International search has seen significant growth lately as more and more companies seek global opportunities. However, these companies often make a lot of mistakes in the process, according to Michael Bonfils of SEM International.
As he explains to WebProNews, when companies base their global strategy on their Web analytics, they are making a big mistake. In these cases, companies look at their analytics and think that they should target the countries that they are getting the most traffic from. Another common mistake with Web analytics is when companies assume that the amount of traffic from a country matches the amount of conversions.
After doing international SEO for 8 years, Bonfils believes that neither of these approaches are very effective.
“There are a lot more components to identifying the markets that you want to go in other than just Web analytics,” he said.
These components include keyword research data, identifying local competitors in the market, technical issues, and ecommerce-related items. Bonfils suggests plugging these factors into a spreadsheet to determine which market is really the best option for your company.
He also points out that simply translating keywords and other search data do not produce accurate results. Every country has its own vernacular, which is often misinterpreted in translation.
Although an international search strategy has many challenges, there are also many global opportunities for businesses. Bonfils recalls that approximately 75 percent of all of Google’s traffic is from outside of North America, which means international programs are expanding rapidly.
Because of the large growth in global search, SEM International is teaming up with the SMX conference series to have one day based solely on international search. For more information on this, check out upcoming SMX shows.
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