1. Languages and Countries:
Growing Internationally the Right Way
KATE MORRIS

2. @katemorris

3. @katemorris
$$$$$$

4. It Doesn’t Happen Overnight

5. @katemorris
Download the International
Search Strategy Guide
http://dis.tl/14GdPoh

6. Getting to Know the Players

7. Global Search Engine
Operations

8. Google Operates by Country
This is
Google
Estonia
google.ee

9. Not by Language
Not
Google
Estonian

10. They offer Google Estonia in popular languages of that country.

11. @katemorris
Google Keyword Tool
Keyword: [mobile security] Language: All Language: English Language: French
Country: All 9,900 9,900 9,900
Country: United States 2,900 2,900 2,900
Country: France 720 720 720
Country: Canada 210 210 210

12. No mention of language

13. All Bing.com

14. But they are country focused.

15. @katemorris
You should use the Geo-Targeting feature for sites or sections of a site that have
been created for an audience in a specific country. You generally don’t need to
geo-target sites (or site sections) that are aimed at a global audience or that apply
to multiple countries.
Vincent Wehren
Senior Program Manager
April 29, 2013
http://www.bing.com/blogs/site_blogs/b/webmaster/archive/2013/04/26/geo-targeting-and-
language.aspx

16. Searcher Process

17. @katemorris
A searcher queries “Иннаиркова”
are they:
A. A person living in Russia.
B. A person living in Belarus.
C. A person living in the Ukraine.
D. A person living in Kyrgyzstan.
E. Someone who speaks
Russian, we don’t know
where they are at this point.

18. @katemorris
A searcher queries “Иннаиркова”
are they:
A. A person living in Russia.
B. A person living in Belarus.
C. A person living in the Ukraine.
D. A person living in Kyrgyzstan.
E. Someone who speaks
Russian, we don’t know
where they are at this point.

19. @katemorris
# Countries per Official Language
Language World Countries
English 59 India, United States, Pakistan, United Kingdom, Canada …
French 29 France, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Canada, Madagascar
Arabic 26 Egypt, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Morocco
Spanish 21 Spain, Mexico, Colombia, Argentina
Portuguese 10 Brazil, Portugal, Mozambique, Angola
Russian 8 Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Abkhazia*, South Ossetia*, Transnistria*
German 6 Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg
Italian
4
Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City
Malay Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Brunei
Swahili Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Democratic Republic of the Congo

20. South African Official Languages:
Afrikaans, English, Southern Ndebele, Northern Sotho, Southern
Sotho, Swazi, Tsonga, Tswana, Venda, Xhosa, Zulu

21. India has 23 Official Languages

22. Searchers Don’t Always Click on
Home Country ccTLDs

23. @katemorris
SERP Turkey + Mechanical Turk

24. @katemorris
FTP Client
Var 1 Var 2 Var 3 Var 4 Var 5 Var 6 Total
filezilla-project.org/ 0 3 0 2 0 1 6
www.smartftp.com/ 1 1 1 2 1 0 6
www.ftpclient.co.uk/ 2 1 2 2 2 0 9
lifehacker.co.uk/5039956/five-best-ftp-clients 1 0 3 0 0 1 5
Total 4 5 6 6 3 2 26

25. @katemorris
Things to do in Las Vegas
Var 1 Var 2 Var 3 Total
www.vegas.com/attractions/
3 2 7 12
www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attractions-g45963-Activities-
Las_Vegas_Nevada.html 3 5 4 12
www.timeout.com/las-vegas/features/78/20-great-
things-to-do-in-las-vegas 2 3 2 7
Total 8 10 13 31

26. @katemorris
Skipping Rope
Var 1 Var 2 Var 3 Var 4 Var 5 Var 6 Total
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skipping_rope 2 6 4 1 2 5 20
www.amazon.co.uk/Bestselling-Jump-
Ropes/lm/R1C8R7UHACBDH6 1 0 1 0 0 0 2
www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=3407981 0 0 1 1 0 0 2
Total 3 6 6 2 2 5 24

27. @katemorris
Test for Yourself

28. Picking a Strategy

29. @katemorris
There are Three Options

30. Translate OnlyGeo-Target Only
Translate & Geo-Target

31. @katemorris
Does your business change in different
countries?
Yes
No
Are you targeting countries that have
different languages than your native
language?
Would it make sense to an
international visitor to see different site
content?
Are there multiple
official languages for
any of these countries?
Do you plan on offering
the site content in all
official languages?
Do you have the resources to
differentiate the content?
Geo-Target Only
Translate/HREFLANG
Only
Geo-Target
and HREFLANG
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
No
No
No

32. Geo-target Only

33. @katemorris
This solution is best for businesses that:
• Change their product or services based on the customer
country
• Willing to change some content to target a new country
based (US vs. UK language usage)
• Don’t have the need or resources to offer multiple
translations of the geo-targeted content.

34. @katemorris
Example Site

35. @katemorris
Does your business change in different
countries?
Yes
Are you targeting countries that have
different languages than your native
language?
Are there multiple
official languages for
any of these countries?
Do you plan on offering
the site content in all
official languages?
Geo-Target Only
Yes
No
Yes

36. How Do I Geo-Target?

37. Make sure the content and marketing
are different and targeted.

38. @katemorris
It took this site almost 2 years to rank with a ccTLD
India Site
Main Site

39. What about URL Structure?
Subdomain
Directory
ccTLD
Parameters

40. Link Building is a
little harder for
these two options

42. Set Up Google Webmaster Tools
Country Targeting

43. Set Up Bing Webmaster Tools
Country Targeting

44. Don’t Use HREFLANG

45. What about product pages???

46. @katemorris
Don’t use IP detection for
country targeting.

47. But do verify …

48. Outreach is best from someone
native to the country.

49. Translate Only

50. @katemorris
This solution is best for businesses that:
• Don’t change their business offering in
different countries (not e-commerce).
• Want to get international traffic without
having to change the content based on the
user’s country.
• Don’t have the resources to build out
country targeted content.

51. @katemorris
Example Site

52. @katemorris
Does your business change in different
countries?
No Would it make sense to an
international visitor to see different site
content?
Translate/HREFLANG
Only
No

53. Tips for Dealing with
Translation Only

54. Don’t Machine Translate

55. Manual Translation is Costly
but Best

56. Put HREFLANG in XML Sitemaps

57. Bing uses the Language Meta tag
<meta http-equiv="content-language" content=“ISOCODE">
http://www.bing.com/blogs/site_blogs/b/webmaster/archive/2011/03/01/how-to-tell-bing-your-website-s-country-and-language.aspx#pi4774=2

58. What about URL Structure?
Subdomain
Directory
ccTLD
Parameters

59. @katemorris
Don’t use ccTLDs,
otherwise it’s up to you.

60. Geo-target and Translate

61. @katemorris
This solution is best for businesses that:
• Change their product or services based on the customer
country
• Willing to change some content to target a new country
based (US vs. UK language usage)
• Have a need or desire to offer language translations of
their geo-targeted content.

62. @katemorris
Example Site: UK

63. @katemorris
Example Site: Canada

64. @katemorris
Does your business change in different
countries?
Yes
Are you targeting countries that have
different languages than your native
language?
Are there multiple
official languages for
any of these countries?
Do you plan on offering
the site content in all
official languages?
Geo-Target
and HREFLANG
Yes
Yes
Yes

65. How do I Translate and
Geo-Target?

66. @katemorris
Use HREFLANG inside the country
targeted content.
United States
Focused Content
(English)
domain.com/en-us
Spain
Focused Content
(Castilian Spanish)
domain.com/es-es
United States
Focused Content
(American Spanish)
domain.com/es-us
Canada
Focused Content
(English)
domain.com/en-ca
France
Focused Content
(French)
domain.com/fr-fr
Canada
Focused Content
(French)
domain.com/fr-ca
HREFLANG HREFLANG
NO
HREFLANG
NO
HREFLANG
NO
HREFLANG

67. @katemorris
Content is Country Focused
United States
Focused Content
(English)
domain.com/en-us
Spain
Focused Content
(Castilian Spanish)
domain.com/es-es
United States
Focused Content
(American Spanish)
domain.com/es-us
Canada
Focused Content
(English)
domain.com/en-ca
France
Focused Content
(French)
domain.com/fr-fr
Canada
Focused Content
(French)
domain.com/fr-ca
Same but translatedSame but translated

68. @katemorris
The translated content should not be the same across countries.
United States
Focused Content
(English)
domain.com/en-us
Spain
Focused Content
(Castilian Spanish)
domain.com/es-es
United States
Focused Content
(American Spanish)
domain.com/es-us
Canada
Focused Content
(English)
domain.com/en-ca
France
Focused Content
(French)
domain.com/fr-fr
Canada
Focused Content
(French)
domain.com/fr-ca

69. Some content will be similar
but not the same.

70. Oh and all that stuff I mentioned
before …

71. Set Up Google Webmaster Tools
Country Targeting

72. Set Up Bing Webmaster Tools
Country Targeting

73. Put HREFLANG in XML Sitemaps

74. Bing uses the Language Meta tag
<meta http-equiv="content-language" content=“ISOCODE">
http://www.bing.com/blogs/site_blogs/b/webmaster/archive/2011/03/01/how-to-tell-bing-your-website-s-country-and-language.aspx#pi4774=2

75. @katemorris
Don’t use IP detection for
country targeting.

76. But do verify …

77. Don’t Machine Translate

78. Manual Translation is Costly
but Best

79. @katemorris
Translate Only Geo-Target Only
Geo-Target and
Translate
Does your business
change in different
countries? No Yes Yes
Would it make sense
to an international
visitor to see different
site content?
No Yes Yes
Do you have the
resources to
differentiate the
content?
No Yes Yes
Are you targeting
countries that have
different languages
than your native
language?
N/A Yes Yes
Are there multiple
official languages for
any of these
countries?
N/A Yes Yes
Do you plan on
offering the site
content in all official
languages?
N/A No Yes

80. Above All:
Optimize for the User

81. @katemorris
Do what works for
them, not you or search
engines.

82. @katemorris
Download the International
Search Strategy Guide
http://dis.tl/14GdPoh

83. Thanks.
Any questions?
KATE MORRIS
kate.morris@distilled.net
@katemorris