Some time ago I struggled with the same problem, and after reading articles on the seomoz blog and questions posted here I went for subdirectories.

subdirectories still give you the ability to add those folders to Google Webmaster Tools and set regio for that folder. You can go with country specific domains as well, but you will have to build links for every domain, whereas you only have to do it once when you choose subfolders.

When I visit widgets.com the only thing I saw were advertisements... so I thought Content would be your main issue because with only a domain name you're not going to make it to the top of Google search results.

Then I went to your competitors website, but that just gave me an error page... maybe they block European traffic, but I doubt that..

Being a copycat can get you some results... maybe... but commenting on blog posts to get backlinks isn't the best technique to really get quality. If you use open site explorer, try to understand the metrics of a good backlink and only go after those. That's what I recommend, and then go on to build quality links yourselve, and not only on places where your competition is...

Hi,

The Google Keyword Tool DOES provide enough long tail keywords for Spanish keywords. Maybe there isn't enough data available for the niche you're in, but I never had a problem finding Spanish long tails. Make sure you allready use 2 to 3-word keyword phrases and the results will probably only show phrases made of 3,4 or even 5 keyword.

Another thing you should do is look at the buying cycle of your product/service... In every stage the consumer will have some questions, indentify those questions AND the answers and you will come up with some good long tails... I'm working on an insurance site at the moment (Dutch website), and here are some questions that were generic for every product they sell.

-  compare (e.g. car) insurance prices

• overview prices (e.g. car) insurance

• calculate (e.g. car) insurance price

• tax benefits (e.g. car) insurance

3th tip: make use of the google auto complete tool!!! There you will find some inspiration as well!!!

I think you can achieve this using a custom URL structure that Google will pick up to add the posts to their newsfeed. I used this structure for ptzeporselein.be : yoursite.com/blog/year/month/day/postname

It seems that it gets indexed much quicker than other websites I worked on. They are all in wordpress, all using Yoast's SEO plugin, but the ptzeporselein website performs better. Last article posted on the blog was indexed within a few minutes...

To achieve those different geotargeting options in Google Webmaster Tools you have to add every subdirectory as a different site, otherwise you can only target one country for the top-domain.

You should add marketing.com/de and marketing.com/fr as separate sites to GWT and set the geolocation for each folder to the right country.

Why shouldn't you place your text in divs??

Just make sure your font color isn't the same as the div's background that isn't a good idea...

Some time ago I struggled with the same problem, and after reading articles on the seomoz blog and questions posted here I went for subdirectories.

subdirectories still give you the ability to add those folders to Google Webmaster Tools and set regio for that folder. You can go with country specific domains as well, but you will have to build links for every domain, whereas you only have to do it once when you choose subfolders.

Hi,

The Google Keyword Tool DOES provide enough long tail keywords for Spanish keywords. Maybe there isn't enough data available for the niche you're in, but I never had a problem finding Spanish long tails. Make sure you allready use 2 to 3-word keyword phrases and the results will probably only show phrases made of 3,4 or even 5 keyword.

Another thing you should do is look at the buying cycle of your product/service... In every stage the consumer will have some questions, indentify those questions AND the answers and you will come up with some good long tails... I'm working on an insurance site at the moment (Dutch website), and here are some questions that were generic for every product they sell.

-  compare (e.g. car) insurance prices

• overview prices (e.g. car) insurance

• calculate (e.g. car) insurance price

• tax benefits (e.g. car) insurance

3th tip: make use of the google auto complete tool!!! There you will find some inspiration as well!!!