Does your job seem like a fire drill? Well, ours sure did when the fire alarm went off in the middle of the 1-hour Titans of SEO webinar. The alarm was so loud that we went on mute and then decided we would do the expected thing and evacuate. Dre de Vera and Eugene Feygin kept the Q&A info flowing from Pleasanton and Chicago respectively. Kirill Kronrod, Yulia Kronrod, Mark Aspillera, and I went down to the Kronrods' minivan and dialed back in and continued.

So now we have done a live broadcast during a fire alarm from a car. Check out how the titans of SEO pulled it off. You can hear the fire alarm from 35:48. Ok so back to the webinar: we brought together 4 titans of SEO for a live community Q&A. The audience asked 167 questions of the intermediate, and advanced level.

Mark Aspillera, senior product marketing manager at BrightEdge, and I moderated, and we tossed the hot potato questions to 4 of the most talented SEOs we know in the industry. These are the people I go to for advice and confirmation on SEO best practices. 

View On Demand Now.

Dre de Vera is currently the Search Marketing Global Lead at Workday and has almost 20 years’ experience in SEO. He has led global SEO efforts at 5 other companies: SAP, SuccessFactors, Anaplan, SmartRecruiters, and ABS-CBN.

Dre is strong at vertical search and YouTube and takes a scientific approach to SEO by conducting single-variable tests. He currently ranks #1 for “enterprise SEO consulting” on Google for his digital agency, Dreme Digital and #1 for “enterprise SEO expert” for his BrightEdge customer video on YouTube.

Yulia Kronrod is the director of SEO at Insureon, 

a small business insurance marketplace, where she drives 45% YOY growth in organic visits and 30% YOY growth in SEO conversions through content marketing and optimization, information architecture, technical SEO, user experience testing, and conversion rate optimization.

From prior work at Adobe, Yulia has extensive international SEO experience, including localization and geo-targeting (hreflang). Yulia hosted the last BrightEdge San Jose User Group. 

Eugene Feygin is the Sears Home Services SEO manager managing SearsHomeServices.com & SearsPartsDirect.com with over a decade of SEO experience in the E-Commerce arena from content strategist to technical research and implementation.

Among his many achievements in his SEO career, he improved page load speed by 80% and conversion by more than 500% at Quill.com. Eugene is the moderator for the Chicago BrightEdge User Group.

Kirill Kronrod manages global SEO at Adobe and has been with the company for 8 years. His focus is content strategy, technical SEO, analytics, testing, and user experience enhancements that push Adobe Natural Search presence and conversions. He has spoken at multiple BrightEdge Share conferences.

Fun fact: Kirill has introduced non-branded optimization at Adobe, and in addition to broad success in Google Quick Answer rankings, he has 1st SERP position (and sometimes the Quick Answer) for the "google quick answer” query for the article he published on the BrightEdge blog.

We hope you can join us for this amazing session.

Webinar: Why Share16? - August 17 at 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET

Share16, BrightEdge’s 6th annual digital marketing conference, is only 11 weeks away and shaping up to be the best one yet. In an upcoming webinar, we will give you a sneak peek into the latest Share16 updates and why you need to attend and what’s new this year.

You’ll learn about the incredible value you get from being a part of this Forbes and Inc. Magazine top rated event - you won’t want to miss out!

We will discuss how our approach is very different than other events in a number of ways, all leading to a better attendee experience.  This includes the sessions, speakers, and networking activities at the conference.

High Quality Content

You will learn how we select session topics around the most pressing issues facing digital marketers, how we find marketers from top brands to speak at our conference, and how we work with them to deliver great presentations full of actionable takeaways.  Our sessions are full of the highest concentration of search, content and digital brand marketers and industry thought-leaders who enjoy presenting high quality content uniquely crafted to ensure real value from Share16.

What’s New?

We’ll also discuss major upgrades we’ve made to make the event more fun and provided creative ways to help attendees interact with each other.  Share16 attracts the best digital marketing teams from leading brands, most of whom want to meet and learn from others facing similar challenges. Our enhanced networking party will have delicious food and drinks, along with a number of fun game-like activities that will make it easier to meet new people and form lasting connections.  We even added a special cable car bus tour of San Francisco with lunch served, for those taking the full day of BrightEdge University training on Monday. Share16 will have a new mobile event app - you’ll be sure to leave Share16 feeling connected, inspired, and ready to tackle marketing challenges to elevate your performance.

This webinar will be full of exciting information about Share16 and how the conference will help you grow in your career and accelerate your business.

Register for the Share16 webinar!

BrightEdge has great pleasure in announcing that the Share16 content and agenda is live! Recognized by Forbes and Inc.com as a must-attend conference – this year Share16 welcomes leading brand speakers from Google, YouTube, Microsoft, REI, Home Depot, Marriott, Oracle, Wiley, and many more. Whether you want to learn more about upcoming advanced SEO and content marketing sessions, discover new digital marketing best practices and elevate your personal and professional career then Share16 is the place to be.

At Share16 (my 5^th year as the Content and Speaker Chair!) we are honored to host speakers, industry leaders, and brands from such diverse industries as retail, hospitality, software, and many more. With an unbelievable lineup of keynote presenters and sessions new and enhanced additions like our hands-on learning labs, BrightEdge University and a whole track dedicated to career development Share16 the biggest and best year yet. Below is an overview of the main tracks and session content at Share16. Further detail can be found over on the Share16 website and, over the coming month, we will be updating the agenda with speakers and speaker information.

Industry Keynotes

• Digital Centers of Excellence
• Marketing Technology Innovation
• Organization Culture and Design
• Marketing Leadership case studies from technology leaders

Search Advancement Track

While organic search drives 51% of website traffic, the rules are constantly changing, with Google making over 600 algorithm changes each year. In order to stay ahead, search professionals must stay on top of the latest technology trends and advanced search marketing techniques. The Search Advancement Track focuses on search strategies and technical tactics that enable you to maximize the impact of your largest digital channel. Industry experts will share their frameworks for success aimed at balancing technology acumen with strategic execution. Topics include advanced technical, global, mobile, and hybrid SEO and PPC methodologies to ensure you stay ahead in your competitive environment. Algorithmic Change and Response: SERP positioning and SEM alignment Advanced Mobile Optimization: Accelerated Mobile Performance Data Sources and Data Sets: Mastering Analytics and Integrations Technical Site Configuration: SEO Friendly Design, Build & Infrastructure Global, Local and Mobile Search: SEO, PPC and Social Synergy Insights from In-house experts: Technical Tactics & Conversion Strategies  

Content Optimization and Digital Integration Track

Nearly all marketers now consider digital marketing a core part of larger marketing operations. And content marketing is set to become a $300B+ industry by 2019. In today’s fast evolving digital marketing economy, it’s critical for marketers to master the paths to conversion that now span multiple digital marketing channels. The Content Optimization and Digital Marketing Track focuses on the strategies to design and measure the effectiveness of content, to drive conversion across digital channels and support desired business outcomes. Experts will discuss key creation, optimization and measurement strategies that are built for scale and foster greater cross-channel collaboration. Intelligent Content for the Customer Journey: Engagement & Experiences The Content Management Cycle: Optimizing Content for Scale & Efficiency Content Metrics That Matter: Traffic, Engagement, Conversion and Revenue Search, Social & Content Marketing Trifecta: Digital Branding & PR Managing Multiple Digital Channels: Finding The Perfect Mix Staying Ahead of Your Digital Competition: Share of Voice & Share of Market  

Business and Career Elevation Track

Gartner predicted that by 2017, CMOs will spend more on IT than CIOs. The success of digital marketing campaigns and the opportunity for marketers to obtain career advancement hinge on mastery of People, Process, and Technology. Developing skill sets and digital acumen across these three areas is critical for marketers who want to develop into leaders and drive overall business performance. The Business and Career Elevation Track focuses on case studies and real-world examples of business and professional transformation. Organizational leaders and departmental heads will share insights and tips on how you can transition from online practitioner to cross-functional, organizational leader. The Digital Marketing Maturity Model: People, Process & Technology Creative Storytelling & Evangelizing Success: Selling Ideas and Building Business Cases Digital Career Success Stories: From Practitioner to Organizational Leader The Digital Marketing Mind: The Psychology of Self Development Organizational Design: Building Digital Centers of Excellence Building an Extended Team: Working with Agencies and Contractors  

Additional Sessions 

The Share16 team will also be adding additional sessions (x3) based on demand over the coming months. Stay tuned for further speaker and session updates throughout July! Note: final session titles subject to change at the discretion of BrightEdge and the speakers. Partner hands-on labs feature practical experience using the partner’s technology to help solve your marketing challenges. Monday Evening: Welcome Reception Network with BrightEdge executives and strategic partners showcasing cutting edge solutions that assist you in elevating performance. Drinks and light appetizers will be served. Solutions Showcase Learn more about the latest products and services from BrightEdge and partners. Monday Night: Dine-Arounds Experience the vibrant San Francisco restaurant scene and start the dialogue with like-minded peers at Share16 dine-arounds.

Tickets are limited – Book your place alongside the Worlds best brands now!

To avoid disappointment (tickets are limited), we highly recommend you register now and book your place in the Share community.

Register for Share16

Venue Details October 24 to 26, 2016 Westin St. Francis, Union Square, San Francisco

Thank you to our Share16 sponsors

Gold Sponsor: 97^th Floor is a digital marketing agency fueled by creativity and innovation. They truly believe that in a digital world companies are only limited by their imaginations. They thrive in ideation, creation, and execution. A full-service team that understands the connection between content and customers.

Silver Sponsors: Majestic – With a track record of trusted and reliable data, Majestic is the biggest and freshest backlink database which can help you bridge the gap to your competitors. Search Laboratory – A global customer acquisition agency, helping clients grow internationally through SEO, SEM, Online PR, Social Media and Programmatic Display in 20+ languages. BFO (Be Found Online) – An international team of digital marketing experts. We specialize in delivering results through Search, Display, Content Marketing, Social Media and Analytics. Revana Digital – Revolutionizing performance marketing through our ability to unite omni-channel audience data to create actionable insights and maximize results for enterprise clients. Noble Studios – An award-winning digital marketing agency specializing in web design and development, online marketing, social media, and analytics. Merkle – The nation’s largest and fastest-growing performance marketing agency. Employing data-driven strategies, Merkle combines marketing, technical, analytical and creative disciplines to offer integrated customer relationship management strategy and customer marketing solutions.

Be a Part of Share16 - For All the Right Reasons

Share16 is a top rated conference, according to both Forbes and Inc. Magazine. This 6th annual digital marketing event brings together the highest concentration of search, content and digital brand marketers and industry thought-leaders.

These highly motivated individuals return year after year for the solid lessons they learn, the innovative ideas they take away, and the awesome people they meet.

Here are the main reasons why Share conference attendees keep coming back:

• Reason #1: Elevate Performance with Actionable Strategies
• Reason #2: Attain Platform Expertise with BrightEdge University
• Reason #3: Advance Your Company AND Your Career
• Reason #4: Connect with Other Leading Digital Marketers

Early Bird Rates expire on June 30th - Register Now and save up to $600!

         

 

No other event in the industry offers this level of insight for brands to implement ideas right away at their own companies. That’s because Share focuses on practical, hands-on insight, not theory, targeted to the challenges that your brand faces and aimed to help you elevate personal and professional performance. At Share 16 you’ll get tips from brands and marketers just like you who have experience and results implementing strategy. This is different from other events that put just “personalities” on stage. All content created at Share16 is objectively driven with a “zero tolerance” policy for subjective material or sales pitches to maximize value for participants.

“Be Inspired, Drive Performance”

BrightEdge’s 6th annual digital marketing conference, Share16, is coming this October 24-26th at the Westin St. Francis in the heart of San Francisco! Last year we had 75+ of the best speakers from leading brands like Google, Salesforce, Microsoft and Bing. This year we plan on making Share16 even better. We have already started receiving requests to speak at Share16 and so we are opening submissions early. If you want to submit yourself or someone you know as a potential speaker, or have a great idea for a session you want us to consider, please let us know.  

If you have an interesting success story to share, practical insights or performance-related case studies then we want to hear from you! To submit a speaking proposal or nominate a speaker, please fill out the speaking submission form. We will be collecting submissions until April 15 with all potential speakers notified by April 29, because of the high expected number of submissions not all speakers will be selected. Learn more about sponsoring, attending, or speaking at brightedge.com/share16. Check out the videos of all Share15 speakers and their presentations by choosing “Share15" under category: Share15 Search, Content, and Digital Marketing Presentations Recap! 

 

 

SEO has been around for more than a decade and a half and provides the majority of traffic for successful web sites (learn what is SEO). The following are some of the top reasons why SEO still matters a lot and provides substantial business value for SEO in 2016.

1. A trillion is big number. Google processes an estimated 3.5 billion searches per day and 1.2 trillion per year. Take a look at the rolling query meter.
2. The majority of website traffic comes from search engines. A BrightEdge study found that on average 51% of the tracked channel traffic comes from natural search.
3. On average 83% of the traffic from search engines comes from SEO and 17% from paid search, according to BrightEdge research.
4. The quality of the search results are better than ever with the algo changes that punish spammers and reward real brands and authoritative, relevant sites. That and advances in artificial intelligence mean it will continue to command attention even with competition from social search platforms.
5. Though it accounts for the majority of channel traffic, most companies underinvest in SEO relative to its contribution or the opportunity, meaning it should provide higher returns for those who do.
6. SEO traffic converts better than other channels because of the research process, journey stage, and transfer of trust from the search engine sorting and ranking. SEO leads have a 14.6% close rate, while outbound leads, such as direct mail or print advertising have a 1.7% close rate.
7. SEO requires an upfront resource investment, but successful content performance marketing benefits once earned have long-term duration or equity.
8. SEO traffic has no media cost and can provide a substantial ROI – higher than most other channels.
9. Proper SEO helps organize your website and makes it easier for your visitors to navigate and transact as topics will be more clearly delineated on pages and logically linked together.
10. SEO success secures a share of voice on the search engine results pages, and this can make your company look better-organized and more competitive. SEO is an integral component of your brand and brand trust.
11. Search engine results pages are landing pages for traffic that is generated by your other marketing channels. It is important to align those messages to capture the maximum amount of traffic and revenue.
12. SEO is a critical part of the research process, especially for long sales cycle products. People use search engines to create a list and then use them to collect opinions and input and make decisions. 44% of online shopping begins by using a search engine.
13. SEO leverages and compounds investment in social content because some queries are more sensitive to fresh and social content to determine positioning.
14. Focusing on SEO and legitimate link building leads you to develop relevant, useful content that people want to share and provides highly leveraged digital word of mouth.
15. SEO allows you to understand user interest and intent and build site content that addresses and captures that intent.
16. SEO has global reach and can even provide dynamic translation and localization that can bring in new and unexpected customers and opportunities from all corners of the world.

SEO in 2016 is more compelling and rewarding than ever. Make a strong case for expanding your content performance marketing and SEO in 2016 to drive more traffic and revenue.  

Baidu, China’s largest search engine, is positioning itself to become a juggernaut in mobile search. Last year, mobile Internet users in China overtook PC-based, and now 50% of revenue comes from Baidu mobile. Building on this financial base, Baidu is investing heavily in the development of Baidu mobile search technology which could have applications in markets far beyond China’s borders.

Coming relatively late to the digital revolution, China is leap-frogging many older industrial nations in its adoption of the latest technology. Today, 23% of the world’s 2.8 billion Internet users live in China, and more and more they are accessing the Internet through mobile devices. In 2014 China counted 1.3 billion mobile subscriptions, including 513 million smartphone registrations, which grew by 21% last year.

Baidu management has taken due notice. Robin Li, founder of the firm (and one of China’s richest men) has firmly set Baidu on the mobile path:

"Baidu is redefining the search box by building an ecosystem to connect people with services and drive closed-loop transactions. Baidu's platform is comprehensive and robust, and we plan to fully exploit the huge growth potential ahead … by leveraging our Baidu mobile foundation, exceptional technology advantage, and proven operational experience."

Amplifying on this statement, a Baidu spokesperson said, “We’re definitely a mobile company first now and everything we do begins with mobile and takes priority over our PC products.”

Currently this mobile strategy seems to have two components – investing heavily in mobile-related technology while penetrating key mobile-first markets like Brazil and Indonesia.

Investing in mobile technology

Baidu has invested millions of dollars in technology companies, making a strategic investment in Taboola in May of this year. Taboola generates content recommendations that appear at the end of articles, a technology that could be used to build a knowledge graph for Baidu. (Interestingly, Taboola is the third Israeli tech company Baidu has invested in recently.)

But even more important is Baidu’s investment in artificial intelligence.

In May of 2014, Stanford Computer Science professor Andrew Ng joined to become Chief Scientist at Baidu Research, with labs in Silicon Valley and Beijing. Professor Ng is the co-founder of Coursera, the online education platform. But he may be best-known for a deep learning AI project that he ran with Google, wherein they built a network of neural processors that watched thousands of hours of unlabeled Youtube videos. Entirely on its own, without any human direction, the neural network learned how to identify … cats (it was YouTube after all).

By continuing to improve this deep learning technology, Baidu will leap ahead in its ability to analyze speech data and written language in Chinese, English, and any other language. And Baidu is already planning an enhanced supercomputer for 2016 that will greatly improve its capabilities in object recognition.

What are the search implications of this technology?

We need look no further than a new Baidu project called Baidu Eye. Working in tandem with your smartphone, Baidu Eye is designed to enable you to identify a product you see and instantly provide pricing information, so that you can purchase it on the spot if you wish.

Professor Ng has been careful to describe Baidu Eye as a “research exploration” not a product, but it fits neatly into Baidu’s vision of the future. Ng predicts that “Within five years, 50% of our queries will be through speech and images" not just text.

In other words, the picture becomes the query. And image search becomes the key to massive profits in sophisticated markets as well as markets where a high percentage of the population is barely literate.

Opportunities far beyond the Great Firewall

Today more than 93% of Baidu’s visitors are in China, but Robin Li and his management team are looking far beyond the nation’s borders. In 2014 Baidu started operations in Brazil, a mobile-first country where Ng’s new technologies may deliver a decisive advantage.

Baidu has also moved aggressively into Indonesia, another mobile-first market. In Indonesia, Baidu is not starting with a search engine, rather it is importing Android apps from China that have proven to be quite popular locally. And Baidu is also running pilot projects in Thailand and Egypt.

So here’s the formula – create the world’s best mobile technology for processing speech and images, and deploy it in markets where mobile is dominant. Only time will tell if Baidu is on the right path, but this certainly appears to be a bold leap into the future for China’s leading search engine.

At Search Laboratory our specialty is international search SEO, so we are exposed to many clients, large and small, at different stages of the process to improve their online presence in foreign markets. This invariably involves translating their website and their search marketing campaigns. Unless you have done this a few times before, you are unlikely to avoid the common SEO mistakes that litter your way. Get any of the key components of successful internationalization wrong and the consequences can be devastating. At best you may get limited or no search rankings; at worst you can waste money and damage your reputation.

1. Translating Keywords

These are still the biggest and most common SEO mistakes we see in international SEO and more often in global PPC campaigns. Translators are excellent at translating sentences faithfully. They study to Masters level to do this efficiently using electronic glossaries and memory tools. However, faithful translation does not make for an exhaustive and targeted keyword set. This article explains the problems in full but in summary:

• Translators tend to translate one keyword to the best keyword in their language. This means nuances of the same word in English will translate to the same word in their language, duplicating keywords.
• Keywords in the translator’s language that do not have an English equivalent will never be generated. These could be big-money keywords and you will never find them.
• PPC Ad Groups will contain a mix of head terms as translators attempt to introduce variety into their translations. This means ads are not tightly bound to keywords, quality score suffers and therefore the site struggles to compete.

Keyword research should be performed by native search marketing professionals. Speaking the language is not a qualification to be able to perform effective keyword research in a given language. You would never randomly select a person to perform your English keyword research who had no knowledge of search marketing just because they had a good command of English, so don’t do it for foreign languages. Foreign markets are as competitive as English now, so treat them the same.

2. Search Before Translation

If an SEO plan is integrated into the website translation process, a lot of time and money can be saved. Not doing this can leave a confusing mess, with SEO recommendations repeatedly being ‘undone’ by the translation process. An understanding of the translation workflow is essential. This changes from one translation vendor to another, but every quality translation company uses electronic glossaries and translation memory software (check that yours does – if not you will be paying too much and getting lower-quality results!).

Glossaries mean that you can inform the translators, in advance of the translation process, certain words that you would like translated in the same way every time. They were invented to help companies that want consistent use of certain marketing terminology. McDonald's, for example, wants ‘I’m lovin’ it’ to be translated in exactly the same way in every language. If that phrase appears anywhere in any of their literature or on any page online, they do not want a translator to make their own decision as to the best way to translate it. The phrase is built in to the McDonalds electronic translation glossary and every translator who translates for McDonald's will use this glossary to ensure consistency.

The great news is that SEO keyword pairs can also be pre-loaded into glossaries. Through mother-tongue keyword research, we can determine that the best term for ‘car rental’ in France is ‘location de voiture’ (and in British English is ‘car hire’!). These term pairs can be loaded into the glossary, so that when the web pages are translated the translators use the pre-determined terminology and the translated pages are automatically SEO’d. The mistake people make is to only consider SEO once the translation process is already complete.

3. Repeatedly Deleting SEO Recommendations

This is an incredibly common mistake:

1. The SEO company makes some recommendations on the French page to make it more search-engine friendly, changing the terminology slightly in the titles and descriptions, plus copy on the page to tie in with keyword research. These changes are implemented on the French version of the site.
2. The English version of that same page is changed due to a normal update.
3. A translation process kicks off and undoes all of the SEO recommendations in step 1 above.

The reason the SEO changes get undone is due to the way modern translation companies translate files using translation memory software. A bit like the glossaries, this software is excellent as it ensures consistency and saves time and money by electronically recognizing what has been translated before and highlighting new areas of text to the translators. However, ignoring the part this software plays in the translation workflow spells disaster for the SEO campaign. The solution is generally fairly straightforward but depends on the software and workflow in place. The SEO changes made must be reflected in the translation memory database or else the site will see a constant reversal of the optimizations.

4. Translation of Content Marketing

Content marketing forms the backbone of any SEO campaign. The process that we use in English here at Search Laboratory goes like this:

1. Come up with an idea g. Insightful piece on interior design for a client that sells rugs.
2. Plan and Research Interview some interior designers and prominent bloggers for specialist content.
3. Create Write the piece in an engaging way, including imagery.
4. Launch Put the piece online, informing the contributors and influencers as it happens.
5. Promote Follow up with social and other outreach and online activity to ensure the piece gets traction.

The process above gives the content the maximum chance of success in terms of views, engagement, sales, orders, bounce rate, and links. However just because it was a good idea in the UK or another market, does not mean a translated version hosted on your French site will be as well received.

Foreign markets are competitive, so the same level of care and the same processes need to be put in place to perform content marketing in these markets. To do so requires natives of that country to cover the processes above, including research, outreach, and ensuring the idea is transferable to that culture. It is a specialist job, so don’t do the hard work creating great content, only to let it then fail through poor execution.

5. Malformed Code

This should be the easiest part to get right, but do make sure your Hreflang tag is properly formed. It should look something like:

<link rel="alternate" href="www.mypage.com" hreflang="es-es" />

The code works by informing Google and other search bots specifically about the language of the page, and which page it should serve to which language in the query. This article describes the use of the tag in some detail and shows how to implement it.

If you’re a brand that deals with a multinational presence, SEO can be a big undertaking technically and logistically. In this session from BrightEdge’s Share 14 event last week, speakers from 3M, adidas, Adobe, Global Strategies and Intel shared common problems encountered within and solutions they’ve created for create a winning global search program. Dave Lloyd was up first (@davelloyd1) from of Adobe. He touched on search, content and localization at a global search scale. He says to first align to the customer journey. Look at keywords or topics that are mapped to various needs like consideration intent, learning intent or support intent.

The general content optimization plan, he says, is the following:

• Identify keywords
• Organize content
• Optimize content
• Create content
• Localize content
• Link to content
• Launch process and QA of recommendations

For regional SEO coverage, Lloyd says all countries receive:

• CMS improvements
• XML and Href alternate language sitemaps
• Technical SEO ad redirect mapping

Then there’s Tier one countries, which Lloyd says is the recipient of product support through keywords, content, linking and QA. Tier 2 to Tier 4 countries receive on-page keyword optimization based on regional priorities. Next, Lloyd talked SEO localization flow, which consists of:

• In-country keyword research
• Each keyword mapped to preferred landing page
• Content localized using keywords (content, video, images, links)
• Reviewed by global search and SEO teams
• Localized and optimized content goes live
• In-country keyword research
• Each keyword mapped to preferred landing page
• Content localized using keywords like content, video, images, links

Here’s a detailed SEO localization process that Lloyd shared with the audience:

Some takeaways on strategy, partnership and quality assurance include: Strategy

• Improve consistency of keyword optimization through local assignments by language not product
• Ideal if local vendors work on all local collateral like documents, white papers, etc.
• Always think about effort vs. impact

Partnership

• Localization team coordinates vendors, regions, reviewers, the Adobe search team and the global search team
• Invest in success through vendor and reviewer training on search and keywords in the region

Quality Assurance

• The SEO team should drive QA Titles and Meta Descriptions
• Have independent linguistic reviewers for targeted regions
• Have the regional marketing managers sign off on content

SEO is not an afterthought, so you must plan ahead, respect deadlines and share info, Lloyd says. Laura-Ann Mitchell of Intel was next. She and Mellissa Jensen from Global Strategies (the agency for Intel) had a co-presentation. Mitchell starts by saying that unless you have a big budget of $5 million for SEO, it’s hard to scale globally. You have to be creative. And, you have to create relevant content for every country. Jensen is up, and talks about the process for making it work. First, she says, take a step back, and understand how content gets created all over the world. Then, streamline the content workflow first.

Look at the step-by-step process, says Jensen. Make sure the content holds the same optimization when it gets translated into the geos, and inject local keyword research during the translation process.

Next, optimize the infrastructure:

• Publish country content on ccTLDs
• Customize the CMS
• Optimize templates
• Leverage XML Sitemaps with HREFLang tags

The three takeaways for global search for enterprise? Jensen and Mitchell say the following:

1. Optimize the infrastructure
2. Optimize the translation workflow
3. Train content managers and translators

Next up: Mattia Santin (@mattiasantin) from adidas Group [Side note: Check out Mattia’s interview for the BrightEdge blog, here]. Mattia talks about how adidas grew SEO globally. When he first joined adidas, he needed to understand the strengths of the company, and the challenges in order to build an SEO program that scales. So, he says, benchmark the SEO situation. Understand any microsites, main sites, etc. Focus on the platform – the CMS first. The following represents how adidas Group sees SEO:

To make SEO work on a global search level, says Santin, look at the:

• Organization
• Process
• Scale

Understand the global search structure, create a core team, then look at regional and local SEO teams, he says. The approach to SEO is a mix of campaign-based and evergreen strategies, says Santin. So campaigns would support brand authority, seasonal and business cases, and evergreen strategy would drive conversions, be ongoing and scale.

From the SEO efforts at adidas Group, SEO proved to be the No. 1 driver of traffic globally, and it saw a 329 percent lift in SEO sales year-over-year, Santin says.

Some of the lessons learned when implementing global search and SEO, says Santin, are the following:

• Educate, evangelize and “sell” SEO internally
• Build the right organization for your needs
• Build a long-term SEO plan
• Focus on priorities, scale, test and learn

Craig Berdie (@cberdie) from 3M joined the audience next. He talked about executive buy-in for global search and SEO. He says 3M has 6,000 websites served from a single server. Some of the challenges they faced were:

• Consistencies between the countries, market variations, resources
• Fundamental architectural decisions
• Rapidly evolving product sets
• Deep content locked in PDFs

Next, he goes into the tactics:

• Establish and global, collaborative learning
• Create a wiki for knowledge capture
• Implement an enterprise SEO platform (they use BrightEdge)
• License a variety of “ad hoc” tools as needed
• For global SEO projects, train marketers and measure, measure, measure.

Take a seat at the table with technical teams, says Berdie, sit in on the meetings, understand their objectives and don’t lose out on opportunities to make SEO a consideration. A tip, he says, for buy-in is to merge analytics and Salesforce to see how many leads and sales come from organic traffic, then figure out how much each click is worth in organic. The C-Suite wants to see this type of economic value. Berdie’s takeaways include:

• Finding global talent
• Focusing on the numbers, and showing economic value
• Understanding the IT side of the equation so you can get what you need
• Focusing on the teams that are willing to change
• Identifying SEO targets and create success stories
• Understanding and use available data
• And remembering that small victories generate momentum

The hospitality sector is a huge focus vertical for BrightEdge. Several of the largest and most prestigious global hotel brands use BrightEdge S3 for SEO. This post is part of a 2-part series discussing why SEO is such a critical element of hospitality marketing and how global hospitality leaders like Marriott succeed in SEO. SEO is one of the most productive channels for hotels trying to boost online reservations. Our friends at the reputed digital marketing agency HeBS Digital did a neat study that sheds further light on this. The study titled 'The Smart Hotelier‟s Guide to 2012 Digital Marketing Budget Planning' tells us that:

1. The online channel matters most - As part of its study, HeBS Digital looked at data across 46 of the top global hotel brands and studied conversion rates across 3 channels - Internet Booking, Travel Agent Bookings & Voice Bookings. Not surprisingly, the online channel is the most productive channel accounting for 54% of the bookings - more than the total from Travel Agent and Voice Channels.

2. Online is the fastest growing channel - The share of online channel bookings has grown 25% since 2007 while those of travel agents and voice bookings has collectively decreased. Clearly, this growth has been at the expense of bookings from the other channels, including Voice Bookings whose share plummeted from 75% in 2007 to 24.1% in 2011. The next section illustrates how the growth of the online channel is a mixed bag.  

3. Direct website bookings are more profitable for hotels - Online travel agencies account for 31.8% of these bookings. Reservations originating on the websites of these online agencies impose lead to distribution costs for hotels. In 2010, these costs amounted to $2.5 Billion. Clearly, online travel agencies help reach more customers globally but this reach comes at a cost. 4.Hotels need to drive conversions on their website - As the Hotelier's Guide suggests, the digital marketing budget 'needs to focus on the Direct Online Channel to allow hoteliers to “Own the customer”, stay competitive and reverse the troubling trend of the OTA's growing market share'. The study then assesses the online marketing methods that can help hotels 'own the customer'. With 65.8% ROI, SEO is one of the most rewarding. Also, social media matter with a 43% ROI. This is where we come in.

Helping Hospitality Leaders Like Marriott Achieve Global SEO Solutions

Our goal is help companies drive more conversions from web sites, search engines and social networks. Clearly, there is a huge need in the hospitality industry and we responded with broad and deep functionality addressing the specific needs of the hospitality sector. The best way to understand why so many leading global hotel brands rely on BrightEdge for global SEO solutions is to hear what these brands have to say. I am excited to share this video by Luisa Escobar, Senior Manager of Global SEO at Marriott, talking about how they rely on BrightEdge for global SEO solutions spanning 3,500 properties.