Presentation by Navneet Kaushal at SEMPO Chennai on 15th December 2011 on Global SEO Strategies and how to decide going about launching your sites/brands globally.

1. Global
SEO
Strategies
A Presentation by Navneet Kaushal, CEO, PageTraffic

2. WHO AM I?
Navneet Kaushal
Founder & CEO of PageTraffic
11 Years of SEO experience
Editor www.pagetrafficbuzz.com
Expert author on WebProNews, Search Newz, Website Notes, DevWebPronews, PromotionWorld.
Regularly quoted on ET Now, Seattle Times, Hindustan Times, Livemint, BenefitIT, AlooTechie.
About PageTraffic
Established in 2002
95 people strong, with offices in New Delhi, Mumbai, Chicago & London
Offers SEO, PPC, Link Building, Web Design & Development services
More than 300 clients worldwide
Ranking among the top SEO Companies of India
Winner of Red Herring Top 100 Asia Award 2011
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3. Some Of The Clients We Have Worked With
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4. LEADERSHIP AND AFFILIATIONS
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5. WHY DO WE NEED GLOBAL SEO?
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6. Language Matters
Less than 30% of global search engine
queries are in English
Source: Oban Multilingual
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7. Language Growth Patterns
Source: Internet World Stats
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8. SEARCH ENGINE USAGE – BEYOND GOOGLE
• Google (Global) 62.4%
• Yandex (Russia) – 65%
• Baidu (China) – 83.6%
• Naver (Korea) – 68%
• Yahoo! Japan – 47%
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9. TOP SEARCH ENGINES ACROSS THE GLOBE
United States – Google
China – Baidu
Japan – Yahoo (Google / MSN)
UK – Google
France – Google
Germany – Google
Canada – Google
Korea – Naver
Brazil _ Google
Turkey – Google
Italy – Google
Switzerland – Google
Singapore – Google
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10. CHALLENGES OF GLOBAL SEO
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11. CHALLENGES OVERVIEW
• Multi-regional vs multilingual websites
• Site Architecture for global sites
• Subdomains Vs. Subdirectories
• Geo-targeting
• Country Code Top Level Domain Name
• Multilingual Content
• Google Place Listing
• Links
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12. MULTI-REGIONAL VS. MULTILINGUAL WEBSITES
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13. MULTI-REGIONAL VS MULTILINGUAL WEBSITES
Multi-regional sites
Target users in different Multilingual sites
countries who all speak the
same language. Target users in different countries
who speak different languages to
the users in other targeted
countries.
Multi-regional and multilingual sites
Target users in different countries who
speak the same language as users in
some, but not all, other targeted
countries.
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14. MULTI-REGIONAL VS MULTILINGUAL WEBSITES
CULTURAL ASPECTS
language
Internet’s Top Languages
English: 431 million users
non-English: 857 million users
500
431
450
400
350
300 276
250
200
150 125
94
100 68 61 60 58 45 35 35
50
0
English
French
Japanese
German
Arabic
Russian
Spanish
Korean
Italian
Portuguese
Chinese
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15. MULTI-REGIONAL VS MULTILINGUAL WEBSITES
How regional context influence your strategy?
In Mediterranean countries Internet use is driven more by
social factors than anything else, where Nordic countries rely
on the Internet for more pragmatic, functional purposes.
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16. MULTI-REGIONAL VS MULTILINGUAL WEBSITES
How local habits may influence your strategy.
Online shoppers prefer to fill their online carts:
Spanish between 12 and 1pm
Germans and Italians between 2 and 4pm
Danish shop from 5 to 6pm
French shopping activities from 6 to 10pm
British shopping hours around 8pm
Swedes follow around 9pm
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17. SITE ARCHITECTURE FOR GLOBAL SITES
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18. SITE ARCHITECTURE FOR GLOBAL SITES
Which site architecture is right for your
international content?
• Sub Folders (ex. WWW. YOURSITE.COM/IN)
• Sub domains (ex. IN.YOURSITE.COM)
• Separate domains/sites (ex. WWW.YOURSITE.IN)
Each of these architecture has its pros/cons
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19. SUB FOLDERS/DIRECTORIES
www.yoursite.com/in
www.yoursite.com/en
www.yoursite.com/fr
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20. SUB FOLDERS/DIRECTORIES
DIRECTORIES BY COUNTRIES
YOURSITE.COM US
YOURSITE.COM/IN/ INDIA
YOURSITE.COM/FR/ FRANCE
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21. SUB FOLDERS/DIRECTORIES
DIRECTORIES BY LANGUAGE
YOURSITE.COM/EN/ ENGLISH
YOURSITE.COM/ES/ SPANISH
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22. SUB FOLDERS/DIRECTORIES
PROS
Domain strength is passed to sub-folders
A single site will normally be stronger than many
CONS
Problems with wrong content ranking e.g.
yourdomain.com ranking in INDIA rather than
yourdomain.com/IN
Potentially confusing for users looking for a ccTLD (ex.
.in) version of the site.
Can’t have different country sites hosted from different
country specific servers with proper IP addresses.
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23. SUB DOMAINS (ex. IN.YOURSITE.COM)
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24. SUB DOMAINS (ex. IN.YOURSITE.COM)
SUB-DOMAINS
in.yoursite.com
en.yoursite.com
fr.yoursite.com
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25. SUB DOMAINS (ex. IN.YOURSITE.COM)
PROS
Easy to see this is a country specific version of the site.
No registration issues.
Each subdomain can be hosted on a server with a
corresponding country IP address.
Maintains some of the metrics (domain trust, domain
popularity) of the root domain.
CONS
Problems with content ranking e.g. yourdomain.com
ranking in INDIA rather than in.yourdomain.com.
Higher risk of mislinking. Many linkers will link to the
"www" of the site out of habit.
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26. COUNTRY CODE TOP LEVEL DOMAINS
(CCTLD)
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27. CCTLD (Eg. www.yourdomain.in)
www.yoursite.com gTLD
www.yoursite.in
ccTLD
www.yoursite.fr
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28. CCTLD (Eg. www.yourdomain.in)
PROS
Very obvious and intuitive to the user.
Strongest geo-targeting signal used by Google.
Good chance of getting correct links.
Provides the ability for each domain to be hosted on a
country specific IP address.
CONS
New site with no strength, so it may not rank at all.
You’ll need to put in some serious link building effort.
Can be difficult to purchase some ccTLDs.
Has the potential to cause issues with duplicate content if
geo-targeting methods are not used effectively across all
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29. CONTINENTAL TOP LEVEL DOMAINS
.eu .asia
Useless from SEO perspective
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30. MULTI-LINGUAL CONTENT
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31. PERILS OF TRANSLATION
“FINGER LICKIN’
GOOD”
Chinese Translation
“EAT YOUR FINGERS OFF”
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32. PERILS OF TRANSLATION
GERBER
French Translation
VOMITING
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33. KEYWORDS – REGIONAL VARIATIONS
Fútbol vs. Futbol
Fussball vs. Fußball
Localization vs. Localisation
Soccer vs. Football
Average web search
according to Google Insights
DE football 8 fussball 27
ES football 5 futbol 61
IT football 5 calcio 68
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34. MULTI-LINGUAL CONTENT
Important Points:
• Google does not include automatically translated pages in their index.
• Automatic translations can lead to loss in meaning.
• Link to the same content in other languages on your sites.
• Use UTF-8 coding (Unicode) when non-English characters, e.g. é or ü, are
needed in an URL which you are linking to on your pages.
• Do not automatically serve pages in different languages based on a user’s
location.
• Only use one language on each page of your site.
• Make sure that Meta Tags are localized based on the keyword research
carried out by a native speaker of the chosen language.
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35. GOOGLE TOOLS FOR GLOBAL SEO
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36. KEYWORD RESEARCH TOOLS
Use Google Keyword
Tools to create initial
list of related search
terms and search
volume
Select location and
language
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37. KEYWORD ORGANIZATION
• Organize your • Brand name
keywords by:
– Languages • Product name
– Locations • Model numbers, etc.
– Target audiences
– Purchase cycle
– Importance
– Legal requirements
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38. GOOGLE INSIGHTS TOOL
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39. GOOGLE INSIGHTS TOOL
Available in 39 languages around the world!
• Assess demand for your product/service.
• Check the seasonal variation in the demand.
• Understand your competition’s offers and branding
• See how search volume is distributed across regions
and cities.
• See search patterns in other Google properties.
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40. GOOGLE GLOBAL MARKET FINDER
COMBINES THE POWER OF 3
Google Translate
Google Traffic Estimator
Google Keyword Suggestion tool
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41. GOOGLE GLOBAL MARKET FINDER
translate.google.com/globalmarketfinder/
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42. GOOGLE GLOBAL MARKETING FINDER – HOW IT WORKS
Select home country (not the country you wish to target)
Select the primary language of your country
Enter up to 3 keyword phrases in “product keywords” box
Select your export region; currently you can’t select a
country but a region.
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44. GEO-TARGETTING WITH WEBMASTER TOOLS
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45. GEO-TARGETTING WITH WEBMASTER TOOLS
Add xml sitemaps by subdirectory/country
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46. GOOGLE PLACES LISTING
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47. GOOGLE PLACES LISTING
IMPORTANT POINTS
• Google Places pages are viewed by millions of people daily
• 20% of all search is local oriented
• Offers the best opportunity to combine social and search
• Currently, only 6% of consumers are leaving content out there
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48. GOOGLE PLACES LISTING - TIPS
• Use your business name and phone number for listing.
• No taglines or lengthy categories.
• Ask your users for a review.
• Give users ways to connect with you, the +1 button, for example.
• Convert local users into mobile users.
• Ensure that local business addresses are listed.
• Ensure local phone numbers are included too.
• Ensure links to the appropriate regional websites are present and
correct.
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49. DOMAIN AND HOSTING- SIMPLE ANSWERS
• Use ccTLD’s - where possible and practical
• Host in the local country – where possible and practical
• Be careful with proxy serving sites to fool the engines
• Ensure “ALL” variations of your site URL’s are set in GWT

50. THINK LOCAL
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51. THINK LOCAL
• Get links from sites with the same TLD
(for example - www.otherdomain.in)
• Use local street address and local telephone numbers.
• Prices in local currency.
• Localized information in your meta description and
meta keywords helps in Bing.
• Use appropriate country and language Meta Tags.
• Claim or create your listing in Google Places.
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52. RECAP - GLOBAL SEO PROCESS
Define Define IA – ccTLD and
languages countries / or sub-
folders/sub
domains
Use local
Create
currency /
language &
phone
country
numbers etc
specific
content, build
local links

53. THANK YOU!
Website: www.pagetraffic.in
Email: nkaushal@pagetraffic.in
Twitter: @navneetkaushal
Blog: www.pagetrafficbuzz.com
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