''New Exporters: How Search Marketing Can Be Used to Build Overseas Trade'' a presentation given by Guillaume Bouchard, NVI CEO, at SES Chicago on Dec 7th.

1. NEW EXPORTERS INTERACTIVE STRATEGY - 55 AV. MONT-ROYAL W., SUITE 999, MONTREAL (QC) H2T 2S6 T 514.524.7149 NVISOLUTIONS.COM INTERNATIONAL SEO

2. AGENDA > WHY INTERNATIONAL SEO? > REALITY CHECK FOR US COMPANIES > WHAT DO YOU SEE IN THE US? UK? CANADA? > GOOGLE.COM QUICK EXPLANATION > LOOKING AT 3 UNIQUE SCENARIOS > BRINGING IT ALL TOGETHER INTERACTIVE STRATEGY – NVISOLUTIONS.COM

3. WHY INTERNATIONAL SEO? > Quick story about a friend of mine who developed a trilingual site - Published ~1000 articles on a new French subdomain - Published ~1000 articles on a new English domain - Published ~1000 articles on a new Spanish subdomain > The bottom-line in terms of Adsense revenue is stunning: - French subdomain earns an average of 50$/day - Spanish subdomain earns an average of 6$/day - English main domain earns an average of 3$/day > Conclusion: language & quantity of available content matter much more than your SEO skills when you go International. Think of the US 5-6 years ago, but with today’s algorithms ;) INTERACTIVE STRATEGY – NVISOLUTIONS.COM

4. REALITY CHECK WITH US COMPANIES > Problem: Companies who have an established website with a generic TLD (.com, .net, etc.) begin to sell to markets outside of their local countries but only rank in their local country > Solution: Internationalize your SEO strategies! But before we look at the 3 main options, let’s see what kind of results we get in English worldwide INTERACTIVE STRATEGY – NVISOLUTIONS.COM

5. GOOGLE.CA - ENGLISH INTERACTIVE STRATEGY – NVISOLUTIONS.COM

6. GOOGLE.CO.UK INTERACTIVE STRATEGY – NVISOLUTIONS.COM

7. GOOGLE.COM - US INTERACTIVE STRATEGY – NVISOLUTIONS.COM

8. GOOGLE.COM – INTERNATIONAL IN CANADA INTERACTIVE STRATEGY – NVISOLUTIONS.COM

9. GOOGLE.COM – INTERNATIONAL IN THE UK INTERACTIVE STRATEGY – NVISOLUTIONS.COM

10. GOOGLE.COM: INTERNATIONAL VS US > Since early 2008, Google.com international ≠ Google.com US > Canada, UK, Australia, Denmark, France (name it!) is considered “ international” > Most important ranking factor: Geolocation of backlink profile > Other important factors: Hosting location, physical addresses listed on site, text about the country, Google local listing, TLD, canonical tag, GWT geo > Use the query &gl=us to see identical Google.com US results outside of the US (besides that new big brick of 10 local listings) INTERACTIVE STRATEGY – NVISOLUTIONS.COM

11. 3 UNIQUE SCENARIOS, FROM BEST TO WORST > Create separate websites with country specific ccTLDs and country specific content – eg: MyBrand.co.uk > Create subdomains on your main site to host country/language specific content – eg: uk.MyBrand.com > Create subfolders on your main domain to host country/language specific content – eg: MyBrand.com/uk INTERACTIVE STRATEGY – NVISOLUTIONS.COM

12. SCENARIO 1: Separate websites per country PROS > Dedicated site per country = easiest to rank > Each site can be hosted in the country you’re targeting > Searchers are confident they have found a local business > Local sites are more confident linking to a local ccTLD CONS > Multiple sites = multiple sites to develop & maintain > Double/triple the number of sites = double/triple the SEO work > Forced to target by country as opposed by language INTERACTIVE STRATEGY – NVISOLUTIONS.COM

13. SCENARIO 2: Subdomains for each country/language PROS > Only one site to develop, host & maintain > Each subdomain can be hosted in the country you’re targeting > SEO link building helps benefits the whole domain if subdomain and domain link to each other (strategic reciprocal linking) > Option to group content by language instead of country CONS > Your .com is competing against full ccTLD sites in local SERPs > Surfers will not have as much confidence as a ccTLD provides > Local links are more difficult to get to a .com vs a ccTLD INTERACTIVE STRATEGY – NVISOLUTIONS.COM

14. SCENARIO 3: Subfolders for each country/language PROS > Only one site to develop, host & maintain > SEO link building helps benefits the whole domain > Option to group content by language instead of country CONS > Your .com is competing against full ccTLD sites in local SERPs > Surfers will not have as much confidence as ccTLD provides > Local links are more difficult to get to a .com vs a ccTLD > Hosting has to be in only 1 country > Can’t use different technologies/platforms (could be an issue for large companies with legacy CMS) INTERACTIVE STRATEGY – NVISOLUTIONS.COM

15. BRINGING IT ALL TOGETHER > If you use subdomains or subfolders, assign each location in GWT > Only .com and non-country-specific domains can use GWT geo > If your have multiple ccTLD with an English version, you may be duplicating content, or Google might choose the wrong version for the country – try to make it as unique as possible > For sites with an English homepage, you should do IP geolocation and direct the users and Google bot to the local version > Hosting location is a signal, but weaker than a ccTLD or GWT geo > Standardize everything in UTF-8 > Get local links (ideal is from ccTLDs), and obviously from location- associated sites and directories (local directories, yellowpages, etc.) INTERACTIVE STRATEGY – NVISOLUTIONS.COM

16. THANKS / MERCI ! > EMAIL [email_address] > NVI SITE NVISOLUTIONS.COM > NVI BLOG (EN) NVISOLUTIONS.COM/BLOG > NVI BLOG (FR) GO-REFERENCEMENT.ORG Find us on twitter @NVI INTERACTIVE STRATEGY – NVISOLUTIONS.COM