speaking in tongues: establishing a successful international web presence #smxeast

@aleyda#SMX #12A2

Speaking in Tongues Establishing a Successful International Web Presence

@aleyda#SMX #12A2 @aleyda#SMX #12A2

I’m Aleyda Solis


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I help companies to connect with potential customers all over the world


Some of them brands you likely know


To expand & diversify traffic sources


With a sustainable organic traffic growth


Generating actual customers, conversions & profit from them


This usually involves deciding, configuring & managing the following…

Avoiding targeting

markets that are not

profitable

Selecting the best Web structure to

win international

markets

Geolocating & Localizing each

international Web presence


Here’s how to simplify the process

Target

ConnectPrioritize


Prioritize Avoid targeting markets

that are not profitable


“I wish I could create relevant content for each one of my

international sites, but there are too many of them.”

Someone who didn’t prioritize


Avoid targeting languages & countries that don’t have a big enough audience you can’t support

English speakers in Spain? Catalan speakers in Spain?


Identify which countries & languages are already bringing traffic & conversions to your site

@aleyda#SMX #12A2

The ones where you are additionally ranking although not actively targeting yet

ahrefs.com

@aleyda#SMX #12A2

http://ahrefs.com


From where your competitors & industry leaders are already profiting from

semrush.com

http://semrush.com

@aleyda#SMX #12A2

Check the level of already existing organic search competition in those markets

@aleyda#SMX #12A2

similarweb.com

http://similarweb.com


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

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

=


You can use the International SEO ROI calculator for this

https://www.aleydasolis.com/english/international-seo-tools/roi-calculator/


Identify if you should language or country target first

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


Now you can decide which 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

For most important countries

Buy & secure your ccTLDs for future

activity

Create custom alerts

Create a pilot project

prioritizing main pages


Like this

vs

Language TargetingCountry Targeting


You can then consolidate the already existing international versions of markets that won’t be


Target Select the best Web structure to win international markets


“I enabled ccTLDs for each country but I wasn’t able to rank as the competition was

too high”Someone who didn’t target with the right Web organization


There are rules of thumb like avoid using scripts or cookies to show all versions through the same URLs


Or not using parameters, as it makes it harder to geolocate, localize and track each version


However, your international Web setting should be selected based on your site & target market

VS


If you’re country targeting, select between ccTLDs, Subdirectories & Subdomains

www.yourbrand.es

www.yourbrand.es/categoria-a/

www.yourbrand.com/es-es/

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

es-es.yourbrand.com/

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

ccTLDs

Sub-directoriesw/ gTLDs

Sub-domains w/ gTLDs

http://www.yourbrand.co.uk







Choose the best alternative to country target in your case using the pros & cons

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

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

* Ideal alternative to geolocate if competition is not too high * Need more technical resources * Need more efforts to grow popularity with a new domain

ccTLDs

Sub-directoriesw/ gTLDs

Sub-domains w/ gTLDs


If you’re language targeting, select between using subdirectories or subdomains

Sub-directorieswww.yourbrand.com

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

Sub-domainses.yourbrand.com/

es.yourbrand.com/categoria-a/

http://www.yourbrand.com

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

http://es.yourbrand.com/

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


* Need less technical resources *Need less efforts to grow popularity *Generates a deeper url structure *More chances to get all versions penalized if something goes bad

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

Sub-directories

Sub-domains

Select the best alternative to language target in your case based on the pros & cons too


Take into consideration that Google only supports countries to geotarget


It will be also very difficult to use an already geolocated ccTLD to target another country


Verify which Web structures are used by the top sites in the desired market

13 ccTLDs vs.

7gTLDs


As well as those rankings for the potential top queries in that market

https://serpchecker.com/

7 ccTLDs vs.

2 gTLDs

https://serpchecker.com/


What’s the authority of those top ranking sites? Can you compete with a new ccTLD?


Yes

Choose your international Web structure accordingly to make it competitive

What’s your international target?

Country Language

Are your top competitors

using ccTLDs?

Yes

Is the domain authority of your

competition higher &

a concern?

Yes

Use ccTLDs

No

No

Use Geolocalized Sub-Directories

YesNo Do you need a flatter & more

differentiated URL structure?

Use Sub-Directories

Is the domain authority of your

competition higher &

a concern?

Use Sub-Domains

No


Connect Geolocate & Localize your

international Web presence


“I created all my content in Spanish by translating the

one I already had in English but never got a high share

of traffic”Someone who didn’t localized its international Web presence

@aleyda#SMX #12A2

Start by localizing every aspect of your Web content & design to your target markets

URL

Meta DescriptionCurrency

Menu

Title

Images

H1

@aleyda#SMX #12A2

Including the URLs but avoid “special” characters, use transliteration for non-latin characters

NO

YES

@aleyda#SMX #12A2

Get native support to do each market keyword research and use the right terms in each case

RENTAS VACACIONALES

vsALQUILERES VACACIONALES

NO

@aleyda#SMX #12A2

This is one of the critical areas that major brands often overlook with international markets

YES

@aleyda#SMX #12A2

You can create a matrix with patterns to generate your main content elements for each version

<Characteristic> <Main Keyword> in <Location>: +<No. Of Items> by <Brand>

<Palabra Clave> <Característica> en <Ubicación>: +<No. de Products> por <Marca>

English Title Spanish Title

@aleyda#SMX #12A2

Leverage local search seasonality, festivities, trends and specific audience bahavior

@aleyda#SMX #12A2

Check out which keywords tools support international markets

https://www.aleydasolis.com/en/search-engine-optimization/keywords-research-tools-comparison/

https://www.aleydasolis.com/en/search-engine-optimization/keywords-research-tools-comparison/

@aleyda#SMX #12A2

Localize not only the content, but also the overall Web experience using local preferences & culture

In the US In Japan

@aleyda#SMX #12A2

It’s also critical to rank in your target markets with the relevant, optimized international Web version

US version ranking in the UK

@aleyda#SMX #12A2

Misaligned pages will have worse rankings, CTR, user experience and conversions

This happens with a UK ccTLD

@aleyda#SMX #12A2

Check if you’re suffering from this already using internal organic traffic and ranking sources…

@aleyda#SMX #12A2

… as well as external ones

ahrefs.com

@aleyda#SMX #12A2

http://ahrefs.com

@aleyda#SMX #12A2

Verify which domain extensions are treated as generic by Google to geolocate if needed

@aleyda#SMX #12A2

https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/1347922

@aleyda#SMX #12A2

https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/1347922?hl

@aleyda#SMX #12A2

Register & geolocate in the Search Console each sub-directory or sub-domain to country target

@aleyda#SMX #12A2

Avoid automatic redirects based on the IP location of the user is intrusive

@aleyda#SMX #12A2

Search crawlers IPs are also not yet that “globally” distributed




It’s better to suggest to visitors there might be a more relevant version for them

@aleyda#SMX #12A2

Verify for yourself how you’re doing it by using a proxy or search result emulator

https://www.hidemyass.com/ & https://www.accuranker.com/rank-tracker/

https://www.hidemyass.com/

@aleyda#SMX #12A2

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

http://bit.ly/binglang

http://bit.ly/binglang

@aleyda#SMX #12A2

As well as specifying your pages language and country alternates with hreflang annotations

bit.ly/hreflangannotations


http://bit.ly/hreflangannotations

@aleyda#SMX #12A2

Every page should include its language & country target, pointing to the other versions

English for the US Default

Spanish for the US

English for the UK

<link rel="canonical" href="http://www.brand.com/dogs/“ /> <link rel="alternate" hreflang=“en-us" href=“http://www.brand.com/dogs/“ />

<link rel="alternate" hreflang=“es-us" href=“http://www.brand.com/es/perros/“ /> <link rel="alternate" hreflang=“en-gb" href=“http://www.brand.co.uk/dogs/“ />

<link rel="canonical" href=“http://www.brand.com/es/perros/“ /> <link rel="alternate" hreflang=“en-us" href=“http://www.brand.com/dogs/“ />


brand.com/dogs/

brand.co.uk/dogs/

brand.com/es/perros/

English for the US

<link rel="canonical" href=“http://www.brand.co.uk/dogs/“ /> <link rel="alternate" hreflang=“en-us" href=“http://www.brand.com/dogs/“ />


http://brand.com

http://brand.co.uk/dogs/

http://brand.com/es/perros/

@aleyda#SMX #12A2

Using ISO 639-1 values for languages and ISO 3166-1 for countries

@aleyda#SMX #12A2

You can add them in the HTML Head or in XML Sitemaps, as well as HTTP Headers

Add them in XML Sitemaps in

non-flexible sites with a high

number of versions

Add them in HTML in sites

with lower number of versions &

coding flexibility

@aleyda#SMX #12A2

Start only with the necessary ones checking traffic misalignment if there are too many

@aleyda#SMX #12A2

Avoid the most common hreflang implementation mistakes

https://www.semrush.com/blog/the-most-common-hreflang-mistakes-infographic/

@aleyda#SMX #12A2

Beware of including incorrect hreflang values and tags that are not supported

link rel alternate hreflang="pt-br"

link rel alternate hreflang="en-ca"

Not supported

link rel alternate hreflang="es-mx"

link rel alternate hreflang="en-us"

@aleyda#SMX #12A2

Always self-refer by specifying the current URL in the hreflangs

@aleyda#SMX #12A2

Each international version should also refer back to the ones pointing to it

@aleyda#SMX #12A2

Avoid adding non-indexable, canonicalized, error, redirected or blocked URLs in hreflangs

@aleyda#SMX #12A2

Add the hreflang at the start of the HTML to avoid that is overlooked due to errors above

http://ohgm.co.uk/hreflang-tags-not-respected-how-to-solve/

http://ohgm.co.uk/hreflang-tags-not-respected-how-to-solve/

@aleyda#SMX #12A2

Obtain the correct annotations with the Hreflang Generator Tool

bit.ly/generatorhreflang

http://bit.ly/generatorhreflang

@aleyda#SMX #12A2

For enterprise scenarios, generate XML sitemaps along hreflang tags with the hrefbuilder

hrefbuilder.com

http://hrefbuilder.com

@aleyda#SMX #12A2

Organize XML sitemaps as granular as possible to facilitate troubleshooting

Country

Language

Category

Page Type

@aleyda#SMX #12A2

Validate them first at a page level when implementing, to catch and fix errors early

https://technicalseo.com/seo-tools/hreflang/


@aleyda#SMX #12A2 @aleyda#SMX #12A2 @aleyda#SMX #12A2

Verify them again after implementing them, by using crawlers that validate them like Sitebulb

@aleyda#SMX #12A2

This will allow you to directly identify which are the URLs with issues and fix easily them

@aleyda#SMX #12A2

You can also use DeepCrawl that verifies hreflang implemented in XML sitemaps too

@aleyda#SMX #12A2

Monitor the existence of remaining issues with the Search Console International Targeting report

@aleyda#SMX #12A2

Prioritize fixing those errors with the highest number of pages affected

@aleyda#SMX #12A2

Until they are all correctly validated

@aleyda#SMX #12A2

To effectively grow your search visibility in your targeted international markets


Target

ConnectPrioritize

It’s about prioritizing, targeting and connecting with your international audience

@aleyda#SMX #12A2


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It’s now your time to expand abroad! Thanks

speaking in tongues: establishing a successful international web presence #smxeast

Marketing