Be Found on the WebSEO and Internationalisation

Enterprise Ireland eMarketing EventUsing the Internet to Compete in International Markets

Introduction – Some basics

Internet marketing

• SEO – Search Engine Optimisation

• PPC – Pay Per Click Advertising

• CRO – Conversion Rate Optimisation

• Social Media

• Blogging

• Videos

• Website ……

SEO – Typical definition

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of affecting the visibility of a website or a web page in a search engine's "natural" or un-paid ("organic") search results.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_engine_optimization

It is the process of getting traffic from the “free,” “organic,” “editorial” or “natural” listings on search engines.http://searchengineland.com/guide/what-is-seo

SEO – Modified definition

It all starts with Strategy…

SEO is a set of processes that can be used to optimise the natural ranking of a website or web page in order to achieve a defined Search / Marketing Strategy

The strategy can include:• Targeting a particular market• Optimisation for a chosen country or countries• Focussing on a region• Emphasising particular products• Etc…

The real power of SEO can only be realised when it is linked to the web strategy

Key - SEO is a process or a set of processes used to achieve a goal

Website and competition audit

Identify opportunities Analyse (Google Analytics) Website reach Website conversion

Develop plan

Document baseline

Implement changes

Analyse (Google Analytics)

How Do Search Engines Work?

Spider “crawls” the web to find new documents (web pages, other documents) typically by following hyperlinks from websites already in their database

Search engines indexes the content (text, code) in these documents by adding it to their databases and then periodically updates this content

Search engines search their own databases when a user enters in a search to find related documents (not searching web pages in real-time)

Search engines rank the resulting documents using an algorithm (mathematical formula) by assigning various weights and ranking factors

Spiders read text and nothing else

How Do Search Engines Work?

What a Search Engine “Sees”

Understanding the Profile of a Search Page

Paid adverts (PPC)

Paid adverts (PPC)

Natural or Organic Search (SEO)

News

Another important aspect: The Golden triangle

The Golden Triangle

When it comes to getting your website found and then converting your traffic into leads and sales, you should take The Golden Triangle very seriously.

The Golden Triangle

Hummingbird, Knowledge Graph and Carousel

Yet another game changer…This layout drags your eye to the top of the page.

Knowledge Graph

Google Carousel

Which - Search Engines

There are hundreds of Search Engines

… but you can get very good results by optimising the site for the primary search engines

… but it is usually enough to focus on the main Search Engines

… and let’s not forget

World-Wide Search Engine Market Share

Search Engine Market Share

Search Engine Market Share

One thing in common for all search engines

• Ranking algorithm – its just a complex formula….

= 2a+0.7b+12c+9d+2(a-b+d)-1.5e+2f …………..

• Google has more than 250 items in its algorithm

• The algorithms are different for different Search

Engines

• The algorithms are kept secret – there are some good

clues though

• The algorithms keep changing

1 Search terms in the HTML title tag2 Search terms in the HTML body copy3 Search terms in bold typeface4 Search terms in header tags5 Search term in anchor text in links to a page6 PageRank of a page (the actual PageRank, not the toolbar PageRank)7 The PageRank of the entire domain8 Quality of link partners9 Type of backlinks that bring anchor text juice for search terms10 The speed of the web site11. Search terms in the URL - main URL and page URLs 12. Search term density through body copy (About 3 - 5%?) 13. Fresh content 14. Good internal linking structure 15. Age of the domain 16. Links from good directories 17. Image names 18. Image ALTs 19. Reputable hosting company 20. Diversity of link partners too21. Geo located search results22. Rate of new inbound links to your site 23. Relevance of inbound links24. 301s, 404s, 414s etc 25. Duplicate title/meta tags 26. Participation in link schemes27. Quantity of backlinks 28. Quantity of linking root domains 29. Quality of linking root domains 30. Link distance from higher authority sites 31. Outgoing followed links from back linked pages

SEO Strategy

Strategy

Target audience, Regions, Language, Culture…

what

why

whowhere

when

As with any strategy, the process starts with questions about what you want to achieve

Good SEO Framework – Search Pyramid

Social

Link Building

Keyword Research & Targeting

Accessible Quality Content

You have to get these right first

Before you get these right

Keyword Research & Targeting -The search demand curve

Source: SEOMoz

1 2 3-4 4+

https://www.google.com/trends/topcharts?date=2013

Internationalisation

Google.ie, Google.co.uk, Google.de, Google.fr……

https://sites.google.com/site/webmasterhelpforum/en/faq-internationalisation

Main aspects of Internationalisation

• Multilingual sites

• URL structure

• Language selection

• Auto-translation

• Character encoding

• Meta tags, “rel-alternate-hreflang” links

• Geo-targeting

• URL structure (ccTLD)

• Server location

• Webmaster tools

• Meta tags

• Use “rel-canonical” and “rel-alternate-hreflang”

Trading internationally

• Common situations:

• one country, several languages

• one language, several countries

Google detects the language on a per-URL basis. Each language version must be on a separate URL that Googlebot (the spider) is able to crawl for all versions.

Can we control Language and Geo-targeting?

• Ways to control Language and Geo-target

• Domain and URL structure

• Webmaster tools

• Physical server locations

• Web page content

• Meta tags

• Visitor location

Domain and URL Options for Trading Internationally

• Domains by Country (ccTLD)

• creatorseo.co.uk

• creatorseo.fr

• creatorseo.de

• Sub-domains or Domain name alias

• us.creatorseo.com

• fr.creatorseo.com

• de.creatorseo.com

• Sub-directories by country/language

• creatorseo.com/us/

• creatorseo.com/fr/

• creatorseo.com/de/

• One language, several countries

• creatorseo.com/es/

• mycompany.com/es-pu/ (Peru)

• mycompany.com/es-mx/ (Mexico)

Each domain is a unique entity• Management overhead• Separate CMS for each domain

Very well targetedGood for ranking in each country

A single CMS can be used• Cheaper and easier to implement• Less technical resource neededDirectories contribute to the relevancy of the parent domain

User experience should be evaluatedAutomated redirection can be difficult

Translation – Automatic Translations!?

• Google offers automatic translations

• Sometimes this can conflict with your own translation but can be turned off

• These translations are not always accurate

• If you use automated translation

• They must be blocked from indexing – failure from doing this can lead to the site being

penalised (for auto-generated content – violates Webmaster Guidelines)

There is no SEO benefit from automated translations and there are potential pitfalls if not implemented correctly

What are the big players doing?

Don’t forget to include the necessary language signals

• Meta language tag

• <meta http-equiv="content-language" content="en-gb">

• <meta http-equiv="content-language" content="en-ie">

• HTML language / country definition

• <html lang="en-gb">

• Link element to different language-locales pages

• <link rel="alternate" href="http://example.com/en-ie" hreflang="en-ie" />

• <link rel="alternate" href="http://example.com/en-ca" hreflang="en-ca" />

• <link rel="alternate" href="http://example.com/en-au" hreflang="en-au" />

• <link rel="alternate" href="http://example.com/en" hreflang="en" />

• Block automated translations in robots.txt

Geo-Targetting

• Domain

• Generic top level domains (gTLD) like .com, .net, .org etc.• Use Google Webmaster tools and sub-directories to target a specific geographic location• Otherwise signals like IP address, page information etc. are used by Google

• Country coded top level domains (ccTLD) like .ie, .co.uk, .us etc.• Already associated with a geographic location – can’t change this

• Server

• Server Location where the website is hosted

• On Page information

• Address

• Links to the page

• Google Places

Competition

Competition

• Once you are considering different regions, you need to

• Identify your competition in each region

• Understand why they may be ranking higher than you

Once you have a defined strategy and goals…SEO is about beating your competition in the targeted locations

The web is an open system

www.creatorseo.com

• Site map• Errors• Ease of access for search engines

Site SEO Design/navigation

Competitive Intelligence

You can find a lot of information by studying your competition in order to beat them

PPC versus SEO

Which one?

PPC versus “Organic” SEO

Pay-Per-Click “Organic” SEO Ranking based on Spend Results in 1-2 days Not much skill needed

Easy to target “local” markets More costly per conversion Easier to compete (if you have the

money) Ranking lost when you stop paying

Ranking based on Merit Results can take weeks to months High degree of skill needed

Complex to target local markets Overall cheaper conversion cost Difficult to compete in a

competitive market Ranking persists (asset)

Which one?

• You shouldn't be limited to SEO or PPC.

• Integration is the best approach. Each has different strengths and weaknesses.

Other considerations

Audience

• Know your audience• Cultural

• In Mediterranean counties

- Internet use is driven more by social factors rather than anything else,

• where Nordic countries rely on the internet for more pragmatic, functional purposes.

• Language

Strategy needs to consider Technology

Desktop

Mobile

Browser

Operating System

The Website – in an international web space

Localise content

• Use local addresses and contact information• Add local case studies/ testimonials

• Include names and images

• Customise content for each country or market

• More relevant, increases local link building opportunities, and decreases duplicate content

• Currency

• Use the local currency

Basic requirements

A web site is a bit like an advert!• Clear purpose• Easy to use / intuitive• High impact

- you have only 4-6 seconds to impress!

• Optimised for visitors• Understand the target audience• Easily found by the target audience• Content must be dynamic and interesting

Design and usability

• Different countries prefer different design aesthetics• Recreating your website in a different language may not be enough• Get feedback on your site from locals in your target country

Tools

Tools – Geo-location

• Register each site with

• Google Webmaster Tools

• Bing Webmaster Tools

• Google Places – Google My Business

• Bing Places – Bing Business Portal

Tools – Monitoring and Improving

Google and Bing Guidance

Guidance

• Create useful page titles• Use informative URLs• Provide relevant page descriptions• Add your business to Google Places• Manage your site links (get rid of bad links)

Guidance

• Have a clear Value Proposition• Make sure that there is a Call to Action• Present relevant content• Consider the user experience

Things to watch out for – SEO

• Prevent Spelling, stylistic, or factual errors

• Be cautious of duplicate content

• Don’t let adverts detract from the main content

• Don’t present articles that are too short or lacking in helpful specifics

• Make sure that the main content above the fold

Some Final Tips – Internationalisation

• Use a local mailing address

• Include the correct meta tags

• Send website visitors to the right domain

• Check the site Speed in each location

Recap – Internationalisation

• Country Top Level Domain's automatically associated to country

• Use Webmaster tools for subdirectory based websites

• Try to host the site in the country

• Use cross-domain canonical links

• Link cross-domain Analytics accounts

Google Algorithm Updates

Major Google Updates

• Panda 4.0 — May 2014• Hummingbird — August 2013• Penguin 2 — May 2013• Penguin — April 2012• Panda 3 — November 2011• Panda 2 — April 2011• Panda/Farmer — February 2011• Caffeine (Rollout) — June 2010

Major Google Updates• Caffeine (Rollout) — June 2010

Google web index update – improved search speed and user experience• Panda — February 2011

Crack-down on low quality sites and duplicate content. More focus on authority and trustworthiness

• Penguin — April 2012Tighter focus on implementation of Google Webmaster Guidelines and crack-down on black-hat SEO (less bad-links)

• Hummingbird — August 2013 (Fast and precise)Completely new algorithm release – focus on semantic search and includes Google Knowledge Graph and geo-locating

• Panda 4.0 — May 2014Even more focus on the quality of the contentBottom line: In terms of search, Google is trying to improve the user experience and ensure that

searches lead to the most pertinent results from the best source

Panda 4.0 – It’s mainly about Quality

• Conclusion I. “Content Based Topical Authority Sites” are given more SERP Visibility compared to sites that only cover the topic briefly.(even if the site covering the topic briefly has a lot of generic authority). More articles written on the same topic increase the chances for the site to be treated as a “Topical Authority Content Site” on that specific topic.

• Conclusion II. Sites with High User Interaction measured by shares and comments got a boost.

• Conclusion III. Thin Content and Automatic content is de-ranked, even if it is relevant.

• Conclusion IV. Sites with clear navigational structure and unique content got boosted.

Matt Cutts

Final slide

Be found on the web - SEO, PPC, Social + +

June 2014

Clinton Dickerson

clinton@creatorseo.com

061 513267 | 01 5313061

086 7734535