International SEO Strategy Webinar

Editor's Notes

• #9: You really have to take this question back to what is SEO. SEO is the combination of three main areas
• #16: Online businesses have unique business needs, which makes a "one-size-fits-all" international SEO strategy about as common as a unicorn sighting.
• #25: The server location is no longer an important factor for international SEO, since many sites rely on CDNs. Do not get obsessed by having a local IP. When deciding which structure to choose, there needs to be a compelling business reason (such as entirely different audiences with different ways of thinking that require different web layouts, or entirely different cultural reasons, or entirely different product categories) to pursue ccTLDs. In almost all circumstances, directories under one domain is best because consolidated link authority under one domain far outweighs the benefits of ccTLDs.
• #26: ccTLDs, or country-coded top-level domains, are one option for structuring your international SEO campaign. This involves separate top-level domains that are country-coded for specific countries. This allows search engines to understand that you have specifically designed your website for users in that country. ccTLDs give a very clear geolocation signal to the search engines.
• #27: This option requires significant investment upfront, but can be the right choice for larger brands, such as internationally-known brand names that already have a presence in international markets.
• #28: This option requires significant investment upfront, but can be the right choice for larger brands, such as internationally-known brand names that already have a presence in international markets.
• #29: Sub-directories, also called sub-folders, are another option for structuring your international SEO campaign. This involves one top-level domain with separate sub-folders that target specific languages or countries. This structure allows webmasters to keep all content in one domain, and to geo-target content within various sub-folders.
• #30: Note: The server location is no longer an important factor for international SEO, since many sites rely on CDNs. Do not get obsessed by having a local IP.
• #31: This option is the best for most companies who do not have a global household brand name and do not have a high volume of content or resources to maintain multiple sites. It’s especially good for a well-established website with a high domain authority that is looking to expand into new international markets. The benefits of geo-targeting signals that come with ccTLDs are generally far outweighed by the loss of link authority split among new top-level domains. It takes concentrated effort to build a healthy backlink profile for one site, so it is likewise difficult to build healthy backlink profiles for ccTLDs. Sub-directories offer the singular advantage of a consolidated backlink profile.
• #32: Sub-domains are the third option for building out international sites. Sub-domains are generally viewed as separate domains, so they suffer from the same disadvantage as top-level domains: separate backlink profiles. They do allow for the easy separate of sites and allow for different server locations, but these are not strong enough advantages to make sub-domains a good option. It would be better to consider ccTLDs rather than sub-domains, since ccTLDs offer the added advantage of clear geotargeting and increased click-through rates.
• #35: “Now this is all very simplified. The graph will look different for each website. Some websites will never reach break-even if the initial linkbuilding is too expensive, the local demand is too small or the French surfer still smells something fishy.” Source: http://moz.com/ugc/folders-vs-subdomains-vs-cctld-in-international-seo-an-overview
• #36: For more examples of how other popular sites are using hreflang, type “hreflang” or “x-default” or “en-gb” or similar into the search box on nerdydata.com
• #38: Hreflang annotations are used by Google and Yandex to identify the language (and also country) targeting of a page to make sure they always show the right version to the relevant user.
• #39: Hreflang is what makes international sites work. It’s designed to allow companies to target audiences by language and/or country. If you create unique web content for different audiences, then hreflang ensures that the right audience sees the right content. It prevents cannibalization of the wrong content outranking the right content. It allows brands to scale their website(s) for a global audience, which in turn provides higher ROI for the company and a better experience for the user.
• #40: The hreflang annotation also can be used along with the rel=canonical annotations, but remember that hreflang tags need to reference self-referential canonical URLs. For example, page A should have a canonical tag pointing to page A, page B should have a canonical tag pointing to page B, and page C should have a canonical tag pointing to page C. All three pages should have hreflang tags that mention all three of the pages in the group. You do NOT want to canonicalize only one version of a page in a page grouping, as that would interfere with hreflang annotations.
• #42: An HTML link element in every page header, which can be the most simple way to implement it The HTTP header, which can be especially useful for non-HTML files In XML Sitemaps, which also can be handy when there are too many international Web versions to include Can do all 3 or a combo, but more margin for error and code bloat. Some think its good to do both sitemaps and page tagging, because the more signals you can send to Google the better. For large sitemaps, you can split up by language and place each of those in a specific lang folder. Or roll it up into one, just make sure that its under 50k URLs and 10MB.
• #43: Here’s how TripAdvisor has hreflang on their sites – the page tagging method.
• #44: Example for sitemaps: You have an English language page, targeted at English speakers worldwide. You also have equivalent versions of this page targeted at German speakers worldwide, and German speakers located in Switzerland. This is pulled directly from Google’s instructions for hreflang sitemaps: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/2620865?hl=en
• #45: Return tag errors are when Page A does not have a tag pointing to Page B. When there’s a missing link there’s a return tag error.
• #50: You also need to make sure you cross-link among all versions of your site. Typically this is accomplished via a language selector box in the top navigation bar of each page. The language selector should be prominent but not distracting. Include a flag icon and their country of origin in their native language, not English. If a user manually selects another country, set a cookie with the new language / area page is the user’s preference. This cookie should then cause a soft (meta / javascript) redirect to fire once and once only per visit if they hit the "global" page again. However, this should never stop the user being able to use the dropdown and change country if they want.
• #51: Include a flag icon and their country of origin in their native language, not English. After they choose, set a cookie with the following properties - the new language / area page is the users preference. This cookie should then cause a soft (meta / javascript) redirect to fire once and once only per visit if they hit the "global" page again. However, this should never stop the user being able to use the dropdown and change country if they want.
• #53: Intrepid does a lot of things right, but this home page experience isn’t one of them.
• #56: These things aren’t just “nice to haves,” they’re necessary signals of quality in a post-Panda world.
• #57: Once keyword lists for each targeted country or language are ready, begin rolling out on-site SEO optimization using the targeted keywords. Translated and localized keywords should appear in all these places. Remember, the whole purpose of International SEO is to create custom web experiences for users in your target locations. So, users need to see your products written in a way that speaks to them. This process is especially important for content that is in the same language but targeting different regions. That content needs to be differentiated across those regions in order to avoid duplicate content issues. For example, US, UK, and IE sites should all have unique content that differentiates one page from the next. Hreflang will help Google to understand that these pages are meant for different users, but to really help those pages improve rankings in your targeted locations, you need to optimize the content for users in those countries.
• #58: Example of regional vernacular, spellings
• #59: Once you have a list of keywords, you can send them to a professional translator, if targeting languages other than your native tongue. If the keyword list is in English but targeting countries other than your own, you should have a SEO professional who is native to the target location refine the list and tailor it to the local vernacular. Note: avoid machine translation tools like Google Translate and Google Global Market Finder at all cost.
• #61: Deep links to relevant regional pages from ccTLDs This is where international SEO does start to affect rankings. The more links you have from regional sites, the more likely your content will rank in those regional search engines.