This document summarizes an international SEO campaign on a Magento e-commerce site that resulted in 250% traffic increases in 4-6 months. It discusses technical preparations like installing SEO modules and tracking, implementing translations and hreflang, and overcoming canonicalization issues. It also covers international implementations like local domains/subfolders, link building approaches scaled across languages, and content creation processes to optimize multiple countries simultaneously. The key takeaways emphasize focusing on technical foundations, a country-by-country expansion approach, and leveraging domain authority through subfolders.

1. @stevejlock
International SEO on Magento

2. @stevejlock
What I Am Covering Today...
=> How we executed an international campaign on
a small budget for a luxury ecommerce website
=> Magento SEO & Magento Multi-Site
=> Overcoming technical problems
=> Full details on the work completed for a
campaign that resulted in traffic increases of
250% in 4-6 months

3. @stevejlock
Magento SEO
http://www.warkswings.com/

4. @stevejlock
Magento Projects Require Homework
http://www.gpmd.co.uk/blog/a-guide-to-doing-seo-on-magento-websites/

5. @stevejlock
Preparing Technical Optimisation
=> Make sure you read both the GPMD
(recommended) and Yoast blog posts
=> Install Magento SEO Pack
=> Setup Fooman & GA Ecommerce tracking
=> Use the canonical tag on every page and
consider trailing slash canonical issues
=> Consider submitting removal requests if
working on an existing site with junk in the index
(default Magento generates lots!)

6. @stevejlock
International Implementation
=> Decide between local TLD's, sub-domains or
sub-folder structures for the international sites
=> Plan for translations, I recommend starting with
one language then scaling
=> Implement hreflang
=> Really important to setup a GWT account for
each international variation and set geo-location
=> Generate and submit international sitemaps
=> Look for examples in rank tracking where the
wrong country might be ranking in your SERP!

7. @stevejlock
Canonical Problems
=> There are always issues with any CMS
=> Unfortunately ecommerce is normally the
worst :-(
=> Magento has trailing slash canonical problems
with URL's that break the admin section when
you try to resolve them with redirects
=> You need to use the canonical tag, but be
careful to point to one canonical URL either with
or without the slash

8. @stevejlock
Duplicate Content & Junk Pages
=> Filter Pages (block with meta robots)
=> Sort Pages (block with meta robots)
=> Session ID's (GWT parameter handling, set
base URL's in Magento admin)
=> Pagination (rel=next, rel=prev, rel=canonical)
=> Duplicate product descriptions
=> You can also add the nofollow attribute to junk
pages which most Magento experts recommend

9. @stevejlock
Shallow Site Architecture
=> Shallow site architecture is SEO 101
=> It's really important with ecommerce
=> It's really really important with ecommerce sites
with thousands of products that are getting
translated into many languages ;-)
=> I would also recommend using top level product
URL's with 301 redirects e.g.
example.com/product.html
=> You can use regex to then segment product
pages easily by using .html as a rule

10. @stevejlock
Filter Pages → Static Landing Pages

11. @stevejlock
Process To Retire Products
=> SEO Pack can orphan pages in the Magento
back end with no technical knowledge
required
=> Personally I prefer 301 redirects, but these
always require developers :-(
=> Very large ecommerce sites retain tens of
thousands of links per month from retiring old
pages with 301 redirects

12. @stevejlock
Buyers Guides
=> Buyers guides can be really powerful
=> It's a useful place to build landing pages that
might not fit elegantly into the taxonomy
otherwise
=> Great for the long tail
=> Obviously don't forget to show lots of products
on these pages :-)

13. @stevejlock
Hybrid Magento Sites
=> Pure Magento sites are a good option, but they
come with a steep learning curve for non-
technical staff (HTML knowledge required)
=> Most hybrid solutions come with inevitable
issues and development work becomes more
complex
=> WordPress and Magento are probably the
easiest to use with the Fishpig connector

14. @stevejlock
Analytics Events & Goals
=> Useful to gain insights on user behaviour
=> Work well to test if users are engaging with new
functionality and responding to design changes
=> Goals for time on site with different variations
=> Goals for pages viewed with different variations
=> Goals for moving around different sections of
the site e.g. blog → product pages

15. @stevejlock
Analytics Events
http://www.koozai.com/blog/branding/nine-tips-for-getting-more-from-your-ecommerce-website/

16. @stevejlock
Speed #Winning
dailymail.co.uk

17. @stevejlock
http://blog.gigaspaces.com/amazon-found-every-100ms-of-latency-cost-them-1-in-sales/
Every 100ms of latency costs them
1% in sales!
Amazon Case Study

18. @stevejlock
http://www.igniyte.co.uk/
Half a second of speed changed their
bounce rate by 20%!
Google Homepage Case Study

19. @stevejlock
=> Price and stock availability
=> Reviews through Feefo or TrustPilot
=> Video via sitemaps
=> Try to implement ASAP if launching as it can take
many months to start to show in SERP's
=> I've seen client sites that have taken over a year
Schema & Structured Markup

20. @stevejlock
=> This can be really hit or miss
=> Some clients have leveraged really well and it
generates many more sales for them
=> Can be used as a method of data collection and
for CRO changes e.g. if customers can't locate
delivery options
=> Snap Engage is my favourite and can even
support free VOIP calls
Live Chat

21. @stevejlock
=> Look for strategies that can be scaled across
languages e.g. competitions
=> It's important not to have a go with an in-house
team without being honest with the client
=> Many countries can communicate well in English
and therefore some outreach can be achieved
with English teams
=> Guest posting we found to be far less effective
=> It's likely that using a specialist partner will be
best
=> Watch out! Many partners we considered
proposed low quality links
International Link Building

22. @stevejlock
Link Building For Ecommerce
http://www.thinkgeek.com/

23. @stevejlock
Kayak: Oceanic Airlines
http://mashable.com/

24. @stevejlock
Expedia: Flight To Mars
http://www.expedia.co.uk/

25. @stevejlock
Competitions

26. @stevejlock
International Infographics
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/getting-the-maximum-number-of-links-from-your-infographic

27. @stevejlock
Scaling Across All Countries
=> Firstly we nailed English, during setup we also
focused heavily on link building
=> Setup Magento Multi-Site and translations
=> Implemented hreflang and 301 redirects
=> Setup Google Webmaster Tools for each
country setting geo-location for each
=> Generated international sitemaps and
submitted to GWT
=> Planned for international outreach 2 countries
at a time

28. @stevejlock
ALL Links Help ALL The Sites Rank

29. @stevejlock
Content Creation
=> Trial a number of writers and keep the best
performers
=> Focus on one or two languages at a time
=> Look for a team of writers with the most output
and look for the best writer as a proofreader
=> Form teams with one proofreader per language
=> Rinse and repeat...

30. @stevejlock
Key Takeaways
=> Magento is a powerful platform, but has plenty
of pitfalls you need to avoid
=> Avoid using modules for Magento Multi-Site as
they often use parameters you would want to
avoid
=> Focusing on two countries at a time for link
building was effective (although it's still early
days)
=> Using sub-folders can help with GWT especially
removal requests

31. @stevejlock
Key Takeaways
=> Take Google's advice on hreflang, international
sitemaps and geo-location in GWT
=> For the quickest results and to leverage domain
authority use sub-folder structures
=> Our approach enabled translators to be trained
and work on optimising the different countries
=> Focus on your primary country, get that right
and scale (especially with Magento!)

32. @stevejlock
Thanks for listening :-)
Feel free to connect:
=> Slides: slideshare.net/stevejlock
=> Email: stephen.lock@linkdex.com
=> Twitter: @stevejlock / @linkdex
=> LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/stevejlock