Category: Search Engine Optimization

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Global SEO Tips Part Two

ELooking at Global SEO
Looking at Global SEO

Continued from Monday…

  1. Make sure to use the correct meta tag for language in the header like this – <metaname=”language” content=”spanish”>
  1. Make sure to localize the content of each site. For example in the UK organization is spelled organisation. It is best to have a country native read the content and help to make edits based on how people really speak in that country – even English for the UK and Australia.
  1. This was an interesting tip I found: “Local hosting: If you have ccTLD or set the geo targeting in Google webmaster tools, local hosting does not have much of an incremental impact in most countries as a geo signal. However, it still helps hugely in some countries especially China.” http://www.clickz.com/clickz/column/2334892/international-seo-tips-what-are-the-game-changing-factors Google goes on to say: “We do, however, recommend making sure that your website is hosted in a way that will give your users fast access to it (which is often done by choosing hosting near your users).”
  1. “HrefLang” XML sitemap: Many websites have problem with a different country page ranking in a country. It may be caused by the fact that your International website is using ccTLD and cannot set the geo targeting or the local site not having enough links from local websites. “HrefLang” XML sitemap was created to help those website owners. Basically, it maps the URL of the page ranking with the URL of the page you want to rank instead. It even works across domains. Once you match the pages one to one for each of the country/language combinations, and indexed by Google, you will quickly see the right pages replace the old ones in each market.” For more great info on this topic visit this wonderful resource page http://www.clickz.com/clickz/column/2334892/international-seo-tips-what-are-the-game-changing-factors
  1. Metadata – language and country code: You should place “content-language” meta tag indicating the language and country in the <head> section of webpages. It tells engines the target audience by language and country of the created page. The code looks like this: <meta http-equiv=”content-language” content=”en-us”> You change “en-us” for other language and country such as “en-uk” for U.K. English and “de-at” for Austrian German. While Google doesn’t weigh this signal as heavily as geo targeting, it still helps with other search engines. You can read more on this topic here: http://www.clickz.com/clickz/column/2334892/international-seo-tips-what-are-the-game-changing-factors
  1. Work on getting some local links for each new country specific website. If you don’t have any, Google will most likely not show the domain in the search engine results. Start first by linking the US parent website to all new global sites. Then see if you can get local business partners and chambers of commerce to link to the new local site regionally.  Setting up LinkedIn and social profiles for the staff at the new location may be helpful as those links will point back to the newly created region specific website, but look for additional links as well.
  1. Blogging for these small regional websites may be very important for slow link building growth which would be good for Google.
  1. Make sure to set up Google and Bing Local pages for these new websites. Again the links from these social and map properties help Google to understand that these are like new branch offices for you.

Need help with your strategy to get more visibility on the Web? Check out our services at www.McCordWeb.com today!

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Global SEO Tips for Spin-Off Websites Part One

ELooking at Global SEO
Looking at Global SEO

Do you want to reach more customers? Do you have office in far flung countries? Are you not sure how to go about doing SEO for multiple countries?

Here are my tips for global SEO.

1. Get a separate country specific domain so that you look like a real resident. Make sure in the contact information you list the local office and phone number. You can also reference the US information as well but at the website footer and in the header only the country specific address and phone number should be used.

2. Preferably, for country websites that are not English speakers, the website should be in the country’s native language. However readers will assume that when they call they will be speaking to someone fluent in their own language. If your staffing does not allow for this, then leave the website in English, but use the local address and local phone number.

3. Google will not identify websites in other languages as duplications of your own site penalizing you. Which is good news. However for the English speaking countries, you should use the meta tag for Canonical URL just so Google does assign a penalty.

“You might have avoided setting up a .co.uk counterpart for your .com site for fear of Google deeming this as “duplicate content,” since there’s not much of a language difference. However, Google now supports using the rel=“canonical” link element across different domains. This means you can have similar content on both the .com and .co.uk extensions of your site, and use the canonical link element to indicate the exact URL of the domain preferred for indexing. This will make duplicate content a non-issue. Also, keep in mind that this is not required when using different languages. Google does not consider foreign language translations to be duplicate content. But keep in mind that it is something to consider for multiple locale sites in the same language.” For more great info visit this page. 

5. If you decide instead of doing new domains to do subdirectory domains, then make sure a sitemap is done for each subdirectory domain and feed it to the Google Search Console using a different URL in the account. Or for new domains, make sure to implement the Google Search Console, create a site map and select the targeted country in the Google Search Console.

Check back on Wednesday for more tips for Global SEO.

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Got to Save Money? What Can You Chop?

If your business is pulling back where can you realistically chop in your marketing plan and not get hurt?

Chop Away

Social Media – if you are paying to update Facebook,

Bright Idea Tips to Help Marketing Budgets When Times Are Tough
Bright Idea Tips to Help Marketing Budgets When Times Are Tough

Twitter and Google+ you could easily take a break to save money.

Blogging – try not to kill all your writing as the SEO juice you get from well-written blog posts helps you in the long run, but maybe consider moving from three days a week to two or from two days a week to one. Try to still keep the momentum up but maybe lower the word count or frequency.

Chop Not!

Google AdWords – don’t touch it unless you absolutely have to. AdWords is hands down the best way to generate new leads and start cash pumping back into your business.

e-newsletters – they build loyalty and repeat business. Newsletters are especially important to businesses that have annual renewals for service plans like pest control firms and HVAC firms. If you chop this, your name is not kept infront of your customers and come time to renew, they may not see the value of renewing; which will hurt your sales even further.

Need some practical sense to make the most of the budget you do have or to get AdWords to work harder for you? We’re the firm to call and chat with first especially if you are looking for honest advice you can trust with no sales pressure.

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SEO – Is It Worth the Trouble?

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McCord Web Services is one of the few Google Partners in the Fredericksburg, Virginia area.

Is SEO or search engine optimization worth the time and trouble today? With Google seemingly to be changing all the rules and more competitors moving into your own marketing landscape, it may seem like a losing proposition, but… there are smart things you can do that DO payoff for placement.

What are the smart things that any small to medium sized business can do to improve organic search placement?

  1. Make sure you have unique content and work hard to make your website experience different from others in your vertical (business classification).
  2. Make sure you are blogging regularly – at least once a week. If you are not a good writer, invest in finding a firm that you can trust that will create great linkable and sharable content.
  3. Make sure you have unique Meta Title and Meta Description tags for all pages in your website.
  4. Claim and authenticate your website in the Google and Bing Search Consoles. You’ll get information that will help you do a better job and understand what Google and Bing think about your site so you can improve.
  5. Implement Google Analytics. You cannot improve your own website if you do not know how visitors are using it. Got a low bounce rate? Pat yourself on the back and find out what people seem to like about the page with in-page analytics. Don’t have many visitors? Get the truth and then drive traffic there with Google AdWords.
  6. Get a full SEO evaluation and roadmap on where you are and how to get to the next level personalized based on your own statistical information.

You can still succeed and garner search engine placement with optimization, but be smart and savvy about the tactics that are used. Don’t buy into link building, link farms, and guest blogging on off-topic sites. Think mainstream, great content, and excellent user experience.