The last Friday of September belonged to BrightonSEO, a one-day conference focused on search marketing and held, not surprisingly, in Brighton. This twice-yearly conference attracts around 4,000 attendees each time and is one of the biggest SEO conferences in the world. For the second time this year, Webcertain had its own expo stage, focused on international digital marketing topics! This blog post will summarise some of the key takeaways from those talks.
Five speakers from Webcertain and one external speaker presented topics ranging from international PPC, to international SEO, to international social media, all touching on different markets around the world.
The agenda was as follows:
- PPC in the other search engines: Jitka Jizerova
- Putting the social into social search engines: Daiana Damacus
- The subtleties of Google search in French: Alban Renard
- How to succeed with German SEO: Anna Troidl
- Site adaptation for foreign markets: Trust signals: Zanna Pupele
- Expanding internationally? Tips for choosing your next country to target: Barbara Bazzoli
1. PPC in the other search engines: Jitka Jizerova
The first session focused on international markets – primarily Asian markets – as these are known to be different and challenging for many marketers. I was the first speaker of the day and my talk “PPC in the other search engines” focused on which platforms to target when entering the Russian, Chinese and South Korean markets. I highlighted some key differences between Yandex, Baidu and Naver’s advertising platforms, as well as the opportunities and potential pitfalls to be aware of when doing PPC on these platforms.
The five key takeaways were:
- Get help from a native speaker or agency when setting up your PPC accounts.
- Do not copy and paste your ads from one search platform to another.
- Be careful – match type operators might not have the same meanings on different search engines!
- Paid search is a must on Naver and Baidu.
- Explore all the ad types so that your brand stands out.
For more information, you can read my slides here.
2. Putting the social into social search engines: Daiana Damacus
The second talk was presented by Daiana Damacus and focused on the social sides of the Asian search engines Naver and Baidu. She stressed the importance of having content on the social platforms, as they can improve SEO results on these search engines.
Naver, for example, has platforms including Naver Blog, Naver Café, Naver Knowledge In, and Naver Post. Meanwhile, Baidu has its own platforms such as Baidu Encyclopaedia, Baidu Post-It, and Baidu Knows. Daiana provided practical examples and information on how to use these platforms.
Daiana’s three key takeaways were:
- You cannot succeed by only doing SEO on these search engines. You need to bring your social media and content marketing departments in.
- Even though some features are like those of other search engines and even other features within the same search engine, pay close attention to the details and how people use them, as they often end up being very different from one another.
- Success on these search engines cannot happen in a week. Prepare a proper plan and remember they are a long-term project.
You can find Daiana’s slides here.
3. The subtleties of Google search in French: Alban Renard
The third session focused on European markets and provided some insights into French SEO.
Alban Renard explained the subtleties of Google search in French. His presentation focused on differences between variations of the French language across the world and also revealed insights into the French consumer.
Alban’s slides can be found here.
4. How to succeed with German SEO: Anna Troidl
Anna Troidl’s talk was about how to succeed with German SEO. Like the previous presentation, it showed that the German language has certain obstacles that marketers need to be aware of if they want to optimise their content to rank in the search engines. Anna also highlighted the importance of building trust with German customers by having external reviews and certifications uploaded to the website.
The key takeaways were:
- A business address in Germany is required.
- Work with native speakers.
- Earn trust with certificates and trustworthy reviews.
- Choose the right platforms to spread the word.
Anna’s slides can be found here.
5. Site adaptation for foreign markets: Trust signals: Zanna Pupele
The penultimate session of the day belonged to Zanna Pupele and looked into expansion into international markets.
Zanna’s presentation focused on how businesses should adapt to foreign markets and what trust symbols are important to have on a website when selling products or services. Throughout the talk, she gave real-life examples of trust anchors.
The most important trust anchors are listed below:
- contact us
- payment options
- currency
- sizes and measurements
- delivery and returns
- local associations and institutions
- social media
- translation
You can access Zanna’s presentation here.
6. Expanding internationally? Tips for choosing your next country to target: Barbara Bazzoli
The last talk of the day was presented by Barbara Bazzoli. She discussed some of the key factors and sources to consider when assessing market opportunities for international expansion and included a case study to display the necessary steps when deciding which market to target.
Some of the key takeaways included:
- Research the language and culture of the country you would like to target.
- Gain local knowledge.
- Localise for English-speaking countries.
You can access Barbara’s presentation here.
Some of these speakers will be speaking at the International Search Summit in Barcelona this November, so why not attend and find out more about the world of international digital marketing? If you can’t attend, you can check out our guides and videos on our Know-How platform.
Jitka Jizerova
Latest posts by Jitka Jizerova (see all)
- SEO differences between Google, Baidu, Yandex and Naver - January 30, 2019
- International marketing at BrightonSEO 2018 - October 8, 2018
- Three ways content marketing can help SEO - March 27, 2018
