So get this, there is a break now. But the session also starts now, got that? The refreshments are until 3:30, but the session starts at 2:50. In any event, it is about 3pm and we have not started yet. This is an international track, so I suspect it is about URLs, subdomains, language issues, etc. I speak in the next session, Five Bloggers and a Microphone - What's The Worst That Can Happen? in Room C at 4:10, don't miss it. I doubt we will have coverage of it, since its an open panel.
Moderator: Dixon Jones
Andy Atkins-Krueger, Managing Director, Web Certain Europe Ltd is up first. He shows a chart at IP addresses used in the WWW excluding the US and you see UK, China, Japan, Germany, France, Canada, Korea, in that order... He then shows a similar chart in a tag cloud format.
The big forces in each area, i.e. how big is Google in UK, etc. Baidu in China, Yandex is Russia.
SEO Tips: (10) UTF 8 encoding (unicode) (9) Do not translate, use a native speaker (8) Adopt a local PR strategy (7) Manage 301s properly (big issue for some reason internationally) (6) Keyword in URLs would help international SEO (5) Links are important, local links (4) Geo urself (3) Use cit names in content (2) Domain targeting with local domains or webmaster tool's geo tool (1) Language and content presentation, manage duplicate content between multiple sites
Michael Bonfils, President, SEM International is up first and jokes about not making fun of his accent, which he doesnt have one. He is to talk about Asia.
Asia is important because 400 million users are in the Asia market place. He goes over the stats on why Asia is so important, trust me, he believes it is important.
E-commerce is Asia? Start with Japan, he suggests. Then move into Korea and then China. China is very under developed in e-commerce, so far.
Baidu: The average CPC is 20 cents, but it ranges. There is an implementation fee, like a deposit, and it is high. They dont take credit cards, they require wire. Baidu is very picky on the ads. Be aware of currency.
Google: It is easy to advertise in China. The CPCs and conversion rates are typically 2x higher than Baidu.
Yahoo: they have strong share in Asia. But they don't preform that well, 50% less effective than Baidu.
Chinese sound translations are hard.
Google looks mostly the same in China. Baidu is different, they mix paid and organic listings, but label them. The listings keep going dependent on advertisers.
Baidu SEO: - Title and Meta Alt Tags - Content, keyword density matters - Linking, more quantity than quality - Server and domain names, host in China and the domain is important for trust in searchers - Localization and the market, use simplified Chinese - Luck and connections matter
Yahoo is huge in Japan, followed by Google.
Korea has Naver, Daum (powered by Google) and Yahoo.
Competition: Your coming in from the US to compete locally. Monitor your local and global competitors.
Translation and Localization Tips: - Use localized keywords, ad copy and landing pages - Build trust in your ads and titles
Baidu has a very basic reporting system and they just added impression numbers, which he says don't work too well.
Ralf Schwoebel, Founder & CEO, Tradebit Inc. is next up. Might cut out soon, to go to the next session, where I speak in about 20 minutes.
He will focus on Germany and Europe. He first goes over basic SEO stuff. Translation is not enough. Ranking of a site is easier if it is locally hosted in that country.
Frank Watson, CEO, Kangamurra Media
Skipped out early, sorry, need to make it to my session and look somewhat awake.
