This document outlines steps for conducting successful international SEO, including: 1) Analyzing current site performance with Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools. 2) Conducting market research on search behaviors and purchase trends in target countries. 3) Piloting products/services on separate landing pages in a few target countries. 4) Securing brand presence through domain registration and social profiles. 5) Researching localized keywords in search tools for target countries. 6) Analyzing top competitors in each market. 7) Implementing multilingual and country-specific targeting through URL structure, subfolders, or hreflang tags.

1. Your First Steps in Conducting a
Successful International SEO
strategy
14th october 2014
Phil Amery
@fimre
philamery.com

2. How popular is SEO today?
Conclusions:
■ it’s still present
■ reached its maximum
potential
■ stagnates rather than falls
What happened?
■ Pingvin, Panda, Caffeine,
Hummingbird etc...
■ dynamic SERPs
■ marketing automation
■ auto triggered email
campaigns
■ priority of user behaviors
SEO | search engine optimization
SEO search trends (US)

3. What value can SEO offer? 1/2
Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) ■ the highest value
customers arrive through
organic searches (54%
higher than average)
■ proves to be most loyal
customers
Custora 2013:
■ 72 mill customers
■ 86 ecommerce sites
■ 14 topics

4. What value can SEO offer? 2/2
Acquisition channel growth ■ nearly 16% of customers
acquired through organic
search, exceeding all other
channels like CPC, Email
or social media channels
Custora 2013:
■ 72 mill customers
■ 86 ecommerce sites
■ 14 topics

5. Your International SEO steps and strategy
1. Current site performance (optional)
2. Market research
3. Piloting your products / services
4. Secure your brand
5. Localized keyword research
6. Competitive research
7. Multilanguage & country targeting

6. Your International SEO steps and strategy
1. Current site performance - Google Analytics
Google Analytics Geo-Location Performance Report

7. Your International SEO steps and strategy
1. Current site performance - Google Analytics
Google Analytics: User Language Report

8. Your International SEO steps and strategy
1. Current site performance - Google Webmaster Tools
Pinpointing opportunities:
■ high nr. of impressions
■ average rankings too high
■ zero clicks (no traffic)

9. Your International SEO steps and strategy
1. Current site performance (optional)
2. Market research
3. Piloting your products / services
4. Secure your brand
5. Localized keyword research
6. Competitive research
7. Multilanguage & country targeting

10. 2. Market research - Google Global Market Finder
■ a quick view on different
markets
■ ranks of countries based on
their export opportunities
■ recommended bids
■ strongly suggested to
double check Google’s
automated translations
Your International SEO steps and strategy

11. Your International SEO steps and strategy
User search & purchase behavior
■ roles of search engines in the purchase
process
■ purchase behavior across countries and
product categories
■ consumers research and purchase
behavior
2. Market research - Consumer Barometer

12. Your International SEO steps and strategy
2. Market research - Role of search engine in the purchase process
■ 50% of consumers in Poland used
search engines prior purchasing a
product or service

13. Your International SEO steps and strategy
2. Market research - Purchase behavior across countries and product
■ Only 7% of Polish consumers
purchasing health products online
category

14. Your International SEO steps and strategy
2. Market research - Consumers research and purchase behavior
■ Only 23% of online purchasing people
in Poland

15. Your International SEO steps and strategy
1. Current site performance (optional)
2. Market research
3. Piloting your products / services
4. Secure your brand
5. Localized keyword research
6. Competitive research
7. Multilanguage & country targeting

16. Your International SEO steps and strategy
FEW
PRODUC
TS
SEPARATE
LANDING
PAGES
PPC ADWORDS
CAMPAIGN
MAX
3
COUNTRIES
■ landing pages (ex. Instapage)
■ A/B testing (ex. VWO)
■ online surveys (ex. Qualaroo)
3. Piloting your products / services

17. Your International SEO steps and strategy
1. Current site performance (optional)
2. Market research
3. Piloting your products / services
4. Secure your brand
5. Localized keyword research
6. Competitive research
7. Multilanguage & country targeting

18. Your International SEO steps and strategy
MANNASZAPPAN.
HU
MANNA.HU MANNA.COM
VS VS
301 REDIRECT
OK, on Hungarian market different niche
■ .com domain registration if available
■ social media accounts (Twitter, Facebook)
■ bulk registration (ex: KnowEm.com)
■ trademark registration (USPTO, WIPO)
4. Secure your brand

19. Your International SEO steps and strategy
1. Current site performance (optional)
2. Market research
3. Piloting your products / services
4. Secure your brand
5. Localized keyword research
6. Competitive research
7. Multilanguage & country targeting

20. Your International SEO steps and strategy
Tools:
■ Google Keyword Planner
■ Yandex Wordstat
■ Baidu Index
■ Seznam Search
■ Bing Keyword Tool
■ Naver Trend
POSITION
5. Localized keyword research

21. Your International SEO steps and strategy
5. Localized keyword research - Third-party tools

22. Your International SEO steps and strategy
1. Current site performance (optional)
2. Market research
3. Piloting your products / services
4. Secure your brand
5. Localized keyword research
6. Competitive research
7. Multilanguage & country targeting

23. Your International SEO steps and strategy
6. Competitive research - Google SpreadSheet
■ a quick view on most
competitive domains in a
certain topic defined by a list
of relevant keywords
■ bit.ly/1s1Xkj7
Topic: organic skin care
https://www.google.com.au/search?pws=0&gl=AU&hl=en&q=

24. Your International SEO steps and strategy
6. Competitive research - other alternatives
1. Use of URL parameters
pl 1: google.com/webhp?pws=0&gl=us&hl=en
pl 2: google.co.uk/webhp?pws=0&gl=uk&hl=en
pl 3: google.fr/webhp?pws=0&gl=fr&hl=fr
2. Ad Preview and Diagnosis Tool
3. Use of VPN and proxies (ex: HideMyAss)

25. Your International SEO steps and strategy
1. Current site performance (optional)
2. Market research
3. Piloting your products / services
4. Secure your brand
5. Localized keyword research
6. Competitive research
7. Multilanguage & country targeting

26. Your International SEO steps and strategy
7. Multilanguage and country targeting - URL structure
Country specific Domains (ccTLD)
ex: domain.hu, domain.ie, domain.pl
Pros:
■ automatically geotargeted by Google
■ easy separation of sites
■ server location irrelevant
Cons:
■ could be very expensive
■ in some cases it might be difficult to obtain all
the ccTLDs you need
■ more infrastructure is needed
■ maintenance could be difficult
■ EURODNS - bulk registration of
over 500 TLDs)

27. Your International SEO steps and strategy
7. Multilanguage and country targeting - URL structure
Subdomains (with gTLD)
ex: hu.domain.com, ie.domain.com, pl.domain.com
Pros:
■ manually targetable in Google Webmaster
Tools
■ you can have different server locations
■ easy separation of sites
Cons:
■ the .com TLD might be already registered*
■ might not be recognisable by users
■ you can loose linkjuice on domain level
* in case you have a registered trademark, you
can claim ownership of the .com domain

28. Your International SEO steps and strategy
7. Multilanguage and country targeting - URL structure
Subfolders (with gTLD)
ex:domain.com/hu/,domain.com/ie/,domain.com/pl/
Pros:
■ all content under one gTLD domain
■ low maintenance costs
■ manually targetable in Google Webmaster
Tools
Cons:
■ the .com TLD might be already registered*
■ might not be recognisable by users
* in case you have a registered trademark, you
can claim ownership of the .com domain

29. Your International SEO steps and strategy
7. Multilanguage and country targeting - URL structure
Use of parameters
ex:domain.com/?loc=ru
Pros:
■ not recommended
Cons:
■ there’s no any option for geotargeting your
site
■ might not be recognisable by users

30. Your International SEO steps and strategy
7. Multilanguage and country targeting
hreflang HTML tagging
<html>
<head>
<link rel="alternate" href="http://example.com/en-ca" hreflang="en-ca" />
<link rel="alternate" href="http://example.com/fr-ca" hreflang="fr-ca" />
<link rel="alternate" href="http://example.com/en-gb" hreflang="en-gb" />
<link rel="alternate" href="http://example.com/en-us" hreflang="en-us" />
<link rel="alternate" href="http://example.com/en-au" hreflang="en-au" />
<link rel="alternate" href="http://example.com/" hreflang="x-default" />
</head>
<body>
…
</body>
</html>
en-ca
■ English language
■ Canada as geolocation
fr-ca
■ French language
■ Canada as geolocation
x-default
■ ex. English language
■ any other geolocation
which hasn’t been defined
with hreflang tagging

31. SEO is not everything, Nay …
“SEO here SEO there but making a difference matters most”
Sriracha
huyfong.com
Erno Laszlo
ernolaszlo.com

32. Few bad examples
Ilcsi (ilcsi.com)
Language function being
used:
HU: ilcsi.com
EN: ilcsi.com/home
RU: ilcsi.com/...pdf
ilcsi.hu
http://help.webzona.hu/

33. Few bad examples
Univer (univer.hu)
Language function being used:
HU:
➢ .hu/
➢ .hu/?Lang=hu
RO: .ro (non-www nem működik)
RU: .hu/ru
EN: .hu/en
univer.com

34. Some further useful recommendations
■ seasonal products (Australia vs Europe)
■ avoid automated translations
■ avoid automated redirects based on language (cookies) or IP address
■ use UTF8 compatible CMS or eCommerce platforms
■ use local currency on geotargeted product pages
■ try to adapt to local purchasing behaviors
■ learn more about local business directives and rules
■ use separate XML sitemaps for each geo or language versions
■ define achievable and relevant business goals
■ “don’t bite off more than you can chew”

35. THANK YOU
Phil Amery
phil@philamery.com
@fimre
hu.linkedin.com/in/fulopimre/
bit.ly/PhilAmery