3. Internet marketing
• SEO – Search Engine Optimisation
• PPC – Pay Per Click Advertising
• CRO – Conversion Rate Optimisation
• Social Media
• Blogging
• Videos
• Website ……
4. SEO – Typical definition
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of affecting the visibility of a website or a web page in a search
engine's "natural" or un-paid ("organic") search results.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_engine_optimization
It is the process of getting traffic from the “free,” “organic,” “editorial” or “natural” listings on search engines.
http://searchengineland.com/guide/what-is-seo
5. SEO – Modified definition
It all starts with Strategy…
SEO is a set of processes that can be used to optimise the natural ranking of a
website or web page in order to achieve a defined Search / Marketing Strategy
The strategy can include:
• Targeting a particular market
• Optimisation for a chosen country or countries
• Focussing on a region
• Emphasising particular products
• Etc…
The real power of SEO can only be realised when it is linked to the
web strategy
6. Key - SEO is a process or a set of processes used to achieve a goal
Website and competition audit
Identify opportunities
Analyse (Google Analytics)
Website reach
Website conversion
Develop plan
Document baseline
Implement changes
Analyse (Google Analytics)
7. How Do Search Engines Work?
Spider “crawls” the web to find new documents (web pages, other documents) typically by following hyperlinks from
websites already in their database
Search engines indexes the content (text, code) in these documents by adding it to their databases and then periodically
updates this content
Search engines search their own databases when a user enters in a search to find related documents (not searching web
pages in real-time)
Search engines rank the resulting documents using an algorithm (mathematical formula) by assigning various weights and
ranking factors
Spiders read text and nothing else
12. The Golden Triangle
When it comes to getting your website found and then converting your traffic
into leads and sales, you should take The Golden Triangle very seriously.
14. Hummingbird, Knowledge Graph and Carousel
Yet another game changer…
This layout drags your eye to the top of the page.
Knowledge Graph
Google Carousel
22. One thing in common for all search engines
• Ranking algorithm – its just a complex formula….
= 2a+0.7b+12c+9d+2(a-b+d)-1.5e+2f …………..
• Google has more than 250 items in its algorithm
• The algorithms are different for different Search
Engines
• The algorithms are kept secret – there are some good
clues though
• The algorithms keep changing
1 Search terms in the HTML title tag
2 Search terms in the HTML body copy
3 Search terms in bold typeface
4 Search terms in header tags
5 Search term in anchor text in links to a page
6 PageRank of a page (the actual PageRank, not the toolbar PageRank)
7 The PageRank of the entire domain
8 Quality of link partners
9 Type of backlinks that bring anchor text juice for search terms
10 The speed of the web site
11. Search terms in the URL - main URL and page URLs
12. Search term density through body copy (About 3 - 5%?)
13. Fresh content
14. Good internal linking structure
15. Age of the domain
16. Links from good directories
17. Image names
18. Image ALTs
19. Reputable hosting company
20. Diversity of link partners too
21. Geo located search results
22. Rate of new inbound links to your site
23. Relevance of inbound links
24. 301s, 404s, 414s etc
25. Duplicate title/meta tags
26. Participation in link schemes
27. Quantity of backlinks
28. Quantity of linking root domains
29. Quality of linking root domains
30. Link distance from higher authority sites
31. Outgoing followed links from back linked pages
24. Strategy
Target audience, Regions, Language, Culture…
what
why
whowhere
when
As with any strategy, the process starts with questions about what you want to achieve
25. Good SEO Framework – Search Pyramid
Social
Link Building
Keyword Research &
Targeting
Accessible Quality Content
You have to get
these right first
Before you get
these right
28. Main aspects of Internationalisation
• Multilingual sites
• URL structure
• Language selection
• Auto-translation
• Character encoding
• Meta tags, “rel-alternate-hreflang” links
• Geo-targeting
• URL structure (ccTLD)
• Server location
• Webmaster tools
• Meta tags
• Use “rel-canonical” and “rel-alternate-hreflang”
29. Trading internationally
• Common situations:
• one country, several languages
• one language, several countries
Google detects the language on a per-URL basis. Each language version must be on a separate URL
that Googlebot (the spider) is able to crawl for all versions.
30. Can we control Language and Geo-targeting?
• Ways to control Language and Geo-target
• Domain and URL structure
• Webmaster tools
• Physical server locations
• Web page content
• Meta tags
• Visitor location
31. Domain and URL Options for Trading Internationally
• Domains by Country (ccTLD)
• creatorseo.co.uk
• creatorseo.fr
• creatorseo.de
• Sub-domains or Domain name alias
• us.creatorseo.com
• fr.creatorseo.com
• de.creatorseo.com
• Sub-directories by country/language
• creatorseo.com/us/
• creatorseo.com/fr/
• creatorseo.com/de/
• One language, several countries
• creatorseo.com/es/
• mycompany.com/es-pu/ (Peru)
• mycompany.com/es-mx/ (Mexico)
Each domain is a unique entity
• Management overhead
• Separate CMS for each domain
Very well targeted
Good for ranking in each country
A single CMS can be used
• Cheaper and easier to implement
• Less technical resource needed
Directories contribute to the relevancy of
the parent domain
User experience should be evaluated
Automated redirection can be difficult
32. Translation – Automatic Translations!?
• Google offers automatic translations
• Sometimes this can conflict with your own translation but can be turned off
• These translations are not always accurate
• If you use automated translation
• They must be blocked from indexing – failure from doing this can lead to the site being
penalised (for auto-generated content – violates Webmaster Guidelines)
There is no SEO benefit from automated translations and there are potential pitfalls if not
implemented correctly
34. Don’t forget to include the necessary language signals
• Meta language tag
• <meta http-equiv="content-language" content="en-gb">
• <meta http-equiv="content-language" content="en-ie">
• HTML language / country definition
• <html lang="en-gb">
• Link element to different language-locales pages
• <link rel="alternate" href="http://example.com/en-ie" hreflang="en-ie" />
• <link rel="alternate" href="http://example.com/en-ca" hreflang="en-ca" />
• <link rel="alternate" href="http://example.com/en-au" hreflang="en-au" />
• <link rel="alternate" href="http://example.com/en" hreflang="en" />
• Block automated translations in robots.txt
35. Geo-Targetting
• Domain
• Generic top level domains (gTLD) like .com, .net, .org etc.
• Use Google Webmaster tools and sub-directories to target a specific geographic location
• Otherwise signals like IP address, page information etc. are used by Google
• Country coded top level domains (ccTLD) like .ie, .co.uk, .us etc.
• Already associated with a geographic location – can’t change this
• Server
• Server Location where the website is hosted
• On Page information
• Address
• Links to the page
• Google Places
37. Competition
• Once you are considering different regions, you need to
• Identify your competition in each region
• Understand why they may be ranking higher than you
Once you have a defined strategy and goals…
SEO is about beating your competition in the targeted locations
38. The web is an open system
www.creatorseo.com
• Site map
• Errors
• Ease of access for
search engines
Site SEO
Design/navigation
• Choose the right terms
• Which terms per
landing page?
• Consistency
Landing page and
keywords • Relevancy
• Quality over quantity
• SEO and conversions
Links to your site
You can find a lot of information by studying your competition in order to beat them
40. PPC versus “Organic” SEO
Pay-Per-Click “Organic” SEO
Ranking based on Spend
Results in 1-2 days
Not much skill needed
Easy to target “local” markets
More costly per conversion
Easier to compete (if you have the
money)
Ranking lost when you stop paying
Ranking based on Merit
Results can take weeks to months
High degree of skill needed
Complex to target local markets
Overall cheaper conversion cost
Difficult to compete in a
competitive market
Ranking persists (asset)
41. Which one?
• You shouldn't be limited to SEO or PPC.
• Integration is the best approach. Each has different strengths and weaknesses.
43. Audience
• Know your audience
• Cultural
• In Mediterranean counties
- Internet use is driven more by social factors rather than anything else,
• where Nordic countries rely on the internet for more pragmatic, functional purposes.
• Language
44. Strategy needs to consider Technology
Desktop
Mobile
Browser
Operating System
47. Localise content
• Use local addresses and contact information
• Add local case studies/ testimonials
• Include names and images
• Customise content for each country or market
• More relevant, increases local link building opportunities, and decreases duplicate content
• Currency
• Use the local currency
48. Basic requirements
A web site is a bit like an advert!
• Clear purpose
• Easy to use / intuitive
• High impact
- you have only 4-6 seconds to impress!
• Optimised for visitors
• Understand the target audience
• Easily found by the target audience
• Content must be dynamic and interesting
49. Design and usability
• Different countries prefer different design aesthetics
• Recreating your website in a different language may not be enough
• Get feedback on your site from locals in your target country
51. Tools – Geo-location
• Register each site with
• Google Webmaster Tools
• Bing Webmaster Tools
• Google Places – Google My Business
• Bing Places – Bing Business Portal
54. Guidance
• Create useful page titles
• Use informative URLs
• Provide relevant page descriptions
• Add your business to Google Places
• Manage your site links (get rid of bad links)
55. Guidance
• Have a clear Value Proposition
• Make sure that there is a Call to Action
• Present relevant content
• Consider the user experience
56. Things to watch out for – SEO
• Prevent Spelling, stylistic, or factual errors
• Be cautious of duplicate content
• Don’t let adverts detract from the main content
• Don’t present articles that are too short or lacking in helpful specifics
• Make sure that the main content above the fold
57. Some Final Tips – Internationalisation
• Use a local mailing address
• Include the correct meta tags
• Send website visitors to the right domain
• Check the site Speed in each location
58. Recap – Internationalisation
• Country Top Level Domain's automatically associated to country
• Use Webmaster tools for subdirectory based websites
• Try to host the site in the country
• Use cross-domain canonical links
• Link cross-domain Analytics accounts
60. Major Google Updates
• Panda 4.0 — May 2014
• Hummingbird — August 2013
• Penguin 2 — May 2013
• Penguin — April 2012
• Panda 3 — November 2011
• Panda 2 — April 2011
• Panda/Farmer — February 2011
• Caffeine (Rollout) — June 2010
61. Major Google Updates
• Caffeine (Rollout) — June 2010
Google web index update – improved search speed and user experience
• Panda — February 2011
Crack-down on low quality sites and duplicate content. More focus on authority
and trustworthiness
• Penguin — April 2012
Tighter focus on implementation of Google Webmaster Guidelines and crack-
down on black-hat SEO (less bad-links)
• Hummingbird — August 2013 (Fast and precise)
Completely new algorithm release – focus on semantic search and includes
Google Knowledge Graph and geo-locating
• Panda 4.0 — May 2014
Even more focus on the quality of the content
Bottom line: In terms of search, Google is trying to improve the user experience and ensure that
searches lead to the most pertinent results from the best source
62. Panda 4.0 – It’s mainly about Quality
• Conclusion I. “Content Based Topical Authority
Sites” are given more SERP Visibility compared to
sites that only cover the topic briefly.(even if the
site covering the topic briefly has a lot of generic
authority). More articles written on the same
topic increase the chances for the site to be
treated as a “Topical Authority Content Site” on
that specific topic.
• Conclusion II. Sites with High User Interaction
measured by shares and comments got a boost.
• Conclusion III. Thin Content and Automatic
content is de-ranked, even if it is relevant.
• Conclusion IV. Sites with clear navigational
structure and unique content got boosted.
Matt Cutts