Advice on how to establish which parts of the globe you can expand your business to, from an SEO Strategist who has worked with some of the biggest companies on the planet – Apple, Telegraph Media Group, Mazda, and more.
Overview
Speaker’s name: James Brown
Job role and company: SEO Strategist at Oban International
Links to Twitter profile: @ObanIntl
Website: https://obaninternational.com/
Link to LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-brown-a3059958/
Link to the slides: https://obaninternational.com/blog/how-to-tell-if-theres-demand-to-launch-your-business-overseas/
What was the talk about?
“It’s not all about SEO. Support through paid, social media or ATL activity can really help establish brands in foreign markets.” ?
– Insights from our Senior SEO Strategist James Brown at #BrightonSEO pic.twitter.com/R7ENhYBAy2
— Oban International (@ObanIntl) April 12, 2019
James Brown had a simple premise for this talk about a difficult topic – how can you establish which parts of the globe you can expand your business to? Often people want to take their company into the US or Chinese markets, but do their customers want your business? James demonstrated how to find the answer to this.
Start by using the audience tab from your Google Analytics suite. This shows allows you to filter by location and which global regions are visiting your website. You should also go onto Google and Amazon and see what regional sites are active there – to give you an idea of who your competitors are. Two of the best suggestions he made was to launch a microsite first, or to partner with a local business – spreading and lessening the risk.
Fave quote
“If you launch your business overseas are you even wanted there?”
Potential impact on the industry
While James’ talk looked at how to find if there’s a market for your business abroad, the most important lesson was about native SEO. James explained that before you can even think about going global, you need to get the SEO on your website right because if you don’t you have no chance of expanding into a new market.
Once you’ve got your house in order, it’s all about regional UX. For example, Western websites are image heavy and text light, while Chinese ones are the opposite.
Key takeaways
Want to take your business into international markets thinking of using automatic redirection? James Brown of @ObanIntl says it’s a “big no” #brightonseo #seekerdigital pic.twitter.com/TIjEDMitW6
— Seeker Digital (@SeekerDigital) April 12, 2019
- Use the locations tab on Google Analytics
- Look at regional UX before moving into a market
- Get your native SEO in order before going global
