Ms. Bressler

Website / Online Mechandising / SEO

International SEO & Using it to Your Advantage

By Hillary S. Bressler, Founder & President, .Com Marketing

Over the course of the past few years, I have been approached by hotels that want to attract more international traffic to their websites. They were looking for the easiest way to optimize their sites for each country. Some may think it is simply a matter of translating the site and traffic will come. International SEO is not that easy. Here are a few challenges that companies with an international Web presence face, and some tips for creating an optimal Web presence that can perform well in international search engines. How Many Languages?

In this metrics focused world, most people would like to be able to forecast the results: "How about if I add Chinese? How much traffic can I expect? We do advise that you launch an international site with multiple languages. For instance, if you were to launch with two languages this week, add another, and then add another later, this approach would never yield the same results as if you were to launch a site with five languages simultaneously. In fact, Google and other major crawlers consider sites "global players" if they include five languages or more. This can deliver search engine ranking leverage which is just not available with fewer languages.

International Keywords

Keyword analysis must be performed for each individual language. Start by using your English set of keywords as a guideline for your foreign keywords. This set of keywords should be provided to the foreign native SEO technicians who will conduct your keyword analysis. They will conduct assessments ranging from terminology accuracy equivalents, keyword density factor evaluation, and competition analysis and language dialect and slang nuances. It is important that this work be performed by a qualified native SEO technician and not just by a translator, no matter how qualified the translator might be. Keywords rarely translate literally and slang, acronyms and other oddities are used by native speakers. For example, a literal translation of "Bullet Train" into French would result in a term with a "gun/arm" connotation. The French (who invented the Bullet Train) use the acronym "TGV", which means "Train `a Grande Vitesse" (high speed train). To make it even more complicated, people on the French side of Belgium, such as in Brussels, refer to the high speed train as the "Thalys" since the company operating the Bullet Trains from Belgium is called Thalys. This is only one example illustrating the challenge of International Search Engine Optimization or MSEO for Multilingual SEO. Domains

When it comes to doing things "the right way" for MSEO, it all begins with domain selection. This is true whether it is for one Web site to be promoted in the United States, or for international websites.

For international SEO, we recommend a TLD (top level domain) for each country you are targeting. This is more complicated than you might think. Many countries mandate that you have an actual physical business location in that country before you can obtain a TLD. To gain a German (.de) top-level-domain, for example, you must operate an office in Germany.

As in the U.S. search relevance is also important internationally. If you were searching while in Canada, on google.ca, Google algorithms give more weight to domains with .ca extension than ones with.com. The top three organic rankings for "travel" on Google.ca are Expedia.ca, Travelocity.ca, and Travelocity.com.

Pretty interesting that Expedia.ca ranks better than Travelocity.com. You would typically expect travelocity.com to outrank .ca due to the size of the site and the amount of content. So the domain matters. Linking

SEO experts today understand the importance of inbound, relevant link building. Link building should also an essential part of establishing your SEO program for your international sites. Regional credibility is enhanced by insuring your Germany-based site has German based inbound links.

In addition to the above factors, below are some additional considerations for any Multilingual SEO initiative.

• Local Directories Submit your website to directories based in other countries that target those local audiences. Some examples include the Nationwide Business Directory in Australia or Allesklar in Germany. Seeing your website listed in local directory searches will increase foreign users' confidence in the relevancy of your site to their location.

• Local social networking sites It may feel like Facebook and MySpace are global communities, and they are, but there are also sites abroad that are targeted to or used by specific regional audiences. There are a lot of Germans on Facebook, but there are many more on StudiVZ and MeinVZ. Mixi is big in Japan, and Bebo has taken over the UK market. Visit the social marketing sites in your international markets and see what people are using. If you can, sign up for accounts there and use those to reach your audience.

• Local Blogs and Websites Again, this may feel like an obvious point, but don't forget the importance of blogs in increasing your international audience. The easiest way to go about getting links from local blogs and websites? Find those who are writing, researching, or working with your products and services in your foreign regions and languages. Get in touch with those sites and network!

Finally, when creating international inbound links, put yourself in the shoes of your international customers and visitors. Establish a presence abroad that will show your customers the relevancy and value of your site to them, just as you would for your website at home.

Targeting English Speaking Countries

You can jumpstart your international campaign with a little homework of your own. For example, if you're interested in marketing your product online in other countries, use sites like http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm. This site has detailed information about the number of Internet users, the rate of user growth and the percentage of Internet penetration by region and country.

Cultural Awareness and SEO

Sensitivity to cultural norms and regional differences is necessary for international SEO. Different countries celebrate different holidays and have different traditional vacation times and can even be affected by different colors. Analyze and understand site usage behaviors during these periods. Here are a few examples.

• Holidays and Vacations. Your French website's traffic is just zooming along, and then all of a sudden traffic completely drops off during late July and into August. What's the culprit? Most likely it is not a significant change to the search engines but just that people in France tend to take August off for vacations.

• Color. Your Chinese website used to have a red banner ad on it that had a lot of conversions for a product. When you changed the banner, it was changed to black, and conversions fell off somewhat. What may have happened? In China, red is considered a lucky color, one of prosperity and happiness; black is unlucky and may sometimes be associated with evil.

• Language. Some countries have multi-lingual populations. In some cases (such as Canada) they get along fairly well. In other cases, such as Belgium, language has become a flashpoint in both political and social life. Be aware of the language issues in your market and cater to those audiences as necessary. If a country has relatively sizeable multi-lingual populations, you may need to provide additional translations of the website.

The most important aspect of any SEO undertaking is not the search engine, it's the end user and how well you can cater to their needs!

Bing...New To the Scene

There is a new search engine out today. Bing. Bing is also launching internationally. Bing has a list of supported countries and you can change your display language in search options. Naturally, there is a lot of speculation as to how successful Microsoft's new search endeavour will be. Here is Bing's position on search. This search engine must be a part of your International SEO strategy, especially since it will become the engine for Yahoo search.

Opportunities and Barriers

With the world's largest online audience coming from China, there is quite a bit of growth potential left, especially for small to medium businesses. Here are some of the biggest points:

• Users are beginning to migrate from the portals like Sohu and Sina to search engines. As in the US about a decade ago, users are beginning to prefer search and make a habit of using it to reach websites directly.
• Baidu is the biggest search engine. Google is slowly gaining market share, but it is more at the expense of the portals and Yahoo! than taking market share from Baidu.
• Mobile search is extremely popular.

Now is definitely the time to establish your brand in China and get your presence in the market.

Keep in mind that, China has blocked YouTube, Twitter, Bing, Flickr, and a host of other social and email sites (especially those from Microsoft). The block occurred in the countdown to the Tiannamen Square widespread blocking of social media.

Increasing your traffic through global search initiatives requires financial commitment and patience. The short term ROI may not be found, but multilingual efforts are certainly the juiciest online platforms where so many success stories are yet to be written! Certainly, this column does not cover everything that is necessary to successfully optimize your Website for multiple countries, but it does provide you with some of the foundational knowledge for ensuring that you are setting up your efforts for success.

Hillary S. Bressler, is an authority on interactive marketing and a national online marketing pioneer. She is the founder and president of .Com Marketing, specializing in the travel, healthcare, and b2b industries. She established .Com Marketing in 1997 after identifying the need for the marketing of Web sites. Her interactive agency has served CVB’s, hotels and travel companies all over the U.S. such Marriott & Renaissance Offshore Resorts, Marriott Vacation Club, SeaWorld, Busch Gardens, Universal Orlando Resorts, City Pass, and Signature Travel Network. Ms. Bressler can be contacted at 407-774-4606 ext 203 or bressler@commarketing.com Extended Bio...

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