Launching in a new Market: SEO Challenges and Checklist (Cuponation) - SMX Munich 2015 (International Search Summit)
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This is a checklist for all the SEO activities one must consider before launching a website in International Market. There is a link to the excel checklist at the end of the presentation (before the additional slides). You can use this list and prioritize the activities for your organisation depending on the timeline & industry. The presentation was presented during the International Search Summit at SMX Munich 2015 to an audience that were interested in getting to know more about International SEO. The event was organised by company WebCertain and the presenter is the Head of SEO from Cuponation GmbH.
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Launching in a new Market: SEO Challenges and Checklist (Cuponation) - SMX Munich 2015 (International Search Summit)
- 1. What’s this session about? Launching in a new Market: SEO Challenges and Checklist
- 2. Head of SEO Rahul Gupta @rpgupta87
- 3. Highlights from CupoNation CupoNation facts: ● Active in 15 markets with 30+ platforms ● 20,000 vouchers and deals published on CupoNation websites ● Approx. 200 employees ● 40+ SEO employees 2012 Poland Brazil India 2013 Germany Austria Norway Sweden Finland France Italy Spain Russia 2014 Australia Singapore Switzerland Capable of launching a platform in a new market within 2 weeks!
- 4. How do we do it? Target Audience Target Channels Content for Users Smaller onsite elements Technical SEO Teams & Processes Segmentation & Processes
- 5. Before we proceed, remember this... What & Why
- 6. How do we do it? Target Audience Target Channels Content for Users Smaller onsite elements Technical SEO Teams & Processes
- 7. Know your audience before they arrive Consumer behaviour in your new market First impression matters
- 8. How do we do it? Target Audience Target Channels Content for Users Smaller onsite elements Technical SEO Teams & Processes
- 9. Select the right traffic channels Be focused rather than Omnipresent Platform optimized
- 10. Find your local Influencers Reach out to the experts in your niche Hire a local PR/SEO agency
- 11. Competitor’s Backlink Profile Look into competitors’ backlinks Low hanging fruits Influencers, publishers & communities
- 12. How do we do it? Target Audience Target Channels Content for Users Smaller onsite elements Technical SEO Teams & Processes
- 13. Content creation: In-house Vs Outsource What? 1. Determine resource requirement for your content creation process 2. Complete the keyword research inhouse 3. Assess several content agencies in the local market Avoid 1. Working with freelancers or agencies that use article spinning tools 2. Writers who are not located in your market 3. Content creators that are not affiliated with your niche 4. Allocating the content creation task to in-house employees who have no expertise in storytelling 5. Be aware of spelling versions for different countries (English in UK Vs USA) + use of transliterations
- 14. How do we do it? Target Audience Target Channels Content for Users Smaller onsite elements Technical SEO Teams & Processes
- 15. Prioritize & bundle your products Use external sources to prioritize Site Structure & Indexation logic
- 16. What sets you apart from the rest? Use onsite space efficiently Work on your USPs
- 17. Display legal elements & local trust badges Why? 1. Gain trust of your local audience 2. Provide better UX, by not displaying unnecessary legal elements 3. Avoid penalties from local authorities What? 1. Research about the must required legal elements on website 2. Read the local online marketing laws & take necessary actions. eg: register your contests with authorities 3. Also, research about the dos & don'ts in the new market to avoid being misinterpreted or hurt local sentiments
- 18. Stock photos are stock photos! Give your company a local face (no stock photos!)
- 19. How do we do it? Target Audience Target Channels Content for Users Smaller onsite elements Technical SEO Teams & Processes
- 20. Do you need to automate anything? Evaluate & identify repetitive tasks Automate heavy tasks before launch
- 21. Technical SEO checks & monitoring tools Technical SEO checks • Site crawl errors & Broken links • Internal duplicate content • Meta title & meta desc errors • Duplicate content (with competitors and also with your other country sites) & href lang • Buy domains with variations of your brand name locally, geotargeting, hrefs • Social media pages created & contact details updated • robots.txt, sitemaps, check outgoing links • Indexation, Internal linking, canonicals • Image alt text, Image rights, Image size • No content or link cloaking • Emulate different browsers (research which devices are used widely in your new market) • Block bad/scraper bots • Page speed Monitoring tools • Google Analytics/ Additional traffic data tools • WMT (for all search engines & for all variations of your site) • Pingdom / Webpagespeed accounts • Third party conversion optimization scripts • Keyword rankings • Monitor your competitor’s website design changes (wayback machine), subscribe to all competitor social media pages & newsletters • Google alerts for your & competitor’s brand name
- 22. How do we do it? Target Audience Target Channels Content for Users Smaller onsite elements Technical SEO Teams & Processes
- 23. Teams & Processes IT Team Design Team SEO & Content Team Project Manager Business Manager
- 24. Teams & Processes IT Team Design Team SEO & Content Team Project Manager Business Manager 1. Templates 2. Guidelines 3. Roadmap 4. Alignment Method 5. Quality Checks 6. Sign Offs 7. Launch (Yeahh!)
- 25. Teams & Processes SEO & Content Team Content Writer Technical SEO Outreach responsible
- 26. Define your 6 monthly goals Basic KPIs for target setting • Brand search volume • Organic traffic • Leads • Community members • PR mentions/links • Onsite Content • Bounce rates Lastly, don’t forget to set goals! In next 6 months, I want to be mentioned in the top 10 consumer magazines of Asia!
- 27. Find the detailed Checklist here (with helpful resources) http://bit.ly/1BGOITI Final checklist Target Audience Target Channels Content for Users Smaller onsite elements Technical SEO Teams & Processes
- 28. And thats how we launch websites in CupoNation ;) Thank you for being an amazing audience! Questions? CupoNation Selfie, Munich Office (HQ) The “Wall of Flags” at CupoNation
- 33. Collect keyword ideas from 1. Brainstorming 2. Google adwords/ Google suggest 3. Competitor’s keywords (Traffic data - Similarweb; Ranking data - Searchmetrics; Anchor text data - Majestic) What to consider 1. Calibrate your perception about intention of user by checking the websites already ranking for your selected keywords 2. Anticipate CTRs for top 5 positions of a keyword type to draw a realistic traffic estimation (do not be blinded by search volumes alone) 3. Singular/Plural/Synonyms/Stop words/Long tails - All possible variations! 4. Most recent search volumes instead of standard last 12 months average Keyword research
- 34. Google Trend data Right keyword selection
- 35. Select right language versions Why? 1. Different spelling versions of the same word can show different results in google 2. Displaying wrong spelling versions of common words on your site can impact user trust Be aware of the spelling versions
- 37. CupoNation: USPs displayed to consumers
- 38. Use trust signs familiar to users
- 39. Reflect local sentiments within your design Goal Avoid confusion or misinterpretation of your brand in the new culture What? 1. Research about the dos and don'ts within the culture of your new market 2. Conduct survey with test subjects to evaluate your design, fonts, colours
- 40. Go for local SEO/PR/Digital agencies Why? 1. Local firms can give you consultation regarding stories you can tell in the market and also help you understand the user behaviour in the market 2. Introduce your brand to local opinion leaders, evaluate your content plan, give you insights about local events (calendar)
- 41. Give your company a local face Why? 1. Goes a long way in terms of relevancy & trust factor for your content What? 1. Use local country relevant images on website 2. Show that you are global with subtle hints - International team section, flags of other countries where you are present 3. Avoid using generic stock photos, rather invest in good photoshoots which tell the story of your brand
- 42. Launch with good PR/Social Media effort List of Journalists/Influencers Prepare pre-launch teaser content Create buzz around your launch!
Editor's Notes
- The “what” & “why” part makes sure you have all the things that can be done before launch. The “how” part of doing all these steps can be very detailed and there is a checklist at the end of the ppt where you can find interesting resources to help you out.
- What to do: Consumer behaviour in your new market Keywords relevant to your business + competitor data Consumer barometer & consumer survey tools Why do it: Understand your consumers before they interact with your new website Serve content that actually helps your consumers First impression counts - Launch with your best foot forward (content!)
- What to do: Evaluate the market shares of the leading search engines & social media sites Decide your marketing strategy depending on them
- Use tools: Klout, PeerIndex, Kred, linkdex,
- What to expect from this research? Local publishers who have covered your topic Opinion Leaders within your niche Communities discussing your niche Why do it? Once you know your link targets, you can make relevant sections within your website to target your audience (& future promoters!) Take the good part of your competitors and leave out the junk - Low hanging fruits! Competitors cannot copy your strategy in the beginning Tools: Majestic/Ahrefs
- What to do: Make a plan for your content creation process Evaluate resources requirement for good quality content Assess several content agencies in the local market Avoid: Working with freelancers or agencies that use article spinning tools Writers who are not located in your market Content creators that are not affiliated with your niche Allocating the content creation task to in-house employees who have no expertise in storytelling
- What to do: Formulate the priority list of your products for the new market Source of information: Competitors, Affiliate Networks, Local Suppliers, Adwords keyword planner, Google Trends Integrate this priority list within your Internal linking logic (Navigation menu, Similar Products), Page Indexation logic, Social media plan Why do it: Launch your site well aware of your important pages to focus your SEO efforts on them
- What to do: List down all your features for the users and compare it with other players in the market Round up all the points which differentiate you from most of your competitors - USPs Communicate these USPs through your website - Small elements on the site which pass this message to your audience Include this within your communication strategy for the market - all communications should say the same story Why do it: Educate your current audience about how you are better than others - free! Direct impact on your branding efforts from day 1
- What? Research about the necessary legal elements and accordingly make changes in your cookie policy, certificates, trust badges, terms & conditions If your content marketing strategy involves conducting contests on your website, refer to the local laws & take necessary actions to register your contests with authorities Why? Gain trust of your local audience If cookie policy confirmation not legally required, do not include this on above the fold (better UX) Avoid penalties from local authorities
- What to do: Evaluate your daily activities and identify processes that can be automated Evaluate the flexibility of your existing platform in terms of supporting this new automated workflow Discuss with your IT team & decide if you need to change your platform before launching (New markets might mean that you will also be conducting a lot of tests & automation certainly helps here) Area where you can use automation: Site Indexation logic Internal linking logic Page title/meta description changes Bulk amendments in content Customized modules for every page Automated monitoring dashboards
- Pre-purchase research is lower & society influence is more in Nigeria. Maybe focus more on social media activities rather than investing in getting your review published in a popular niche magazine? Just saying..
- How to use trend data Many times your main keyword and its collocated versions may have rather similar search volumes. Anticipate which words have an upwards trend and try to work with those words on the website Offer content that matches the expectations of the growing audience for a keyword
- What to do: Select the right version of language for your content Research what version of spellings people in the market most often use Example: English in US, UK, Australia, India, Singapore & so on Why do it: Different spelling versions of the same word can show different results in google Displaying uncommon versions of common words on your site can impact user trust - eg: Colour Vs Color Use of incorrect version of spelling can cost you traffic
- What to do: Research about the dos and don'ts within the culture of your new market Conduct survey with test subjects to evaluate your design, fonts, colours Why to do: No confusion or misinterpretation of your brand, website in the new culture Also certain combinations of colours used in design may denote underlying messages Examples: In China, writing someone's name in red ink symbolizes you are cutting them off from your life or they are dead Colour pink may denote feminine, in Thailand it is the colour for Tuesday and in Korea it is a sign of trust Green & red denotes Christmas Red/ & White hints towards patriotism in Poland (flag colours)
- What? Use country relevant images wherever you need to use ‘people’ photos on the website Show that you are global with subtle hints - International team section, flags of other countries where you are present Avoid using generic stock photos, rather invest in good photoshoots which tell the story of your brand Why? Goes a long way in terms of relevancy & trust factor for your content