INTERNATIONAL SEO

Annabel Hodges International SEO Director, OMD UK

Martin MacDonaldHead of SEO, OMD Group

INTERNATIONAL SEO

Any Questions?

Tweet: @searchpanda @searchmartin

WHO ARE OMD?

WHO ARE OMD?

OMD CLIENTS

OMD CLIENTS

OMD CLIENTS

OMD CLIENTS

INTERNATIONAL SEO – THE BASICS

ITS NOT ABOUT ONE ALGORITHM

ITS NOT ABOUT ONE ALGORITHM

ITS NOT ABOUT ONE ALGORITHM

This stuff is all US or UK specific, based on an industry questionnaire!

USE THE RIGHT TOOLS

DON’T TAKE SHORTCUTS

DON’T TAKE SHORTCUTS

TRANSLATIONS SHOULD BE MANUAL

THE AGE OLD QUESTION…

THE AGE OLD QUESTION…

Which is best?

Country Specific TLD’s

Subdomains

Subfolders

THE AGE OLD QUESTION…

At last! The Final Answer:

THE AGE OLD QUESTION…

It depends… sorry!

THE AGE OLD QUESTION…

Subfolders

Pros Cons

Easiest implementation on most CMS platforms

All links will enhance the domain authority metric

Least likely to convert

Loses any SERP Geo-Preference

Ugly, un-memorable URL

Hardest to build links to

THE AGE OLD QUESTION…

Subdomains

Pros Cons

Backlinks can improve overall site profile

Easier to maintain server requirements

Local IP address potential

Less likely to convert (eComm)

Loses any SERP Geo-Preference

Ugly, un-memorable URL

THE AGE OLD QUESTION…

ccTLD’s

Pros Cons

Increased Confidence

More likely to attract links

Geo Preference in the Algorithm

Most expensive to maintain

Increases required SEO work

Multiple instances of CMS’ software

Over to Annabel…• Linguist & former translator

• Working in search and SEO for 5 years

• SEO Associate Director here:

• With this guy:

• Specialises in international clients

• Writes about SEO here:

• And here:

Annabel Hodges

annabel.hodges@omd.com

@searchpanda

As Martin said, it’s still all about those age-old issues

Subdomain vs Sub Folder

Localise, don’t translate

Understand local search engines

Understand local cultures

Localised link building

Sitelinks FTW

Before

20% saving on PPC budget

After

What would Steve Jobs do?

Check the competition

Sometimes ccTLDs might not be the answer

My link building experience: understand your market

• Blogs• Personal touch• Need to build relationships

over time• Many poor quality

directories

• More decent directories• Advertorials• More commercial• Greater awareness of value

of links

Duplicate content & Hreflang

<linkrel="alternate“ hreflang="en“ href="http://example.co.uk"/>

<linkrel="alternate“ hreflang="en“ href="http://example.com"/>

Google Advice:

1) If template (i.e. side navigation, footer) is machine-translated into various languages

2) If main content remains unchanged, creating largely duplicate pages.

Are you tracking separate countries correctly?

AND NOW FOR THE UGLY..

When redirects go bad

Temporarily gone here

.com

.com/en/en-gb/index.jsp

Accept-Language: */*

Temporarily gone here

.com

.com/en/en-us/index.jsp

Accept-Language: en-us

US visitor Googlebot

How does this impact the US SERPs?

UK site page title

UK site description

Links directly into the UK site

GOOGLE TREATS UK SITE AS AUTHORITATIVE

How about local markets?

as opposed to...

Thank You!

GET IN TOUCH. ITS EASY!

Any further questions: @searchpanda@searchmartin