeting


“I want a Latin America
Version for my site”
YES, BECAUSE ALL LATIN AMERICA IS THE EXACT SAME RIGHT?


Is location a factor that influence your Web operations?
Yes

No

Are there enough traffic & conversions to target each country?
Yes

Country Targeting

No

You can start with

Language Targeting

IDENTIFY THE BEST INTERNATIONAL TARGETING FOR YOUR SITES,
ACCORDING TO YOUR OWN REQUIREMENTS & RESTRICTIONS.

BETTER TO INHERIT POPULARITY
BETTER TO GEOTARGET

BETTER FOR SITES WITH MORE CONTENT
BETTER TO INHERIT POPULARITY
FROM EXISTENT SITE

A CRAWLABLE & CONSISTENT INTERNATIONAL WEB STRUCTURE IS
FUNDAMENTAL ALTHOUGH NOT ENOUGH TO AVOID
INTERNATIONAL SEARCH ALIGNMENT ISSUES

INTERNATIONAL SEARCH ALIGNMENT ISSUES MIGHT HAPPEN WITH
SITES IN THE SAME LANGUAGE TARGETING DIFFERENT COUNTRIES


AND EVEN WITH SITES VERSIONS IN DIFFERENT LANGUAGES!


AVOID MISALIGNMENTS BY INCLUDING HREFLANG ANNOTATIONS
SPECIFYING YOUR PAGES LANGUAGE & COUNTRY TARGETING

TAKE A LOOK AT THE HREFLANG CASE STUDY THAT @SAURAVRIMAL
PUBLISHED AT THE SEER INTERACTIVE BLOG

http://www.seerinteractive.com/blog/case-study-the-impact-of-hreflangtag

TAKE A LOOK AT THE HREFLANG CASE STUDY THAT @SAURAVRIMAL
PUBLISHED AT THE SEER INTERACTIVE BLOG

MAKE SURE TO USE THE RIGHT LANGUAGE & COUNTRY
SPECIFICATION IN YOUR HREFLANG TAGS

SOON WITH SUPPORT TO MASSIVELY
GENERATE HREFLANG TAGS

USE THE HREFLANG TAG GENERATOR TOOL TO
CREATE YOUR HREFLANG ANNOTATIONS

http://www.internationalseomap.com/hreflang-tags-generator/

USE THE HREFLANG TAG GENERATOR TOOL TO
CREATE YOUR HREFLANG ANNOTATIONS

YOU CAN ALSO USE THE MEDIAFLOW HREFLANG SITEMAP TOOL TO
GENERATE AN XML SITEMAP INCLUDING THE HREFLANG ANNOTATIONS

http://www.themediaflow.com/resources/tools/href-lang-tool/

YOU CAN ALSO USE THE MEDIAFLOW HREFLANG SITEMAP TOOL TO
GENERATE AN XML SITEMAP INCLUDING THE HREFLANG ANNOTATIONS

VALIDATE THE IMPLEMENTED HREFLANG ANNOTATIONS WITH
DEJANSEO HREFLANG VALIDATOR

http://flang.dejanseo.com.au/

VALIDATE THE IMPLEMENTED HREFLANG ANNOTATIONS WITH
DEJANSEO HREFLANG VALIDATOR

THERE ARE ALSO NEW WARNING MESSAGES FOR INCORRECT
HREFLANG IMPLEMENTATIONS IN GOOGLE WEBMASTER TOOLS, AS THE
ONE RECEIVED BY GIANLUCA FIORELLI (HT @GFIORELLI1)

IF YOU’RE COUNTRY TARGETING AND NOT USING A CCTLD:
GEOTARGET EACH SUB-DIRECTORY OR SUB-DOMAIN
WITH WEBMASTER TOOLS

AVOID AUTOMATIC REDIRECTS THAT TAKE USERS WHERE THEY HAVEN’T
ASKED TO GO. SUGGEST, BUT NOT USING INTERSTITIALS. THEY’RE INTRUSIVE
AND MIGHT MESS WITH YOUR SITE CRAWLABILITY.

TAKE A LOOK AT HOW AMAZON DOES IT

showing a spaniard specific character in A “generic” spanish
language version MIGHT NOT BE ATTRACTIVE FOR THE LATAM AUDIENCE

AND BE CAREFUL TO NOT MIX LANGUAGE WITH COUNTRY TARGETING,
YOU NEED TO BE CONSISTENT IN YOUR SITE CONTENT & FEATURES

Challenge No. 3 - Your International Popularity


“We’re so popular here
already, we just need to
extrapolate what we
have”
YES, I BET PEOPLE THERE LIKE THE EXACT SAME STUFF THAN US RIGHT?


THEY’LL NEED TO REBRAND IF THEY LOOK TO TARGET AND CONNECT
WITH SPANISH SPEAKING AUDIENCE IN THE FUTURE (HT @ANILOPEZ)

USE THE CONSUMER BAROMETER & TNS DIGITAL LIFE TO BETTER
UNDERSTAND YOUR INTERNATIONAL AUDIENCE BEHAVIOUR


http://www.consumerbarometer.com/

USE THE CONSUMER BAROMETER & TNS DIGITAL LIFE TO BETTER
UNDERSTAND YOUR INTERNATIONAL AUDIENCE BEHAVIOUR


USE SIMILARWEB TO IDENTIFY THE TOP WEBSITES IN THE
DESIRED INDUSTRY AND COUNTRY

http://www.similarweb.com/global

USE SIMILARWEB TO IDENTIFY THE TOP WEBSITES IN THE
DESIRED INDUSTRY AND COUNTRY

USE BUZZSUMO, SOCIAL CRAWLYTICS & LINK EXPLORERS (OSE,
MAJESTICSEO & AHREFS) TO IDENTIFY THE MOST LINKED & SHARED
CONTENT IN EACH INTERNATIONAL MARKET & INDUSTRY

USE FOLLOWERWONK, TOPSY & BUZZSUMO TO IDENTIFY LOCAL
INDUSTRY INFLUENCERS IN SOCIAL NETWORKS AND BUILD
RELATIONSHIPS WITH THEM

NATIVE SUPPORT IS A MUST TO CONNECT WITH YOUR LOCAL AUDIENCE &
BECOME AN AUTHORITY, BEING A FOREIGN BRAND. JUST REMEMBER TO
RESPECT LOCAL TRADITIONS TOO.

THE GOOD NEWS IS THAT NON-ENGLISH SPEAKING MARKETS ARE
USUALLY LESS COMPETITIVES, BUT LINK SPAM IS MORE COMMON. BE
CAREFUL WITH HURTING YOUR OTHER SITE VERSIONS!

Just two more resources to help you...


AN INTERNATIONAL SEO CHECKLIST

http://moz.com/blog/the-international-seo-checklist

AN INTERNATIONAL SEO CHECKLIST

AND A LIST WITH +40 INTERNATIONAL SEO TOOLS

http://moz.com/blog/40-plus-tools-to-advance-your-international-seoprocess

AND A LIST WITH +40 INTERNATIONAL SEO TOOLS

LET’S GO ABROAD
Now you’re ready to face these International SEO challenges


THANK YOU
Do you have any questions?


http://www.flickr.com/photos/anniemole/313981428/

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Aleyda Solis_SearchLove London 2013

Aleyda Solis_SearchLove London 2013

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