INTERNATIONAL SEO

Your guide to conquer the search world

#internationalseo at #smconnect by @aleyda

Ciao #SMConnect

#internationalstrategy#internationalseo
for #mnsummit byat@aleyda
#smconnect
from by @aleyda
@orainti
 I’M ALEYDA SOLIS

SEO SPEAKER

BLOGGER SHARER
@aleyda +aleydasolis

#internationalseo at #smconnect by @aleyda

I DO INTERNATIONAL SEO

ME TOO

#internationalseo at #smconnect by @aleyda

GOING INTERNATIONAL MIGHT BE KEY TO EXPAND
YOUR SEARCH GROWTH BUT CAN BE COMPLEX

#internationalseo at #smconnect by @aleyda

WHICH COUNTRY OR LANGUAGE SHOULD YOU TARGET 

& WITH WHICH CONFIGURATION?

#internationalseo at #smconnect by @aleyda

HOW DO YOU CONNECT WITH YOUR NEW AUDIENCE?

#internationalseo at #smconnect by @aleyda

HOW DO YOU COMPETE WITH HIGH AUTHORITY LOCALS
& ESTABLISHED MULTINATIONALS FROM SCRATCH?

This is your site

#internationalseo at #smconnect by @aleyda
HOW DO YOU CONFIGURE THEM ALL TO AVOID
MISALIGNMENT ISSUES?

#internationalseo at #smconnect by @aleyda

A PROCESS IS NEEDED TO AVOID THEM
1 2 3 4
MARKET CONFIGURATI
TARGETING PROMOTION &
POTENTIAL ON &
SELECTION CONNECTION
VALIDATION DEVELOPMENT

#internationalseo at #smconnect by @aleyda

THE GOAL IS TO MAKE YOUR INTERNATIONAL WEB
PRESENCE & SEO EFFORTS SUCCESSFUL

ROI > COSTS

#internationalseo at #smconnect by @aleyda

 START BY VALIDATING THE POTENTIAL TRAFFIC &
PROFITABILITY OF YOUR VIABLE INTERNATIONAL MARKETS

1 #internationalseo at #smconnect by @aleyda

 IDENTIFY YOUR CURRENT SITE BEST 

PERFORMING COUNTRIES AND LANGUAGES

which are the top countries & languages

from a traffic & conversions perspective?

#internationalseo at #smconnect by @aleyda

 HOW MUCH OF YOUR THE INTERNATIONAL TRAFFIC
COMES FROM ORGANIC SEARCH RESULTS ALREADY?

#internationalseo at #smconnect by @aleyda

AS WELL AS YOUR YOUR ORGANIC SEARCH VISIBILITY 

PER COUNTRY

#internationalseo at #smconnect by @aleyda

CHECK WHICH ARE THE TOP CURRENT INTERNATIONAL
MARKETS FOR YOUR COMPETITORS

USE
SIMILARWEB

#internationalseo at #smconnect by @aleyda

AND THE OVERALL TOP COUNTRY MARKETS 

FOR YOUR INDUSTRY

#internationalseo at #smconnect by @aleyda

 CHOOSE THOSE TOP INTERNATIONAL 

COUNTRY & LANGUAGE MARKETS TO ASSESS
CURRENT ORGANIC SEARCH VOLUME SEARCH TREND IN
COUNTRY COMPETITION LEVEL
SEARCH TRAFFIC OPPORTUNITY MARKET

Search
Organic Devices Keywords
Engines

Search
Traffic Seasonality
Volume & Competitors
Other 
 & Trend
Share Authority
Traffic 

Drivers

#internationalseo at #smconnect by @aleyda

IDENTIFY THE POTENTIAL ORGANIC SEARCH FOR EACH
COUNTRY

#internationalseo at #smconnect by @aleyda

YOUR MOBILE TRAFFIC, SEASONALITY & TREND

#internationalseo at #smconnect by @aleyda

… THE MORE SOURCES YOU USE TO VALIDATE, THE BEST!

USE SEMRUSH,
SISTRIX,
SEARCHMETRICS

#internationalseo at #smconnect by @aleyda

DO A KEYWORD & COMPETITION RESEARCH FOR THEM

Use
KeywordTool.io &
KWFinder along
Google’s tools to
validate volume &
trends

#internationalseo at #smconnect by @aleyda

IDENTIFY DIRECTLY IF THERE ARE BIG MISSED
OPPORTUNITIES

USE SISTRIX

#internationalseo at #smconnect by @aleyda

USE TRANSLATION SUPPORT TOOLS ALONG TRANSLATORS
& NATIVE SPECIALIZED SPEAKERS TO DO THE ANALYSIS

#internationalseo at #smconnect by @aleyda

VERIFY IF THERE’S ENOUGH ORGANIC SEARCH TRAFFIC TO
COMPENSATE PROFITABLE WEB OPERATIONS

Number of Cost of international Web project

Conversions for
 =
a break-even Average conversion value

Number of 
 No. of Conversions for Break-even

visits for a 
 = Average Conversion Rate
break-even

#internationalseo at #smconnect by @aleyda

USE THE INTERNATIONAL ROI CALCULATOR TO MAKE IT
EVEN EASIER

http://www.aleydasolis.com/en/
international-seo-tools/roi-calculator/

#internationalseo at #smconnect by @aleyda

IT’S TIME TO MAKE A DECISION REGARDING THE
INTERNATIONAL SEARCH MARKETS TO TARGET
Your International traffic potential > Visits & Conversions for a break-even

Yes No

Continue with the international Might be too early

Web & SEO project
Buy & secure Create Create a
your ccTLDs custom 
 pilot project
for future alerts prioritizing
activity in GA main pages

For most important countries

#internationalseo at #smconnect by @aleyda

NEVER RELY EXCLUSIVELY IN AUTOMATIZED TOOLS
TO DO THIS FOR YOU… YOU NEED TO VALIDATE!

#internationalseo at #smconnect by @aleyda

IF YOU FOLLOW THIS CRITERIA YOU WILL AVOID HAVING
“TOO MANY VERSIONS YOU CAN’T SUPPORT”

#internationalseo at #smconnect by @aleyda

ESTABLISH YOUR INTERNATIONAL TARGETING & 

OPTIMIZE YOUR ONLINE EXPERIENCE FOR IT

2 #internationalseo at #smconnect by @aleyda

SHOULD YOU TARGET COUNTRIES OR LANGUAGES 

WITH YOUR WEB PRESENCE?

Is location a factor that influence your Web operations?

Yes No

Is there enough traffic & conversions

to target each country?

Yes No
You can start with

Country Language
Targeting Targeting

#internationalseo at #smconnect by @aleyda

HERE’S A LANGUAGE VS. COUNTRY TARGETING EXAMPLE

VS

#internationalseo at #smconnect by @aleyda

 CHOOSE YOUR INTERNATIONAL WEB STRUCTURE
ACCORDING TO YOUR TARGETING & COMPETITORS

ccTLDs Sub-Domains

Sub-Directories

#internationalseo at #smconnect by @aleyda

WARNING! DON’T USE PARAMETERS TO ENABLE THEM

#internationalseo at #smconnect by @aleyda

 BEWARE OF USING COOKIES OR SCRIPTS SHOWING
DIFFERENT INTERNATIONAL VERSIONS IN THE SAME PAGE

In Spanish In English

#internationalseo at #smconnect by @aleyda

 BEWARE OF USING COOKIES OR SCRIPTS SHOWING
DIFFERENT INTERNATIONAL VERSIONS IN THE SAME PAGE

In Spanish In English

#internationalseo at #smconnect by @aleyda

 FOR COUNTRY TARGETING

ccTLDs
www.yourbrand.es

www.yourbrand.es/categoria-a/

Sub-directories
www.yourbrand.com/es-es/

www.yourbrand.com/es-es/categoria-a/

Sub-domains
es-es.yourbrand.com/

es-es.yourbrand.com/categoria-a/

#internationalseo at #smconnect by @aleyda

 FOR COUNTRY TARGETING

ccTLDs
* Ideal alternative to geolocate if competition is not too high
* Require more technical resources
* Require more efforts to grow popularity

Sub-directories
* Require less technical resources
* Require less efforts to grow popularity

* More chances to get all versions penalized if something goes bad
* More efforts to geolocate

Sub-domains
* Require more technical resources
* Require more efforts to grow popularity
* Better than sub-directories to organize larger & more complex sites

* More efforts to geolocate

#internationalseo at #smconnect by @aleyda

 VERIFY WHICH EXTENSIONS ARE TREATED AS GENERIC

https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/1347922?hl=en

#internationalseo at #smconnect by @aleyda

IF YOU’RE USING SUB-DIRECTORIES OR SUB-DOMAINS TO
COUNTRY TARGET, REGISTER & GEOLOCATE THEM

#internationalseo at #smconnect by @aleyda

 FOR LANGUAGE TARGETING

Sub-directories

www.yourbrand.com/es/

www.yourbrand.com/es/categoria-a/

Sub-domains
es.yourbrand.com/

es.yourbrand.com/categoria-a/

#internationalseo at #smconnect by @aleyda

 FOR LANGUAGE TARGETING

Sub-directories
* Require less technical resources
* Require less efforts to grow popularity

* Deeper url structure
* More chances to get all versions penalized if something goes bad

Sub-domains
* Require more technical resources
* Require more efforts to grow popularity
* shorter URL structure which can be better for larger sites

#internationalseo at #smconnect by @aleyda

FOR EXAMPLE

#internationalseo at #smconnect by @aleyda

 BESIDES WEB STRUCTURES PROS & CONS: 

WHICH STRUCTURES ARE USED BY TOP SITES IN MARKET?

#internationalseo at #smconnect by @aleyda

THE EXTENSIONS OF PAGES RANKING FOR THE MOST 

POPULAR TERMS IN YOUR INTERNATIONAL INDUSTRIES

In certain
countries
like China,
a ccTLD &
local IP will
be much
more
important

#internationalseo at #smconnect by @aleyda

AS WELL AS THEIR THEIR LEVEL OF AUTHORITY VS. YOURS

#internationalseo at #smconnect by @aleyda

USE THESE INTERNATIONAL EMULATORS, PROXYS & HTTP
STATUS TOOLS TO VERIFY YOUR INTERNATIONAL SERPS

#internationalseo at #smconnect by @aleyda

IF YOU HAVE ACCESS TO SITES TARGETING THESE MARKETS
ALREADY: HOW EXTENSIONS USAGE AFFECT CTR?

#internationalseo at #smconnect by @aleyda

SELECT THE WEB STRUCTURE THAT WILL ALLOW YOU TO
PERFORM BETTER, KNOWING THAT YOU CAN MIGRATE

High Authority Domains with a Mix of ccTLDs & gTLDs?

Start with a sub-directory in your current gTLD that

you can later migrate to ccTLD

#internationalseo at #smconnect by @aleyda

SELECT THE WEB STRUCTURE THAT WILL ALLOW YOU TO
PERFORM BETTER, KNOWING THAT YOU CAN MIGRATE

Using a gTLD for your Italian version & want to enable

an English one?

If you want to prioritize your English market in the

future, migrate it to the root & take Italian to sub-
directory or ccTLD

#internationalseo at #smconnect by @aleyda

CONFIGURE, DEVELOP & OPTIMIZE YOUR SITE
TARGETING

3 #internationalseo at #smconnect by @aleyda

ONCE YOU CHOOSE YOUR TARGETING IT’S A MUST 

TO BE CONSISTENT WITH EVERYTHING ON YOUR SITE

#internationalseo at #smconnect by @aleyda

LOCALIZE YOUR WEB CONTENT & OVERALL EXPERIENCE
WITH THE TARGETED KEYWORDS & PRODUCTS
1 Title & Meta Description

2 URLs

Phone, delivery info, currency 3

4 Menu & navigation elements

5 Headings

6 Images ALT description

Price 7

#internationalseo at #smconnect by @aleyda

EVEN IF THEY’RE IN THE SAME LANGUAGE

#internationalseo at #smconnect by @aleyda

ALSO FROM A DESIGN & BRANDING PERSPECTIVE

VS

#internationalseo at #smconnect by @aleyda

 AS WELL AS INDICATING YOUR INTERNATIONAL
TARGETING WITH THE META AND HTML LANG TAG

http://bit.ly/binglang

#internationalseo at #smconnect by @aleyda

 WITH HREFLANG ANNOTATIONS, SPECIFYING EACH
PAGE LANGUAGE & COUNTRY TARGET & ALTERNATIVES

http://bit.ly/googlehreflang

#internationalseo at #smconnect by @aleyda

THE BEST ALTERNATIVE IS TO INCLUDE IT IN THE HEAD AREA
OF THE HTML

#internationalseo at #smconnect by @aleyda

… IF YOU WANT TO AVOID THIS, THEN ONLY ADD
THOSE THAT ARE REALLY NECESSARY

#internationalseo at #smconnect by @aleyda

BE CAREFUL WITH USING INCORRECT VALUES

#internationalseo at #smconnect by @aleyda

INCLUDING NON-RELEVANT OR MISTAKEN URLS

#internationalseo at #smconnect by @aleyda

OR NOT ADDING THE RETURN TAGS

#internationalseo at #smconnect by @aleyda

USE THE HREFLANG GENERATOR BASED ON GOOGLE
SPECIFICATION TO AVOID HREFLANG ERRORS

http://www.aleydasolis.com/en/international-
seo-tools/hreflang-tags-generator/

#internationalseo at #smconnect by @aleyda

 YOU CAN ALSO INCLUDE HREFLANG IN SITEMAPS…
BUT DO IT ONLY WHEN YOU CAN’T IN THE HTML

MAKE SURE
TO
CONSOLIDAT
E XML
SITEMAPS TO
BETTER
MONITOR
THEM

http://bit.ly/hreflangsitemap

#internationalseo at #smconnect by @aleyda

GOOGLE WEBMASTER TOOLS WILL WARN 

ABOUT SOME OF THEM

#internationalseo at #smconnect by @aleyda

 BUT YOU SHOULD VALIDATE YOURSELF BY USING 

AN SEO CRAWLER THOUGH

www.screamingfrog.co.uk/seo-spider/

#internationalseo at #smconnect by @aleyda

 ONPAGE.ORG HAS ALSO AN IN-DEPTH INTERNATIONAL 

& TRANSLATION REPORT

onpage.org

#internationalseo at #smconnect by @aleyda

DON’T FORGET ABOUT THE URLS, ALTHOUGH BEWARE
OF IDNS & NON-LATIN CHARACTERS IN URLS

Use
latinized
URLs for
Russian &
Chinese

#internationalseo at #smconnect by @aleyda

BE CAREFUL ON ASSUMING TOO MUCH ABOUT YOUR 

USERS INTERNATIONAL TARGETING THOUGH…

#internationalseo at #smconnect by @aleyda

IT’S BETTER TO SUGGEST YOUR INTERNATIONAL VERSIONS;
OTHERWISE, WARN WHEN REDIRECTING & USE 302 REDIRECTS

#internationalseo at #smconnect by @aleyda

REMEMBER THAT INTERSTITIALS ARE INTRUSIVE & 

MIGHT CAUSE CRAWLING ISSUES TOO

#internationalseo at #smconnect by @aleyda

IF YOU IMPLEMENT THESE CONFIGURATION, 

YOU’LL AVOID MISTARGETING YOUR USERS

#internationalseo at #smconnect by @aleyda

UNDERSTAND & INCREASE YOUR POPULARITY 

AMONG YOUR INTERNATIONAL AUDIENCE

4 #internationalseo at #smconnect by @aleyda

START BY IDENTIFYING TOP SOCIAL NETWORKS, OVERALL
TRAFFIC SOURCES & REFERRERS

#internationalseo at #smconnect by @aleyda

WHICH ARE THE MOST LINKED PAGES (AND CONTENT) OF
YOUR COMPETITORS…

#internationalseo at #smconnect by @aleyda

THE MOST POPULAR AND HIGHLY SHARED TOPICS,
IDENTIFYING WHERE AND WHO SHARED THEM

#internationalseo at #smconnect by @aleyda

AS WELL AS THE CONTENT CHARACTERISTICS PER NETWORK

#internationalseo at #smconnect by @aleyda

WHICH ARE THE RELEVANT & AUTHORITATIVE SITES THAT
YOU CAN OUTREACH PER COUNTRY & LANGUAGE

#internationalseo at #smconnect by @aleyda

USE NATIVE OUTREACH PEOPLE, INFLUENCERS TOOLS &
(LOW-COST) PR FIRMS TO CONNECT

#internationalseo at #smconnect by @aleyda

WITH ALL THIS YOU CAN ESTABLISH A CONTENT, SOCIAL &
LINK BUILDING STRATEGY FOR YOUR TARGET MARKETS

TRAFFIC
CHANNELS
CHARACTERISTICS

LOCAL
AUDIENCE SHARE INFLUENCERS
AND SEARCH & TOP
BEHAVIOR REFERRERS

LOCAL POPULAR
POPULAR CONTENT
COMPETITORS
TOPICS & CHARACTERISTICS
PROFILE
KEYWORDS

#internationalseo at #smconnect by @aleyda

MAKING THE MOST OUT OF LOCAL ACTIVITIES 

& CULTURAL NUANCES

#internationalseo at #smconnect by @aleyda

AND CONNECT WITH THE LOCAL AUDIENCE

#internationalseo at #smconnect by @aleyda

NOT ALL RESULTS WILL BE THE SAME, BUT YOU DON’T NEED
THEM TO BE THE SAME!

in the uk in Germany
A total of 46 links have been built as follows: A total of 20 links have been built:

•  41 Links from .com to .co.uk link reclamation •  9 Links from .com to .de link reclamation
•  2 Links from UK Relevant Directories •  7 Links from German Relevant Directories
•  2 Links from 404 link Update •  3 Links from 404 link Update
•  1 Link from Sponsorship •  1 Link from Educational Resources

in france
A total of 8 links have been built from the
following strategies:

•  1 Link from .com to .fr link reclamation

•  3 Links from French Relevant Directories
•  4 Links from Educational Resources

#internationalseo at #smconnect by @aleyda

REMEMBER THAT THE KEY IN INTERNATIONAL TO GROW … 

IS BECOMING A REAL LOCAL AUTHORITY

#internationalseo at #smconnect by @aleyda

NOW IS YOUR TIME
THANKS! DO YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS?

#internationalseo at #smconnect by @aleyda