How to Develop a Successful International SEO Strategy

1. #seocamp
How to Develop a Successful
International SEO Strategy
Helga Bendea

2. #seocamp
International SEO Strategy | Key Elements
Helga BendeaHow to Develop a Successful International SEO Strategy - 27/09/2016
2
Content Accessibility Structure TargetingMarkets
Which
languages
and/or
countries?
Translated or
customized
content?
User choice
or automatic
redirects?
Domains,
subdomains
or
subfolders?
When and how
to use SEO
language /
country markup?

3. #seocamp
Markets
How to Develop a Successful International SEO Strategy - 27/09/2016
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The success of the whole strategy
depends on the selection of the
appropriate languages / countries that
the website should target.
Helga Bendea
This choice should be made after careful
consideration of the real benefits for
the business in terms of ROI.

4. #seocamp
Which websites should do international SEO?
Helga BendeaHow to Develop a Successful International SEO Strategy - 27/09/2016
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A website should consider an
international SEO strategy
only if the ROI generated by
international visitors is
positive, i.e. the revenues
are enough to generate
profit after covering all the
costs of international SEO.
ROI
Revenues Costs
Costs
100
Revenues Visits
Conversion
Rate
Average
Conversion
Value

5. #seocamp
Choosing languages and/or countries
Helga BendeaHow to Develop a Successful International SEO Strategy - 27/09/2016
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Language-specific
 Websites with no country-
specific offers
 Small/medium sites, typically
corporate websites
 Not enough budget for
translation/localization
 Websites with country-specific
offers
 Medium/large sites, typically
e-commerce (currency, etc.)
 Dedicated translation and
localization budget for each
country
 Websites with country-specific
offers targeting countries with
more than one official language
 Large sites
 Enough budget for the
localization process
Country-specific Language and
country-specific

6. #seocamp
Content
How to Develop a Successful International SEO Strategy - 27/09/2016
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A successful international content
strategy is based on:
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Relevant, targeted content
Custom keyword analysis for each
language / country
High-quality content translation /
localization

7. #seocamp
Key elements of content optimization
How to Develop a Successful International SEO Strategy - 27/09/2016
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Title and
Meta DescriptionURL
Heading Tags
Navigation Elements
Images and Alt Texts Main Content
Reviews
Phone and ContactsCurrency and Shipping
Helga Bendea

8. #seocamp
Content translation vs customized content
Helga BendeaHow to Develop a Successful International SEO Strategy - 27/09/2016
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Translated content Customized content
Easier and quick implementation and
maintenance
Reduced content production and
management costs
Uniform global brand image
SEO-friendly markup needed to
prevent duplicate content
(only for the same language for different
countries: ex. US EN, UK EN, AU EN, .com in EN)
Standard or even poor UX when
localization is necessary
More difficult and longer implementation
and maintenance
Higher content production and
management costs
Market-specific brand image
Unique content with no risk of duplication
for versions in the same language
Personalized UX based on user location,
language and culture

9. #seocamp
Accessibility
How to Develop a Successful International SEO Strategy - 27/09/2016
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The content that is inaccessible to
search engine bots has zero visibility in
search engine results.
Helga Bendea
Lack of SEO targeting or accessibility
optimizations can lead to bad user
experience.

10. #seocamp
Accessibility: what is best for SEO?
Helga BendeaHow to Develop a Successful International SEO Strategy - 27/09/2016
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Standard accessibility to
all versions
All versions are accessible to search
engine bots and to all users worldwide
Accessibility based on user
cookies or choice
Inaccessibility and
automatic redirects
Best UX: users can select the version
they want and/or a cookie is set up to
store preferences for next visits
Bad UX if the redirects lead the user to
an inappropriate version
Lack of international SEO might lead to
bad UX: users reaching versions of the
site intended for other markets via
search engines
All versions are accessible to search
engine bots and indexed
Not OK if users must only have access
to a specific version
If access to other markets is totally
restricted (no market selection possible)
 rule needed to exclude bots from
IP-based redirects
OK only if business policies require to
restrict user access or if location
selection is allowed

11. #seocamp
Structure
How to Develop a Successful International SEO Strategy - 27/09/2016
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The choice of the website structure is
mainly influenced by:
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Market structure: multilingual /
multiregional
Website type, size and budget
Brand image and link popularity
strategy

12. #seocamp
Multilingual / multiregional website structure
Helga BendeaHow to Develop a Successful International SEO Strategy - 27/09/2016
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ccTLDs
(Country-Code Top-Level Domains)
Subdirectories Subdomains
example.com/fr fr.example.com

13. #seocamp
ccTLDs | Advantages & disadvantages
How to Develop a Successful International SEO Strategy - 27/09/2016
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Easy separation of sites and web
analytics
More expensive and limited
availability (for some domains)
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Server location is irrelevant, however
sites can be hosted on country-specific
servers
Very strong geolocation signal for the
users; usually results in higher
click-through rates and conversions
The strongest geolocation signal for
search engines, very useful for ranking
in a specific country
Higher costs for infrastructure, IT
resources and maintenance
Strict ccTLDs legal requirements in
some countries
Domain authority and backlink value is
not shared among sites: need to invest
in backlink campaigns for each domain

14. #seocamp
Subdirectories | Advantages & disadvantages
How to Develop a Successful International SEO Strategy - 27/09/2016
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Easy to set up and manage Much weaker geolocation signal for
search engines than ccTLDs
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example.com/fr
Low maintenance costs with same host
Can use Google Search Console to set
up geo-targeting
Consolidated domain authority:
backlinks to any subdirectory provide
link value to the whole website
May be less intuitive for users
expecting a ccTLD for local sites
More difficult separation of different
site versions

15. #seocamp
Subdomains | Advantages & disadvantages
How to Develop a Successful International SEO Strategy - 27/09/2016
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Easier to set up and manage than
ccTLDs
Weaker geolocation signal for search
engines than ccTLDs
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fr.example.com
Each subdomain can be hosted on
different country-specific servers
Can use Google Search Console to set
up geo-targeting
Easy separation of sites
More difficult to set up and maintain
than subdirectories; more difficult
web analytics set up (in some cases)
May be confusing for users since the
subdomain can represent the country
or the language
Domain authority is transmitted only
in part to the subdomains and backlink
value is split among sub-domains

16. #seocamp
Targeting
How to Develop a Successful International SEO Strategy - 27/09/2016
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In terms of content, SEO-friendly language /
country markup helps search engines
differentiate local versions of the same
content. No risk of duplicate content for the
versions in the same language.
Helga Bendea
In terms of accessibility and UX, this markup
ensures visibility in search engines to the
appropriate website version for a specific
market.

17. #seocamp
Language/country markup | Best practices 17
 Include the annotations of all alternate content version
URLs that are available on your site
 Implement for each page having multilingual /
multiregional versions
 Do not implement for pages/site versions having highly
customized content (no content duplication risk)
It helps Google serve the right page to visitors in search
results based on their language/location
Document location signal used by Bing to determine
rankings of a content in search results. Other signals:
<html lang=""> and <title lang="">
rel="alternate" hreflang meta http-equiv="content-language"
<link rel="alternate" href="http://domain.com/fr-fr/" hreflang=“fr-fr" />
<link rel="alternate" href="http://domain.com/fr-ca/" hreflang="fr-ca" />
<link rel="alternate" href="http://domain.com/en-ca/" hreflang="en-ca" />
<link rel="alternate" href="http://domain.com/" hreflang="x-default" />
How to Develop a Successful International SEO Strategy - 27/09/2016 Helga Bendea

18. #seocamp
Conclusions
How to Develop a Successful International SEO Strategy - 27/09/2016
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A successful international SEO strategy is
tailored to the client’s business. There are no
universal best solutions.
Helga Bendea
Investing in high-quality targeted content and
UX is essential to long-term performance on
each market.
The elements of the strategy are tightly
connected. Each element influences overall
results.

19. #seocamp
Thank you
Helga Bendea
SEO Lead
Accenture Interactive Italy
helga.andreea.bendea@accenture.com
www.linkedin.com/in/helgabendea