Link building is subject to the same linguistic, cultural and localisation challenges as any other aspect of international marketing. Links do not necessarily carry the same value across every market, and a tactic that works well in one country might [...]]]> Link building is subject to the same linguistic, cultural and localisation challenges as any other aspect of international marketing. Links do not necessarily carry the same value across every market, and a tactic that works well in one country might yield poor results in another.

The importance of links, however, is the same everywhere and therefore getting your global link building strategy right is an essential element of any international SEO project. Bastian Grimm will be speaking on international link building at the International Search Summit @ SMX Munich next month, and here he gives an insight into the topic and what delegates can expect in Munich.

What do you see as the major challenges for organisations targeting a multilingual audience?

“You have to get to know them; all of them – individually!” So what does it mean? Having done quite a bit of work within international companies I’d say the biggest issue is, to find out what actually works on a per-market basis. And to do so you really need to understand your audience which, obviously, differs for each country – and language. That being said, I think a successful multilingual SEO campaign needs a heavy preparation. So if you’re not simply replicating your strategy from another country (which you clearly should not do without further validation!) you have to accept that it’ll just take time, money, market-specific knowledge and a lot of work to successfully conquer another country or language.

What area of search do you see as most important for international marketers in 2012?

Usually companies operating in international environments are big brands – and updating / changing their websites does usually take quite a bit of time (not days, but months and sometimes even worse). Since Google continues pushing in new stuff like the hreflang=X property and because I expect them to continue doing so, I’d say one of the really important tasks for international marketers is going to be testing and validating new stuff before it actually goes live; which means you’d have to have multiple domains in multiple languages just for testing. This is quite a bit of work and might cause some headaches, I’d guess.

What are the biggest pitfalls to consider when developing a global link building strategy? Is it possible to have a global link strategy, when each market needs a localised approach?

It’s still the same problem as it used to be for years now: Markets do need their localised approaches; however this will cause problems with administration, handling all those different agencies and link-builders, etc. – it’s an administrative pain

And very generally speaking one needs to consider that almost everything is different on a per-country basis. Link profiles are very, very different. Looking – for example – at the amount of links, difference in deep- / start-page link ratios, types of TLDs linking-in, anchor-text distribution, geo-distribution in terms of IPs linking in, etc. – it all just differs. And that simply means you have to do a competitive analysis for each market you’re planning to build links for and  need to consider the industry as well.

What will delegates gain from your session at ISS?

I’ll try to come up with a cheat-sheet on what to actually consider when you start doing link-building in multiple markets. So the idea is to provide some kind of “what’s really important, where do I get it and what do I need to do with it?” kind of approach based on real-world data from various countries, which – I think – will be quite interesting.

And finally, why attend the International Search Summit?

That’s an easy one! There is only one truly international-dedicated conference – ISS. That being said I do like the broad range of topics but still all being focused on international search. So if you’re in international search marketing, be sure not to miss it! See you in Munich.

International Search Summit Munich will take place on Thursday 29th March, as part of SMX Munich. Full agenda and registration information is available on the website. All sessions at ISS are in English.

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How long has it been since you last received an email that came out as absolute gibberish? I do not exactly remember myself, but it has been a long time. There used to be hundreds of different encodings for storing [...]]]> How long has it been since you last received an email that came out as absolute gibberish? I do not exactly remember myself, but it has been a long time. There used to be hundreds of different encodings for storing and indexing text on the internet. Since these encodings were different, they were not as such compatible with one another. “For example, on some PCs the character code 130 would display as é, but on computers sold in Israel it was the Hebrew letter Gimel (ג), so when Americans would send their résumés to Israel they would arrive as rגsumגs”, Joel Spolsky explains on his software blog.

Unicode was invented to solve this problem by encoding all human languages and making it universal as its name implies. So basically, according to Senior International Software Architect at Google, Mark Davis: “The more documents that are in Unicode, the less likely you will see mangled characters (what Japanese call mojibake) when you’re surfing the web.”

The latest figures from Google’s annual survey of the percentage of the webpages in their index that are in different encodings reveal another significant upward move for Unicode. It now accounts for more than 60 percent of all web encodings, which is indeed good news to the many of us who enjoy translation services that allow us to find information in almost any language. Subsequently, this helps content-providers such as marketers expand their potential audiences.

*Your mileage may vary: these figures may vary somewhat from what other search engines find. The graph lumps together encodings by script. We detect the encoding for each webpage; the ASCII pages just contain ASCII characters, for example.

Google has long been using Unicode as the company’s internal format for all the text it searches and processes and will soon be updating to the newest Version 6.1 with over 110,000 individual characters. According to Mark Davis, the search giant’s unified index probably would not exist had it not been to Unicode. Or as he puts it himself: “(…) it’d be a bit like not being able to convert between the hundreds of currencies in the world; commerce would be, well, difficult.”

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Google is dominating the global desktop search marketplace, with its current market share standing at 67%, according to Trefis. While it is good to dominate, it is even better to own – and this is almost what Google does when [...]]]> Google is dominating the global desktop search marketplace, with its current market share standing at 67%, according to Trefis. While it is good to dominate, it is even better to own – and this is almost what Google does when it comes to global mobile search. According to Statcounter, Google delivers a staggering 97% of all mobile searches worldwide today. The reliability can be questioned, however many credible sources agree that Google’s global mobile market share is greater than 90%.

Mobile advertising revenues set to explode

The future impact of mobile can no longer be questioned due to the proliferation of smartphones and tablets, but in case there are still a few sceptics out there, the following will most likely help to change that perception. With mobile broadband connections already outnumbering fixed broadband 2:1, it is easy to see why some experts predict that mobile web usage will overtake that of PCs within a relatively short amount of time. According to Gartner, mobile advertising revenues will increase dramatically over the next four years (see table below). Although the estimated figures also include revenues for display, audio and video ads, the highest revenue will come from search and locations ads, Gartner predicts.

Source: Gartner (June 2011)

Should the Champagne already be flowing at Google’s corporate headquarters?

Being the undisputed king of mobile search, this is indeed fantastic news to the executives at Google (the fact that it is absolutely no surprise to them is a completely different matter). Obviously, Google is in a very enviable position – but that being said – the Champagne should be put on hold for a while if the objective is to maintain its superior position in the market.

According to mobiThinking, “mobile subscribers in the developed world has reached saturation point with at least one cell phone subscription per person. This means market growth is being driven by demand in the developing world, led by rapid mobile adoption in China and India, the world’s most populous nations. These two countries collectively added 300 million new mobile subscriptions in 2010 – that’s more than the total mobile subscribers in the US.”

With 30% of the world’s mobile users living in India and China, and mobile subscriptions rapidly approaching 1 billion in each country, these markets will prove vital future battlefields. While Google’s position in India is dominant with a market share from over 95%, Chinese search giant, Baidu, has gradually been gaining market share in China, largely at the expense of Google. Baidu has around 75-80% of the search market share in China and its leading position, which has been consolidated since Google pulled out of the country in 2010, gives Baidu the upper hand in terms of reaping the huge financial gains related to the rapidly growing Chinese mobile market.

Another player that Google should be concerned about is Yandex. The Russian search engine is leading in its domestic market – Europe’s largest internet market – and the company’s recent purchase of a NAVTEQ digital maps license consolidates its ambitions to grow the mobile area. Google’s mobile search “ownership” is being challenged and the first shots have just been fired. Now, let the games begin.

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Russia’s most visited website and leading search engine, Yandex, announced yesterday in a press release that it has purchased a license for digital maps supplied by world-leading location content provider, NAVTEQ. In using NAVTEQ’s comprehensive [...]]]> Russia’s most visited website and leading search engine, Yandex, announced yesterday in a press release that it has purchased a license for digital maps supplied by world-leading location content provider, NAVTEQ. In using NAVTEQ’s comprehensive map data, Yandex follows in the footsteps of Bing and Yahoo who also rely on data from the Nokia subsidiary.

Yandex expands its global reach

When Yandex launched a local search engine in Turkey last year,  yandex.com.tr, this somewhat indicated the company’s ambitious expansion plans. The roll-out back then was supported with map data from NAVTEQ: “We already have a happy experience sourcing map content from NAVTEQ. The detailed map of Turkey launched last year was the first map we licensed from NAVTEQ. And it was a tremendous success,” said Maria Orlova, head of Yandex.Maps Production and Quality Control Service.

According to the press release, this new comprehensive deal will provide Yandex with map content from all over the world, including highly detailed maps of Europe, North America, Australia and developed countries in Asia. For Yandex, obviously, this is a significant move towards strengthening its position outside of Russia. Maria Orlova adds: “Our association with NAVTEQ, the leading map content provider, will help us take Yandex.Maps to the level of a comprehensive, all-purpose mapping service that can answer questions about countries throughout the world.”

The mobile platform will gain impetus

After acquiring major mobile software developer SPB Software in late 2011, Yandex CEO Arkady Volozh expressed that mobile is a vital part of the company’s growth strategy. Surely, this deal will be integrated on all major platforms, but above all it reflects the great emphasis given to the high-growth mobile area – arguably the most important future battlefield. How Yandex will move forward with this deal will be interesting to see.

Preston Carey from Yandex will be speaking at the International Search Summit @ SMX West on February 27^th.

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According to Alexa, the top ten local websites in Cyprus are sigmalive.com, kerkida.net, 24sports.com.cy, philenews.com, onlycy.com, shootandgoal.com, supermpala.com, politis.com.cy, laiki.com and apoel.net.

These websites attract thousands of visitors, however, according to our study these are not SEO friendly. The SEO factors used [...]]]> According to Alexa, the top ten local websites in Cyprus are sigmalive.com, kerkida.net, 24sports.com.cy, philenews.com, onlycy.com, shootandgoal.com, supermpala.com, politis.com.cy, laiki.com and apoel.net.

These websites attract thousands of visitors, however, according to our study these are not SEO friendly. The SEO factors used for comparison are the following:

Title: The text that appears in the browser. Titles should be relevant and use primary keywords.

Meta Description: While not important to search engine rankings, they are extremely important because they are used by search engines in the search engine result pages (SERPs). Users usually read these descriptions and decide whether to click on a result or not.

Headers: Header tags communicate to search engines and readers what a page is about.

Friendly URLs: URLs should be readable by visitors. Also search engine robots prefer friendly URLs.

Sitemaps: Sitemaps help search engines index a website.

robots.txt: Search engine robots look for file robots.txt. This file tells them which web pages should be indexed and which pages should be ignored.

Custom Error Page: Error pages are shown when a visitor tries to access a web page that is unavailable. Websites should always have a custom error page to help visitors navigate to other available parts of the website.

Pages Indexed: Number of pages that are indexed by Google. This number can be found with the search query  ”site:www.example.com”

Backlinks: Number of external referring domains to a website. The tool used was majestic SEO.

Google Analytics Installed: Free service by Google that generates statistics about the visitors to a website.

Conclusions

1.     Top Cypriot websites are not SEO friendly. Positive factors in the websites surveyed appear to be just features of the systems tha the websites run.

2.     All of them have Google Analytics installed.

3.     Backlinks and number of pages indexed is important.

4.     Websites could easily fix negative factors such as titles, meta description and add a sitemap and a robots.txt.

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Geo-targeting is a common problem for organizations with an international website, who are targeting multiple languages and regions around the world. Making sure the right user sees the right content at the right time is the goal – but achieving [...]]]> Geo-targeting is a common problem for organizations with an international website, who are targeting multiple languages and regions around the world. Making sure the right user sees the right content at the right time is the goal – but achieving that is not always easy. How do you ensure that all your UK customers aren’t seeing prices in dollars or that your Spanish users aren’t seeing product pages that are only available in Peru?

Well Google has recognised these challenges and has adapted the way website owners can signal the intended recipients of web content. It may appear confusing at first – it did for me at least – and does need careful implementation but Google is offering a helping hand to marketers struggling with geo-targeting and duplication issues.

There are several excellent explanations of what has changed and how it can be implemented on SearchEngineLand and SearchEngineWatch so I won’t replicate that here, but there are two scenarios where this new markup will apply:

• Websites targeting multiple regions with very similar content in the same language (e.g. the US, the UK and Australia in English)
• Websites that have fully translated content, targeting multiple markets (e.g. German, French and Spanish pages)

This change is mainly applicable to international websites hosted on dotcoms, with subdomains for each market rather than those on local domains, which clearly target a specific market. While local domains provide clear signal to both search engines and users that the site is locally relevant, and therefore, are is still a recommended strategy, Google’s changes will improve the targeting for dotcoms.

Google Webmaster Trends Analyst Susan Moskwa will be speaking at the International Search Summit at SMX West, where she will be discussing how to implement the rel=”alternate” hreflang markup and sharing examples of when to use it, as well as answering delegate questions.

The International Search Summit will be held on Monday February 27^th, as part of SMX West. It focuses entirely on international and multilingual search and social marketing and sessions will include Global Domain Strategies, Spanish SEO, Global Social Media, and The Other Search Engines.

Early Bird Rates expire on Saturday January 28^th.

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With 153 million users, Spanish is the 3rd most used language online, trailing only English and Chinese. However, the variations of this language, along with the cultural diversity of those using it are vast, making the job of the search [...]]]> With 153 million users, Spanish is the 3rd most used language online, trailing only English and Chinese. However, the variations of this language, along with the cultural diversity of those using it are vast, making the job of the search marketer all the more challenging.

Ani Lopez, a native Spaniard working as an SEO Manager at Cardinal Path in Canada, will be speaking on the topic of keyword research for Spanish speaking markets at the International Search Summit @ SMX West on February 27th in San Jose. Here Ani shares important insights and tips for marketers targeting a Spanish speaking audience anywhere in the world.

Does the Spanish language create any particular difficulties for search marketers?

Sure! All languages evolve over time, but some are more diverse than others. Spanish is one of these that, growing richer, make it more difficult to manage when targeting multiple markets.

Its distribution is pretty blurry and jumps across continents, cultures and media. For instance, Spanish is the official language in 21 countries and an unofficial but widely spoken language in many others: There is the same number of Hispanophones in the US as the population of Spain and Spanish  is the 3rd most used language online (153M users) after English and Chinese.

With types of Spanish, like formal or colloquial, plus regional dialects and varieties, the idea of just using ‘standard Spanish’ is something that I don’t to buy into. Even grouping them – trying to make it simpler – leaves us with too many variants: Caribbean, South American Pacific, Central American, Highland American and more.

The rapid growth of Spanish speaking internet users is spicing up the language a bit, but it is the diversity that Spanish has achieved due to historical factors, different cultures crossing its path, geographical reasons and such, which makes it so intricate.

What are the major challenges of targeting multiple Spanish-speaking markets online?

Writing Adwords copy in Argentinean for a market of Spaniards is not going to be successful unless, of course, you are deliberately targeting Argentinean people living in Spain. Incorrect localization makes potential clients lose confidence in your company and raises brand reputation issues.

Besides the fact that grammar and vocabulary may change, you get very different dialects and accents. These, of course, do not severely prevent understanding among the educated but – big warning here - very common words in one country/language group may have not only different meanings, but vulgar or absolutely inappropriate ones in others.

In this complex scenario the real challenge is localization, something which is nothing new to advanced international marketers, but it becomes even more critical for Spanish speaking markets. This doesn’t just apply to grammar and vocabulary, but also style or the way we phrase ideas. While Spaniards are more direct and succinct, Uruguayans can be more creative or indirect in their expression. With Argentineans you have to read/write between the lines.

Are there any characteristics that are consistent across all markets where Spanish is spoken?

Formal Spanish is a little easier to cope with as it maintains a bit more consistency across borders and cultures. That’s a small relief when managing content strategies for corporate sites.

Other than that it is hard to find consistencies across markets. If you want to sell sneakers (that’s trainers in the UK) to teenagers in Mexico the Spanish you use is going to be completely different than the one you should be using addressing Argentineans or Castilian users.

What opportunities can organizations exploit in those markets?

It depends on the region. Nobody doubts, nowadays, that Latinos in US are a big demographic target. Proof of that is that big companies in many different market sectors have already translated their sites into Spanish. Victoria’s Secret, Papa Johns, Best Buy and Citibank are all good examples.

A different story is what’s happening south of the US. Fortunately, Latin American countries are awaking from a troubled past and poverty has continued to decrease over the last 10 years. Nothing makes me happier!

Therefore, there is a market of 572 million people, of which Spanish makes up about ~66% and Brazilian-Portuguese,~33%. Of course every country in the region has its own particularities but opportunities are already there for those who want to expand.

What tips can you offer marketers trying to reach Spanish speakers in the US?

That is even more challenging. ‘Hispanic’ in US refers to people whose origin is Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Spanish-speaking Central or South American countries, or other Hispanic/Latino, regardless of race. It is truly a melting pot of different cultures which must be considered – although Mexicans do represent a majority.

H.G.Wells in his future history “The Shape of Things to Come” predicted that, in XXI century, English and Spanish would become interchangeable languages. Well, more than interchangeable, we now have a new variance on top of this complex linguistic situation: Spanglish. Living la vida loca!

First Tip: Start planning using Hispanic demographic data in the US, but don’t expect your audience’s behaviour to mimic this data.

Second Tip: Listen carefully to your analytics’ tools to find more reliable trends and outliers.

You’re speaking specifically on keyword research for Spanish speaking markets at ISS. What will delegates learn from your session?

I’ll be explaining how to use free online tools to help you localize Spanish correctly. When it comes to localization, there is nothing better than having native speakers do the work, but even they have to double check localization of words and expressions to make sure their Paid Search or SEO campaigns target the right Spanish audience and yield the desired revenue.

Finally, why attend the International Search Summit?
That’s an easy question to answer. Simply because it is the best summit for those who will have to get their hands dirty planning or executing international online marketing campaigns.

Three reasons to attend:

1) It is organized by a company that knows the challenges of internationalization.

2) It has high level presenters and presentations offering fresh data and real cases.

3) Last but not least, the size of the event makes it very easy for everyone to mingle and chat with presenters and attendees. This is what makes it very exciting for me, because I love to exchange information and experiences.

Early Bird Rates for the International Search Summit and SMX West are available until January 28th. Others sessions include Google: A New Markup for Multilingual Content, Global Domain Strategies and The Other Search Engines.

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The Financial Times is reporting today that Dealreporter.com (a subscription service) has details of a 400 page document spelling out accusations from complainants to the EU related to abuse of the search engine’s commercial dominance in Europe.

The total list [...]]]> The Financial Times is reporting today that Dealreporter.com (a subscription service) has details of a 400 page document spelling out accusations from complainants to the EU related to abuse of the search engine’s commercial dominance in Europe.

The total list of complainants is now growing in length and includes, Foundem, eJustice, Ciao!, 1plusV, VfT, Microsoft, Elfvoetbal, Hotmaps, Interactive Labs, nnpt.it, dealdujour.pro, and Twenga. There are at least two more German complaints which were referred by the Bundeskartellamt (Federal Cartel Office) and others which have not yet been revealed. In fact Dealreporter.com says that there are now so many complainants that, “The internet search giant will not get away easily as there are too many complainants, most of whom will not be satisfied with mere promises”.

Eric Schmidt is reportedly making a further courtesy visit to the Commission next week which is arousing significant interest from Brussels diplomats. This will be at least Mr. Schmidt’s second visit.

Google is being accused not because it currently servers roughly 90% of search queries throughout most of Europe (excluding the Czech Republic and Russia) but because it is taking advantage of that position by favouring its own services and reducing the rankings of competitors.

Google’s defence will be that it is providing the services it’s customers are looking for — but as an EU fine could be as much as 10% of turnover, Google really will have to cooperate with the Commission to come up with a solution. Microsoft, in the same position some years ago, gave software users more access to choose web browsers. Google may in fact be forced to offer access to other search engines via its own search box.

Google defenders will say that Google is a commercial entity and can offer its own services as such — in fact Bing does the same thing. However, it is highly unlikely that this will wash with the European Commission because of the search engine’s dominance and therefore power over other businesses which will be viewed as giving it additional responsbilities beyond its own commercial needs. Expect a huge fine — it is now definitely on the cards and would be in the billions of dollars.

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Strategically a very significant step was announced in eastern Europe today — Yandex’s video search system is to power Seznam as part of a wider partnership agreement! The video search service is at videa.seznam.cz and has been re-developed [...]]]> Strategically a very significant step was announced in eastern Europe today — Yandex’s video search system is to power Seznam as part of a wider partnership agreement! The video search service is at videa.seznam.cz and has been re-developed specifically for Seznam, the Czech language and its users. Seznam has a leading 56% share of the Czech search market according to Toplist’s November 2011 figures.

The new video search engine is based on the Czech language, and takes into account the Czech grammatical structure. Users will also soon be able to automatically correct spelling mistakes and typos in their search queries using the service.

However, this arrangement is much more significant than just a sharing of video technology. Yandex has expanded its team to include members from the Czech Republic which means that we can expect much more cooperation to come out of this partnership.

It makes sense for the two most successful slavic search engines to cooperate in this way and could be a precursor to a complete re-alignment of search marketing in eastern Europe.

Seznam’s new service is based on the same technology as Yandex.Video, Yandex’s video search service for the Russian-speaking audience. Users can search for videos both on the Czech internet and across the entire web. Videa.seznam.cz searches on more than 200 Czech video resources and currently works directly with twelve major video hosting services, including Idnes.cz, Stream.cz and Voyo.

“Yandex and Seznam first met ten years ago and have since stayed in touch, sharing our experiences,” says Arkady Volozh, CEO of Yandex. “Our companies have a lot in common. Like Yandex, Seznam is the leader in its home market, despite the presence of major global players. We are glad that we are now not just colleagues, but partners who share technologies with each other.”

During my last visit to Moscow, I was fortunate to discuss Seznam with CEO Arkady Volozh. It was apparent then that Yandex’s view was that cooperation made most sense. Seznam, the smaller partner in the relationship, may have been concerned about being overshadowed by a much larger partner. However, the threat from Google in the Czech Republic and eastern Europe generally has clearly helped the management team to revise their thinking.

“Seznam.cz and Yandex both share the same goal of keeping the world of search diversified. We are happy that the mission of the company whose video search technology we chose out of four competing search providers was similar to ours. We also appreciate long-term partnerships and are happy that Seznam.cz together with Yandex will bring video search to Czech users,” says Pavel Zima, Chief Executive Officer of Seznam.cz.

Every day, about three million web users visit Seznam.cz. Over 5% of queries on the web portal are related to video search.

Seznam.cz is the largest Czech Web portal visited by every Czech internet user at least once a month. On its homepage it provides up-to-date news, information and e-mail, as well as search engine and links to field-specific websites also belonging to Seznam.cz (such as real-estates offers, car offers, etc.). Seznam.cz uses its own search engine technology. It is the only Latin alphabet technology all over the world that managed to keep the majority on the local market in spite of Google´s presence and trial to change this situation.

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For decades it was the media companies that largely controlled the tools through which consumers were told what to buy and where. With the mass popularity of the Internet consumers now have the ability to generate, curate and distribute content [...]]]> For decades it was the media companies that largely controlled the tools through which consumers were told what to buy and where. With the mass popularity of the Internet consumers now have the ability to generate, curate and distribute content to their peers in real time. As a result they can also effectively co-author the stories that brands tell and do seek active engagement from the brands that they use.

While associating themselves with their favorite brands on social media platforms, and even while checking information online, consumers may have totally different expectations than what the brands owners perceive. A recent study by Yahoo! and BBDO involves the information collected from more than 1000 consumers and brand marketing professionals.

The study divulges that 96 percent of the consumers want to know the exact product price, product features and proof points from a brand. In comparison only 86 percent of marketers feel that this information matters to consumers. Similarly, while 58 percent of the consumers actually want to know about the history and the eccentric or quirky details of the brand, only 41 percent perceive that consumers look for such details.

As per the study, 45 percent of the consumers look for interesting online stories about the brand but only 41 percent of the marketers believe that they do so.

The biggest discrepancy lies in the concept of sharing – the one quite directly related to social networking sites and other review sharing platforms. 91 percent of the consumers admit that they like to put their views about brands online and share it with consumers but only 56 percent of the marketers feel that this matters to consumers!

Apparently, it is time for brands that want to enjoy a good presence in the market to have a better understanding of the consumer psyche. They need to know how important the concepts of sharing and social media are for the Internet savvy customer.

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International SEO, Geo-targeting, Global Search Trends, International PPC and Multilingual Video Optimisation are just some of the sessions on offer at the International Search Summit London on November 24th.

Targeted at international marketers, the Summit focuses on the topics, issues [...]]]> International SEO, Geo-targeting, Global Search Trends, International PPC and Multilingual Video Optimisation are just some of the sessions on offer at the International Search Summit London on November 24th.

Targeted at international marketers, the Summit focuses on the topics, issues and challenges involved in creating and managing search and social media campaigns in multiple markets and languages.

The speakers at the Summit are all experienced in the international space and will share tactics, best practice, case studies and strategies for running successful global web marketing campaigns.

A full agenda is online and early bird rates apply until 31st October.

Kristjan Mar Hauksson, a regular speaker at the event,  answers a few quick fire questions on international search marketing:

Kristjan, what is the biggest challenge facing the international search marketer in 2011?
“In my experience it is their mistake of generalizing when approaching foreign markets, that is thinking that their experience in one market works in another”

In your opinion, what are the biggest opportunities available to organisations venturing into overseas markets?
“Realizing the potential!”

You’re speaking on Global Reputation Management at ISS. What are the biggest mistakes you see organisations making when it comes to managing their brand online?
“Churning out content without a clear strategy, both short and long term”

What do you think are the most effective online channels to use as part of a reputation management strategy?
“For distribution there are as many as there are countries, there are also as many as the audience groups you are targeting so I cannot say that there are any that stand out. But I can say that the strategy needs to be in place before you start and then choose the channels not the other way around”

If you could give just one tip to anyone embarking on a global search campaign, what would it be?
“Give it time and be patient. The ROI will come”

Finally, why attend the International Search Summit?
“Simple: Good speakers, good engagement with the speakers and relevant topics”

To see the full agenda, check out delegate testimonials and book your place, visit www.internationalsearchsummit.com.

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Today’s Infographics Mondays series looks at Google Adwords costs. Google set another record with its Q3 2011 revenue reaching USD9.72 billion (USD9billion in Q2 2011) representing a 33% increase vs [...]]]> Today’s Infographics Mondays series looks at Google Adwords costs. Google set another record with its Q3 2011 revenue reaching USD9.72 billion (USD9billion in Q2 2011) representing a 33% increase vs Q3 2010. Around 70% of Google’s revenue is generated by Google Adwords and 27% by Google Adsense. See where Google is making its money, what industries are the most expensive to be promoting on the Adwords network.

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As a board member of SEMPO, the Search Engine Marketing Association and a multilingual internet marketer, I need to weigh in on many things when I consult my clients and one of them is what search engine to choose [...]]]> As a board member of SEMPO, the Search Engine Marketing Association and a multilingual internet marketer, I need to weigh in on many things when I consult my clients and one of them is what search engine to choose to market through.

As a SEMPO board member, I also need to be aware of things such as the FTC’s investigation into Google and this prompted me to think “how can an organization like Google be reviewed, how can a company that relies only on its IP (intellectual property) be examined without having to yield and explain their algorithm and what is then left when the chef has given the secret spice in the award winning recipe?” Not much.

There are so many search engines out there including Yahoo!, Bing (now powering Yahoo! in many locations around the world), Ask and some regional ones such as Baidu in China and Yandex in Russia. You are actually likely to find literally hundreds of them.

Why then do most of the internet users around the globe start their online searches with Google? What makes Google better (or worse) than its competitors?  What is it that makes Google so special that even in languages that are considered hard to crack, such as my native language Icelandic, is Google superior to home-made engines that should at least give Google some contest and a run for their money?

In simple terms, Google gives the people the answers they’re looking for – it may be the latest news, information on a product or process, or the sellers of merchandise or services – but Google has everything in its massive database, everything needed to fulfill the needs of the user and they return, in most cases, the most relevant results based on my experience and tests conducted regularly at my company.

Google algorithms actually seem to understand what the users have in mind and do return relevant and excellent search results. But how does one define excellent search results? Perhaps, you can wind back to 1996 when search on AltaVista and Ask Jeeves comprised short tailed queries. You had to search manually through pages and pages of results before finding anything that made sense for you. It was Google that changed all that. Thanks to its superior search algorithms, you rarely need to go beyond the results of first page for any search.

Companies such as Microsoft and Yahoo have been gunning for Google’s level of search relevance for years. Certainly they do have access to talent for developing great algorithms but still Google continues to rule and is the favourite search engine for all.

There is a lot of hard work that goes behind Google results you are so accustomed to. The search engine makes up to 500 changes to search algorithms every year where each change aims to give better and more relevant results to users. It knows that users come to search engines to help them sift through all the information on the web and not every site can appear at the top of the results.

Certain websites complain that frequent changes in Google algorithms cause them to lose their ranking and traffic. But Google does provide huge information to websites on the techniques to improve their own performance through tools like the Google Webmaster Tools.

Google has also impacted technological innovation in positive ways. Its well-known Android mobile platform has sparked new improvements in mobile devices. Also its web browser Chrome helped to initiate innovation in the otherwise inactive browser domain.

Google’s search quality team has worked hard to develop algorithms that give better visibility to small and local business home pages. It was observed that web pages of small and medium business enterprises got buried or lost amidst big brand names on the web. But with Google publishing results based on local searches, they have better chances of reaching the top of search results. The search engine leader keeps small businesses in mind while improving and testing its new algorithms.

The biggest problem that small businesses face is that they do not have a website to reflect in results. But even they get the required support from Google through features like Google Places and Google Maps.  And Google’s new “Getting America’s Business Online” initiative is helping bring even more businesses online. This initiative actually interests me and I hope that they roll it out in more countries.

Based on what I have experienced and seems to be Google’s only consideration is to give the best answers to users’ queries – without any political viewpoints or advertising dollars. Indeed it also claims that free organic listings are clicked more often than PPC ads.

Sometimes the best answer to a query may be among one of the traditional “ten blue links.” But there are instances where it can also be a news article, sports score, stock quote, flight timing, video or a map — and Google can place it above other results if that’s what the user needs!

The bottom line is that no chef will give out their secret ingredient nor should they be forced to. The secret behind Google’s global success is that they serve their users in a simple and straight forward manner the right relevant results and while they do that they have the upper hand.

The user is wise enough to distinguish between relevant and non -relevant results.

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Twitter is now available in an additional 5 languages, Simplified and Traditional Chinese, Hindi, Tagalog and Malay, meaning that the microblog is now available in a total of 17 languages.  It also plans to increase add six more languages: [...]]]> Twitter is now available in an additional 5 languages, Simplified and Traditional Chinese, Hindi, Tagalog and Malay, meaning that the microblog is now available in a total of 17 languages.  It also plans to increase add six more languages: Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Finnish, Polish and Hungarian.

Twitter, which last week, announced that it has 100 million active global users, uses crowdsourcing to translate its site, apps and support pages.

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Baidu, China’s top online search engine, teamed up with Dell to integrate the Yi OS, an Android alternative, into Dell’s smart phones and tablets manufactured in China. Baidu’s Yi OS has some tough competion in China with Nokia and Alibaba. [...]]]> Baidu, China’s top online search engine, teamed up with Dell to integrate the Yi OS, an Android alternative, into Dell’s smart phones and tablets manufactured in China. Baidu’s Yi OS has some tough competion in China with Nokia and Alibaba. Alibaba recently released it’s Aliyun OS, a Linux-based operating system, on a Chinese-manufactured smartphone.

The Chinese mobile market is growing at an incredible page with over 900 million mobile subscribers and over 350 million mobile Internet users, buying 250 million new handsets each year according to this article by Alvin Wang Graylin at this Click Z article

The main competition comes from Apple and Lenovo with Apple leading the way, in fanatical fan behaviour at least, as highlighted by these stories on TechCrunch – girls giving up theirvirginity for an iPhone 4 and a Chinese teenager selling his kidney for an iPad 2.

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Internet users prefer sharing content than creating it, is a key message to come out of the latest GlobalWebIndex report, which surveys web users in 27 markets around the world.

When asked “Which online activities have you done in the [...]]]> Internet users prefer sharing content than creating it, is a key message to come out of the latest GlobalWebIndex report, which surveys web users in 27 markets around the world.

When asked “Which online activities have you done in the past month”, almost 70% of respondents had watched an online video clip, 50% had managed a social network profile
and 35% had commented on a story, yet only 25% had written a blog post and less than 20% had written an article.

The growth of social media platforms has made it so easy to share and distribute content, which presents huge opportunities for those creating interesting, compelling and attractive content. Create good content and there will be plenty of people willing to share it

Other data in the report supports the importance of social sharing, with social networking growing across all global regions, although significant growth is now being driven by emerging markets rather than mature ones. Microblogging is also growing but, surprisingly it is not the advanced web markets like the USA and EU5 countries (UK, France, Germany, Spain & Italy) that are driving this growth, rather the BRIC markets, where 40% of users have been active on a microblogging site.

In contrast, blog engagement is either stagnating or declining across all markets, however the highest levels of engagement are also by users in the BRIC markets.

Perhaps most interesting to note, is the decline in contributions and interactions on Facebook, despite the social network continuing to grow its global user base. From sharing photos to installing an app to joining a group, there has been a global drop in the number of users active on the site and its different functions, with the most significant drop coming amongst young, college-educated users in the US, who were the early adopters of the network.

Brett Petersen, Senior Strategy Consultant at Trendstream, which produces the GlobalWebIndex, will be speaking at the International Search Summit @ SMX East in New York, on Monday 12th September where he will be sharing many more insights into global web usage and behavior.

Here, Brett answers a few questions about the Global Web Index data and its value to international marketers

What exactly is GlobalWebIndex?

The GlobalWebIndex is the world’s most in-depth, continuous research study into online consumer behaviour. Since 2009, the GlobalWebIndex has surveyed nearly 100,000 internet users across 27 different countries. The data is then provided in an intuitive online tool, as opposed to reports, to allow marketers and brands to customise the data to their needs by building their specific target audiences and analysing their online and social media behaviour.

There are many great sources of data and trends online, what is different and valuable about the GlobalWebIndex reports?

The GlobalWebIndex is unique in the fact that it is the only research study to survey online and social media behaviour across all types of internet capable devices within a single survey. Other research providers often survey mobile, PC, and tablet separately, but researchers cannot cross compare that data because the information is coming from different respondents that are surveyed using different methodologies. The GlobalWebIndex makes these comparisons possible, allowing marketers and researchers to get a much more accurate picture of the online environment. The fact that the exact same survey is asked in 27 markets also makes the data comparable across all GWI markets.

How can and should marketers use the data to improve their global web activity?

Having a detailed understanding of what your target audience is doing online is critical to developing not just a brand’s digital marketing strategy but determining the overall marketing mix to ensure that resources are allocated in the most efficient way possible. The GlobalWebIndex, however, goes beyond illustrating what consumers are doing online to also explain their motivations for doing (or not-doing) specific online activities. It also give brands a chance to add their specific brand to the survey to track how their customers behave online and determine the best ways to engage them and build brand advocates.

What is the most interesting or surprising trend you’ve seen over the past few years?

I think there are two overarching trends that occurring at the moment that are challenging how we’ve traditionally viewed the internet. The first is the localization of the internet. Instead of becoming a global network that drives convergence in online consumer behaviour and culture, the global internet is more a series of local internet, each with its own culture and norms.

The second is the move towards Post-PC era. This is a view that grown out of our research but is often challenged by others on the grounds that PC sales still outweigh mobile devices sales etc. While that is definitely true, the key question for us is where are consumers most likely to be engaged online because higher engagement results in better marketing effectiveness for our brands. Our research indicates a continuing shift towards higher online activity via mobile devices thanks to high-value packaged internet services that are available in real-time, no matter where they are.

Which global markets do you think marketers should be investing in now?

The markets to invest in at the moment depend on the scope of your campaign and brand strategy. Advertising in many newly industrialised and emerging markets is still underdeveloped and there is significant scope for marketing investment in these markets as their middle classes become richer. The bigger emerging markets such as China, Brazil, Russia, and India have escaped the worst of the ongoing economic downturn and consumer spending in these countries must rise to compensate for reduced demand from Western markets in the future. This is not to say that marketers should not devote significant time to Europe and North America because their consumer markets are massive and advertising will be more critical than ever as household budgets are squeezed.

Online marketing in emerging markets is particularly important because they do not have the legacy of developed media markets that exist in Europe and North America. Emerging market consumers are going online for everything in their everyday lives from entertainment to personal well-being, and this presents great opportunities for marketers to begin the long process of brand building in these markets.

Why attend the International Search Summit?

The International Search Summit is a vital resource for search marketers because , as GWI research indicates, the results from a search engine are still some of the most effective purchase drivers out of all advertising communications methods, not just online. Furthermore, the localisation of the internet demands that every online and search advertising campaign be tailored to specific local markets. The International Search Summit gathers the world’s most knowledgeable online and search marketing experts to deliver insights that allow agencies and brands to achieve country tailored campaigns as part of a broader international brand strategy.

Tickets are still available for the International Search Summit @ SMX East. Other speakers include Preston Carey from Yandex,  Jae Choi of NHN USA (Naver), Rishab Aiyer Ghosh from Topsy and WebCertain’s Andy Atkins-Krüger.

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Google Adwords has seen many developments lately: from the adwords video to adwords express.

If you check your Google mail account you see adwords ads in gmail on [...]]]> Google Adwords has seen many developments lately: from the adwords video to adwords express.

If you check your Google mail account you see adwords ads in gmail on top of the menu bar and on the right hand side of your opened message. Up until very recently, those ads were only text based. Well this has now changed. Adwords has now gone graphic in Gmail.

The new AdWords image format appearing above the text ads in the right sidebar includes

• an image,
• a headline
• lines of text,
• next to an envelope icon, the advertiser’s name
• clicking the ad will take the user to an e-mail message.

A Google spokesperson said, “the ads are designed specifically for Gmail and look and function a little differently from regular text ads and the ads are being shown to “a small number” of users in the U.S. and testing began in July.”

We are yet to be informed on:

• which advertisers are testing this new feature – we read that Groupon is part of the test group -
• how do advertisers pay for these ads
• how these ads are targeted

It will surely increase adwords click through ratio in Gmail

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Today sees the start of the Yahoo-Microsoft Search Alliance roll-out into Europe, with Yahoo! organic search results in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK and Ireland being powered by Bing. This change has already been implemented in the US & [...]]]> Today sees the start of the Yahoo-Microsoft Search Alliance roll-out into Europe, with Yahoo! organic search results in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK and Ireland being powered by Bing. This change has already been implemented in the US & Canada, Australia & New Zealand as well as some Latin American markets.  Despite Bing technology powering the results, both search engines will continue to deliver their own search experience. Yahoo and Microsoft have as yet not given a date for roll-out to the rest of Europe.

The paid search element of the Alliance is already live in North America and Cedric Chambaz of Microsoft says testing is underway to ensure a quality transition experience is available to international advertisers. There is as yet no indication of when this service will be available in Europe.

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Google has officially launched AdWords Express, a new, easy Pay Per Click service for local businesses.