Research market-relevant events to stay ahead in international SEO

Sara says: “This year, it is important that we stay ahead in international SEO by embracing and keeping track of market-relevant events.

This can include holidays, elections, festivities, and even football matches. All of these events can have an impact on the market you work in. They can influence your traffic, your rankings and your impressions.

When I was working for a travel company, I saw a sudden spike in impressions on a Spanish domain for the query ‘Sevilla Roma’ in Google Search Console. However, it was not followed by clicks. Normally, in the travel context, this search query would relate to travelling between destinations – in this case, from Seville to Rome. However, this anomaly happened due to a temporary change in the SERPs on the 31st May of 2023. It coincided with the Europa League final match between Sevilla and Roma.

The users who were conducting that search weren’t interested in finding flights between those cities; they wanted to find information about the football match that was being played. There was a temporary switch in the search intent. If you’re working in the Spanish or Italian market and you’re not aware that this match is happening, and you see that sudden spike in impressions on Search Console that’s not followed by clicks, you might think that something was broken on your website. Instead, it was because the search intent had changed.

Something very similar also happened when, for one or two days, people suddenly started searching for the names of individual countries. It was not because they were interested in travelling to that country or finding more information about that country, but because the Eurovision Song Contest was happening. They were interested in finding information about the bands and the songs that represented that country.”

How do you start to learn about and plan around the relevant events that are going to be happening?

“The first step is to create a calendar of market-relevant events, for each market. That should include holidays, festivals, elections, sports events, etc. If possible (depending on the size of the company), you want to have a dedicated marketer for each market. It is very useful to be able to regularly communicate with someone who is responsible for monitoring the market in any one country. Every week, if anything important is happening in your key markets, that can then be communicated via chat. It’s not just about having a calendar, but also having regular communication between the different marketing teams.

The second step is to monitor industry news and trends. Tools like Google Alerts, Google Trends, and any specialised industry news websites can be useful. They will all help you find these events that could influence search behaviour.

The third step is to use tools for data tracking, such as Google Analytics, as well as regularly performing keyword research. That will enable you to identify any shifts and adapt your content and campaigns.

You should be leveraging these events to develop content that targets these campaigns. Depending on your business, they could also benefit you and you could create special offers or promotions that are related to the event as well.”

Would you recommend adding annotations to your analytics, based upon what events have impacted changes in conversion rates?

“Absolutely. It is very important that you add those annotations because, as time goes by, it’s less likely that you will remember that one specific spike was due to a football match, for example. Also, as your teams grow, these annotations in tools like Google Search Console and Google Analytics are going to be crucial for monitoring and analysing these shifts in metrics.”

How do you definitively know that a particular event has caused an anomaly within your search behaviour?

“It is important that you check exactly what queries triggered the spike. In my first example, it was a football match. It was very clear that this was the cause of that spike because the query was ‘Sevilla Roma’, and it was on the day that the match was happening.

Something that can help you in this case is, if you see it on the Spanish website, then check the Italian website as well. Are Italian users also doing the same kind of search? You can also compare that with countries where that event is not as relevant. Generally, you can tell by checking, not just assuming. Check the actual queries that the users are searching for.

You might see queries where the search intent changes based on seasonality – and, of course, a word can also have multiple meanings. You may have a word like ‘Texas’, which is obviously a state in the US. However, if the band ‘Texas’ is doing a world tour, and you suddenly start seeing searches for ‘Texas’ in the countries where they’re playing, that could be the reason. Those are the kinds of events that will be affecting searches.

It can be challenging to pinpoint the exact event, especially when you work with many different markets. You may not be dedicated to working in just one market; you may be managing multiple markets at the same time. If you’re in that situation, communication with other marketers, and any teams that may have this information to hand, is going to be very useful.

It could also be useful for you to communicate with the sales teams. They may not be communicating with clients at a specific time of the year because there is something going on or they may be adapting their offers to events that are happening. It is very important to keep that communication open.”

Is this particularly pertinent for international SEOs because SEOs operating in their own country are typically aware of the different events that are happening?

“Exactly. You could be working for a specific market because it’s a country that your company wants to target, even if you’re not familiar with the market that you have been given.

Of course, once you start working with this market, you will get more familiar with it. However, in the beginning, there will be other marketers and colleagues who are familiar with that market – and they may be from that country as well. It is important that you communicate with them, and they will help you quickly gain more knowledge on that market.”

Do you ever try and change the content of your page, or the content displayed within the SERP, based on changes in intent?

“You can. If you’re in the travel industry, for example, you could create campaigns to target that relevant event in some way.

What matters here is that you are aware of how these events can temporarily change the SERPs and that, if you see any drops, this could be the reason. You know that an event just happened and, for this short period of time, the users searching for that query were more interested in something that doesn’t have anything to do with your business.

You need to be able to recognise what is happening, from an organic search perspective, so that you can identify and articulate it. When sudden changes occur, you can then communicate what is happening and demonstrate your market knowledge to your stakeholders.

If you know that some big event is happening that is related to your business, you could tailor your content, and create a dedicated campaign or landing page for that – but that would be another tip for another time.”

If an SEO is struggling for time, what should they stop doing right now so they can spend more time doing what you suggest in 2024?

“Stop relying on one-size-fits-all strategies for your markets and tailor your efforts to the specific dynamics, events, and nature of each market. When you allocate time and resources to understanding these market-specific nuances, you’ll get better results. If you start with a one-size-fits-all strategy, you are going to waste more time in the end. Allocate resources to research and data analysis for each market. You are going to create a better experience, and your campaigns are going to be much better.

You want to tailor the content to the market that you are targeting, but that doesn’t mean that you should be creating alternative pages for every event in every market. You might have a page that talks about a specific event, like Día de los Muertos in Mexico. That event doesn’t happen in Spain, so having a page for that event in Spain wouldn’t make any sense.

Create the pages and content that are relevant for the users in that country, rather than applying a blanket approach.”

Sara Fernández Carmona is an International SEO Consultant, and you can find her over at Sara-Fernandez.com.