By Colin MacKenzie, Head of Internet, Tesco Personal Finance
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Friday, 13 March 2009
5 greatest myths about international search engine optimisation
By Greig Holbrook, Managing Director, Oban Multilingual
1. Google is number one in all countries.
In fact, Google does not rule the world. In China, for example, Baidu is the most popular search engine by far. In Russia, the native search portal Yandex holds the majority of the market. Do your research and find out which search engines are most popular in your target market – often the popular native sites will offer more cost-effective marketing than Google as well.
2. Translating a site from English into target language is sufficient.
Think about a Chinese site translated directly from Mandarin to English. It would probably be confusing to read, and frustrated users would click off. The same thing happens the other way around. Content must be written by a native speaker, for only they can include cultural inflections and intricacies that help locals connect with the words on the page.
3. English is one language.
Actually, English comes in many different forms. Optimising your site for Indian English will require different keywords than doing so for Chinese English or Canadian English. This often has to do with cultural colloqualisms and locally-influenced misspellings. Optimising for the different Englishes can be a great way to draw traffic to your site.
4. Google Page Rank is a critical factor in back links.
Google Page Rank no longer plays such an important role. Relevancy of site-linking is now the key priority. So, the more thematically-related a site is to your own, the better quality the link…
5. An international SEO campaign must be massive in scope.
Smaller companies can get their foot in the proverbial international SEO door by starting off with an international PPC campaign that leads to a landing page in the target language, which then connects to their English site. This is a low-cost way to test the waters and see if that market is right for you.
Read more!
1. Google is number one in all countries.
In fact, Google does not rule the world. In China, for example, Baidu is the most popular search engine by far. In Russia, the native search portal Yandex holds the majority of the market. Do your research and find out which search engines are most popular in your target market – often the popular native sites will offer more cost-effective marketing than Google as well.
2. Translating a site from English into target language is sufficient.
Think about a Chinese site translated directly from Mandarin to English. It would probably be confusing to read, and frustrated users would click off. The same thing happens the other way around. Content must be written by a native speaker, for only they can include cultural inflections and intricacies that help locals connect with the words on the page.
3. English is one language.
Actually, English comes in many different forms. Optimising your site for Indian English will require different keywords than doing so for Chinese English or Canadian English. This often has to do with cultural colloqualisms and locally-influenced misspellings. Optimising for the different Englishes can be a great way to draw traffic to your site.
4. Google Page Rank is a critical factor in back links.
Google Page Rank no longer plays such an important role. Relevancy of site-linking is now the key priority. So, the more thematically-related a site is to your own, the better quality the link…
5. An international SEO campaign must be massive in scope.
Smaller companies can get their foot in the proverbial international SEO door by starting off with an international PPC campaign that leads to a landing page in the target language, which then connects to their English site. This is a low-cost way to test the waters and see if that market is right for you.
Read more!
Part 1. Debate: paid vs. natural. When and where should I allocate my budget on search?
By Chris Lewis, SEM Director, LBi.
For a digital campaign, there is rarely a time when search shouldn’t be considered as part of the marketing mix. The choice is of course, how much focus it has. Search is fantastic at capturing demand for a product or area of interest but it has much less value in terms of stimulating that initial engagement. Some may say that appearing against a generic search result is beneficial but when launching a new product or service, you need to build the customer awareness first.
The focus of a search budget will change for a number of reasons but one of the key initial factors is going to be the maturity of the natural search campaign and more importantly, the ranking of key search terms. For a new site, it is going to take time to be picked up by the engines and to start gaining the quality inbound links needed to help elevate a sites authority. In this situation the need for paid search is going to be at its greatest in order to help drive the exposure of the site in the search results.
For an established site, the choice of channel becomes more of an optimisation decision than being forced down one particular road. Assuming that an advertiser has a mixture of natural search positions, this will help direct where the budget should be spent. If they are already appearing on page #1 then perhaps it is worth the investment to optimise the site further to push them up the rankings. However, if they are much lower in position then paid search is vital to ensure that the opportunity to gain traffic is maximised. Clearly there needs to be a longer term approach to natural search to ultimately change the balance.
With the current economic climate, ROI is likely to be the primary metric for measuring campaign success and so this needs to be central when deciding whether paid, natural or in fact both search channels should be used.
Natural search is generally focused on higher search volume generic keywords. That’s not to say that long-tail keyword optimisation isn’t important but the balance of budget between channels becomes more vital for generic terms as these will normally have the higher CPC costs. Whilst ROI is going to be central, almost all businesses will have sales targets and so the volume of conversions also needs to be considered. By running paid search campaigns alongside natural search, an advertiser has the opportunity to gain additional traffic whilst also benefiting from greater control over the messaging and destination of this traffic.
Digital marketers have for many years said “why have capped budgets when you have a positive ROI”, however the reality of budgets and finance directors is that this is rarely possible. So assuming that the marketing investment is capped, if both search channels are achieving a positive ROI (assuming that’s your metric of choice) then why would you turn off a potential source of conversions?
Decisions need to be made and if natural search is achieving a higher ROI than paid (a fair assumption for a well ranked keyword) then it makes sense to look at whether the paid budget can be reallocated to other terms. This is where the question of search volume comes in. If there are other keywords that are performing at a high ROI and are not currently being served 100% of the time through paid search, then moving budget to them is a sensible step.
One important factor when deciding how a budget should be split is to understand how your customers are engaging with you. If the right tracking is not in place then the real story can be lost. Are your customers initially searching on a generic paid term and then converting on a natural brand term? Avoid making decisions in the dark by having the right analytics in place.
Only by truly understanding the interaction between search channels are you able to allocate budget between campaigns. And we haven’t even started to talk about interaction of search with media or affiliate campaigns yet….
Read more!
For a digital campaign, there is rarely a time when search shouldn’t be considered as part of the marketing mix. The choice is of course, how much focus it has. Search is fantastic at capturing demand for a product or area of interest but it has much less value in terms of stimulating that initial engagement. Some may say that appearing against a generic search result is beneficial but when launching a new product or service, you need to build the customer awareness first.
The focus of a search budget will change for a number of reasons but one of the key initial factors is going to be the maturity of the natural search campaign and more importantly, the ranking of key search terms. For a new site, it is going to take time to be picked up by the engines and to start gaining the quality inbound links needed to help elevate a sites authority. In this situation the need for paid search is going to be at its greatest in order to help drive the exposure of the site in the search results.
For an established site, the choice of channel becomes more of an optimisation decision than being forced down one particular road. Assuming that an advertiser has a mixture of natural search positions, this will help direct where the budget should be spent. If they are already appearing on page #1 then perhaps it is worth the investment to optimise the site further to push them up the rankings. However, if they are much lower in position then paid search is vital to ensure that the opportunity to gain traffic is maximised. Clearly there needs to be a longer term approach to natural search to ultimately change the balance.
With the current economic climate, ROI is likely to be the primary metric for measuring campaign success and so this needs to be central when deciding whether paid, natural or in fact both search channels should be used.
Natural search is generally focused on higher search volume generic keywords. That’s not to say that long-tail keyword optimisation isn’t important but the balance of budget between channels becomes more vital for generic terms as these will normally have the higher CPC costs. Whilst ROI is going to be central, almost all businesses will have sales targets and so the volume of conversions also needs to be considered. By running paid search campaigns alongside natural search, an advertiser has the opportunity to gain additional traffic whilst also benefiting from greater control over the messaging and destination of this traffic.
Digital marketers have for many years said “why have capped budgets when you have a positive ROI”, however the reality of budgets and finance directors is that this is rarely possible. So assuming that the marketing investment is capped, if both search channels are achieving a positive ROI (assuming that’s your metric of choice) then why would you turn off a potential source of conversions?
Decisions need to be made and if natural search is achieving a higher ROI than paid (a fair assumption for a well ranked keyword) then it makes sense to look at whether the paid budget can be reallocated to other terms. This is where the question of search volume comes in. If there are other keywords that are performing at a high ROI and are not currently being served 100% of the time through paid search, then moving budget to them is a sensible step.
One important factor when deciding how a budget should be split is to understand how your customers are engaging with you. If the right tracking is not in place then the real story can be lost. Are your customers initially searching on a generic paid term and then converting on a natural brand term? Avoid making decisions in the dark by having the right analytics in place.
Only by truly understanding the interaction between search channels are you able to allocate budget between campaigns. And we haven’t even started to talk about interaction of search with media or affiliate campaigns yet….
Tips for achieving the optimum search strategy:
1.Set KPIs. Set targets and Key Performance Indicators, whether this is internal or a client initiative... CPA or ROI based... achievable campaign targets should be set and adhered to, automatically providing optimisation goals.
2.Target your users. Campaign structure, keywords, AdCopy, day parting, geographical. Each step of your campaign should be optimised towards targeting high converting users.
3.Always optimise towards conversion data, not CTR, otherwise you may find you are pushing more traffic through a worse performing keyword creative for example. A highly converting term may well have a terrible CTR!
4.Don’t forget about Yahoo and MSN. It’s all too easy to focus all your efforts on Google which provides the easiest PPC interface and the majority of your traffic. But MSN and Yahoo can often provide higher conversion for your campaign. International Search Engines (such as Baidu) should also be investigated when managing global accounts. In fact… it can also be worth branching out away from the Google, Yahoo and MSNs of our world, and using vertical search engines to test the performance they deliver.
5.Don’t only stick to standard PPC; test other elements of search marketing such as content or placement targeting. A well structured content campaign can often achieve higher results than a poorly structured PPC campaign.
Read more!
Part 2. Debate: paid vs. natural. When and where should I allocate my budget on search?
By Neil Jackson, Director of Search, Tamar
As the current downturn continues to bite, online marketing directors like ordinary consumers on the High St will become ruthless in their pursuit of value. The question of how best to allocate search budget is one which will come under much closer scrutiny which, slightly counter intuitively, is something which we should be really welcoming as an industry.
When times are good and budgets are plentiful, it can be tempting to go for instant gratification rather than think about long term value. In this respect paid search is like hiring a Bugatti Veron for the day - it’s fast, it's expensive, it'll definitely turn heads and grab the attention of passers by. It’s also very easy to drive. If you decide to splash out on one it's going to eat up a lot of your budget, and cost quite a bit to run. It definitely gets results, though when the money runs out it's going to lounge in your garage gathering dust.
Today with budgets tight, natural search is far more like investing in a Volvo S40 - it’s definitely not as fast, and is unlikely to turn as many heads at first, but it's both cheaper and more cost effective. You'll reach the same destination as the Bugatti but you'll have spent less money along the way. Also, once you've got it working properly you won't have to spend as much money on maintenance; it'll just keep ticking along with a regular MOT and a service or two.
There is unfortunately no golden ratio for how much should be spent on natural vs. paid search, but an approach which relies solely on PPC, however sophisticated, can’t really be described as strategic. Both search disciplines need to play specific roles, with natural search investment broadly used to build a strong foundation of organic search listings on a brands key terms. Adwords can then be used selectively to mop up the long tail and generate volume traffic – though at a cost. Innovations such as the increasing adoption of Universal Search with the display of video, images, and blog and news results are changing consumer’s relationships with search engines. What kind of results attracts the click of a consumer are going to vary in different contexts. This will inevitably lead to a richer and more complex search marketing landscape in the years ahead.
To make sense of this, brands and their agencies will need to look even more closely at how their customers behave online. What is the best way to convert a search into a transaction? This will require an even greater emphasis on measurement and analytics and a willingness to share that information between agencies working on a search campaign. Only when armed with that data and insight can you confidently answer the question of when and where to allocate your search budget.
3. Use PPC to validate which long tail terms best convert, and then optimise them for natural search!
4. Widen the scope of your natural offering for Google universal search – think video, blog, image and news
5. Always, always put your users first. For content, usability, natural search, whatever. Users always come first.
Read more!
As the current downturn continues to bite, online marketing directors like ordinary consumers on the High St will become ruthless in their pursuit of value. The question of how best to allocate search budget is one which will come under much closer scrutiny which, slightly counter intuitively, is something which we should be really welcoming as an industry.
When times are good and budgets are plentiful, it can be tempting to go for instant gratification rather than think about long term value. In this respect paid search is like hiring a Bugatti Veron for the day - it’s fast, it's expensive, it'll definitely turn heads and grab the attention of passers by. It’s also very easy to drive. If you decide to splash out on one it's going to eat up a lot of your budget, and cost quite a bit to run. It definitely gets results, though when the money runs out it's going to lounge in your garage gathering dust.
Today with budgets tight, natural search is far more like investing in a Volvo S40 - it’s definitely not as fast, and is unlikely to turn as many heads at first, but it's both cheaper and more cost effective. You'll reach the same destination as the Bugatti but you'll have spent less money along the way. Also, once you've got it working properly you won't have to spend as much money on maintenance; it'll just keep ticking along with a regular MOT and a service or two.
There is unfortunately no golden ratio for how much should be spent on natural vs. paid search, but an approach which relies solely on PPC, however sophisticated, can’t really be described as strategic. Both search disciplines need to play specific roles, with natural search investment broadly used to build a strong foundation of organic search listings on a brands key terms. Adwords can then be used selectively to mop up the long tail and generate volume traffic – though at a cost. Innovations such as the increasing adoption of Universal Search with the display of video, images, and blog and news results are changing consumer’s relationships with search engines. What kind of results attracts the click of a consumer are going to vary in different contexts. This will inevitably lead to a richer and more complex search marketing landscape in the years ahead.
To make sense of this, brands and their agencies will need to look even more closely at how their customers behave online. What is the best way to convert a search into a transaction? This will require an even greater emphasis on measurement and analytics and a willingness to share that information between agencies working on a search campaign. Only when armed with that data and insight can you confidently answer the question of when and where to allocate your search budget.
Tips for achieving the right balance:
1. Start now! Natural search can take time to kick in, the sooner you start the sooner you will achieve success
3. Use PPC to validate which long tail terms best convert, and then optimise them for natural search!
4. Widen the scope of your natural offering for Google universal search – think video, blog, image and news
5. Always, always put your users first. For content, usability, natural search, whatever. Users always come first.
Read more!
Part 3. Debate: paid vs. natural. When and where should I allocate my budget on search?
Paid search tips by Karl Havard, Managing Director, Propellernet
Brands achieving high visibility and relevance, will achieve stronger levels of attraction. I said “brands” and not “websites”, this is on purpose – more on that later.
So, why Paid and Natural Search working in unison? Well, if your brand is achieving page 1 rankings in the Natural Search results for all your major keywords (generic, brand and long tail); firstly congratulations, secondly, incorporating Paid Search listings will provide you with dual visibility, taking up more real estate of the page. The more savvy searcher (those who actually know the difference between Paid and Natural Search results) will most probably click your Natural listings meaning you have taken up more real estate, looked more relevant and not paid for the click through.
In the real world there is a high probability that your brand doesn’t feature on page one for all priority keywords in the Natural Search rankings. Enter Paid Search. Instant visibility can be achieved, which is ideal for a number of reasons :
An opinion: Can paid and natural search work together fluently to deliver better campaigns?
By Oliver Rapson, director of paid search, Steak
In a word: yes. In fact the positive impact of having both paid and natural campaigns allowing visibility across search real estate far outweighs the negative. We work closely with clients to share data across both PPC and SEO activity – even if one of the campaigns is run by a different agency – and uses keyword data to inform other direct response marketing campaigns, especially when it comes to planning and research. Going further, different marketing messages or taglines can be tested via paid search ad copy with learnings then being fed back into sales promotion and offline activity.
At the moment there are only a handful of analytics software packages and third party tracking tools that allow search marketers to register user behaviours and attribute meaningful “success” to a joint paid/natural search campaign.
A further challenge comes in understanding the value of PPC or SEO data and implementing strategic campaign changes as a result of this intelligence. This requires both a level of collaboration between teams and the understanding that PPC and SEO should not be viewed in silos, rather as part of a wider online and offline sales and marketing mix.
Integration is key here, of course, but it has become more important than ever to ensure chosen technologies are implemented flawlessly and accounts set up intuitively. It’s easy to overlook this investment of time early on, but it’s absolutely crucial that the information passed back through the tool is accurate and can be acted on without hesitation.
Separately, advertisers need to spend time understanding and analysing the data and differentiating between user journey information and keyword popularity before making sweeping changes to their marketing campaigns.
Technology companies spend hours training agencies and their clients on how to use paid search tools. For me this is proof enough about the importance of using paid search data intelligently and making meaningful, positive changes to online activity, including SEO, as a result. The best campaigns undoubtedly incorporate both paid and natural element but there’s so much more that PPC data can help marketers understand – ignore it at your peril.
Read more!
Brands achieving high visibility and relevance, will achieve stronger levels of attraction. I said “brands” and not “websites”, this is on purpose – more on that later.
So, why Paid and Natural Search working in unison? Well, if your brand is achieving page 1 rankings in the Natural Search results for all your major keywords (generic, brand and long tail); firstly congratulations, secondly, incorporating Paid Search listings will provide you with dual visibility, taking up more real estate of the page. The more savvy searcher (those who actually know the difference between Paid and Natural Search results) will most probably click your Natural listings meaning you have taken up more real estate, looked more relevant and not paid for the click through.
In the real world there is a high probability that your brand doesn’t feature on page one for all priority keywords in the Natural Search rankings. Enter Paid Search. Instant visibility can be achieved, which is ideal for a number of reasons :
- It can fill the “gaps” until your Natural Search results start to appear on page 1. If achieved, decisions can then be made on whether you wish to maintain dual visibility.
- If you operate in a dynamic ecommerce market place you can move inventory at short notice through offers, sales and late deals.
- You can react quickly to industry or associated “hot topics” and have your brand associated with these at any given time.• Be visible and encourage dialogue on associated brand, product or service reputation issues, should there be any.
- Point to content, such as editorial and blogs. What! How do I track the ROI? If you have real advocates saying positive things about you in trustworthy places why wouldn’t you point to this? Especially if this content links back to your site. You’re helping the searcher on their brand journey from interest to gaining commitment.
- Test and learn, then feed into your Natural Search strategy. People search differently based upon their needs; even if they ultimately want the same thing. Paid Search provides an understanding of this behaviour; which are the most effective keywords and the most effective Paid Search creatives (language, style, tone of voice etc.) and the relationship between the two. These learnings can then be fed into the Natural Search strategy to ensure high visibility and relevance is achieved in a sustainable and more cost effective manner.
So why did I say “Brand” and not “Website”? Well, the searcher wants relevancy, and likes to see content and comments from other like minded searchers. This will include content outside of your website. Natural and Paid Search, incorporating online PR and social media content, all working together will ensure visibility is achieved for all searchers and your online brand footprint will be maximised.
An opinion: Can paid and natural search work together fluently to deliver better campaigns?
By Oliver Rapson, director of paid search, Steak
In a word: yes. In fact the positive impact of having both paid and natural campaigns allowing visibility across search real estate far outweighs the negative. We work closely with clients to share data across both PPC and SEO activity – even if one of the campaigns is run by a different agency – and uses keyword data to inform other direct response marketing campaigns, especially when it comes to planning and research. Going further, different marketing messages or taglines can be tested via paid search ad copy with learnings then being fed back into sales promotion and offline activity.
At the moment there are only a handful of analytics software packages and third party tracking tools that allow search marketers to register user behaviours and attribute meaningful “success” to a joint paid/natural search campaign.
A further challenge comes in understanding the value of PPC or SEO data and implementing strategic campaign changes as a result of this intelligence. This requires both a level of collaboration between teams and the understanding that PPC and SEO should not be viewed in silos, rather as part of a wider online and offline sales and marketing mix.
Integration is key here, of course, but it has become more important than ever to ensure chosen technologies are implemented flawlessly and accounts set up intuitively. It’s easy to overlook this investment of time early on, but it’s absolutely crucial that the information passed back through the tool is accurate and can be acted on without hesitation.
Separately, advertisers need to spend time understanding and analysing the data and differentiating between user journey information and keyword popularity before making sweeping changes to their marketing campaigns.
Technology companies spend hours training agencies and their clients on how to use paid search tools. For me this is proof enough about the importance of using paid search data intelligently and making meaningful, positive changes to online activity, including SEO, as a result. The best campaigns undoubtedly incorporate both paid and natural element but there’s so much more that PPC data can help marketers understand – ignore it at your peril.
Read more!
Good month for...
Niche Websites - 56% of ABC1 adults are more likely to go to specialist niche sites dedicated to their interests, rather than visit larger portal sites according to research from Addvantage Media.
The Guardian – The publisher received widespread support for its announcement of a new open API which will give third-party sites access to all the content the newspaper produces, both in print and onlineBehavioural Advertising – Despite fears from privacy campaigners Google announced that it is conducting tests on behavioural targeting ads in a bid to boost revenue from online display advertising.
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Bad month for...
ITV – Facing a 41% loss in profits the broadcaster was forced to focus on its core TV and ITV.com operations
Read more!
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