International Technical SEO

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International Technical

SEOJamie White, Head of Technical SEO

Email:

Tel:

Web: www.searchlaboratory.com

Twitter: @searchlabs

Contact details

Jamie White

Head of Technical SEO

Studied Advertising & Marketing

#SLIDMC

Agenda

Site structuring

– Pros and cons

Hreflang – serving correct content in correct markets

Search Console (Webmaster Tools) setup

Common mistakes and how to avoid them

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Site structure

Three options:

– ccTLD (example.co.uk, example.fr, example.de)

– Sub-folder (example.com/uk, example.com/fr, example.com/de)

– Sub-domain (uk.example.com, fr.example.com, de.example.com)

Each have their pros and cons

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Site structure

ccTLD (country code top level domain)

Pros:

– Very strong location signal to Google

– Trust factor amongst your audience

Cons:

– Increased linking/promotional efforts required

– Purchase and maintain each separate domain

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Site structure

Sub-folder

Pros:

– Link authority of top level domain is shared

– Low purchase and maintenance cost

Cons:

– Potentially lower trust factor amongst your audience

– Weaker location signal compared to ccTLD

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Site structure

Sub-domain

Pros:

– Location signal through different server locations

– Lower purchase & maintenance cost

– ‘Some’ sharing of the top level domain link authority

Cons:

– Increased linking/promotional efforts required

– Weaker location signal compared to ccTLD

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Content structure

Multiple single-language content targeting different locations

– Example: Four pages of English content targeting GB, IE, US and AU

Translated content targeting different languages

– Example: Four pages of content in English, French, Italian and Spanish

Need to give search engines more information so they can index and

rank content correctly

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hreflang

HTML tag in the <head> section of a page’s source code

Help Google serve the correct content to users based on their

language or location

Main examples:

– Duplicate content with small language variations (e.g. GB, IE, US,

AU)

– Fully translated content in multiple languages

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hreflang

Duplicate content with small language variations (GB, IE, US, AU)

Which of these

should I rank for

the phrase

‘Widgets’?

Widgets

Widgets Widgets

Widgets

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hreflang


Widgets

Widgets Widgets

WidgetsI’ll just pick one of

these and rank it

in all markets

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hreflang


I can’t decide, so

I’ll just rank some

other pages

instead

Widgets

Widgets Widgets

Widgets

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hreflang


<link rel="alternate" href="http://www.example.com/gb" hreflang="en-gb" />

<link rel="alternate" href="http://www.example.com/ie" hreflang="en-ie" />

<link rel="alternate" href="http://www.example.com/au" hreflang="en-au" />

<link rel="alternate" href="http://www.example.com/us" hreflang="en-us" />

Ah! These are for

users in different

countries!

“This is the language

of the content”

“…specifically for users in this country”

“There are alternate

versions of this

content”

“This is where they’re

located”

*Required tag

*Optional tag

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hreflang

Fully translated content in multiple languages

I don’t have

enough information

to rank this content

correctly

Widgets

Widgets Widgets

Widgets

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hreflang

Fully translated content in multiple languages

That’s better. Now I

know which content

is for which query

language

English users in UK

French users in France

Spanish users in Spain

Italian users in Italy

<link rel="alternate" href="http://www.example.com/en" hreflang="en-gb" />

<link rel="alternate" href="http://www.example.com/fr" hreflang="fr-fr" />

<link rel="alternate" href="http://www.example.com/es" hreflang="es-es" />

<link rel="alternate" href="http://www.example.com/it" hreflang="it-it" />

English users

French users

Spanish users

Italian users

<link rel="alternate" href="http://www.example.com/en" hreflang="en" />

<link rel="alternate" href="http://www.example.com/fr" hreflang="fr" />

<link rel="alternate" href="http://www.example.com/es" hreflang="es" />

<link rel="alternate" href="http://www.example.com/it" hreflang="it" />

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Bonus points for…

hreflang="x-default" for content not specific to one language

Country-selector or ‘catch all’ pages

<link rel="alternate" href="http://www.example.com/world" hreflang="x-default" />

Ok, this is what I

should show users

that don’t meet the

other criteria

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Google Search Console (Webmaster Tools)

Set up your profile and target your site to users in a specific region

Do not specify country for your site if you want to target multiple countries (e.g.

French content in France & Canada)

ccTLD (.co.uk, .fr, .de…)

will auto-detect the target

country

Can be done at domain

level, sub-domain level or

sub-folder level

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Common mistakes

Not implementing hreflang at page level

Homepage (on all sites)

/page1.html (on all sites)

<link rel="alternate" href="http://www.example.com/" hreflang="en-gb" />




<link rel="alternate" href="http://www.example.com/page1.html" hreflang="en-gb" />

<link rel="alternate" href="http://www.example.com/fr/page1.html" hreflang="fr-fr" />

<link rel="alternate" href="http://www.example.com/es/page1.html" hreflang="es-es" />

<link rel="alternate" href="http://www.example.com/it/page1.html" hreflang="it-it" />

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Common mistakes

Setting up a site targeting European users such as www.example.com/eu or

eu.example.com

– Europe is not a recognised ISO region/country so cannot be targeted with hreflang

– Can use hreflang="en" or hreflang="x-default" – but it may gather non-EU traffic





<link rel="alternate" href="http://www.example.com/eu" hreflang="en-eu" />





<link rel="alternate" href="http://www.example.com/eu" hreflang="en" />

X<link rel="alternate" href="http://www.example.com/" hreflang="en-gb" />




<link rel="alternate" href="http://www.example.com/eu" hreflang="x-default" />

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Common mistakes

Missing return links

Homepage (GB site)

Homepage (FR site)







<link rel="alternate" href="http://www.example.com/it" hreflang="it-it" /> XOnly when an alternate page exists!

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Common mistakes

Missing return links

Homepage (GB site)

Homepage (FR site)












Only when an alternate page exists!

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Common mistakes

Specifying the country and not the language

– Language is a requirement – country is optional

<link rel="alternate" href="http://www.example.com/" hreflang="gb" />

<link rel="alternate" href="http://www.example.com/us" hreflang="us" />




XX

Not recognised language codes

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Common mistakes

Specifying the country and not the language

– Language is a requirement – country is optional

<link rel="alternate" href="http://www.example.com/" hreflang="gb" />

<link rel="alternate" href="http://www.example.com/us" hreflang="us" />




XX

Recognised language codes

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Common mistakes

Redirecting users based on IP address

User

Widgets

Detect IP address & redirect

Widgets

Widgets

Detect IP address & redirectWidgets

Widgets XWidgets XWidgets XWidgets X

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Common mistakes

Dynamic serving of content based on location (cookie, IP address, login details)

– Typically served on one single URL

UserDetect location and change content

Widgets

.com/page.html

Widgets

.com/page.html

No unique URL for Italian content

Google will only index English

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Common mistakes

Poor internal linking

Make sure search engines can find all your content – on all your sites!

Helps to pass authority across all your international websites

https://www.apple.com/choose-your-country/ http://www.coca-cola.com/global/glp.html

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https://www.apple.com/choose-your-country/

http://www.coca-cola.com/global/glp.html

Summary

Duplicate content for different countries? – hreflang

Translated content for different languages/countries? – hreflang

Avoid redirection or dynamic content based on location

– Severely restricting Google’s crawl

Make sure your content can be found through internal linking

Use Google Search Console for more geo-targeting options

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International Technical SEO

Marketing

Transcript of International Technical SEO