Presented by Rob  Kerry

International SEO is not the same as multilingual SEO.

Factors for International SEO:

  • Domain names
  • Hosting
  • Content/translation

Cctlds – .co.uk, .de or .fr
Pros –

  • google automatically knows which country you are targeting – every domain name has its own authority.
  • Targets local people/market

Cons –

  • lots of resources to run multiple sites
  • Costly – new seo campaigns cctlds

Sub domains
Pros –

  • cheaper than buying

Cons –

  • treated like different domains
  • Still require a lot of links pointing to it

Sub folders
Pros-

  • cheaper than buying and managing various cctlds
  • Inherits the authority and value of the root domain

Cons –

  • lower SERP ctr seen in some countries such as .fr or .de

Making subfolders work

  • You can tell google that a subfolder is targeting a specific country GWT
  • Simply add a subfolder as a new site
  • Then set up geographic target for the site
  • Google will look at it as a different website
  • But riskier

Web hosting –

  • Hosting is becoming less important SEO factor these days
  • IP address records show where the ISP is located not where your company is located.
  • Hosting location is only a suggestion to the search engines, a cctlds will override this suggestion.

Content/translation

  • English speaking countries will require different content (US, UK or CANADA), same for Spanish speaking countries and so on.
  • Find good writers on oDesk for reasonable rates*

Q&As

Why is GWT method riskier?
There is still a fault in GWT- for example is you set up a UK site as a subfolder in GWT for example freshegg.com/uk/ and then set up freshegg.com for US market then GWT gets confused and will still think the root domain is still UK market.

How do you fix? – email someone from Google.

Are there any benefits of getting links from the same company for example .es site getting links from Spain?

The natural looking backlink profiles and anchor texts ratio is now crucial and also local links may help site look more natural.

Important note: Main domain should be targeted for your main market.

by Saurav and Modi