Competitive Review

Never underestimate the value of detailed competitive reviews - especially in the international sphere. A good competitive review should reveal:

Which competitors are strongest in which markets?
Are there local competitors which are prevalent in individual markets?
What are the particular SEO strengths of competitors?
What factors are search engines taking into account in which markets (for global search engines - they are of course working on the same basic algorithm - but there are variations caused by local languages issues and the nature of the web itself in the target country)?
What are the weaknesses of the web site targeted for improvement versus its competitors?
What strategies short term will deliver the best ROI and fastest improvements?

The competitive review - in essence - should give you a very clear picture of where you need to go and what you need to do to be successful.