International SEO:

Starter Guide

International SEO: Starter Guide

International SEO:
Starter Guide
Table of Contents:
3Relevant Search Engines
4Site Structure Strategies
7Optimization Priciples
10Localization Guidelines
11Dont Translate, Localize!
12Conclusion

2012 Optify, Inc. All rights reserved.

www.optify.net 1-877-2-OPTIFY

@optify

International SEO: Starter Guide

Think Global, Act Local:

Factors of Successful International Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Expanding your web presence internationally can be challenging, especially without local resources at your disposal. But, with the right preparations it can be done. Understanding the basic principles of International SEO will
ready you to enter a new foreign market successfully even without the guidance of a local search agency.
The four considerations, which need to be planned and accounted for prior to implementing an international
SEO project, are:
1. Relevant Search Engines
2. Site Structure Strategies
3. Optimization Principles
4. Localization Guidelines
This white paper will cover each of these consideration sets, highlighting the most important questions you should
be asking and answering before attempting to go global.

Relevant Search Engines

When planning an international SEO campaign, first determine which
search engines are most popular in the countries you are targeting.
Dont assume the search engine landscape will mirror that of the United
States. In many foreign countries, Googles presence is far more pronounced, while in others, a local or regional company dominates. For
example, in Europe Google accounts for more than 90% market share.
In Russia, Yandex is the most prominent search engine and in China,
Baidu is the front-runner.

Tip
A good resource to determine what search engines are
relevant in your local market is
StatCounter GlobalStats
http://gs.statcounter.com/

When considering which search engines to target, take note: unless a

user has unique personalized settings, most search engines default to
the users local browser settings. Meaning, if you are in Germany you will
automatically be directed to Google.de. As a result, it is essential to do
keyword research as well as rank checking on the local level.
Regardless which search engines are applicable to your desired target
market, page optimization tactics will likely be similar. More tips on optimization and localization will be discussed in subsequent sections.

Relevant Search Engines 3

2012 Optify, Inc. All rights reserved.

www.optify.net 1-877-2-OPTIFY

@optify

International SEO: Starter Guide

Site Structure Strategies

Next, it is important to take stock of your larger web environment and
current infrastructure set-up. You can do so by following these five
steps:

1. Start by assessing your target market.

Are you focused on a region (Latin America), a language (Spanish
speakers), or a single country (Spain)? These are important distinctions that will impact all other decisions to follow.

2. Analyze the capabilities of your content management system

(CMS) with your technical staff.

Tip
A word of caution - dont
rush through the process of
analyzing internal resources and
determining roadblocks and
requirements. Take the time to
fully assess all issues. Future
changes are likely to be costly
and could negatively impact your
Rankings.

Together youll need to assess and plan for various technical issues
such as how you intend to handle subdomains and directories or if youll be able to localize URLs.

3. Review external factors like legal requirements.

Other examples of external variables might be whether local hosting is more of a good idea for SEO reasons or
a necessity for legal reasons. Or, if specific advertising regulations pertain to your companys products and/or
services.

4. Within the parameters of your technical limitations, choose the site structure that works best for your
businesss goals.
Here are the four structural options to consider along with examples of each:

STRONG

SITE STRUCTURES:
Country-code top-level domains (ccTLDs)
Description: The strongest level of site localization. These are actual different domains that need to be purchased separately. They
can be owned by different people and hosted on different servers in different locations.

LOCALIZATION STRENGTH

Examples: site.de, site.fr

Generic top-level domains (gTLDs) such as .com, .org, .net in combination with subdomains
Description: The next level of localization strength. The sub-domain can be hosted on different IP addresses in different countries,
but lives under the ownership of the .com, .org or .edu parent.
Examples: de.site.com, fr.site.org

Subdirectories with gTLDs

Description: This structure uses the main domain and non-localized sub-domain structure to build content for many markets at the
directory level (the level past the .com or .org).

WEAK

Examples: sports.site.com/de, www.site.org/ca-en/

URL parameters
Description: The weakest of the four options and should be avoided if possible, as it doesnt provide enough emphasis of the different language targets, and could be misleading to the search engines and users.
Examples: site.com?loc=de, site.org?country=germany

2012 Optify, Inc. All rights reserved.

www.optify.net 1-877-2-OPTIFY

@optify

Site Structure Stategies 4

International SEO: Starter Guide

Site Structure Strategies (cont.)

In addition to server location and other local indicators like local website hosting, local addresses, phone numbers,
links, etc., the structure you choose will affect search engines perceptions of your target market. These inferences
will, in turn, impact your search engine rankings in that country.
If you have a site focused on customers in Spain, you should consider using a Spanish ccTLD, site.es. This sends
a very clear signal to search engines that your website is geo-targeted to Spaniards and will help improve your
rankings in Google Spain.
If you do not have the resources to procure ccTLDs for each of your target countries or if someone else owns these
domains, you should manually geo-target your subdomains or subdirectories. Unfortunately, this option is currently only available for Google and can be implemented using Google Webmaster Tools.
If you are targeting a region or a language, rather than a country, manual geo-targeting is not a good option. The
tool only allows you to target one country, not entire regions or languages, per subdomain or subdirectory.
There is no absolute right or wrong in terms of the different set-up options. Whats right for a global enterprise
in 20 different countries may be not be the best option for a small business looking to attract Spanish speakers.
That said; try to avoid URL parameters if possible. They tend to confuse both end-users and search engines.

ccTLDs

Subdomains with gTLDs

Subdirectories with gTLDs

URL parameters

example.de
example.fr

de,.site.com
fr.site.com

site.com/de/
site.com/fr/

site.com?loc=de
?country=france

PROS

PROS

PROS

PROS

clear geotargeting

easy to set up

easy to set up

(not reccommended)

server location is
irrelevant

can use Webmaster Tools

geotargeting

can use Webmaster Tools

geotargeting

easy seperation of sites

allows different server

locations

low maintenance (same host)

legal requirements
(sometimes)
CONS
expensive (+availability)
more infrastructure
ccTLD requirements
(sometimes)

easy separation of sites

CONS

CONS

CONS

users might not recognize

geotargeting from the URL
alone (is de the language
or country?)

users might not recognize

geotargeting from the URL
alone

segmentation based on the

URL is difficult

single server location

seperation of sites harder

users might not recognize

geotargeting from the URL
alone
geotargeting in Webmaster
Tools is not possible

Source: Google Webmaster Central Blog, Working with multi-regional websites, March 12, 2010.
http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2010/03/working-with-multi-regional-websites.html

Site Structure Strategies 5

2012 Optify, Inc. All rights reserved.

www.optify.net 1-877-2-OPTIFY

@optify

International SEO: Starter Guide

Site Structure Strategies (cont.)

5. Lastly, when strategizing about site structure, determine if you want a consistent look and feel for all
your target markets or if youd prefer variations in terms of images and wireframes.
Cultural and linguistic differences should drive these decisions. As an example, an image of a tall, blond woman may be right for a womens magazine in Germany yet seem out of cultural context for Japan. Youll want to
be mindful of these cross-cultural differences when selecting images.
Language localization also requires advanced planning. Without it, your translators might encounter a space
problem. Depending on the language, text may be significantly longer or shorter than in its original version.
For example, on average, German words are 30% longer than English words. Changing script sized for different languages can leave users with a negative visual impression, specifically when the design is otherwise
the same across all languages and the content is accessible within the same domain. To avoid this misstep,
determine if you plan on keeping wireframes the same across all languages; establish clear guidelines for style,
script size, word or character count.

Tips
Some languages require additional characters when compared to English (e.g., German). The length
of URLs, title tags, meta-descriptions, etc. should stay within recommended parameters to avoid
truncation.
Dont use special characters (e.g., , , , etc.) or punctuation in URLs
Dont forget to optimize pictures and videos with localized captions, headlines, and alt-texts. Image
optimization is another source foro local traffic and is relatively easy to implement.

For additional localization tips, see the Localization Guidelines section.

Site Structure Strategies 6

2012 Optify, Inc. All rights reserved.

www.optify.net 1-877-2-OPTIFY

@optify

International SEO: Starter Guide

Optimization Principles
As with any SEO strategy your keyword focus will be the cornerstone of your success, followed by page optimization, link building, and eliminating content duplications. The essential principles of SEO remain the same for all
areas of the globe. However, when expanding your online presence internationally, you may encounter a number
of SEO pitfalls that arent immediately obvious.
In this section, well discuss these four areas of SEO as they pertain to an international approach:
Keywords
Page Optimization
Duplicate Content
Link Building

Keywords are critical to international SEO success and youd be wise to advocate for allocating proper resources
for keyword research. After all, your website will not drive quality organic traffic if its optimized for terms users
arent actually searching for. As you research strategic keywords, be sure to perform your analysis and search
volume assessment on a local level in order to understand which queries are most relevant for your market.
Using your target language consistently, rather than mixing English with other languages, will not only help the
search engines define your local focus, it will also ensure a consistent experience for the user.
While you should generally steer clear of mixing languages on a page, some keywords are considered universal
regardless of language. Especially in highly technical fields, the English keyword may have a higher search volume
and relevance to your field than the localized version.

Tips
Get insights on the regional level and see trends over time.
Google Insights for Search http://www.google.com/insights/search/
Use keyword research tools that provide local search volumes.
Google Adwords Keyword Tool https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
or
Yandex http://wordstat.yandex.ru
The best Chinese keyword research tool is Baidu.com.
They occupy more than 65% of the search market (note: only paid PPC advertisors on Baidu can
use the keyword tool)
Baidu http://index.baidu.com/

Optimization Principles 7

2012 Optify, Inc. All rights reserved.

www.optify.net 1-877-2-OPTIFY

@optify

International SEO: Starter Guide

Optimization Principles (cont.)

Page Optimization basics apply regardless of whether your site is targeted towards the French market or the
United States.
Drive page optimization by inserting your target keywords in five strategic locations:
URL, for example if your keyword is seo-help you might use the URL site.com/seo-help in the U.S. or
de.site.com/seo-hilfe in Germany
Title tag, which display at the very top of the browser and are critical for the search engines interpretation of
the content of the page
Meta Description, which normally displays in the search engine results page with your listing and is a key
contributor to click through rate
H tags, which are section headers within the sites code
Page content, ensure your page content is rich, compelling, relevant, and aligned with what you are offering
Dont forget to optimize pictures and videos with localized captions, headlines, and alt-texts. Often image optimization presents a comparably easy opportunity to drive additional traffic.

Duplicate content is an issue you may encounter when expanding internationally. This means having the
same or very similar versions of a page via different URLs. As a result, your page authority could be diluted. You
may encounter this issue within a site (e.g. within your Spain site) as well as across markets (e.g. between your
Spanish and Mexican site). The path to resolution depends first on which type of duplicate content scenario you
are experiencing.

1. Duplicate content within a site:

Just like on your U.S. site, duplicate content can be an issue within a separate country, region or language
specific site. By having duplicates such as company.fr and company.fr/index with the same or very similar
content, youll diminish the authority and search recognition of both pages.
To resolve this issue, your best option is to set up a 301 re-direct. By doing so, the redundant page will be
automatically re-directed to the other, rendering the duplicate obsolete. The link-authority of the two pages are
then combined.
If you are unable to implement a 301 re-direct, you can choose to add a rel=canonical link element in the
page header code. A canonical page is the preferred version of a set of pages with highly similar content. In
this case, you will have two similar pages in each locale. The two locales will continue to exist, but the search
engines will combine and attribute the authority to only one page, the preferred page that you specify.
IMPORTANT NOTE: while Google and Bing understand and respect the rel=canonical tag, some international engines, like Yandex, presently do not.

Optimization Principles 8

2012 Optify, Inc. All rights reserved.

www.optify.net 1-877-2-OPTIFY

@optify

International SEO: Starter Guide

Optimization Principles (cont.)

2. Duplicate content across markets:
If you are unable to provide unique content for different country audiences that speak the same language
(e.g., Germany and Austria), your best option is to use the geo-targeting feature in Google Webmaster Tools.
For example, target your company.at site to Austria, and your company.de site to Germany. This option will also
work for subdirectories and subdomains. It is neither necessary nor recommended to implement re-directs for
duplicate content across markets.
Translations are not considered duplicate content. However, if you have the resources to provide unique content for your different target markets consider doing so. The more compelling and culturally relevant the user
experience is, the higher the conversion rates will be. You should also consider localizing the English, French,
Spanish, German, etc. to each region as the spelling and phrasing may be different.

Link Building to your site from other locations on the web is crucial to any SEO campaign, regardless of which
global market you are trying to capture. The more quality links pointing to your website, the higher your recognized
authority by search engines. Aim for link diversity, and try to gain links from high value sites in your field. Avoid
utilizing link farms or purchasing links; these practices are frowned upon by search engines and are widely considered unethical. If a search engine recognizes you using these tactics, youll likely experience an adverse reaction and your site could be negatively affected for an extended period of
time.

Tip

To gain authority in your target country or region, focus on inbound links

from local sites. For example, try to obtain links from French bloggers
and newspapers if you are targeting France. As with link building anywhere, the more interesting and relevant your content is, the greater
your chance to earn a link.

If you are able to influence

anchor texts (the text that is
hot-linked to your content) of
inbound links, make sure they
are localized and contain the
keywords you are optimizing for.

Optimization Principles 9

2012 Optify, Inc. All rights reserved.

www.optify.net 1-877-2-OPTIFY

@optify

International SEO: Starter Guide

Localization Guidelines
Customers expect you to deliver content in their language. However,
this can be expensive and difficult to implement. Figuring out how to
approach this task can be challenging. Similar to other areas of International SEO expansion, planning ahead and thinking through the different
localization options will determine success.

Tip
Even if you use external
localization resources, you will
also need to allocate internal
resources to review, edit and
sign-off on localized subject

matter.
There are a number of solutions for good localization, but using services
like Google Translate to establish an international presence, is not advised. While such instant translation tools are incredibly helpful, the result is unlikely to deliver a great user experience. In fact, users will be less likely to provide credit card information,
sign up for your newsletter, or simply trust you, if their experience is flawed by a less than professional translation.
Also, automated solutions do not replace careful keyword selection.

As budget is almost always a limitation, consider the following four factors when determining how to localize
your international presence:
Availability of in-house staff vs. external resources
General translators vs. experts who have specialized knowledge or familiarity with technical or industry
specific terms
Language differences by country such as French vs. French Canadian
Translators who are familiar with SEO vs. translators who require SEO training
Your ideal translator would be a native speaker of the new language with a near native command of the original
language. In addition, they would have critical subject matter expertise or knowledge of your field and a rudimentary understanding of SEO techniques. (Most translators can be trained in SEO best practices.)
Depending on your translators levels of expertise and your grade of comfort, youll be able to determine how much
authority to give your translators regarding final decisions on keywords and copy.

Localization Guidelines 10

2012 Optify, Inc. All rights reserved.

www.optify.net 1-877-2-OPTIFY

@optify

International SEO: Starter Guide

Dont Translate, Localize!

For those translators who are not particularly SEO savvy youll need to
educate them on the fundamentals. Start with the following:
Review basic optimization elements that help search engines find
your page.
Explain the importance of keyword competition and search
volumes.
Ask translators to think of themselves as search engine users
entering queries.

Tip
In some languages grammar
and syntax can change keywords.
Advise your translators to keep
them in the original form and
order whenever possible. For
example, play chess vs. play a
game of chess.

A perfect translation may not offer maximum value for search optimization. For example, more colloquial terms
frequently have higher search volumes. Using a keyword more than once may be better than using a synonym
that is rarely searched for. Striking the right balance between an SEO friendly localization and an eloquently
worded translation is key.
If you have the resources to support different content for different markets, consider cultural factors when
deciding how to allocate funds. In depth product research may be more important in some countries than in
others. China is an excellent example of a market where you may need to spend more resources to understand
the nuances of the consumer psyche.
Allocating sufficient resources towards understanding Chinese social, political and historical complexities and
how they affect purchasing behaviors, will certainly impact how you position your product online. Remember,
cultural relevance and content quality will affect conversion rates.

Dont Translate, Localize! 11

2012 Optify, Inc. All rights reserved.

www.optify.net 1-877-2-OPTIFY

@optify

Conclusion
When expanding internationally, whatever options you choose
for site structure and localization remember these factors for
success:
Plan ahead and always keep the end-user in mind.
Provide interesting content that is culturally and linguistically appropriate
Employ the basic tenets of SEO, (keywords, page optimization, link building) but make adjustments depending on
the region, country or language you are targeting.
Win the trust and confidence of visitors to your site by
providing a professional, quality experience.
If you dont have the resources to properly set-up and maintain
a foreign language site, youll be better off providing a first class
English language experience on your established domain.
By systematically following these crucial steps, youll achieve
SEO success in driving visits to your new global venue.

About Optify

Contact Us
Call: 1-877-2-OPTIFY
Twitter: @optify
Email: info@optify.net
Visit our website: www.optify.net
Start Free Trial: www.optify.net/sign-up/

Follow Optify
optify.net/facebook
optify.net/twitter
optify.net/linkedin
optify.net/blog

International SEO References

Structural Advantages and Disadvantages
http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.
com/2010/03/working-with-multi-regional-websites.html

Keyword Research Tools

Optify delivers an integrated top-of-the-funnel solution for marketers responsible for fueling their companys growth. Optify
helps professional B2B marketers reach more buyers and generate more demand for their products or services month-aftermonth.

Google Adwords
https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

The Optify Inbound Marketing Software Suite brings together the

enterprise-class SEO, social marketing, website analytics and
tools that B2B marketers need to increase awareness of their
business, influence buyers across social networks, and engage
with prospects at the earliest point of their buyers journey.

Baidu Search Ranking and Search Index

http://index.baidu.com

Google Insights for Search

http://www.google.com/insights/search/
Yandex search requests and keyword statistics
http://wordstat.yandex.ru

If you have any questions or would like more

detailed guidance about International SEO or
additional consultative services to help you
maximize your sites SEO and brand position
in international markets, please contact us
today via email or call us at 1-877-2-OPTIFY.

2012 Optify, Inc. All rights reserved.

www.optify.net 1-877-2-OPTIFY

@optify