Anne F. Kennedy is an international search strategist, and the founder of US-based Beyond Ink USA, with international partners in Iceland, China, Denmark, Italy, Sweden, and the UK. She serves on the Advisory Board for the Search Engine Strategies Conferences. Clients have included hundreds of companies, both large and small. She is co-author of Global Search Engine Marketing.
With Google's dominant hold on market share around the world, the tools and interfaces you already know -- Google AdWords, Google Analytics, and Google Webmaster Tools -- should help you successfully implement campaigns in other countries.
As with SEO in your own language, attention to the basics pays off. Just as you would do when working in your own country, when working outside your home country and language be sure to build your site with algorithm-friendly architecture, load it with relevant content, and attract inbound links from authoritative sites.
In most countries around the world, Google is the leading online search engine by far. Exceptions include Japan and Taiwan, where Yahoo! is the favorite, although search results for Yahoo! Japan are provided by Google.