Competitive Strategies in International Search Placement

W. www.praxisnow.ie T. 01-2360076

© Copyright 2011, praxisnow.ie - 1
Competitive Strategies in
INTERNATIONAL SEARCH
PLACEMENT
JOHN COBURN
E. jcoburn@praxisnow.ie
T. 01-2360076
eMarketing Workshop | 14 April 2011


1 SEO
National Search Targeting
If you are far from the enemy, make him
believe you are near
Sun Tzu



1 : 40 Non-Brand-related
WEBSITE TRAFFIC

UNIQUE KEY-PHRASES
Source: Covario / NetConcepts


Things that can impact Google’s
understanding of your target geography Domain Extension

Google Webmaster Domain Registration
Setting (generic TLD) Address

Hosting IP Address



BEST .co.uk or generic: registered
and hosted in UK

GEOLOCATION Neighbourhood
Inbound Link Topology



THEORETICALLY .co.uk or generic: registered
Ireland and geo-located to UK
EQUIVALENT
Neighbourhood
GEOLOCATION

NOTE: Not workable
with a .ie domain



STILL AT HOME Dangers of replication!

Neighbourhood
GEOLOCATION



What many Irish
DEFAULT Companies are doing:
Neighbourhood
GEOLOCATION Inbound Link Topology

NOTE: Can still compete
for unique brands, geo-
locator based terms and
unique search phrases



Things that can impact Google’s
understanding of your target geography Domain Extension

Google Webmaster Domain Registration
Setting (generic TLD) Address

Neighbourhood Hosting IP Address




SOME IMPLICATIONS OF
LOCATION-BASED SERPS
BASED ON INCREASINGLY GRANULAR GEO-LOCATION



SEPARATE WEBSITES
(OR GEO-LOCATED SUB-DOMAINS)
DEPLOYED PER TARGET GEOGRAPHY
Contrary to popular opinion:
It’s not about buying up national key-
phrase based domains and redirecting
to your website.



A “GEO-LOCATION STRATEGY”
IS REQUIRED
FOCUS ON EXTENDED / LONG-TAIL?
CITY-LEVEL TARGETING?
CATEGORY PAGES ONLY?



ORIGINAL CONTENT
IS REQUIRED

DUPLICATE DESIGN /
EDIT CONTENT & KEY-PHRASE TARGETS


“AUTHORITY” & KEY-PHRASE
TARGETING STRATEGY
IN HIGHLY COMPETITIVE SEARCH MARKETS

Entire website “authority”
focused on a narrow key-
phrase group Category Pages Only
TRAFFIC

Long-tail (lots of content)

KEY-PHRASE CLUSTERS



OTHER INTERNATIONAL SEO
STRATEGIES
• USE OF MIXED MEDIA (optimised)
• MULTIPLE LOCATION ENTRIES IN GOOGLE
PLACES (incl. UK tel / fax etc..)
• LOCAL + ENGLISH + COLOQUIAL Key-phrase
Targeting


2 PPC
Bigger Footprint than SEO | Instantaneous
BUT Expensive | 1:6 Click-Through Ratio | Has become sophisticated



THE “OLD” PPC LONGTAIL
BEHIND THE TIMES?



GOOGLE’S KEYWORD QUALITY SCORE
DETERMINES HOW MUCH YOU PAY PER CLICK + WHERE YOU ARE RANKED

GOOGLE’S KEYWORD
QUALITY SCORE CTR
QUALITY SCORE SCALE

1 - 10

Source: Google


“RELEVANCE”: A MORE USEFUL MODEL

€ Low Quality Score
Poor Alignment / High Competition

Medium Quality Score
Low CTR / (often) Low Competition

High Quality Score
High CTR / Good Alignment

LOW RELEVANCE HIGH



IRISH SERP
(AdWords + Organic)

Search on:
fashion design



E.G. UK SERP
“Search Shelf Space”
(AdWords + Organic)



IRISH SERP
(AdWords + Organic)

REVISITED
Notice anything the same?
News entries? (and related photo)
Left-side Column



IRISH SERP
(AdWords + Organic)

REVISITED
Notice anything different?
Less advertising competitors?
Less sophisticated advertising
methods being used?
Different media mix? (no videos)



UK SERP
E.G.

REVISITED
“Search Shelf Space”
(AdWords + Organic)
Notice anything “evolved”?
Rich media in Organic results
“Silo” Search
Inclusion of “News” in organic
results
.com sourced search suggestions

Notice anything different?
Media mix (search shelf)
Advertiser sophistication &
functionality
Number of Advertisers


ADWORDS EXTENSIONS
Linking Your Campaign to:
GOOGLE PLACES GOOGLE MERCHANT CENTRE SITELINKS & PHONE EXTENSIONS



In Summary
If you could do only three things in
PPC to improve your international
paid search footprint . . .



International PPC
1. Understand New “Longtail” (using QS)
2. Use any & all techniques that
support geo-targeting (e.g. Link AdWords to a
local Google Places entry)
3. Keep pace with competitor
advertising (e.g. Reviews & Star Ratings)


A CLOSING THOUGHT



SEARCH TRAFFIC
... it leads to quality sales leadsearch traffic
- Specifically, high quality
IS ONLY USEFUL WHEN back of . . .
generation on the . .

A TRACKABLE
SEO COMPELLING VALUE
PROPOSITION
PPC



Go n'éirí an t-ádh libh
COMPETITIVE STRATEGIES IN
INTERNATIONAL SEARCH
PLACEMENT
JOHN COBURN


Competitive Strategies in International Search Placement

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