Global Search Engine Marketing & Social Media News And Analysis » Gemma Birch

Bastian Grimm On International SEO And Schema.Org: ISS London Interview

Gemma Birch — Tue, 07 May 2013 14:25:53 +0000

At the International Search Summit London next week, Bastian Grimm will be tackling the topic of schema.org and discussing its international implementation and benefits. In a preview to the event, he gives us some insight into what he’ll be speaking about and why it’s important for international marketers to utilise schema.org effectively.

Bastian, what role is schema.org playing in international SEO? How is it changing things?

One of the most important things is that – especially for Google – schema.org does make things so much easier for them… back in the days they actually had to parse and match particular excerpts from any given site. Take zip codes for example: They’re totally different per country, even just German zip-codes can be just five digits long or contain a prepended “D-“; if you’d have to build and maintain multiple patterns for a single item per country and language, this is not scaling so well. With schema.org on the other hand it’s pretty simple: A pre-defined structure, easily scalable (as well as extendable) which allows search engines to actually understand each and every item. And surely it also enables them to potentially weight items differently from each other – on a per query basis. To put things straight: For search engines it’s a major win! They can gather way more detailed info with a lot less effort.

Are there major differences in the way it’s being implemented across different markets?

Together with the guys from Searchmetrics (a big thanks to my buddy Marcus Tober!) we’ve been compiling a lot of data – which I’ll be bringing exclusively to ISS London – and what we found is that their definitely are differences. So we we’re trying to get a feeling on how schema.org is used per country, what the most popular implementations are, how many queries actually do return schema.org enriched results and much more. Let me put it this way: You should not miss ISS this year!

You’re travelling the world a lot at the moment. On your travels, are there any particular differences that you’ve noticed between search in different countries?

That’s true – I was luckily able to spend a lot of time in Singapore, Thailand, Australia as well as New Zealand. One thing I found to be pretty remarkable is just how pretty damn good Google is with their geo-targeting stuff: Having set google.de as my start-page I’d been, depending on where I was, redirected to “another” Google (without really noticing) plus they changed my default language to English. I mean don’t get me wrong: Google does this stuff for years (and it’s nothing really new) but this really stood out to me; No matter where I was, I just found the stuff I was looking for – including the proper local results (like restaurants, tourist spots, etc.) which doesn’t work well if you’re not on the proper geo version of Google.

Why attend the International Search Summit?

The thing I always liked about ISS is really the focus on all things international: Right now there are a lot of different conferences out there – however ISS is the only one purely dedicated to international search. In my opinion it’s a must-attend event if you’re working in more than a single country since especially mission-critical topics like localization, geo targeting, etc. are always part of ISS. So I’m really looking forward to this years’ London-edition!

ISS is taking place as part of SMX London at Chelsea Football Club on Tuesday 14th May. There is still time to book your place! Register and save 15% on your pass with the discount code ISSEB.

Aleyda Solis on International Mobile SEO: ISS London Interview

Gemma Birch — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 09:07:22 +0000

The International Search Summit London is fast approaching, and before the event, we’re talking to some of the speakers about their sessions at the event, as well as international search marketing in general. Up first is Aleyda Solis, International SEO Consultant at SEER Interactive.

Aleyda, what are the biggest mistakes you see organisations making when launching international sites?

The biggest mistake is to assume that a web internationalization process (whether language or country targeted) is just about translating (not even localizing) the content, just extending what you already have.

Because of this belief, many companies don’t develop any previous research and analysis for the specific international market they want to target, so they end-up having an unsuccessful international web presence, offering content, product and services that don’t connect with the audience because of the lack understanding of each international market, particular behaviours, trends, competitors, etc.

You’re speaking on international mobile SEO in London – what are the first, basic steps every global business should be taking to optimise for mobile? And where are many organisations going wrong with mobile?

The first step is to understand your current mobile traffic activity by answering questions such as: How much traffic coming from feature phones, smartphones and tablets for each of your websites? What’s their growing trend? How do these visitors browse your site and consume your content? Which keywords do they use in mobile search to land oin your different websites? Which are the most popular pages they visit? What’s the volume and rates of your mobile driven conversions? In summary, how does mobile influence your current global web business? When you identify and understand this you can start making the most out of each opportunity!

On the other hand, many companies go wrong by thinking that just because they have a responsive web design, mobile is already covered, instead of thinking how they can create a highly targeted and specific mobile web offering that really answers their mobile audience needs.

Responsive web is one of the options for a mobile friendly web presence but it’s not necessarily the best for all situations (when your mobile audience has a different behaviour than your desktop one and you need to differentiate your mobile content, product, service and functionality offering, to optimize your site for different type of keywords too, for example). Having a properly configured mobile website means you need to develop a specific strategy to drive and improve results from it.

Where do you see the major opportunities for international businesses when it comes to mobile?

Mobile can represent an amazing opportunity in countries where mobile penetration is already huge and mobile search usage has an impressive growing trend, especially in some industries where users can easily convert and drive mobile transactions.

If you could share just one international search tip, what would it be?

The most fundamental one for a website that wants to attract international organic search traffic: Make your international web versions findable by giving them a well configured, indexable web structure.

I cannot understand how some companies can invest so much developing very attractive international Web versions but then use cookies or scripts to show them without a well-configured, specific web structure so they cannot be crawled, indexed or found via organic search results.

And finally, why attend the International Search Summit?

It’s my first time attending and speaking at the International Search Summit and for me it’s about connecting, sharing and learning from our international search experience… an amazing opportunity to grow our knowledge and identify new opportunities in this specific area.

The International Search Summit London will take place on 14th May at Chelsea Football Club in London, as part of SMX London. The keynote speaker is the Co-Founder and CTO of Russian search engine Yandex. View the full agenda.

International Search: Do What The Data Tells You

Gemma Birch — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 14:36:07 +0000

With only 3 days to go until the International Search Summit San Jose , we’re looking forward to a full day of international search marketing content and discussion, with a host of expert speakers from the world of global search.

One of those speakers is Mel Carson from Majestic SEO, who’ll be speaking on the use of link intelligence to gain a global competitor advantage. Here Mel gives us a sneak peak into what he’ll be sharing at ISS, and what he predicts for global search in 2013.

What is the “big thing” in international search in 2013?

It’s that, wherever you are in the world, more and more people are now using different devices in different contexts, so your search campaigns, SEO, landing pages etc… need to be optimised for not just the device, but also the place and mood the user might be in while searching. The research I’ve seen shows that people from different countries use devices in different ways and in different contexts, so it’s all just getting a lot more complicated.

In what ways can link intelligence support international search activity?

The possibilities are endless if you get creative. It can help compare competitors in very different locales, identify emerging markets in which to invest, assess the global reach of an influencer you’re targeting, and it can help predict things like elections. Marketers are missing a trick if the practice is not part of their research phase.

Is there any data that is often overlooked, but is actually very valuable?

It’s not that data is overlooked, it’s just that people don’t think laterally about how to use it. We talk about “big data” blah, blah, blah, but we’ve always had lots of data. It’s only now people are talking about slicing and dicing it in different ways for different means. Majestic is a perfect example of a platform that can transcend its uses for SEO and can take, for instance, PR teams into a whole new league with influencer discovery and blogger outreach. I think businesses really need to sit down and invest in effective tracking and data analysis and then actually take some action when the data tells them too.

If you could give one international search tip, what would it be?

Don’t just think about international search just in terms of language, but think in terms of device, context, culture, motivation and do what the data tells you to do. Investing the time in understanding each country profile will pay off hugely. Way more than if you just throw up a bunch of translated “one size fits all” templates.

What will attendees take away from your session?

How link intelligence can help you keep pace with, if not exceed your competitors’ strategies, and how to use the data creatively beyond just SEO.

Why should people attend the International Search Summit?

For me ISS is the de facto conference for learning about multinational search, what’s hot and what’s next. There’s a reason you guys are so successful at it!

There is still time to book a place at ISS @ SMX West! Join us on Thursday March 14th – and even save 10% with the code WS-ISS10

Will 2013 Be The Year For US Companies Going Global?

Gemma Birch — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 14:54:10 +0000

As the International Search Summit San Jose looms next week, we’ve been asking speakers at the event to share their thoughts on the state of global search and give some insights into what delegates will learn from the event.

And if anyone knows international search marketing, it’s Bill Hunt. He has been working in the field since the early days of search and has been involved with many of the globe’s largest brands to advise on international search strategy and execution. Here he shares a few thoughts on international search in 2013 and why ISS is a must-attend event for global marketers.

Bill, what so you think is the “big thing” in international search in 2013?

In my opinion is is awareness and engagement of companies to actually do it. I am seeing a lot of initiatives to make global search programs more successful and better integrated into the programs of the primary market. We have had a lot of attention to global but I think it seems to really be growing this year. If I had to pick a second, I would say the use of the href language XML site map will be big for companies this year.

What is the biggest mistake you see organisations making when it comes to international?

Treating local market search as separate projects. They have individual audits for each country even when those sites use templates that are the same around the world. This leads to a lot of wasted effort and expense.

What will attendees take away from your session?

The goal is to give them the tools and process that enables them to conduct more effective keyword research that will make the campaigns more effective as well as easier and more uniformly managed.

Why should people attend the International Search Summit?

It is an amazing event that not only gives you information but answers all of your questions. ISS has brought together the leading multilingual and global search practitioners then turns the audience loose with them with the most Q&A time integrated into the program of any event I have ever attended. If you have a question or challenge related to international search marketing this is the place to get it answered.

Ask Bill, and a host of other experts, your international search questions in San Jose, on Thursday March 14th. Check out the full agenda and secure your place. Save 10% on ISS passes with code WS-ISS10.

Want International SEO Success In 2013? Invest In Localized Content Now

Gemma Birch — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 16:43:34 +0000

Targeting international markets is now common practice for many brands, with the opportunities for growth overseas just too big to ignore. With a website in 16 languages, SurveyMonkey is one such company and Online Marketing Manager Eli Schwarz is responsible for all international SEO activity and strategy.

At the International Search Summit San Jose on March 14th, Eli will be sharing his experiences of managing the multilingual SEO program for a global brand and here he gives some insight into his session, as well as the opportunities and challenges facing international marketers.

What is the “big thing” in international search in 2013?

The dearth of quality online content in many non-English languages presents a significant opportunity for companies that are willing to make non-English content investments. For example, if you were to search for the term “market research survey” in English, you would still see relevant results even on page 5 of Google. If you looked at the German translation of this term, marktforschung umfrage,” on Google.de, it is arguable if all the results on just the first page are truly relevant.

Many English language brands make the assumption that their international users speak English, and will therefore find them through English search queries. While this may be true, what would happen if these users decided that they are only going to search in their primary language or if a local company began to compete? Eventually both of these events are likely to happen, and an investment in localized translated content now will give any international strategy an advantage in 2013 and beyond.

In your opinion, what are the fundamentals of successful international SEO?

The true fundamentals of international SEO, are very similar to English language SEO: a focus on the user, quality content, and quality links. The challenge with international SEO is that as a result of not being familiar with the new country/language/culture that we (any SEO) are targeting, we don’t know our users, content and links as well as we do in English. In order to be successful at expanding into another language, it is vital that we “buddy” up with a native speaker. Anyone, even someone who is a complete stranger to the world of online marketing, can help us to better understand the new market. A buddy can help narrow down the personas of users, choose the correct keywords, and assess local link targets.

Are there any markets you’ve found particularly challenging to target? And why?

I find any market that does not use the Latin Alphabet to be a challenge. Even if I cannot understand a particular language that I am targeting with a search campaign, as long as it uses the Latin Alphabet I can do all the same research and analysis as I do in English. In non-Latin Alphabet languages, I have to rely far more on others to help me choose the right keywords and strategies.

If you could give just one international search tip, what would it be?

We recently ran an SEO survey using our SurveyMonkey Audience tool, a product which allows people to get respondents for their surveys, and one of the questions assessed the impact of poor grammar and spelling on user trust. We discovered, as we expected, that there is a significant impact on how a piece of content is perceived when it has incorrect grammar and spelling. While many brands would never think of publishing anything in English without having every I- dotted, t-crossed, and comma inserted, are they as careful to make sure every umlaut is used in German or acento in Spanish? My one tip is to localize content. Don’t just translate. If you go through the effort of translating your site or products, do it right and make sure it doesn’t look amateur to a native speaker.

What will attendees take away from your session?

I am going to go through the process I use to audit existing international campaigns and launch new ones. Attendees will learn how to do keyword discovery and competitive research without needing to actually learn a new language. Attendees should also gain a new understanding of how important closely managing their international SEO campaigns should be in order to avoid localization gaffes.

Why should people attend the International Search Summit?

While there seems to be content available for every possible tail search term in English, international is the next frontier. International SEO presents opportunities for significant growth, and the Summit will give people ideas on how to succeed far out of their comfort zone.

Passes are still available for the International Search Summit @ SMX West, taking place on March 14th in San Jose, California.

View the full agenda and book your place – saving 10% with the discount code WS-ISS10

Got An International SEO Question? Then Now Is Your Chance To Ask Google!

Gemma Birch — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 14:57:19 +0000

Take the opportunity to be part of a unique international fireside chat with Google – and get the latest international SEO advice from the world’s biggest search engine.

At the International Search Summit @ SMX West, Google’s Maile Ohye will be discussing topics ranging from geo-targeting to duplication to The Knowledge Graph and sharing insight into how to best manage them across international websites. The intimate set-up will allow delegates to ask questions and find solutions to their global search challenges.

Multilingual websites bring a raft of new challenges for marketers and at the International Search Summit on March 14th, there will be a host of experts on hand to offer practical solutions and actionable tactics. Speakers include Preston Carey from Yandex, Eli Schwarz of SurveyMonkey, Mel Carson from Majestic SEO, Bill Hunt of Back Azimuth Consulting and Webcertain’s Andy Atkins-Krüger.

In addition to the Google fireside chat, there will be sessions on managing an international rollout, using keywords to drive global business, international content strategies and implementing geo-targeting.

Ask the experts your questions, share experiences with fellow international marketers and learn new tactics and techniques to drive the global growth of your business. Sound good? Then join us in San Jose – and even save 10% on your pass with the code WS-ISS10.

Overcome Key Challenges In International Search Marketing

Gemma Birch — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 09:45:23 +0000

The International Search Summit will be once again opening its doors to marketers and webmasters battling with the challenges and complexities of managing a web presence and online campaigns in multiple countries and languages.

Over the course of the day, Monday 26^th November in London, leading specialists in the global search field will be sharing tactics, tips and tools for creating successful international seo, ppc and social media campaigns.

This is a preview of the event and some of the international search challenges that will be tackled:

Geo-Targeting

This is probably the biggest issue for many organisations, understanding the best way to structure international sites to ensure the right user sees the right content.

Who better to explain it than Google Webmaster Trends Analyst Pierre Far who will be taking part in a fireside chat to talk about href lang, canonicals, local domains and all things geo-targeting.

Managing Global Agencies

Unless you have a big multinational in-house team, chances are you’ll be using an agency or multiple agencies to support any international search efforts. This brings its own set of challenges.

Cheapflights is one such organisation with these problems and its Global Search Marketing Manager Shahid Awan will be sharing his experiences and tips for success.

Social Search

You can’t have search without social these days, yet developing and managing multilingual social campaigns is no easy task.

Bas van den Beld, founder of State of Search and International SEO School tutor will be exploring the possibilities and opportunities of social search and how that works internationally.

Reputation Monitoring

With so many online platforms and channels, monitoring your brand in just one market and language is tricky enough. So how on earth can it be done on a global scale?

In what is guaranteed to be a high energy session, aimClear’s Marty Weintraub, will be sharing tactics for data-driven international community management and brand monitoring.

Managing Mobile

Smartphone, tablets, desktops – as users become increasingly likely to perform searches, actions and transactions from multiple devices, the job of the search marketer gets increasingly trickier. This is even more significant in international campaigns, where user behaviour can differ considerably.

Stanislas di Vittorio, CEO of eSearchVision , will share examples of successful cross-device strategies in international campaigns and discuss the limitations and implications of designing campaigns for multiple devices.

Of course there is more. Andy Atkins-Krüger, CEO of Webcertain and chair of the International Search Summit, will be sharing his checklist for international search success and Dixon Jones, newly announced UK Search Personality of the Year will be presenting brand new data from Majestic SEO to explain how analysing back links can have a positive impact on international performance.

With plenty of opportunities for networking with speakers and fellow delegates and breakout sessions to allow attendees to get the answers to specific international challenges, the International Search Summit has much to offer anybody working in the global online space.

Passes are still available – get yours today!

Mobile Search: Go Local To Succeed Globally

Gemma Birch — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 16:44:25 +0000

As the web becomes more complex, so does the role of the search marketer. The explosion of the mobile web has certainly introduced a range of new challenges and considerations for marketers, especially those working internationally. With mobile usage exceeding desktop usage in many global markets, having a website and search campaigns that are mobile compatible and optimised has never been more important.

Stanislas di Vittorio, CEO of eSearchVision, will be sharing tactics for managing cross-device search on an international scale and ahead of the event he shares a few of his thoughts on international and mobile search.

What do you see as the biggest challenge currently facing international marketers?

The biggest challenge is the increasing complexity of the ways in which internet users access the Web. Extra non-PC screens are in use now all over the world. In addition, the device mix varies enormously from country to country as well as the sorts of activities for which users employ these devices. But the stagnation of Desktop web use is being contrasted by exponential growth in mainly mobile devices so marketers have to figure out ways to make ads work well and to measure success.

What impact has the growth in mobile search had on international campaigns?

From a purely selfish, resources-based perspective, it’s adding much more work for campaign managers because you have to duplicate campaigns; 1 campaign may become 3 or 4 or 5 depending on what you’re trying to do.

The other big issue is where maybe certain shortcuts like setting up mirror campaigns on numerous markets were something you could get away with, different markets have different device mixes and behaviours so you need to expand into multi-screen intelligently.

Ironically, it boils down to international campaigns having to get more “local” if they want to beat the competition.

As more and more users are searching across multiple devices, how should marketers be adapting international campaigns to avoid missing opportunities?

Clearly, we’re past the point where you can have a single campaign set to “All devices” and hope to get the best out of it. Setting out duplicate campaigns (with customised bids) by device is the absolute minimum to give you both the insight and control you need. However, never be afraid to subdivide further – by Operating System, by day of week or time of day. Performance can vary enormously between iOS and Android, for instance, so be prepared to cater for that for phones and tablets. Beyond that, it depends on your business and what it could benefit from – additional localised geo-targeted campaigns can reap rewards for bricks & mortar businesses, for example.

In addition, be very flexible with budgets so that each quarter or so you can expand your presence in the non-PC space, device ownership of which is growing at about 100% every 6 months.

Finally, change your approach to measuring activity and see the value in measuring actions that demonstrate engagement short of a “conversion” such as watch a video or downloading a PDF file or app.

Are there any markets that are particularly challenging and/or unique when it comes to mobile search/strategy?

In principle, there’s no single market that is especially challenging as such, just as there’s no such place as an “easy” market – or if there is I haven’t been told about it! Just, I think, understand that market X will almost certainly have significant differences to market Y as I’ve mentioned earlier. Even if the basic marketing message in one market would work in another, you still need to customise how you implement multi-screen marketing to each market.

The European market for mobile is perhaps the most complex because it involves so many languages (not least several countries with multiple languages) and people are now crossing borders more often than anywhere else. This means that you need to follow an Italian speaker searching in Italian in Rome and 6 hours later is searching in Italian in Nice.

The picture internationally is so mixed that ultimately, nothing is a silver bullet other than thorough research and hard work.

The International Search Summit will take place on 26th November at the Business Design Centre in London. Speakers include State of Search founder Bas van den Beld, Andy Atkins-Krüger of WebCertain, Shahid Awan from Cheapflights and Majestic SEO’s Dixon Jones.

Passes are still available

Free Download: Webcertain Global Search And Social Report 2012

Gemma Birch — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 16:37:17 +0000

The latest addition of the annual Webcertain Global Search and Social Report has been released, sharing insights into the search and social markets in 34 countries across the globe.

Produced by international search marketing services provider Webcertain, the report takes a look at the internet landscape in all of the featured countries and shares invaluable statistics, data and trends to guide international search and social strategy for organisations targeting a global audience.

Did you know that Polish web users prefer local social network Nasza Klasa to Facebook? Or that Spain is one of leading countries in the world for smartphone and tablet adoption?

Are you optimising your videos for Italy, where the medium is more popular than any other major European country and have you considered new Chinese search engine Qihoo 360 when planning your strategy for China?

The Webcertain Global Search and Social Report 2012 highlights the unique characteristics of each market in one single document, making it an invaluable tool in any online marketer’s kit.

The report can be downloaded for free from the International Digital Hub. Launched today, the hub is a resource designed to support global marketers by providing free access to a range of reports, whitepapers, presentations and articles on the subject of international and multilingual online marketing.

Download The WebCertain Global Search and Social Report 2012

Act Now! Your Competitors Are Growing Internationally!

Gemma Birch — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 13:12:22 +0000

With 88% of internet users now based outside the US, it’s no surprise that more and more organizations are looking to overseas markets to grow their business and generate revenue.

Whatever your industry, it’s likely that at least some of your competitors have already made that leap into the international space, potentially leaving you trailing in their wake. And if they haven’t, you have the opportunity to take the advantage and get there ahead of them.

Of course that’s easier said than done, and targeting new markets, cultures and languages is a challenge and commitment. When it comes to online marketing, international search requires a different set of skills, techniques and considerations than SEO and PPC for your home market.

The International Search Summit is a conference dedicated to providing insights, support and advice for those navigating the choppy waters of multinational marketing. The next addition is taking place in New York as part of SMX East on October 1^st and these are just a few reasons to attend:

Unique Content: The international nature of ISS means that the topics are different to those featuring on the agenda at other search conferences. From in-depth sessions into major global markets such as China, Russia and The Middle East to a focus on geo-targeting and the confusion around local domains, subdomains and local hosting, the content is all designed to support global expansion.

Breakout Sessions: It’s not all just presentations. Small group breakout sessions give all delegates the chance to raise the specific issues facing them and their organization – and get bespoke advice from global search experts such as Bill Hunt and Andy Atkins-Krüger.

Networking : As all of the attendees are involved in international projects, you won’t ever find a better group of people to chat with about your global projects – and get new ideas to inspire your work! And the speakers are around all day – ready and willing to talk and share!

On-going Support: The contacts you make at ISS will be long-lasting, not to mention the access you’ll have to an online knowledge database which contains information on a huge range of international search and social topics

What are you waiting for? Check out the full agenda and secure your place today! Save 10% when booking with the discount code WS-ISS10.

Adobe: Standardize SEO Practices Globally, Adapt Locally

Gemma Birch — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 12:34:44 +0000

Mobile web growth is highest in Asia, Asia will lead the global e-commerce market, China has the world’s most internet users: The headlines focusing on the growth and potential for online businesses in Asia are never ending. More and more Western organisations are choosing to target users in the region, and as a result are having to develop and adapt their online marketing strategies.

Global software giant Adobe, unsurprisingly, has a significant presence across Asia, and a team dedicated to managing its SEO efforts there. Motoko Hunt leads the in-house SEO team for Adobe in Japan and the rest of APAC, and will be speaking at the upcoming International Search Summit New York on the company’s SEO tactics in that part of the world.

Ahead of ISS, she gives some valuable insights for global businesses looking to successfully optimise their presense in Asia.

Motoko, you’re managing Adobe’s SEO in Asia-Pacific. What are the biggest differences between doing SEO in that region, compared with the US?

There aren’t many differences with the SEO best practices, but the resources for APAC are smaller even though we cover multiple geo sites and languages. We also have to deal with the challenge of piracy with a few markets in APAC.

The search user’s behavior is different, and people tend to convert offline once they made the purchase decision based on the information they saw online. This means that just because Asia has smaller revenue, doesn’t mean that the SEO is failing in Asia. We just need to use different success metrics there.

How does a large global business like Adobe deal with the organizational challenges of managing global search campaigns?

We standardize the SEO practices corporate wide globally across all properties and brands. We look at the entire site as one, rather than to treat different brands and geo sites separately. We optimize the site structures and web templates centrally, which are then used by global sites. This way, we don’t need to optimize the same thing multiple times.

Also, we work closely with the other teams including Web, Social Media, and Analytics teams, to provide the SEO influences early and often at the global level. The SEO team is also well aligned with the paid search and the site search team globally. At Adobe, we are focusing on the planning and training to make the company SEO ready so that we don’t have to react to problems.

If you could give just one tip to marketers targeting Asia, what would it be?

Start with your SEO best practice that you have first, and adjust what’s needed based on the performance data. Best practices like hosting ccTLDs and hosting the site in each country are great and definitely encouraged, but may not be applied to everyone. It doesn’t mean that you will fail with SEO in Asia.

Since we all need to work with a limited resources and budget, prioritize the SEO items. To me, the process of local keyword research is one of those action items that are on top of the list.

And finally, why attend the International Search Summit?

While there are many search conferences held around the world, few of them are specialized in the area of international search like ISS. It’s a great opportunity to meet, network, and learn from the experts who practice international search on daily basis.

Early Bird rates for the International Search Summit and SMX East expire on Friday August 31st. Other speakers include Tim Gill from Shopbop, Andy Atkins-Krüger from WebCertain and Preston Carey of Russian search engine Yandex.

Retailers Should Head To Asia For Ecommerce Growth

Gemma Birch — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 13:13:20 +0000

Ecommerce brands need to be focusing on Asia for growth, according to emarketer figures which predict that the region will generate more online sales than any other by 2013. North America has consistently been the leader in B2C ecommerce sales, followed by Western Europe however both these regions will be surpassed by Asia-Pacific, where increased internet access combined with a growing middle class is boosting online purchasing.

Japan has always led online spending in the region, with 50% of all Asian ecommerce spend in 2010 coming from Japanese consumers. It will come as no surprise, however, that China is expected to take that first spot by 2013 – with a predicted share of 40% compared to Japan’s 31%.

Source:Emarketer

Maximise the Opportunity

These figures serve to confirm the potential opportunities in the Far East for internet retailers, and highlight that relying on the traditionally strong markets in North America and Europe may not be enough to drive real growth.

Yet with opportunity comes challenge and retailers need to have done thorough research and preparation in order to reap any reward from expanding. Everything from logistics to payment options to business licences must be considered and failing to have the correct setup could prove fatal – especially in China where the regulations around trading and transferring money are incredibly strict and complex.

These rules, regulations and obstacles have failed to deter many a business from taking its product offering to Asia, one such company being Amazon subsidiary Shopbop, which has recently launched a Chinese version of its site and is actively targeting customers across multiple Asian markets.

Learn More

Tim Gill, Search Manager for Shopbop, will be speaking at the International Search Summit New York on October 1st, sharing the brand’s experience of running multilingual PPC campaigns and dealing with local search engines including Baidu in China and Naver in Korea. Early Bird rates for the Summit, which runs as part of SMX East, expire on August 31st.

Keep Up! Mobile Search Is Moving Fast In Asia-Pacific

Gemma Birch — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 14:25:56 +0000

The mobile search landscape is dynamic and fast-moving, meaning digital marketers need to regularly review and update mobile strategies in order to achieve the best results. This advice comes out of Adobe’s recent Digital Index Report into Mobile, with specific focus on the Asia-Pacific region.

Currently search drives 30% of all mobile visits, globally with the figure reaching 33% in Asia (excluding China) and set to rise as mobile internet becomes more accessible.

This clearly points to the fact, which let’s face it we all know already, that mobile has to be an integral part of any international search strategy and campaign and the report highlighted a few key points to consider when planning for mobile in Asia:

China and South Korea have much lower percentages of mobile search-driven traffic than their regional counterparts, due to the popularity of portals and navigation engines within local search engines. These encourage users to stay on those sites, rather than relying on search to help them find their way around the web. Display advertising can be an effective tactic for appearing on these sites.

Local Players provide better in-country results. Naver and Baidu have higher quality results from Google in their local markets; however this doesn’t apply when they are used outside of their markets. Bing’s search results are also considered to be of high quality, however its low market share means that this quality fails to make an impact.

Despite the debate over its quality, Google is still the best performer globally on mobile devices, even in those markets where it trails local players on PC search – so don’t discount Google in China and South Korea, especially when optimising for mobile.

Interestingly, Google’s Android operating system isn’t the reason for this, as other search engines can be set as the default engine on Android, and equally Google is often the default on other OS’s such as iOS. South Korea highlights this, as it has a very high number of Android users, yet Google’s lowest mobile search share in Asia. Developments such as Apple recently announcing that it will partner with Baidu to load its search engine onto Apple devices in China and Baidu launching its own low cost smartphone, do make Google’s position unstable and need to be monitored.

Chart source: Searchenginewatch.com “Mobile Search Trends in Asia Pacific [Study]”, Adaline Lau, January 12, 2012, as included in Adobe Digital Index

Mobile is no different to any other element of international marketing – differentiating by market is key to harnessing the opportunities and effectively reaching your audience. Equally, keeping up-to-date with developments and re-aligning your strategy to move with them is vital for success however taking advantage of these growing trends could offer real rewards.

Majestic SEO Adds New Languages To Website

Gemma Birch — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 11:21:54 +0000

Following the launch of its new Keyword Checker Tool earlier this week, Majestic SEO has now launched its website in two new languages. Majestic’s web content is now available in French and German, with more languages expected to follow.

French and German speakers are now able to browse the entire Majestic SEO website in their own language, finding everything from glossaries to product descriptions to pricing plans in the localised versions. Majestic SEO already provides international data in its vast index but it is now working towards making it easier for non-English speaking users to understand and use its service.

Watch this space for more languages being added to the site.

Yandex Faces Google Role Reversal In Turkey

Gemma Birch — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 08:54:41 +0000

Despite great efforts from Google, Yandex has stood firm as the undisputed market leader in Russia, holding 60% of search share in Europe’s largest internet market. Yandex’s success is largely attributed to its superior understanding and manipulation of the complex Russian language, as well as the fact it was ahead of Google in launching a relevant produce for Russian users and had already developed strong brand awareness and customer loyalty by the time Google was in a position to compete.

However, Yandex now finds itself in the same position in Turkey – and will have to overcome the same challenges that its rival did in its native country.

These are the thoughts of WebCertain CEO Andy Atkins-Krüger as they appeared in Russian Newspaper Izvestia, which reports that Yandex is currently struggling to make gains in Turkey, currently holding only 0.5% market share. This puts it a long way from achieving the 20% share it is targeting, and it needs to be classed as a real player in the market.

So is Yandex set for failure in Turkey?

No, says Atkins-Krüger, or at least it’s far too early to tell. This is Yandex’s first international move and they haven’t got it all right – and they are learning that there is really no substitute for coming at things from a truly local perspective. The announcement of a new chairman to the board of Yandex.Turkey, Mehmet Ali Yalcindag, demonstrates the understanding that developing deeper roots on the ground in Turkey is vital to achieve the coverage it wants to there.

Google is the most popular search engine in Turkey to a large degree by default – it was the only one – but without any competition it has developed a strong following which won’t be easy to infiltrate. As well as developing a linguistic and culturally relevant search offering for users, Yandex needs to increase its brand awareness in Turkey in order to make any real gains on Google.

It has been taking some innovative steps to do so – including pushing its maps service by providing live traffic information on LED boards in some of Istanbul’s busiest streets and the executives in Moscow must be hoping that the introduction of more native Turkish experts to the team will enable them to develop their branding initiatives and drive users to their search engine.

Yandex has clearly had international expansion in its sights for some time. Making the move out of Russia, and Russian speaking markets was a big, and possibly brave decision, yet it was the search engine’s only real option if it was to really challenge the might of Google long term. Google still sees Russia as an important market and has not given up hope of taking more share there, recently even running a TV advertising campaign in order to boost its presence. If Yandex were to fail in Turkey, it would more than likely signal the end of its international aspirations and leave the engine more vulnerable than ever to its Silicon Valley nemesis.

But Rome wasn’t built in a day, and 10 months isn’t long enough to justifiably say that Yandex won’t succeed. However, it does need to up its game if it is going to be the Google killer we’re all waiting for.

Travel Sector Is The Winner In Indian E-Commerce

Gemma Birch — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 16:09:31 +0000

The travel sector is leading the way in Indian e-commerce, with one third of all travel bookings made online, says a new report from McKinsey & Company. As in many developing countries, logistics and infrastructure have hindered e-commerce growth in the Sub Continent with many retailers unable to deliver physical products, however the ability to download tickets or use e-documents removes this huge barrier for travel retailers. India’s travel market is currently dominated by two local players MakemyTrip and Yatra, which hold 48% and 30% of the market respectively and 40% of train reservations are now made online.

Despite the strength of local brands, there are still huge opportunities for international brands to capitalise on the growth of the sector, as more of India’s 1.3 billion strong population get online. Currently only a meagre 1% of Indian retail sales come from e-commerce, yet the market is set to be worth $2bn by 2015. Internet penetration is only 8.4%, low by many countries’ standards, however in a country of such size actually equates to 38 million users – by no means a small number.

It is not just the travel sector that will benefit from the growing popularity of internet shopping – 80% of Indian web users say they plan to shop online in the near future – however any growth is not without challenges. Many retailers are investing heavily in improving logistics to be able to service users around the vast country, and such investment is necessary yet it is a highly competitive space, with many local offerings as well as international competition from the likes of Amazon, who launched a version of its site in India earlier this year. Perhaps the largest challenge could be the matter of payment, with cash on delivery still the preferred method of payment in 80% of web purchases. Concerns over cyber-security are high, and with less than 1% of Indian citizens using credit cards, there is unlikely to be a swift change is payment habits.

The conclusion: India has potential for ecommerce brands. It’s users are becoming increasingly aware of the benefits of buying online and slowly becoming more inclined to do so. But make no mistake, it is a challenging marketplace and failure to understand its intricacies and plan for them, will simply result in failure for a brand.

China: Mobile Phones Now The Most Common Gateway To The Internet

Gemma Birch — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 09:37:17 +0000

Mobile Internet usage has overtaken desktop for the first time in the world’s largest internet market. A report from the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) confirms that there are now 538 million Chinese users accessing the web, with over 70% of those users doing so via mobile devices.

Many of the new internet users come from rural communities where internet access via computers just doesn’t exist and the introduction of more low cost handsets is having a positive effect on web penetration. With many models available for less than £100/ $160, from manufacturers including HTC and Lenovo, smartphones have become accessible to a wider audience in China.

Image: Baidu

A recent entrant to the market is non other than Chinese search engine Baidu, which launched its Changhong H5018 handset in May 2012. The phone is powered by Baidu’s own operating system Cloud and gives users access to 100GB of storage on its cloud storage service. Baidu had a boost in May, when Apple integrated Baidu into iOS, making it the default search engine on all iPads and iPhones in China, so the launch of a low end handset gives it coverage at both ends of the market, and will help it to maintain its dominance of the Chinese search market, where it currently has around 80% share.

Whilst China can boast an impressive 25 million new users joining the online world since the end of 2011, the latest figures show that internet growth in the country is actually slowing slightly and despite having the most users globally, China’s internet penetration still sits at just under 40% of the population. However, any decrease in growth rate does not diminish the huge importance of this market and the opportunities that exist, especially for savvy mobile marketers.

Twitter Rolls Out Advertising Solutions Globally

Gemma Birch — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 11:28:29 +0000

Twitter will roll out its advertising products across 50 countries in 2012, in order to generate more revenue from the microblogging platform which now has 140 million global users. Currently its portfolio of products – Promoted Accounts, Promoted Tweets and Promoted Trends – is only available in the US, UK and Japan but Latin America and Western European markets such as Germany and Spain are next in line to have the service available.

Twitter is continuing to grow around the world; the fastest-growing market for the social site is currently Saudi Arabia, but other markets including the UK, Spain and France are demonstrating high growth rates. It is currently available in 28 languages and continues to add more – using crowdsourcing to develop new language versions. Speaking in Cannes this week, CEO Dick Costello confirmed that Twitter has the facility to remove tweets from its platform by country – ensuring it complies with the legal restrictions of every market in which it operates.

Google Hreflang, Yandex And International Analytics: Highlights From ISS Seattle

Gemma Birch — Thu, 14 Jun 2012 10:59:45 +0000

The latest International Search Summit, which took place in Seattle at SMX Advanced last week, featured a wide range of speakers from brands, agencies and search engines, all sharing insights into international search marketing.

Here are just a few of topics discussed and tips shared:

Hreflang can now be added to XML Site maps

This is a recent development, designed to reduce the time and cost involved in implementing the tag. Hreflang can now be added to site maps, rather than needing to be added to individual page heads (although this options is still available). Google has responded to user comments on this, following concerns that the existing process was cumbersome and costly. More on hreflang tag on Search Engine Land.

Don’t just focus on Google in your Analytics

You might be using Google Analytics for your tracking, but that doesn’t mean you can only track what’s happening in Google. Ani Lopez from Cardinal Path recommended changing your page code so that data from local search engines including Yandex, Baidu and Naver will be displayed – giving you, amongst other things, keyword data from those engines which is increasingly valuable as Google reduces the amount of data it shares.

Ani also pointed out that you should use analytics data to ensure you aren’t missing international opportunities – just because you aren’t targeting certain countries, doesn’t mean you aren’t getting traffic from them. Don’t ignore what the data is telling you!

Make your PPC campaigns” Evergreen”

Continuously running low cost paid search campaigns is an effective way to gain more data and greater understanding of each target market, which can be used to develop your online strategy. This is a tactic used by Jeremiah Andrick at Logitech, who warned against assuming that you can deploy a global strategy across all markets. He used China as an example, where Logitech had to develop not just a new marketing strategy, but new products in order to appeal to local consumers and compete with local offerings.

The advice, as always: research each market thoroughly and test, test and test some more.

Yandex has a lot to offer international users

Yandex has made many steps to become more accessible to users outside of Russia. These include offering its webmaster tools, PPC interface, bid management tools and web analytics in English and it also offers account management and support. Marketers should also make use of Yandex’s data. It allows users to dig deep into specific industries and sectors to find information including user locations, keywords , brand queries and competitors, providing vital insights for developing both an organic and paid search presence in Russia.

Create a Global Marketing Glossary for Reputation Management

It takes 3.5 years for a company to recover from a damaged reputation so it is vital that organisations monitor their brand globally. WebCertain’s Michael Bonfils recommended creating a Global Marketing Glossary to determine which terms you need to track, and would include things such as slogans, brand names, trademarks, industry terms and competitors. This needs to be developed for each country you operate in, not just by language and, as with keywords for SEO and PPC, shouldn’t be translated but carefully researched and developed by those with local knowledge.

Failing to respond to criticism, negative comments or customer complaints could result in disaster for your brand –as car brand VW found out earlier this year.

The next International Search Summit will be in New York on 1st October as part of SMX East. Super Early Bird rates are available.

Implementing And Measuring The Effect Of A Global ZMOT Strategy

Gemma Birch — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 08:10:50 +0000

The mainstream adoption of the internet and the heavy usage of it via multiple devices have blurred the lines between the virtual and real world. As the way consumers process information and make buying decisions changes, so does the marketing approach to effectively reaching those consumers. This new reality has by some marketers been coined “The Zero Moment of Truth” and is on the agenda at the upcoming International Search Summit in London, where Nick Garner from Unibet will address the ZMOT principle from a global branding perspective. In the following, Nick is answering a couple of questions in advance of his session to introduce the topic.

You look after global search for Unibet, what are the biggest challenges you’re facing in 2012 when it comes to international search?
Google constantly changing the goalposts along with Multilanguage and the number of different teams I neeed to work with in order to get coverage across all of our 25 international territories

At ISS you’re speaking on ZMOT – Zero Moment of Truth, why do you think that is so important?
Because in SEO we’re obsessed with the direct marketing paradigm, i.e. 100% tracking. With Google slowly cutting off the supply of usable data via https search > ‘not provided’, SEOs need to look at other ‘soft’ spots. ZMOT is such a place. The idea is simple. Users look for ‘social proof’ from others in the form of reviews and informed commentary to help make a buying decision. They go to on average 10 different information sources online before making a buying decision about you. If you have presence in these places and the touch points are positive and helpful, then you will get more business – it’s simple!

How can organisations implement a ZMOT strategy globally? How can they measure success?
If you do a brand search for ‘brand x’ and if the brand results are good and positive, then by accident or design they are doing something to help ‘social proof’ around their brand. Success can be measured around KPI’s similar to social ones, i.e. correlatory KPI’s like surveys where users are asked about their view on Brand X after their search results have been cleaned up. Customers can also be tracked using tools like double click where you can get an idea of where the ‘hot’ touch points are with purchasing customers.

If you could give one tip to marketers working on multilingual campaigns, what would it be?
Centralise expertise around the ‘algo’ side of SEO and have tight workflow processes so you can hire part timers locally to do outreach etc for you, therefore allowing you to have a more natural interaction locally, whilst scoring on all the ‘rocket science’ stuff.

Finally, why attend the International Search Summit?
International Search is still a mystery to a lot of brands because of the scope, scale and problems around multi language. Here you will learn that it’s a case of a structured approach to tap into some of the most lucrative search territory there is.