Aleyda Solis - Conquering International Search Markets: The key ingredients for international SEO success in competitive countries

The Key Ingredients for International SEO Success in Competitive Countries

#INTERNATIONALSEO AT #MKTFEST BY @ALEYDA FROM @ORAINTI


Ahoj Brno

I SPEAK


I DO SEO

ORAINTI.COM @ALEYDA

I SHARE

I WRITE

I AM

Ahoj Brno

http://ORAINTI.COM

http://@ALEYDA

Finding the right ingredients to Conquer International Search Markets can be tough…



But we have Google’s Best Practices Recipes don’t we?

https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/182192?hl=en


Is it worthy to enable a ccTLD or a geolocalized sub-directory is enough?


Is it worthy to enable a ccTLD or a geolocalized sub-directory is enough?


Depends on your current configuration &

your market search results &

competitors

How you do you connect with foreign users & compete with local brands?


How you do you connect with foreign users & compete with local brands?


Depends on the cultural preferences &

characteristics of your audience &

competitors


How do you avoid ending up with too many international versions you can’t maintain?

How do you avoid ending up with too many international versions you can’t maintain?


Depends on the validation of each

market potential and avoiding the non-

viable ones

How you do you rank in competitive markets if you’re starting from scratch?


How you do you rank in competitive markets if you’re starting from scratch?


Depends on your initial

SEO status, your authority & how optimized your competitors are


Yikes! They’re not necessarily that helpful with your “personalized” needs


Stop acting like a COOK & become a CHEF, to

create your own recipes… you need to know the ingredients

well first though

Let’s go through the main Ingredients to solve these issues by creating your own

successful International SEO recipes



Selecting The International Markets w/ the Highest Potential


Don’t rely exclusively in completely automatized tools to validate the potential of international markets

UPS!


Identify the top country markets in your industry that you’re still not targeting & their search traffic share

Use SimilarWeb


Which countries have the highest search traffic volume? Which are the top keywords & competitors?


Which of these are already being leveraged by your competitors? How are they performing for them?


You can use SEMrush, Sistrix or SearchMetrics alternatively to verify this too


… and how you’re already performing for these markets even if you’re still not targeting them?

This will be your starting point


Verify the traffic trend, used devices, ranked keywords, pages & conversion performance

Use Google

Analytics & Search Console


Expand the keywords with a research to identify search patterns & opportunities

Use KeywordTool.io

& KWFinder along Google’s tools to validate volume

& trends

http://keywordtool.io


Assess the Top International Country Markets with the identified data to prioritize them

Other Traffic Drivers

Seasonality & Trend

Search Engines Devices

Competitors Authority

KeywordsOrganic Search Traffic

Volume & Share

COUNTRYCURRENT ORGANIC SEARCH TRAFFIC

COMPETITION LEVEL

SEARCH VOLUME OPPORTUNITY

SEARCH TREND IN MARKET

SEARCH ENGINE USED SPAM LEVEL

UK 100 per month High 500,000 searches per month Positive Google Low

Spain 50 per month Medium 300,000 searches per month Positive Google Medium


Verify if there’s enough organic search traffic to compensate profitable Web operations

Cost of international Web projectNumber of Conversions for a break-even Average conversion value

=

No. of Conversions for Break-evenNumber of visits for a break-even Average Conversion Rate

=


Use the International ROI calculator to make it easier

http://www.aleydasolis.com/en/international-seo-tools/roi-calculator/

http://www.aleydasolis.com/en/international-seo-tools/roi-calculator/


It’s time to make a decision regarding the International search markets to target

>Your International traffic potential Visits & Conversions for a break-even

Yes No

Continue with the international Web & SEO project

Might be too early

Buy & secure your ccTLDs for future activity

For most important countries

Create a pilot project prioritizing main pages

Create custom alerts

in GA


Say Goodbye to Non-Beneficial International Web Versions!

Establishing in your selected markets with the right International targeting



Should your target countries or languages with your International Web Presence?

Is location a factor that influence your Web operations?

Yes No

Is there enough traffic & conversions to target each country?

Language Targeting

Yes No

Country Targeting

You can start with


Should your target countries or languages with your International Web Presence?

VS


International Targeting Web Structure AlternativesFOR COUNTRY TARGETING

ccTLDs

www.yourbrand.es

www.yourbrand.es/categoria-a/

Sub-directories

www.yourbrand.com/es-es/

www.yourbrand.com/es-es/categoria-a/

Sub-domains

es-es.yourbrand.com/

es-es.yourbrand.com/categoria-a/

Sub-directories

www.yourbrand.com/es/

www.yourbrand.com/es/categoria-a/

Sub-domains

es.yourbrand.com/

es.yourbrand.com/categoria-a/

FOR LANGUAGE TARGETING

http://www.yourbrand.co.uk






http://www.yourbrand.com/es/


http://www.yourbrand.es

http://www.yourbrand.es


FOR COUNTRY TARGETING FOR LANGUAGE TARGETING

* Ideal alternative to geolocate if competition is not too high * Require more technical resources * Require more efforts to grow popularity

* Require less technical resources * Require less efforts to grow popularity * More chances to get all versions penalized if something goes bad * More efforts to geolocate

* Require more technical resources * Require more efforts to grow popularity * Better than sub-directories to organize larger & more complex sites* More efforts to geolocate

* Require less technical resources * Require less efforts to grow popularity * Deeper url structure * More chances to get all versions penalized if something goes bad

* Require more technical resources * Require more efforts to grow popularity * shorter URL structure which can be better for larger sites

Sub-directories

Sub-domains

ccTLDs

Sub-directories

Sub-domains

International Targeting Web Structure Alternatives


Be careful when “mixing” the different Web structures

This is a subdomain, not really a ccTLD, doesn’t have its

benefits and all the cons! Better to use

linet.co.uk

The additional /ru/ subdirectory is not needed if you’re

already using a .ru ccTLD

UPS!

http://linet.co.uk


Or overlapping them! Remember that “continent” or “zone” targeting is not supported by Google

This should be the general

“Spanish” & “English” Language Target, not Latin America

or Europe

UPS!


It’s not recommended to use parameters for language or country targeting

You’ll have issues to

Geolocate

UPS!


… as well as not recommended to use scripts & cookies to show all versions in the same URLs

In Spanish In EnglishUPS!


Verify which extensions are treated as generic




If you’re using sub-directories or sub-domains to country target, register & geolocate in the Search Console

This is only enabled for gTLDs not already

geolocalized ccTLDs


Take into consideration which Web structures are used by top sites in the market

TRAVEL IN CZECH REPUBLIC

TRAVEL IN THE UK

Most of ccTLDs Most of

gTLDs

The extensions of pages ranking for the most popular terms in your international industries


co.uk

net

co.uk

com

co.uk

co.uk

com

co.uk

com

cz

In certain countries a ccTLD & local IP will be much

more important

http://co.uk

http://net

http://co.uk

http://com

http://co.uk

http://co.uk

http://com

http://co.uk

http://com

http://cz

As well as their level of authority vs. yours


You can use these tools to verify international results


Or check out this tool I’ve created to easily verify this (& only available for you at the moment)


http://serplook.com/

http://serplook.com/


No more erroneous international target

Successfully configuring your site to Rank for its Target


Localize your Web Content & Overall Web Experience with the Relevant Language & Targeted Keywords


Meta Description

URL

Title

MenuCurrency

Images

H1

Content

Don’t leave your URLs in English always,

latinized languages if

needed

UPS!

VS


Remember that although language might be the same terms could be different and should be localized

In Argentina In Mexico

Podés

Creá

Registrate

Creá

UPS!

VS


In Japan In Spain

Not only the content, but also the design; based on local preferences. Like this…

So if you have the exact same design you might want to analyze local competitors & audiences preferences


In Japan In Czech RepublicVS

UPS!

Native language is key for research, content development and on-going support



You should also indicate your international targeting with the meta & html lang tag

http://bit.ly/binglang

http://bit.ly/binglang

As well as to specify them by implementing hreflang annotations in each one of your pages


http://bit.ly/hreflangannotations

http://bit.ly/hreflangannotations

There are 3 ways to include it, but the best is directly into the HTML inside the <head>


But what if there are too many of them? Include only the necessary ones checking traffic misalignment


Other countries organic search

traffic & visibility in UK site

Beware of including incorrect hreflang values…


It’s not “en-uk” but “en-gb” to

specify English in the UK

Mapping to non-existing or mistaken URLs…


An absolute URL without the “http://“

An English value added to the Spanish Home Page Version

Not mapping back between URLs…


The English version home page

points to the Brazilian one, but this

doesn’t add its tags back


… And remember to be consistent with your targeting

UPS!

Avoid hreflang annotations issues by using the hreflang tag generator tool

http://www.aleydasolis.com/en/international-seo-tools/hreflang-tags-generator/


http://www.aleydasolis.com/en/international-seo-tools/hreflang-tags-generator/

If you decide to add them in XML sitemaps use these generators to facilitate the implementation


http://bit.ly/hreflangsitemap

Make Sure to Consolidate the XML sitemaps in

one file to better monitor

them

http://bit.ly/hreflangsitemap

Google Search Console will warn you about hreflang errors they identify


But you should directly validate their implementation by using an SEO crawler


www.screamingfrog.co.uk/seo-spider/

http://www.screamingfrog.co.uk/seo-spider/

Some of them directly verifies hreflang tags without requiring any further configuration

onpage.org


http://onpage.org

Avoid automatic redirects based on user IP or browser language with potential crawling issues…


…or backlash from your users from assuming too much


The same with intrusive pop-ups or overlays


It’s better to suggest the appropriate version to your users, in case they don’t land in it



No more non-relevant international Web versions!


Connecting & growing your authority with your

international audience

Identify the characteristics of the links & mentions you need to grow your authority vs. your competitors


There are foreign markets where local &

multinational players do not have a high level of

authority (or optimization) necessarily, which you

can profit fromPopular Topics

Traffic Channels Characteristics

Audience share behavior

& search seasonality

Local Influencers & Top Referrers

Popular Content Characteristics

Local Competitor

Authority Profile

What’s the gap from an authority perspective with your international competitors?


There are foreign markets where local &

multinational players do not have a high level of

authority (or optimization) necessarily, which you

can profit from

Identify your International audiences preferences: What content do they prefer?


www.buzzsumo.com

www.cognitiveseo.com

http://www.buzzsumo.com

http://www.cognitiveseo.com

Which are their favorite social networks and how do they share?


Which other sites do they visit?


Who are the influencers there to connect with and how do they share?


Which relevant & authoritative local sites could you outreach to collaborate?


www.kerboo.com

http://www.kerboo.com


www.kerboo.com

Which relevant & authoritative local sites could you outreach to collaborate?

http://www.kerboo.com

Identify seasonality, local festivities, news & trends that you can leverage


Use this to develop & promote your content & overall brand presence in the new markets


They can do it, and you too!


They can do it, and you too!



Forget about low International Authority


It’s time to create your own successful International SEO

Recipes with these ingredients


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Aleyda Solis - Conquering International Search Markets: The key ingredients for international SEO success in competitive countries