seslon 2013 - international seo tips
Post on 17-Oct-2014
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Presentation delivered for Search Engine Strategies (SES) London 2013 on international SEO tips and tricks.TRANSCRIPT
London| 18–21 February
International & Multilingual SEO Top technical tips
Andy HeadingtonAdidoTop technical International SEO tips
London| 18–21 February 2013 | #SESLON
Agenda
• Introduction
• The first rule of International SEO
• Top technical tips for International SEO success
• Summary
@adido
London| 18–21 February 2013 | #SESLON
The first rule
• Insert picture of Fight Club
@adido
http://media.theiapolis.com/d4-i1V0X-k2-l1N1/brad-pitt-as-tyler-durden-in-fight-club-1999.html
London| 18–21 February 2013 | #SESLON
The first rule
• DO NOT EVER JUST TRANSLATE YOUR WEBSITE!
• If you do this you’ll end up wasting time, money and make yourself look terrible with your visitors
• Always use local people to translate your content.
• This includes your website colours & layout!
• The more tailored & localised you can make your website experience the better – don’t try and cut corners to save money – it is better to wait until you can do it properly.
@adido
London| 18–21 February 2013 | #SESLON
Technical tips - GWMT
• GWMT can be used to tell which country/ies you want to target
• Set up your geo targeting in GWMT if you have a generic domain (.com, .info, .gov, .org, .net…)
• “If no information is entered in Webmaster Tools, we'll rely largely on the site's country domain. If an international domain (.com, .org, .eu, etc) has been used, we'll rely on several signals, including IP address, location information on the page, links to the page, and any relevant information from Google Places”
@adido
London| 18–21 February 2013 | #SESLON
Technical tips – Correct folder structure
• Separate domain OR sub domain OR folder?
• Which is best? Never hard and fast rule – if possible & budget allows, separate domain is always best.
• Sub domains give greater flexibility v folders but can be confusing and harder to manage technically (e.g. is de.domain.com for German market or German speakers?)
• Using folders means they will benefit from the SEO equity of the root domain – equity is passed more readily to subfolders
• If in doubt, refer to Google’s policy - http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.co.uk/2010/03/working-with-multi-regional-websites.html
• If you have duplicate content in multiple folders for example then consider using canonical tag to show most relevant version to most relevant audience
@adido
London| 18–21 February 2013 | #SESLON
Technical tips – Don’t forget usual SEO rules!
• Title tags
• Meta tags
• H1, H2, key phrase usage
• Internal linking
• 301 / canonical pages
• 404 link reclamation
• XML Sitemaps
@adido
London| 18–21 February 2013 | #SESLON
Technical tips – hreflang tag
• Use this tag to tell search engines what language/region your content is targeting
• In the <head> use this tag
• <link rel="alternate" hreflang="es" href="http://es.example.com/" />
• Now sitemaps! Make things easier(?) for developers
• <url> <loc>http://www.example.com/english/</loc> <xhtml:link rel="alternate“ hreflang="de“ href="http://www.example.com/deutsch/"/>
• Remember to use the correct language code to give the right signal to the search engines
@adido
London| 18–21 February 2013 | #SESLON
Technical tips – Don’t assume Google
• Each country has its own Google which might not be Google…
• Typically Google will rule the roost but don’t assume in non UK markets
London| 18–21 February 2013 | #SESLON
Technical tips – Think language not country
• Many countries have multiple tongues
• Don’t assume everyone speaks the same language in one country
@adido
London| 18–21 February 2013 | #SESLON
Technical tips – Think language not country
@adido
London| 18–21 February 2013 | #SESLON
Technical tips – Link build in native countries
• Don’t point global links for your International SEO campaign at one site/folder
• Always best to get links from sites with same country domain / hosting to get most benefit
• Localised PR can help here – so can supplier or industry relationships which you can leverage in those countries
• Ideally requires people ‘on the ground’ to get the best results
@adido
London| 18–21 February 2013 | #SESLON
Technical tips – Watch tax limits
• If you sell abroad with your International campaigns then watch how much you sell
• And to who!
• There are different tax limits which need to be considered when selling abroad – too much in one area will mean more tax needing to be paid
• If you don’t keep proper records you could end up paying tax on all sales!
• Read more - http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/vat/managing/international/exports/goods.htm
@adido
London| 18–21 February 2013 | #SESLON
Technical tips – History can hinder your future
• As with localised SEO, search engines build up picture of what your site is about from day one
• Going with generic / country specific domain for International SEO campaign could take longer to get results
• Consider starting a fresh with a new domain to get quicker results
• Countries like France require business identification before domains can be released so choose your country carefully
@adido
London| 18–21 February 2013 | #SESLON
Technical tips – Not all Google’s are equal
• US tends to get algorithm updates first, then UK, then rest of Europe
• If dodgy link / content practices work in one country they might not necessarily work in your selected areas
• Best to do full SEO competitor analysis in each country to see what is making sites rank in those countries
• Far East / European specific search engines will have slightly different ranking factors which need to be considered
@adido
London| 18–21 February 2013 | #SESLON
Technical tips – Test forms, layouts & colours
• Design your websites to suit the markets they need to serve
• Don’t assume that one 100% optimised form in one country will work the same in another country
• Each audience has different needs, expectations & behaviours which need to be catered for – test, test, test for each market!
• The same applies to pricing – do users want to see prices? Do they want to see one price or range of prices? Again test, test, test!
@adido
London| 18–21 February 2013 | #SESLON
Technical tips – Act global, think local
• Venice update means the more ‘local’ a page is, the more likelyit is to rank in that town/city
• If you are targeting multiple cities on a multi national site, localise as much as possible
• Make sure you cover off Google Local pages for all local offices you have
• Oh, and reply if you have bad comments!
@adido
London| 18–21 February 2013 | #SESLON
Summary
• Fight club
@adido
http://www.mediarj.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/fight-club-1999-07-g.jpg
London| 18–21 February 2013 | #SESLON
Summary
• Like one country SEO, International SEO is NOT easy!
• For each country you want to target you need to create another campaign & set up…
• Localised Campaign StrategyLocalised Keyword ResearchLocalised ContentLocalised HostingLocalised DesignTechnical set up
• You can try and cut corners but in the long run it is unlikely to work
• Follow best practice to get the results sooner rather than later – and keep ahead of the SE updates!
@adido