Seo Mar09 Intnl

(c) Jan Klin & Associates 2008

International Search Marketing for Export Success

Jan Klin & Associates01928 [email protected]


International Search Marketing Update

A refresher and overview on the essentials of search marketing for

international visibility, plus, an update on the latest approaches, tools and techniques - including any new aspects of search engine operations.

-What we need to know about how search engines work -Essentials of Search Engine Optimisation for international traffic -Visibility and Localisation Issues -Targeting specific countries with SEO -Using Pay per Click advertising to target specific countries - Understanding which search engines to target and the tools they offer for

geographic targeting


Search Marketing – Maximising your position in the hitlist Click throughs dissipate as we move down the list

36% of internet 36% of internet users perceive a users perceive a company in the company in the top search top search engine rankings engine rankings to be a major to be a major brandbrand

Source: iProspect Source: iProspect search engine search engine branding surveybranding survey


Search Engine Market Share-Internationalwww.searchenginewatch.comwww.searchenginecolossus.comhttp://www.searchenginelinks.co.uk/link-48.html

Google’s not the only show I town…Baidu – ChinaNaver – KoreaYandex – Russia

Are dominant in their respective countries


SEO in Business to Business


SEO in Business to Consumer


The French Site


SEO success in High Tech Manufacturing


SEO success in High Tech Manufacturing


Search Marketing in Worldwide Shipping

Use a combination of Pay per Click and Search engine optimisation to transform their business

In less than seven months , Jan Klin & Associates have transformed our business from being on the edge of Rack and Ruin , to the point that we are unable to cope with the amount of enquiries and job confirmations.– Andy McTaggart – Managing

Director, ALS Worldmovers


Google – ‘Universal Search’

Content retrieved from:Google maps, news, images, You Tube, Blogs, MySpace, video ,etc


Google ‘Universal Search’


Universal Search


Universal Search

Google maps, news, images, You Tube, Blogs, MySpace,etc….

Certainly Google Base if you have products to sell - http://base.google.com/


Google Base – top of google after 1 week!


www.plumbnation.co.uk

Heating and plumbing ecommerce site

Will eventually sell over 30,000 different products

Site completed in September 2007

First months sales in excess of £100,000 – for one product range!

Half sales from ‘pay per click’ half from natural results!



Google Local Business Centre

-Address details on optimised (home) page- Geo info in ‘title’ tag-Entry in local directories – eg Yell-Entry in Tripadvisor if you are a hotel


1. Auditing your current performance

2. Strategic selection of keyphrases

3. Build Content around keyphrases on webpages– Utilise correct ‘keyword density’– Check/correct internal linking

4.Optimise metadata for the keyphrases

5. Implementing the changes– Phase the approach to new pages

6.Build Backlinks to your site

7. Monitor, Measure and Modify

Strategy and Process


The Spidering Process

http://www.microsoft.com/japan/ie/default.asp

http://www.google.co.uk/

http://www.microsoft.com/japan/ie/default.asp


Are you in the Google index?Site:www.yourdomain.com

Use the ‘Site’ command with your domain name at the Google search box

For Example: Site:www.businesslinkkent

.com

497 web pages in the index


Check your spiderability – can the search engines spider your whole site?

http://tools.seobook.com/general/spider-test/index.php

http://www.se-spider.com/


http://www.se-spider.com/



Use a sitemap

Use html navigation

Add html links to all other important pages

Use a google sitemap– www.xml-sitemaps.com

Check your spiderability athttp://www.ranks.nl/cgi-bin/

ranksnl/tools/checklink.pl

MAKE YOUR SITE “SPIDERABLE”


HTML Sitemap


Register with Google Webmaster Central (GWC)


Getting the right domain and hosting

UK company Targeting the UK In UK English Weak on inbound links .com domain But - Google thinks it’s NORWEGIAN

– Because that’s where it’s hosted…….


International traffic Issues

Search engines will use the top level domain (TLD) to assess where you want traffic from (eg - .co.uk, .de, .it etc)

If you have a .com (or .net, .info etc) they will use your hosting location to determine this

Use Google Webmaster central to override this and tell Google where you want traffic from


Multi language/ Multi site issues Option 1: Have different translated versions of the

same website under different TLD’s (eg – www.heskins.it; www.heskins.fr )

Option 2: Have a .com domain with separate country specific folders with translated pages AND use GWC to instruct Google that different parts of the site are relevant to different countries (see www.pneumat-europe.com)

– Another option here is to use subdomains rather than folders (eg www.deutch.yoursite.com)












The right keywords or keyphrases are the starting point for our strategy

Traffic from a variety of uncommon phrases?– Eg ‘marketing training courses Manchester’

One big win on a major phrase?– Eg ‘Training courses’– ‘personal loans’


Source: Internal Yahoo! Data for UK, France, Spain, Germany, Italy

SEARCHER BEHAVIOUR

Search activity is growing• 25.9M unique searchers in Europe• 304M searches per month • 453M page views

22%

30%

15%9% 9%

24%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

1 word 2words

3words

4words

5words

6words

57%of search queries

involve 3+ words

Searches are becoming moresophisticated and specific: 2000 = 1.2 words ; 2005 = 2.5 words ; 2008 = 3.3 words

2005 Search Queries by Number of Words


Developing the Initial List

- Brainstorm with your self and others you work with

- Look at what competitors use (‘view’; ‘source’ then see the meta data and visible text)

- Any brand names or generic product types which are relevant

- Study your web stats for keyphrases which have driven people to your site

- Take you mates down the pub and ask them what they would type in to find you

- Use web based tools eg Google Suggest:-- http://www.google.com/webhp?complete=1&hl=en

- Others – see later slides

- You could even ask your customers and suppliers

http://www.google.com/webhp?complete=1&hl=en




Some web based tools to help Yahoo Search Marketing - Keyword Assistant

– http://searchmarketing.yahoo.co.uk/en_GB/

Google Keyword Tool https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

Wordtracker– www.wordtracker.com

Keyword Discovery – Tracks seasonality

Digitalpoint– www.digitalpoint.com


https://adwords.google.co.uk/select/KeywordToolExternal


www.digitalpoint.com


Use Online Tools to help Generate Effective Keyphrases eg www.wordtracker.com- Also for foreign language terms


KEIs and Wordtracker


Keyphrase Analysis

Or…run a pay per click campaign!– 3 months

This way you’ll find out what really works– What converts to

sales or enquiries


What do you do if there’s no direct translation?

“City breaks” has no direct equivalent in:– French– German– Dutch– Spanish– Italian


EndPoint – A prioritised list of your keyphrases




Sometimes it’s a problem…











Major Ranking Factors

On Page Factors (‘Entry Ticket’)– Metadata – title, keyword, description, H1– Visible (readable) html content– Internal links

Off Page Factors (‘Competitive Differentiators’)– Inbound link infrastructure– Directories, blogs, pr sites, etc, etc..– Domain trust – age, age of links

Behavioural (less important generally , BUT will become more important)– Number of visits, length of stay


Content is King There is no substitute for good

‘keyword rich’ content

– At least 200-250 words

– Content semantically related to keywords (LSI)

Eg, valentine, love, hearts, romance

Focus on natural writing of copy

Add new relevant content as often as you can– Use pdf’s, word documents– New pages with related

content – eg history, background, instructions


The Keyword Density Issue for Visible Text

What do you think of this bit of copywriting!

Our Yellow widgets are the best in the UK and if you buy our yellow widgets you will be sure you have bought the best yellow widgets you can buy and absolutely envied by the rest of the yellow widget buying community both here in the UK and the rest of the yellow widget buying community throughout the world. Yes, you really need to buy our award winning yellow widgets. Click here to buy yellow widgets

3% is ideal (keep below 10%) Check you density with:

– www.ranks.nl/tools/spider.html

http://www.ranks.nl/tools/spider.html


www.asgservices.co.uk


Capturing content below the scroll


www.aadrvarksafaris.com




Even Busy Ecommerce sites!


In summary Write text as naturally as possible Check afterwards that the target phrase(s) is included the right number of times

– 3 repetitions per 100 words is generally enough.– Punctuation not important

The phrases can be included in:-– The main text– Header tags (h1, h2 etc)– In in-text links– In navigation links– In footnotes– In ‘alt’ tags




3. Build Content around keyphrases on webpages

4.Optimise metadata for the keyphrases Title tag, description tag, keyword tag, H1 Tag (see lloyd and Asg)






Meta Tags – The Title tag

http://www.asgservices.co.uk/


Meta Tags – The Title tag


Different Pages Optimised for Different Keyphrases


Eye Tracking Study 2/3 of the time users initially

looked at a listing for 7/100 of a second

Predominately looked at titles Across all Yahoo! searches,

participants focused on the titles first and foremost, with fewer reading the fine print of the listing

IMPORTANCE OF TITLES

Source: Marketing Sherpa Study, August 2005


Meta Tags Keyword and Description tags


Optimising your Metadata- Important that the tags show a theme between each other and the visible content

Title tag– No more than 10 words, no &s – Main keyphrase at the beginning of the tag

Keyword tag– No more than 4 words– All lower case– Separated by a comma then a space

Eg web marketing, ecommerce training, internet consultancy…… Only include phrases WHICH ARE ON THE PAGE!

Description tag– No more than 25 words– Should contain keywords – up to 3 repetitions– ‘salesy’ to encourage click throughs


Major Ranking Factors

On Page Factors (‘Entry Ticket’)– Metadata – title, keyword, description, H1– Visible (readable) html content– Internal links

Off Page Factors (‘Competitive Differentiators’)– Inbound link infrastructure– Directories, blogs, pr sites, etc, etc..– Domain trust – age, age of links

Behavioural (less important generally , BUT will become more important)– Number of visits, length of stay











Use www.linkpopularity.com to check your linksInbound Links

http://www.linkpopularity.com/


Where do links come from?

Directories– General– Industry specific– Some free some paid for

Strategic Partnership links Reciprocal links In newsgroups and other forums Portals

– Geographic– ecommerce

In Blogs Banners Affiliates

500 directories from [email protected]











Google Analytics – free and comprehensive


Website Localisation and SEO


Websites and Localisation – Why bother with translation?


An example www.noisekiller.co.uk

European focus with Italian distributor

Part of website translated into Italian

Used Italian web designer to produce Italian pages


Mistranslation Examples

“Please dial 7 to retrieve your auto from the garbage”

Mistranslation: Hotel Rome



“Why go somewhere else to be cheated when you can come here”

Mistranslation: Indian shop window



“Please hang yourself here”

Mistranslation: Hotel cloakroom, Berlin



“Nothing sucks like an Electrolux”

Mistranslation: Ad targeting the US



“You are welcome to visit the cemetery where famous Russian and Soviet composers, artists and writers are buried daily except Thursdays”

Mistranslation: Moscow hotel lobby


www.manacad.com – foreign language ‘landing pages’ add metatags


Different languages on the same domainwww.pneumat-europe.com



Register with Google Webmaster Central (GWC)


International traffic Issues

Search engines will use the top level domain (TLD) to assess where you want traffic from (eg - .co.uk, .de, .it etc)

If you have a .com (or .net, .info etc) they will use your hosting location to determine this

Use Google Webmaster central to override this and tell Google where you want traffic from


How many use ‘pages from’?

Approx 15% in the UK – dependent on sector


Link Building Strategies Why is link building

important?

1. Links from other sites to ours generate traffic for us– Eg A reference from a

directory such as Yell.com will lead people directly to us

2. It is an important factor in our search engine rankings– The more links the more

important we are for search engines

– CHECK YOUR LINKS AT www.linkpopularity.com


Where do these links come from? Many places… but we need to develop them in a structured way

Directories– General– Industry specific– Some free some paid for– International

Strategic Partnership links Reciprocal links In newsgroups and other forums Portals

– Geographic– ecommerce

In Blogs Banners Affiliates


External links – anchor text


Europages – An Effective European Business Directory


Isedb.com


Use www.linkpopularity.com to check links


Yahoo Site Explorer


Page Rank

Running the cursor over this area will indicate the Page

Rank

In this case - 9


www.cloggs.co.uk Always in the top 3

in google for top 20 keyphrases

Optimised metadata and visible data

Built backlinks– Focused on the

‘structure’ of the link


Anchor Text Example

<a href="http://www.youreventsltd.com">Exclusive Wedding Planners </a>


Where do these links come from?Blogs


Where do these links come from?PR (‘Public Relations’) Sites

PR Directories

Examples– PRWeb– PR World– Google News


Essentials for new sites…. Your Content management system (CMS) has to produce search

engine compliant metadata – unique on every page

The CMS should generate SE friendly urls– Eg www.yoursite.co.uk/blue_widgets– NOT - http://www.yoursite.com/bvsn/bvcom/ep/home.do?

tabId=3&BV_SessionID=EngineID=cccd

You need the functionality to override this metadata to streamline the SEO moving forwards

The architecture has to be search engine optimised – eg most important pages close to homepage

Use Google Webmaster Central (GWC) to set up site maps, analytics, geographic area , etc and monitor spidering


New site or not? New domains take a while to get ranked by

Google (let’s say 6 months) If possible add new pages to existing sites

to get quicker rankings If necessary use existing domain to capture

phrases and redirect to new site– Eg Heskins.com to Heskins.fr and Heskins.it– Use .com to capture italian and french searches

and redirect to relevant site– Use GWC to tell Google that part of .com site

dedicated to french and italian traffic


Redesigning an existing website - Preserving Page Rank

The inner ‘Page Rank’ equity has to be preserved

5th item down is www.bodycote.com/?OB=1 – 20– This page has a Page Rank

value of 5

What will happen to this equity when a new page is set up?

Search Engine friendly redirection of each page is essential


Search Engine friendly Redirection -301’s

301 redirects tell google bot that one page should be permanently redirected to another page AND transfer the Page Rank equity

Use to transfer page rank from old page to a new one

Jan’s blog – how to do 301’s– http://janaklin.blogspot.com/2007/08/changing-your-

website-and-search-engine.html


Pay per Click Advertising – PPC-DEC09-Intnl


What is Web 2.0?

The latest phase in how the web is being used – the networking phase – Social interaction

Main features– ‘Openeness’ - Sharing of information

Eg Blogs, Faceboog, Myspace, forums– User generated content

Eg Flickr, YouTube, wikipedia, Dadooda.com– ‘Tagging’ and rating– Content ‘push’ rather than ‘pull’

Eg RSS feeds


Alexa.com – top sites worldwide


See the top visited sites around the world – 120 countries – top 100 sites


A typical web 2.0 scenario…

We find a relevant blog (eg through aTechnorati.com search)

– Read a relevant article

– Participate in feedback / discussion

– Subscribe to RSS feeds

– Use our favourite social bookmark tool


On Seth’s Blog www.adthis.com is used so people can use their favorite social bookmarking tool

An alternative would be to present the major tools at the end of the article

A typical web 2.0 scenario…


Use ‘AddThis’ to allow people to bookmark your pages


www.del.icio.us.com Use social bookmarking

With Del.icio.us you can bookmark, tag, share your favorite websites

See who has bookmarked your site

See other sites bookmarked by people who’ve bookmarked your site


Using social bookmarking sites for traffic and ‘link juice’

20 million visitors per month visit the top 10 of these sites

Many – over half – will pass on Google ‘link juice’

See Blogging, SEO, links and social bookmarking at Jan’s blog– http://janaklin.blogspot.com/2008/08/blogging-

seo-links-and-social.html


Winetravelguides.com – website, blog, facebook, twitter…


www.winetravelguides.com

Active on LinkedIn

Early adopter of Twitter

Blogs extensively

Facebook, Myspace exposure


Twitter Success Following Twitter for 6 months, active over past 3

months

Grown to be 2nd best source of referrals (Google first)

One major win – large online travel site followed Wink then made contact, conference call later deal was done – (affiliate related business)

Demanding a large amount of man time (1 day per week) – to engage properly


Facebook Success

Facebook page live for 2 months

100 ‘friends’ already acquired

Started advertising ($5 /day ) directly

Early days but several sales made already

25% of referrals from FaceBook and Twitter


Your Facebook entry in Search Results

Dear friend, I am 100% serious about my business, but that is not to mean I am 100% serious about myself. That is why sometimes I wear my smoking jacket with the inside on the outside!

It is also why I have put together comic tape of bloopers from my TV advertisements for your amusement. If you have a buddy who would like an amusement, why not send this on to them? To watch bloops, visit comparethemeerkat.com/my-movies To compare cheap car insurance visit comparethemarket.com Simples! All my best,Aleksandr

P.S. I have over 300,000 friends on Facebook and over 9,000 followers on Twitter, who send me nice messages. If you are meerkat afficionado I would love hear from you.


Web 2.0 and Online Marketing Generally

– participating in blogs (yours and others), RSS, social bookmarking leads to higher on line visibility

Specifically for SEO– greater automatic backlinking– In blogs, in RSS feeds, on social networks – SEO and blogging advantages


For online success….4 Golden Rules…

1. Use pay per click intelligently – for a reasonable return on investment (ROI)

2. Implement SEO ( and include Google base for ecommerce sites) for a quantum leap in ROI


Three times the clicks on left hand side compared to right hand side





3. Ensure the ‘landing pages’ have effective ‘calls to action’


Effective landing page


A sales focused website






4. Use permissions based email – for another ROI jump


Building your Opt-in List Make sure the subscription process isn’t

too long/complex – keep it simple

Spell out the features/benefits of opting in – eg newsletter, even better RSS!

Include registration around the site, not just on one page

Keep the contact regular so they remember you

Ensure that recipients can unsubscribe at any time




2. Implement SEO ( and include Google Base where relevant) for a quantum leap in ROI


4.Use permissions based email – for another ROI jump


For a copy of the slides….

Just email – [email protected]

01928 788100 07946 513521

Technology

Seo Mar09 Intnl