Multinational SEO requires a significantly different mindset and toolset than US-only SEO. This session provides best practices for structural and on-page considerations. -Sending the right signals to the search engines - what matters most? -Structural/technical best practices. -Tools for multinational SEO. -Case Studies. -Content translation considerations

1. Jennifer Grappone
@jengrappone
International SEO: Best Practices
Gravity Search Marketing

2. International SEO: Best Practices
Jennifer Grappone
Partner, Gravity Search Marketing LLC
Los Angeles and San Francisco, CA
Co-author, Search Engine Optimization: An Hour a Day
(Wiley, 2011)
www.yourseoplan.com
Twitter: @jengrappone, @gradiva

3. What is International SEO?
Site Hierarchy Natural translations
Language Signals Cultural appropriateness
Location Signals Compelling message
Being Visible to the Resonating with Your
Right Audience Audience

4. International SEO Goals:
Language & Geographical Targeting
• Search Engines clearly understand which
language(s) your site
is written in
• Search engines display
your site’s pages to searchers
in the appropriate region(s)

5. International SEO Market
Source: Karmasnack.com
http://gs.statcounter.com/

6. Multilingual/Multiregional Search Results

7. Multilingual/Multiregional Search Results
Google.com

8. Multilingual/Multiregional Search Results
Google.co.uk Google.fr

9. Multilingual/Multiregional Search Results
Google.com

10. Multilingual/Multiregional Search Results
Language of
Query
Location of
Website
Language of
Website
Location of
Searcher
Google.com

11. Site Hierarchy
Fictional Example: a movie website for the new
blockbuster, “The Zombit”
US site
thezombit.com

12. Site Hierarchy
ccTLDs, subdirectories, or subdomains?

13. Site Hierarchy:
ccTLD vs Subfolder vs Subdomain
thezombit.com lezombit.fr ilzombit.it elzombit.es
thezombit.com/fr thezombit.com/it thezombit.com/es
fr.thezombit.com it.thezombit.com es.thezombit.com

14. Site Hierarchy:
ccTLD vs Subfolder vs Subdomain
ccTLD Subdomain Subdirectory
lezombit.fr fr.thezombit.com thezombit.com/fr
Strong geotargeting
signal for search ✔
engines
May be more
appealing to ✔
searchers
Easy to maintain
✔ ✔
Easy to share
authority between ? ✔
versions
Possible to host
different versions on ✔ ✔
different servers

15. Site Hierarchy:
Geotargetable Domains
ccTLD gTLD*
.mx .com
.de .org
.it .info
etc. etc.
*Geotargetable in Google Webmaster Tools

16. Site Hierarchy:
Geotargetable Domains
ccTLD gTLD* gccTLD*
.mx .com .me
.de .org .tv
.it .info .fm
etc. etc. etc.
*Geotargetable in Google Webmaster Tools

17. Site Hierarchy:
Discoverability
• Do provide search-engine-followable links between
translated versions of each page
• (Usability) Do allow users the opportunity to navigate
to a page containing a different language

18. Site Hierarchy:
Discoverability
• Googlebot crawls from
the US, so don’t block
US visitors from seeing
content that you want
Google to find
• Don’t automatically redirect
users based on their
perceived language

19. Language Signals
Strongest signal: visible content

20. Language Signals:
Do Not Mix Languages
Don’t confuse the bot!
Anything that is both human-readable and search-engine
readable on your page should be presented in the target
language

21. Language Signals:
Weak Signals
• Language declaration tags:
<meta http-equiv="content-language" content="en-gb" >
don’t influence Google, but are used by Bing
• Clues in URLs (thezombit.com/fr) don’t influence
Google
• hreflang annotations send signals (suggestion, not
directive)

22. Language Signals:
Quality
• No auto-translations!
• If you must auto-translate, use robots.txt to prevent
Google from crawling.

23. Location Targeting

24. How Does Google Determine Location
Targeting?
• ccTLDs send the strongest signal
• Server location may or may not influence Google.
Don’t obsess over it for geotargeting, but you may
need to think about it in terms of site speed.
• Text in HTML titles (“Official UK site”) doesn’t influence
Google but can help orient users
• hreflang annotations send signals (suggestion, not
directive)

25. How Does Google Determine Location
Targeting? Webmaster Tools Settings
Not for use with ccTLDs, or if your site is targeting
multiple countries.

26. How Does Google Determine Location
Targeting? On-Page
Google may be influenced by certain localized elements
within the visible content on the page, such as:
• local currency
• local addresses
• local phone numbers

27. How Does Google Determine Location
Targeting? Off-Page
• Links from local sites
• Google+ Local

28. Duplicate Content
Translated pages do not pose duplicate content risks

29. Duplicate Content
Multiple pages targeting the same language for
different regions are typically not at risk for duplicate
content worries, but it’s best to differentiate as much
as possible.
The Zombit: Official US Site The Zombit: Official UK Site
Sure to be your favorite movie of Sure to be your favourite movie of
the year! the year!
In theaters January 19! In cinemas 19 January!

30. Hreflang Annotations
These are annotations that send signals to Google about the
targeting of a set of pages.
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="en-gb" href="http://www.thezombit.com/uk" />
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="en-us" href="http://www.thezombit.com/" />
“My pages are
useful variations
of each other,
not duplicates”

31. Hreflang Annotations
hreflang=“en-au”
Language Region
Language: ISO 639 format
Region: ISO 3166 format

32. Hreflang Annotations
Option 1: In the <head> section Option 2: Sitemap
of the page:
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="en-us"
href="http://www.thezombit.com/" />
<link rel="alternate" hreflang=“it-it"
href="http://www.thezombit.com/it/" />
<link rel="alternate" hreflang=“fr-fr"
href="http://www.thezombit.com/fr/" />
<link rel="alternate" hreflang=“es-es"
href="http://www.thezombit.com/es" />

33. Targeting Multiple Locations
With One Language

34. Targeting Multiple Locations
With One Language
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="en" href="http://www.thezombit.com/" />
<link rel="alternate" hreflang=“it-it" href="http://www.thezombit.com/it/" />
<link rel="alternate" hreflang=“fr-fr" href="http://www.thezombit.com/fr/" />
<link rel="alternate" hreflang=“es" href="http://www.thezombit.com/es" />

35. Targeting Multiple Locations
With One Language
Google.mx

36. Resources: Browsing Like A Local
tunnelbear.com (UK) trustedproxies.com

37. Resources:
Is Your Proxy Working?

38. Resources: Search Engines & Domains
List of Google Regional Search Engines
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Google_domains
Google’s List of Geotargetable Domains
http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py
?hl=en&answer=1347922

39. Resources: ISO Codes
Language: ISO 639
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ISO_639-1_codes
Region: ISO 3166
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_3166-1_alpha-2

40. Thank you!
Questions? Feedback?
@jengrappone
www.yourseoplan.com