International SEO basics: reaching customers in other countries
International SEO is the work of helping search engines show the right version of your site to people in each country or language. It’s powerful when there’s real demand, and a waste of effort when there isn’t. Start with the demand.
Check whether international SEO is worth doing
Before changing anything, look at your data. Google Search Console and your analytics show which countries are already finding you. Then research whether people in your target market actually search for what you offer, and whether you can realistically serve them, including delivery, payment, support and any legal requirements.
Choose an international URL structure
There are three common choices. Google’s documentation describes each of them, and each involves trade-offs.
- Country domains (example.de): The clearest signal of a target country, but each domain builds authority separately and costs more to run.
- Subfolders (yourbusiness.com/de/): Generally the simplest to manage, and every market shares the main domain’s strength.
- Subdomains (de.yourbusiness.com): Easy to host separately, but usually more to maintain than subfolders.
For most small and mid-sized businesses, subfolders are a sensible default.
Understand hreflang tags
Hreflang is a tag that tells search engines which page is meant for which language or region. For example, you might have separate English pages for the U.S. and the U.K. with very similar content, and hreflang helps the right one appear in each country.
It has a few strict rules. Each version should list all the others as well as itself, and the links must point both ways. It’s a signal rather than a command, and it doesn’t make a page rank better on its own. You also don’t need it for a single-language site that targets one country.
Localize your content instead of only translating it
Translation changes the words. Localization adapts the page for the people reading it. That includes:
- Currency, units, dates and phone formats
- Local proof, such as customers, reviews and press from that market
- Payment methods and shipping information people expect there
- The terms people really search for, which may not be a direct translation
Do keyword research for each market separately, even between countries that share a language. Someone in the U.K. shopping for a “mobile phone” isn’t using the same words as an American shopping for a “cell phone.”
Don’t force redirects by location
Automatically sending visitors to a version of your site based on their location can stop them from reaching the page they want, and can also keep search engines from seeing all your versions. A better approach is a clear country or language selector that lets people choose.
Earn links and local signals in each market
A page written for German customers also benefits from links and mentions from German sites. Treat each important market as a campaign of its own, starting with the one that has the strongest demand.
Considering a new market? See how we work with businesses worldwide, or request a free audit and tell us where you want to expand.