Is this the year you take your website international? There are different options, each with pros and cons, for how to expand your global reach. RKG Technical Director Jody O'Donnell describes three of those options in the video below.

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

Jody O'Donnell: Hi, and welcome back to the RKG Blog. In a previous post, we talked about how to use hreflang signals for international SEO. Today, we're going to follow up with how to do international domain strategies.

Technically, there are really only three types of domain strategies that you can use: ccTLDs or Country Code Top-Level Domains, subfolders, or subdomains. We're going to walk through each one of these and hopefully show the advantages and disadvantages of each. You're going to want to make sure that you do your own evaluation on which one is going to be best for you.

ccTLD, or Country Code Top-Level Domain, is really the only true geo targeting signal from a domain standpoint that you can get. They also have a higher click-through rate and conversion rate when using them.

There are some disadvantages to ccTLDs. One, it can be difficult to get all of your domain name with all of the different country code extensions that you're going to need afterwards. It can be difficult logistically, and it can cost a lot if other people already have those domains in some of the other countries. The last disadvantage with ccTLDs is that the link equity that you acquire through one ccTLD doesn't carry over to another. So, if you have example.fr and example.es, the link equity between those don't share at all like they do with the subdomain or a subfolder.

With subfolders, you get a really easy and low-cost implementation that most development teams can do usually within a day. You also garner all of the link equity that's normally coming from that domain as it is. So, if you have 1,000 links coming intowww.example.com/fr, the 'fr' folder gets all of that link equity.

Lastly, with subdomains, you get the same low, easy-cost installation that you do with subfolders. One major difference is, though, you do not get the link equity that comes in from one subdomain to another. There's a certain amount of it that you're going to inherit from the root domain as it is, but it's not a 100% transfer from subdomain to subdomain like it is subfolders. Also, with folders and subdomains, you do not get any type of geo targeting signal from an international standpoint.

In the past, SEOs have been pretty limited in what type of international signaling that they can do. Thankfully, Google and Bing both offer webmaster tools that allow for very specific geo targeting past ccTLDs and country-specific IP addresses.

Within Google Webmaster Tools, once you've verified either your domain or subdomain, you can go into each one of those settings, go to the geo targeting section, and then target that to a very specific country. You can also see within Google Webmaster Tools whether or not your hreflang signals are being picked up correctly.

Within Bing Webmaster Tools, you can verify not only at the subdomain and the domain level, but you can geo target at the subfolder and subpage level, which is a little bit more granular than what Google allows you to do.

This geo targeting within the webmaster tools sections for the major search engines is what really allows us to expand beyond just a normal ccTLD recommendation. With subdomain and subfolders now being in the mix, it allows for smaller sites with less money and less resources to be able to go international.

ccTLDs are the only way to get true geo targeting from a domain standpoint. If you're unable to get these, then we suggest doing subfolders. Mixed in with Google Webmaster Tools and Bing Webmaster Tools geo targeting, this is just as viable an option as the ccTLDs. On top of that, the subfolders garner all the link equity that they do from either the www or the root domain. Lastly, pick a domain strategy and be consistent.

Thanks for watching, and we look forward to the comments down below.

One of the greatest debates in digital marketing that can be as polarizing as Coke vs. Pepsi, iOS vs. Android, or Red Sox vs. Yankees, is to geo-target or not to geo-target in your paid search strategy.

Geo-targeting capabilities within paid search engines have evolved and improved through the years. The right message to the right customer is increasingly crucial in digital marketing, which can be achieved with geo-segmented campaigns and messaging within PPC accounts.

There are pros and cons when it comes to a geo-targeted campaign structure, and many considerations to identify what is right for your brand. Some clients require geo-level campaigns for reporting purposes, but there are strategies to achieve the same level of data insights without the task of creating and managing numerous duplicate campaigns based on geography. Below are some things to consider when making the decision to create geo-coded campaigns vs. national targeting.

The "What’s in It for Me" — Pricing and Promotions

Customer experience comes first, so let’s starts with the basics. If your brand operates under a national, state, or regional footprint, you’ll want to make sure you are only targeting Paid Search within that footprint. Advertising to customers who are not within your footprint provides a poor experience and is inefficient, as you incur costs for clicks that cannot convert. This can be avoided by ensuring proper location targeting is applied to your campaigns.

Once you’ve laid the groundwork, consider if there are regional offers that would be appealing to searchers. Varied pricing or incentives across the states or regions would be a strong case for specific geo-coded campaigns. If your business also has brick-and-mortar locations, think about separate campaigns and budgets that are targeted by zip code or radius with the goal of driving in-store conversions. Retailers often see success from hyper-local paid search strategies that are custom to a specific area.

However, with the rollout of Google Enhanced Campaigns last year and the ever-growing importance of mobile, there are a lot of features that still give a customized experience within a single campaign. Consider the use of bid adjustments by geography and scripts that can dynamically insert variables, such as price points, into ad copy.

The Data — Bidding/Conversions

If the goal of a geo-coded strategy is to analyze performance at a granular, location-based level, there are several tools available to achieve the same result with the ease of national targeting of your search campaigns. Utilizing a geographic report within Google Adwords can help you understand where your paid search traffic is coming from and identify demand hotspots. Web analytics packages, such as Google Analytics, can also help identify power users of your website or brand loyalists with higher conversion rates by location. From there, bid modifiers can be applied to ensure top positioning or go after brand awareness in a sluggish market.

The Cost of Doing Business — CPCs and Efficiencies

For most search marketers, KPIs are king. While setting up a geo-targeted strategy may easily give you the data points you are looking for by location, one must consider at what cost.

Creating only geo-targeted campaigns leaves the potential for missing customers that can’t be mapped to a location due to browser settings. It can also lead to a poor user experience, as targeting is not a perfect science. This can be due to IP addresses, cell towers, or additional settings, and could lead to a message that is not valid in their area. Consider what the pros/cons are and how this could affect conversion rate and overall customer experience.

Additionally, if you implement a “catch-all” campaign for searchers who don’t fit into a location bucket, you may find that with its higher traffic volume and increased search Quality Score, the majority of your traffic still flows into this campaign.

From a CPC perspective, in my anecdotal experience, geo-targeted campaigns can see average CPCs up to 20%-30% higher than a national campaign. Think about what you could do with those additional funds from cost savings and better efficiency when evaluating your geographic strategy. If you are held to very strict efficiency KPIs, this can have a big impact on your program performance.

The End Result — Level of Effort vs. ROI

A major factor to evaluate when weighing the pros and cons of geo-targeting is to understand total budgets, KPIs and overall goals. Understand your goals and compare this to the required level of effort to effectively manage a geo-coded paid search program. Remember, you will be managing exponentially more campaign budgets, bid management of keywords, and a complex negative strategy. Ask yourself if available resources allow you to devote the effort necessary to maintain a successful geo-targeted campaign strategy. If resources are limited, there are still steps you can take in your nationally targeted campaigns to achieve the same level of data insights by location.

Like any great debate, there is no black and white answer whether geo-targeting is best. This post hopefully gives you some questions to weigh when planning out your paid search strategy. There is generally no one-size-fits-all strategy for every advertiser, but careful consideration can help you decide what is right for your business.

Big Data. It’s what every marketer needs to establish competitive advantage in today’s digital world. However, there is little insight into how Merkle ensures the quality and accuracy behind each client solution. Let’s take a look inside the "test it" portion of the process to see what's involved in verifying the integrity of a world-class big data solution. Merkle follows a three-phase quality control process: Unit testing, system Integration testing, and user acceptance testing. 

1. Unit Testing 

Unit testing is generally the first set of quality checks on the solution, executed by the developer during his or her development process. The developer will validate that the completed code works properly as a small unit piece on its own. 

2. System Integration Testing

The majority of the testing effort falls under system integration testing, which is planned and executed by the quality assurance team. It can be further described by looking at the most common functional areas that make up a big data solution at Merkle:

• Customer Data Integration (CDI) Testing: provides validation of a functional, client-specific rule set for the solution. This is critical as much of the down stream processing relies on the accuracy of this data.
• Staging Testing: validation of the source data and loading into the staging area in the database.
• Target Testing: validation of transformations, aggregations, derived attributes, besting, and other advanced proceedings as data is moved into the target tables.
• Database Integration Testing: end-to-end testing that runs all processing and automation on the data, starting with staging of source data and ending with campaign file outputs, aggregations, and reports.
• Application/Extract Testing: verification of data integrity and integration with the campaign systems, business intelligence reporting systems, extracts to email and direct mail providers, back feeds, portal extracts, and web services.
• System Testing: tests between the solution under development and any third-party systems (outside vendors, in-house client solutions, etc.).
• Campaign/Campaign Mart Testing: verification of the data loaded into the campaign management systems and/or custom campaign marts developed for the client.

This diagram describes the general "component view" of the testing process followed at Merkle:

In all of these component areas and in each step of the testing process, data quality and integrity is analyzed for the smallest of variances, which are then corrected. We’ve seen how small errors in data can become large anomalies as the data is processed and flows through the solution, making this attention to detail a critical hallmark of a world-class quality program.

3. User Acceptance Testing

Once the quality assurance team completes testing, it is time for solution acceptance. The testing component of the solution acceptance process is user acceptance testing (UAT).  The goal of UAT is for the client to validate the solution's functionality as outlined in the business requirements. In most situations, Merkle assists the client in preparing and executing these UATs, ending with the client’s acceptance of the solution.

Finally, a series of automation quality checks are put in place when the solution transitions into the production environment. These quality checks are automated tests that ensure the accuracy of the data during normal solution processing. They alert to any anomalies in the data environment so that it can be corrected before it becomes an issue for the client’s solution.