How to Scale Your Store Internationally Whilst Growing SEO

Explaining the 3 steps to international organic success: planning, technical setup, SEO strategy, and scaling.

Transcript

2. Hello. How to scale your store internationally whilst growing SEO (and pleasing customers!
3. A little bit about me... Hi, Iʼm Dan! Delivery Director at NOVOS. A handful of brands weʼve supported to launch or expand internationally:
4. A little bit about me... Hi, Iʼm Dan! Delivery Director at NOVOS. A handful of brands weʼve supported to launch or expand internationally:
5. 3 steps to international organic success. Planning Technical set-up 01 02 SEO strategy and scaling 03
6. Step 1 - Planning.
7. Regions to target.
8. Understanding which language/location combinations you want to target. French Dutch German (smaller population) /fr-be/ /nl-be/ /de-be/ Language URL (language-location)
9. Be careful not to target language-location combinations you do not need!
10. Domain, subdomain, subfolder.
11. Different choices based on different criteria:
12. Localisation.
13. Launching a site in English in a foreign market can help to reach a new audience. But is very difficult to scale for non-brand SEO. Translation & localisation is key.
14. The same term can describe different things. Football
15. The same term can describe different things. Football
16. The same term can describe different things. Football
17. Example - local search interest can vastly differ. Hydrangea Monthly search volume - 9,900 Hortensien Monthly search volume - 90,500
18. Translation is good. Transcreation is the gold standard.
19. Example - local names can be vastly different. Local name: Butterfly Bush Local name: Sommerflieder Translation - “summer lilacˮ) Latin name - Buddleia
20. Competition.
21. Which competitors are currently dominating? Take top 3 ranking websites for your main keyword of interest in the new market
22. Whatʼs the general size of the SEO prize?
23. Whatʼs the general size of the SEO prize?
24. What do you need to get there? Brand search volume Keyword Surfer)
25. What do you need to get there? Number & quality of links
26. What do you need to get there? Onsite content - categories, products, blogs
27. Step 2 - Technical setup.
28. Hreflang.
29. Hreflang specifies language & geographical targeting of a webpage.
30. Hreflang specifies language & geographical targeting of a webpage.
31. 1. Hreflang targets on a language-location basis. French
32. 2. All locations must reference all other locations, and themselves.
33. 3. All URLs referenced in hreflang must be indexable. Hreflang URL Rules ➔ 200 status code only ➔ Not have a <noindex> applied ➔ Not be disallowed in robots.txt ➔ Not be canonicalised to a different URL
34. Hreflang specifies language & geographical targeting of a webpage.
35. Getting your customers to the right store.
36. Geo-IP redirects - donʼt force customer or Googlebot behaviour.
37. Geo-IP redirects - donʼt force customer or Googlebot behaviour. aa.com 302 americanairlines.co.uk
38. A customer in a different location wanting to shop at home.
39. Googlebot can also sometimes get redirected.
40. Solution: use country selector popups/nav.
41. Internal linking.
42. Most country selectors link to the homepage from every page.
43. Before: back to the homepage to restart the journey. /engagement-rings/classic-solitaire Homepage
44. After: direct to the translated page of interest to convert. /engagement-rings/classic-solitaire /verlobungsringe/solitaerringe
45. Step 3 - SEO strategy & scaling.
46. Give it time.
47. Organic international growth can take time. 47
48. Market level strategy.
49. Opportunity analysis to target highest opportunity areas per region. 49
50. SEO Consultancy
51. Focus on the customer journey.
52. Building content clusters to build category pages. Expertise: Low Predicted ranking: 20100 Expertise: Average Predicted ranking: 620 Expertise: High Predicted ranking: 15
53. Research Awareness Conversion Post-Conversion A visitor does not have a particular product in mind, but is searching for inspiration and general information. A visitor is aware of a general product, but does not know the specifics of what they want. A visitor has an intent to purchase a particular product and knows what they are in the market for. A product has been purchased and a customer is looking for information about how they can be used or looked after. Understanding the customer journey. Consideration A visitor has decided on a product, and is looking for comparisons and options to find the perfect item. “what is a heat pumpˮ “types of heat pumpsˮ “air source heat pumps costˮ “heat pump installation milanˮ “how to clean heat pump air filtersˮ Creating supporting content around these areas, for every stage of the customer journey, will help us reach additional potential customers, as well as building the expertise of the site to help core transactional pages rank more competitively.
54. Adapting content for AI search S.E.E.D.
55. Links to supercharge growth.
56. Links can (still) supercharge growth.
57. Thanks. NOVOS @thisisnovos thisisnovos.com
58. NOVOS @thisisnovos thisisnovos.com