In this presentation Lidia explores the strategic and technical factors that will make or break your international SEO efforts to truly localise your business and make it a global success. - Why do businesses expand internationally? - Why the rinse and repeat approach fails - 5 tips to make your international strategy succeed Additional resources: - How to do keyword research in a language you don’t speak: https://riseatseven.com/blog/international-keyword-research/ - The beginner’s guide to keyword mapping (with template) https://riseatseven.com/blog/keyword-mapping-guide/ - 5 key factors to a successful international SEO strategy https://riseatseven.com/blog/international-seo-strategy/

1. Barcelona
International Search Summit
“How not to fail at your
international business expansion”
Lidia Infante
Senior International SEO Lead, Rise at Seven

2. HI, I’M LIDIA
Senior SEO Strategy Lead
ABOUT ME
🌴 I was born in Barcelona
🐝 I live and work in Manchester
🛒 I started my career in PPC
🛒 6 years in SEO internationally

3. MR

4. WHY DO BUSINESSES EXPAND?

5. Internal
Expanding businesses are after revenue,
looking to improve their ROI or have the goal
of beating their competitors to market in
key locations.

6. Internal
FORRESTER CONSULTING X GOOGLE (2020)
● 53% plan to expand to additional
territories
● 81% say export is key to their business
● 83% want agencies to be international
strategic partners

7. THE FUTURE IS INTERNATIONAL

8. WHAT ARE WE DOING WRONG?

9. Many businesses use a “rinse and repeat”
approach, that ignores the uniqueness of
each market

10. HOW NOT TO FAIL AT YOUR
INTERNATIONAL EXPANSION

11. Tip 1
UNDERSTAND YOUR USERS’ SEARCH
JOURNEY

12. Less mature markets tend to have higher
search volume on generic keywords

13. Generic keywords have higher ambiguity in
terms of user intent

14. Internal
BUILD A KEYWORD MAP THAT INCLUDES INTENT
bit.ly/kwmapping

15. Tip 2
KNOW THE MARKET’S PAIN POINTS

16. Digitalisation has happened at a different
pace in each country

17. The popularity of payment on delivery
options is a good measure of a market’s
trust in ecommerce

18. Some users might be worried about price,
while other worry about quality of service or
payment methods

19. Truly do your research and offer your users
the informational content they are seeking

20. Be sure to offer the right customer service
channels and payment methods for each
market

21. Address your users’ main pain points clearly
through your website and UX

22. Tip 3
KNOW THE WEAKNESSES OF YOUR SEO
MARKET

23. Ranking is as easy (or as hard) as doing
better than your competitors

24. Analyse your competitor’s proficiency in:
● Technical SEO
● Content strategy
● Brand & authority

25. Use this information in your SEO strategy and
outrank them by playing to their weaknesses

26. Tip 4
SORT OUT YOUR SPECIAL CHARACTERS

27. Different languages have unique
characteristics

28. But technology is built English-first

29. Internal

30. Plan how you’ll handle special characters in
URLs and file names

31. Always accept them in your forms

32. Tip 5
KNOW HOW TO EARN LINKS IN YOUR
MARKET

33. Your backlink profile acts as localisation
signal

34. This is specially relevant in authority-heavy
niches and YMYL sites

35. Understand how links are earned in the
press in your target market

36. Don’t just translate your UK or US
campaigns to another language and expect
them to work

37. Research your media landscape. Look at:
● Number of digital outlets
● Trust in news
● Paying users
● Number of journalists
● Number of PR professionals

38. Internal
COUNTRY
NUMBER OF
DIGITAL OUTLETS
JOURNALISTS
USERS WHO PAY
FOR NEWS
DIGITAL MEDIA
REACH
TRUST IN NEWS
LEADING
PUBLICATION
UK 1,500 92,000 7% 77% 28%1 BBC.co.uk
Germany 698 48,000 9% 63% 53% Blid.de
Netherlands 183 25,000 14% 65% 52% Telegraaf.nl
Spain 1,274 55,000 12% 79% 36% Elpais.es

39. FURTHER READING: bit.ly/intlSEO

40. QUESTIONS?
@LidiaInfanteM
lidia-infante.com