Technical SEO for international markets- Leonie Mann - Brighton SEO 2021

Technical SEO for
international markets
Leonie Mann | Search Laboratory
slideshare.net/leoniemann1
@leoniejmann
linktr.ee/leoniemann
searchlaboratory.com

@leoniejmann #brightonSEO
How can I be successful
with my international
technical SEO?

Domain strategy

Domain strategy
Sub-folder
example.com/fr
example.com/it
ccTLD
example.fr
example.it
Sub-domain
fr.example.com
it.example.com

ccTLD

ccTLD Pros
Very strong location signal
to Google
Trust factor amongst your
audience

ccTLD Cons
Increased
linking/promotional efforts
required
Purchase and maintain each
separate domain

Sub-domain

Sub-domain Pros
Location signal through
different server locations
‘Some’ sharing of the top-
level domain link authority

Sub-domain Cons
Increased linking/promotional
efforts required
Weaker location signal
compared to ccTLD

Sub-folder

Sub-folder Pros
Link authority of top-level
domain is shared
Low purchase and maintenance
cost

Sub-folder Cons
Potentially lower trust factor
amongst your audience
Weaker location signal compared
to ccTLD

How do I ensure my
website appears in the
correct market?

Black
trainers
Black
trainers
Black
trainers
Black
trainers
“Which version should
I rank for ‘Black
Trainers’”

hreflang

hreflang can be used to help
localised or
fully translated websites
appear in the correct market

It may be hard.

But it works.

Missing hreflang codes
Missing return links
Wrong country codes

25.6% of users accessing the Colombian
version of the website from Colombia

XML hreflang implemetation
hreflang return links
Correct country codes

96.6% of overall users now accessing the
correct version of the site

hreflang can be implemented via
XML Sitemap HTML Tags
HTTP Headers

I would recommend to
use the XML sitemap for
hreflang implementation

hreflang tags

Language meta tags

You can target one URL
with multiple hreflang
tags
#1

Set the x-default tag to a
country/language selector page
OR
a default version to show if
hreflang criteria is not met
#2

Only reference URLs
which are final 200
indexable status codes
#3

GSC country targeting

Common
issues

Homepage (on all sites)
/page1.html (on all sites)
<link rel="alternate" href="http://www.example.com/" hreflang="en-gb" />
<link rel="alternate" href="http://www.example.com/fr" hreflang="fr-fr" />
<link rel="alternate" href="http://www.example.com/es" hreflang="es-es" />
<link rel="alternate" href="http://www.example.com/it" hreflang="it-it" />
<link rel="alternate" href="http://www.example.com/page1.html" hreflang="en-gb" />
<link rel="alternate" href="http://www.example.com/fr/page1.html" hreflang="fr-fr" />
<link rel="alternate" href="http://www.example.com/es/page1.html" hreflang="es-es" />
<link rel="alternate" href="http://www.example.com/it/page1.html" hreflang="it-it" />

Implement hreflang on
ALL pages which have
alternate versions

You MUST use valid ISO
country and language
codes

Hreflang must include
the language code you
are targeting but the
country code is optional

Try and implement your
hreflang BEFORE any
inline JS

Ensure all pages with a
hreflang links have
return links implemented

example.com/en-gb example.com/es
example.com/en-gb example.com/en-us

Don’t automatically
redirect users based on
their IP address

Give them the option to
choose the most relevant
website

example.com/product.html example.com/product.html
Detect location and change content
No unique URL for Spanish content
Google will only index English

Ensure translated or
localised content has its
own URL

Tools to use

Google Search Console

Screaming Frog

Search Laboratory

Thanks for watching!
Leonie Mann | Search Laboratory
slideshare.net/leoniemann1
@leoniejmann
linktr.ee/leoniemann
searchlaboratory.com

Technical SEO for international markets - Leonie Mann - Brighton SEO 2021

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