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Portent, Inc. Your Name Presentation Name Month XX, 20XX Portent, Inc. International SEO Strategy Kaitlin McMichael March 26, 2015

International SEO Strategy Webinar

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Portent, Inc.Your NamePresentation NameMonth XX, 20XX

Portent, Inc.International SEO Strategy

Kaitlin McMichaelMarch 26, 2015

About Portent

We are a leading integrated internet marketing agency set in Seattle, serving world-wide clients

We are 30+ strong

Founded in 1996 (pre-Google)

We rally around the definition of “Portent”: the forecast of something big on the horizon

Admittedly, we are total nerds

With 19 years in the industry,you can trust our expertise.

Greetings from the #smithtower

5 Years of SEO & Marketing

Experience in-house & agency

Specialize in International SEO

Really into Salsa Dancing

Kaitlin McMichael@kakefin

Portent

International SEO Strategy

What is this webinar?

Portent

International SEO Strategy

What is this webinar?An intro to International SEO Strategy to help marketers decide on the best approach to getting quality organic revenue from global

markets.

Portent

International SEO Strategy

This webinar will NOT

Portent

International SEO Strategy

This webinar will NOTmake you an International SEO expert

Portent

International SEO Strategy

replace personal SEO consultation

This webinar will NOT

Portent

International SEO Strategy

Portent

SEO - An Overview

So, what is International SEO?

Strategy

Portent

International SEO Strategy

Strategy+

Technical

Portent

International SEO Strategy

Strategy+

Technical+

Content

Portent

International SEO Strategy

Creating an International SEO Strategy

It’s hard enough ranking well in one country. Ranking internationally isn’t any easier.

Portent

International SEO Strategy

Portent

International SEO Strategy

Portent

International SEO Strategy

http://www.portent.com/blog/seo/international-seo-strategy-guide-plus-a-flowchart.htm

• What resources do you have available?

• What are the costs involved?

• What’s the best approach for structuring your site?

• What is the potential for return on investment?

Questions

Portent

International SEO Strategy

Does your team have:

• Design and development resources to handle multiple sites / hosting on multiple servers?

• Writers to develop unique, local content & professional translations?

• Resources for regional link outreach?

Resources

Portent

International SEO Strategy

• Cost of regional link outreach

• Cost of content creation by local marketers

• Cost of professional translators

• Cost of local servers

• Cost of SEO consultant(s) delivering recommendations

• Cost of Developer(s) implementing recommendations

Costs

Portent

International SEO Strategy

(Anticipated Revenue from SEO efforts – Proposed Cost of Project) / Proposed Cost of SEO Project = Anticipated ROI

http://www.internationalseomap.com/roi-calculator/

ROI

Portent

International SEO Strategy

• Check Google Analytics & Webmaster Tools data for traffic volumes & conversion data by country/language

• Test new markets in AdWords to see how they convert

• Research keyword search volumes in target markets

Choose Your Targets

Portent

International SEO Strategy

Google Trends, Ubersuggest, AdWords Keyword Planner Tool and SEMRush Keyword Difficulty Tool

SuggestMrx pulls data from Google Suggest and YouTube Suggest for 14 countries and 7 languages.

Research Tools

Portent

International SEO Strategy

Language vs. Country

Portent

International SEO Strategy

Image from KISSMetrics

Top Level Domains=

Best bet

Sub-domains=

Sub-par

Directories=

When you’re not Godzilla

Site Structure

ccTLDs (Country-coded top-level domains) are a big deal

because they give the strongest, clearest signals to

Google.

example.co.ukexample.com.de

There is no required structure but ideally should follow ISO

codes. Benefits: can geo-target in GWT, easy to

manage, same backlink profile.

example.com/ukexample.com/en-uk/

Benefits: none.

Note: Craigslist does it, so it can be done.

Portent

International SEO Strategy

ccTLDsTripAdvisor, Amazon and Freelancer.com use ccTLDs for country

targeting.

Portent

International SEO Strategy

Require IT resources to setup and maintain multiple sites

Splits link authority among several domains

Strict ccTLD requirements (for some countries)

Clear geolocation signals

Server location is irrelevant (ccTLD overrides server location)

Increased click-through rates from users who prefer local domains (& higher conversion rates & average spend)

Pros Cons

Best For Those With• Large audiences in each of their target countries

• Lots of resources to invest in development, design, content, and SEO

• Significantly different product catalogs or services for each region

• Offices / Physical presence in the target countries

Portent

International SEO Strategy

Sub-foldersSpotify, EA, Microsoft, Ikea, and Apple are country targeting using sub-directories.

Skype and Atlassian use sub-directories to language target.

Portent

International SEO Strategy

Cannot set up local servers

Weaker signal to search engines than ccTLDs

One consolidated backlink profile

Easy to set up and manage

Can geo-target by country within Webmaster Tools

Low maintenance with same host

Pros Cons

Best For Those WithLimited resources to build and maintain multiple sites

Limited resources for investing in regional link outreach

Limited variations between product catalogs or services for each region

Portent

International SEO Strategy

Sub-domainsShop and Beats by Dre use sub-domains to country target.

Wix and WordPress.com are language targeting using sub-domains.

Craigslist uses sub-domains on a city level.

Portent

International SEO Strategy

Users might not recognize geo-targeting from the URL alone Requires IT resources to setup and maintain

Splits link authority among sub-domains

Higher risk of mis-linking

Easy to set up

Can use Webmaster Tools geo-targeting

Allows different server locations

Easy separation of sites

May maintain some of the metrics of the root domain (but not likely)

Pros Cons

Best For Those WithDesire to keep brand name in main domain, but separate out international sites on sub-domains.

There are typically not enough advantages over ccTLDs or sub-folders to make sub-domains a good option.

Portent

International SEO Strategy

Jesper Jørgensen

Image by Jesper Jørgensen

Strategy+

Technical

Portent

International SEO Strategy

<rel=”alternate” hreflang=”es-ES” href=”http://www.domain.com/es/page-B.html” />

“es” indicates the language according to ISO 6391-1 format. “ES” is the country in ISO 3166-1 Alpha 2 format.

Portent

International SEO Strategy

That Hreflang Thang

Hreflang does not affect ranking in any way. It is meant to help search engines understand the relationship among your

pages so that the right content is shown to the right users.

Portent

International SEO Strategy

Purpose

Duplicate ContentBeware

Hreflang generator: http://www.internationalseomap.com/hreflang-tags-

generator/

Hreflang validator: http://flang.dejanseo.com.au/

Portent

International SEO Strategy

Tools

Page tagging HTTP HeadersXML Sitemap

Hreflang Implementation

Reference all pages in the group on the page, including

the page itself.

Reference each page grouping multiple times -

each URL in the group referenced in the <loc>

element once.

Use this tool:http://www.themediaflow.co

m/tool_hreflang.php

Example:

Link: <http://es.example.com/>;

rel="alternate"; hreflang="es"

Good for PDFs.

Portent

International SEO Strategy

Hreflang Sitemap

Avoid auto-redirection. It can really bother the user when it’s wrong, and automatic redirects will prevent crawlers from

indexing the other portions of your site.

Portent

International SEO Strategy

Auto-Redirection

Why does Car2Go think I live in Austin, TX?

Portent

International SEO Strategy

If you want to implement redirection, present the user with an un-obtrusive message (not a pop-up) that asks if they

want to switch to a more relevant version.

Portent

International SEO Strategy

Auto-Redirection

Always a good idea to have this, either in the header or footer. It should be prominent but not distracting.

This helps with interlinking of sites, and will allow the user to switch to a new version if they want.

Portent

International SEO Strategy

Language Selector Box

Please don’t ask for the user’s language/country via a pop-

up window…

Portent

International SEO Strategy

Strategy+

Technical+

Content

Portent

International SEO Strategy

Portent

International SEO Strategy

Regional Content Variation

Professional translationsRegional vernacular, spellingsCurrencyLocal office addressLocal phone numbers Google+ Local Pages

Portent

International SEO Strategy

Regional Content Variation

URLsMeta Titles & DescriptionsNavigation labelsHeadingsImage file names & alt textBody content

Portent

International SEO Strategy

US UK

Color Colour

Inseam Inside leg

Sweater Jumper

Sneakers Trainers

Undershirt Vest

Keyword Research & Translation

First, do Keyword Research as you would normally for any site.

Then, hand off your keyword list to a professional translator.

Portent

International SEO Strategy

Regional Link Building

Portent

International SEO Strategy

Regional Link Building

Get links from local sites to your local content.

Portent

International SEO Strategy

Prepared by

Kaitlin McMichaelSEO Strategist

@kakefin

https://bitly.com/bundles/portentint/1b

ThankPortent, Inc. 506 2nd Ave. Suite 1700 Seattle. WA 98104-2354 | Tel: 206.575.3740

YOU

Portent

International SEO Strategy

Prepared by

Kaitlin McMichaelSEO Strategist@kakefin

https://bitly.com/bundles/portentint/1b

Q&A

PortentInternational SEO Strategy