Many of the clients I speak to are already overwhelmed trying to drive growth, boost conversions, and stake out authority in a single market. Going global seems too daunting to even think about.
But here’s the reality: research shows that over 50% of all Google searches happen in languages other than English. What’s more, customers are far more likely to convert on websites tailored to their local needs and language.*
International SEO offers a major opportunity to outrun your competitors, capture new markets, and connect more deeply with your existing customers in different countries.
In fact, in a recent study, 4 out of 5 global marketers said that properly localizing their site and content had a positive impact on revenue growth, brand recognition, and customer acquisition.**
The best part? With the right approach, building an international SEO strategy that gets results doesn’t have to take up all of your budget and bandwidth.
This ultimate guide is based on Flying Cat’s years of first-hand experience with multicultural, multilingual SEO campaigns. Get ready to master everything from keyword research, rankings, and international user experience to technical setup, link building, and beyond.
*Internet World Stats, CSA Research
**Global Trends in Marketing Localization 2023
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International SEO explained
So what is international SEO?
In a nutshell: International SEO is the process of optimizing your website and content to increase visibility, traffic, and engagement in international markets.
This means using various techniques to improve your rankings on the SERPs for multiple languages and regions, generate organic traffic from different countries, and make sure your content resonates with users in distinct cultures.
What that looks like will vary based on your company and business needs and the particular audiences you’re targeting.
What are some examples of international SEO in action?
Example #1: Airbnb
I think we can all agree that Airbnb is a brilliant example of large-scale international SEO and website localization strategy done right. The website and app are accessible in 60 different languages with multiple currency options, and they’ve adapted their content to address the way different audiences use search engines.
They make sure user-generated content like reviews are translated into various languages, which improves the UX and gives them high visibility on searches for reviews and real opinions on different trips, regions, and accommodation types.
A wide range of currency options provide a great UX and helps Airbnb capture traffic from searches that include local currencies
There’s a lot to learn from this success story. But I’m here to remind you that you don’t need Airbnb’s budget and resources to capture international traffic!
One of the biggest misconceptions I come across time and time again is that international SEO is only for multinationals looking to build a full-scale global presence. In fact, it’s often growing companies that have the biggest opportunity here.
Search engines want to send users to the website that answers their questions best — not to the biggest name in the field. That means tailoring your content to regional search intent can help you quickly capture market share and outperform competitors in new spaces.
Example #2: Active Campaign
Here at Flying Cat, when we built an international strategy for a marketing automation software expanding into French, Italian, German, and Spanish markets, we knew we needed to get results fast.
So we took a focused approach, collaborating with experts from each region to:
- Localize the highest-performing English language pages
- Create missing SEO content for each market based on different search intents
- Shape conversion content to reflect different buying journeys
- Fix technical and UX issues like redirects and index bloat
Read our full case study for an in-depth example of effective international SEO on the ground!
When should you do international SEO?
That doesn’t mean everyone should jump into a full-scale international SEO strategy. You need to be sure it’s the right move for your business and your customers.
Usman Akram, one of our SEO experts at Flying Cat, says:
“Based on my experience, my #1 recommendation for companies thinking of doing international SEO is to be really thoughtful around the why.
Don’t do it because you see others doing it: ask yourself why you’re doing it, whether it’s the right time to invest in it, and how it will fit with your company and business model. Consider whether you’ve planned for all the different steps — you may be tripling the number of pages on your site! — and whether you have access to the right resources.”
Take a look at the video below for more tips on when you should — and shouldn’t — do international SEO.
I generally recommend asking yourself these 5 key questions to work out whether it’s the right time for your site to go global:
1. Do we have existing international traffic?
If your analytics already show meaningful traffic coming from other countries, that’s a good sign it might be time to start an international SEO campaign. You’ll be able to boost that traffic and find ways to build deeper relationships with your existing foreign audience.
2. Is there cross-cultural product-market fit?
Think about whether demand exists for your offering in other regions — you ultimately want your site not only to drive traffic but also to convert.
3. Is there a potential strategic advantage?
Identify any untapped markets where your competitors don’t have a strong online presence. These are opportunities to establish a first-mover foothold in a new region, optimizing for search visibility and brand awareness.
4. Do we need to expand internationally to scale?
For many companies, international reach becomes essential once they hit a certain stage of growth and saturated domestic markets. At Series C/D rounds and beyond, international expansion might be key to securing investment. If that’s the case, you’ll want to use international SEO to generate traffic and awareness in new markets you’ll expand to.
5. Do we have the resources and capability?
Keep in mind that international SEO can take time to show results, so make sure you plan for a long-term effort.
To do international SEO right, you’ll need strategists, writers, and translators familiar with each culture you’re targeting. You’ll also need to make sure you have the right support to set up the technical aspects — and make sure you don’t damage your existing site.
That’s a lot to cover in-house! If your in-house team lacks specialized international SEO expertise, you can set yourself up for success by partnering with an agency experienced in global campaigns and local content strategy.
Want support expanding into new markets?
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6 best practices for an effective international SEO strategy
Building an international website and brand presence is about much more than just translating some pages and hoping for the best.
Below, I’ve compiled the international SEO best practices I’ve found most effective across companies and countries. Use them to guide you in creating customized campaigns that resonate with your target audience and maximize your ROI in each specific country.
1. Dive deep into market research
Before jumping in with tactical optimizations, you need to identify which new international markets are worth pursuing in the first place.
If you’re considering expanding on the global market, you likely have a sense of which regions make sense for your product offering and business plan.
But your website metrics can also give you hard data on where to focus your efforts.
Start by seeing where your existing visitors and customers are coming from. You can use a tool like Ahrefs or Google Analytics to segment your site data by geolocation and see which countries are currently driving the most traffic.
You’ll also want to gauge your SEO potential in different countries. You can do this by checking the search volume for your typical target keywords and how difficult it will be to rank in the SERPs. Tools like Ahrefs and Semrush can give you quick overview of which regions have sufficient keyword and ranking opportunities.
Finally, make sure you factor in competitor research. Use exploratory techniques to identify new competitors in international markets. You can also check whether the competitors you’re currently aware of are getting traffic from your target market by entering their web domain into your keyword tool. Seeing where similar companies have an audience can also give you ideas for other countries you could target.
Use Ahrefs site explorer and similar tools to see organic traffic and market share by country for any website you key in
2. Focus keyword research on search intent
Now that you’ve identified priority countries, the next step is discovering keyword opportunities specific to each market. What terms and phrases are people searching in Australia? How do these differ from keywords in Spain?
You can use keyword research tools like Ahrefs, Semrush, or Google Keywords Planner to get started with suggestions. Begin by setting up a filter for your chosen country as well as language.
You can ask tools to focus your keyword research on a particular country database
Enter a seed keyword like “SEO” and you can instantly surface hundreds of localized long tail variations from across the globe. Then, drill down deeper to understand how high the search potential is (volume), how hard it is to rank for each keyword (keyword difficulty or KD), and what the likelihood of pulling in traffic from Google’s homepage is (click potential).
Tools like Semrush Keyword Analyzer show you the search volume, difficulty, and click potential for specific keywords in your target market
Make sure you compare search volume for keywords across markets to better understand the nuances of each region. Maybe a HRtech company will find that Europeans search more for generic HR terms like “personnel management” while Americans look specifically for “HR information systems”. That kind of data is like gold dust for knowing where to focus your efforts to meet local user needs.
Remember: you also can’t assume the same keyword has the same search intent behind it.
Let’s say you’re the same HRtech company, based in the US and looking to expand into Europe. You’re probably familiar with how your US audience search for terms like “employee fringe benefits”, likely looking for information about health insurance, retirement plans, and vacation time. In Scandinavia, where these things are covered on the public system, searchers might expect information on different perks like flexi-working, company cars, or meal stipends.
Without understanding the nuances of regional search behavior, you won’t be able to match the right keywords and content expectations.
Time and time again, I’ve found that great keyword research starts with understanding your users’ search intent — which means understanding your users. You’ll need to dig deep by using keyword research tools, conducting regional customer interviews, and speaking to experts familiar with your target countries.
3. Localize your content
It should already be clear that hitting a “translate” button on your current website content won’t get you international search results — or conversions. In the worst case scenario, it may even harm your existing reputation.
When doing multilingual SEO, you’ll need to make sure you transcreate content. That means factoring in cultural as well as linguistic differences in your content marketing. Cultural values and norms vary hugely across countries. That means messaging that resonates in one country may feel irrelevant or even alienating in another.
I make sure to take a comprehensive approach in our projects at Flying Cat, making sure written and visual content matches user needs for each region.
Here’s one example from a multilingual project we ran with Active Campaign, creating content about calls-to-action (CTAs). The localization team started by tailoring the article title and angle to different search intents.
You can see the results in the snippets below:
English-language searchers wanted to know about the different types of CTAs to use, so we made sure the piece matched this intent.
When we discovered our Spanish target audience wanted examples of CTAs, we focused the piece on a larger examples list.
Context is key, so as well as translating the words on the page, the localization team also switched the images and examples to resonate with the target audience.
We used different screenshots to illustrate CTA best practices for English versus Spanish audiences.
Even when you’re targeting audiences who speak the same language, you’ll want to adapt your content creation to match local language variants and expectations. For example, pages for a Latin American audience should incorporate different cultural nuances and word choices than pages for Spain-based users.
There’s no shortcut for working with great strategists and writers who know how to strike the right tone for each market. Running tests with regional focus groups can also help you create content that lands locally, while keeping continuity across your global online presence.
Pro tip: Don’t forget to optimize user-generated content for different target markets.
My experience has been that featuring local customer testimonials and reviews can majorly boost brand awareness and conversions. Encourage customers from different regions to leave reviews in their own languages, and have support staff on hand to respond to reviews in the right language.
It’s also important to localize your Google Business profile with region-specific keywords, local addresses, and contact information — and make sure you have social media set up for key target regions.
4. Invest in international link building
Gaining authoritative backlinks can be a gamechanger in building credibility with international audiences. Backlinks provide crucial authority signals which search engines use to measure how much they should trust and recommend your site.
Here’s what Joe Robinson, Head of SEO at Flying Cat, had to say:
“Targeted link building with trusted websites in your target region is a big opportunity. In one case, I saw monthly visits go from 20,000 to 1.7M primarily through aggressive, high-quality link building.”
To build an effective backlink profile, you’ll first need to identify sites with high domain authority and a strong presence in your target country.
You’ll also need to adapt your outreach techniques to build relationships with foreign marketers, publishers, and influencers. Partnering with strategists familiar with your new turf can be invaluable here. A great agency (like Flying Cat 👋) will do the hard work for you, finding the right sites to partner with and making the connections you need.
Securing quality inbound links is a solid way to fast-track your reach and reputation in your target region.
5. Decide on the right folder and URL structure
Planning your website’s domain structure and information architecture is pivotal when you’re expanding SEO across regions. Major changes across a website can cause problems from duplicate content penalties to unclear geo-targeting signals to broken redirects and even missing pages.
Joe at Flying Cat says:
“The worst case scenario is that technical things just don’t work anymore: you go live and there’s a whole section of the website that hasn’t changed; things break; pages disappear. That won’t only harm your expansion SEO efforts — it could also impact your current traffic.”
The solution? Companies need to think through the right domain and subfolder structure for their site, get technical support, and test, test, test.
Want to learn about more common international SEO mistakes — and how to solve them? Click to play the video below!
So how can you work out the best URL structure?
There are several possible paths, and you’ll need to weigh up the pros and cons of each based on your company’s priorities.
Here’s what to keep in mind:
Option #1: Country code top-level domains (ccTLDs)
Using a ccTLD like .de for Germany or .jp for Japan gives the clearest signals to search engines that your content is localized for a particular country. It also shows users clearly that they’re on the right site for their country. You’ll see major companies doing this: Amazon uses amazon.co.uk for UK customers, and amazon.in for India.
Downsides are that buying and maintaining several domains gets expensive fast and it can limit your flexibility in scaling across more markets down the line. A country-specific ccTLD also doesn’t distinguish between different languages spoken in a country — e.g. a .be domain for Belgium won’t specify whether the site is in French, Flemish, or German.
Option #2: Subdomains
Subdomains also indicate country-specific sites. They add to your generic top-level domain (gTLD), e.g., .com, .net., .org., .io.
For example, Zendesk use:
- fr.zendesk.com (France)
- de.zendesk.com (Germany)
- jp.zendesk.com (Japan)
These URL structures still send strong country targeting signals to Google and other search engines, and they’re more cost effective than ccTLDs.The main challenge with subdomains is that you’ll need to build a complex web infrastructure that requires regular maintenance. Also, in some cases, it’s tricky for users to see at a glance whether the domain refers to a country or language (e.g. es.yourwebsite.net).
Option #3: Subfolders
With subfolders or subdirectories like domain.com/ca/, you keep your content on a single domain while separating out sections of your site for different markets.
Geo-targeting signals from subdirectories aren’t as strong as with ccTLDs and subdomains. But they’re much easier (and cheaper) to set up and maintain. It’s easy to expand subdirectories to additional folder levels like country > language > city, so users can see exactly which section of the site they’re on. It’s also much simpler to roll out different versions of a page on a single domain.
Again, you’ll need to make sure these are properly configured to make sure you’re routing users through the right link flows for their region/language — to make sure Google doesn’t flag your site as having duplicate content.
When starting out with international SEO, many brands find it easiest to keep all their content under one roof by using this subfolders approach.
Note: Another approach is to use parameters in URLs to specify countries, languages, or other targeting dimensions.
That might look something like: tripadvisor.com?geo=32.3.
Parametrized URLs can help reduce the complexity of your domain and folder setup. However, they’re not generally the best option for most websites. That’s because they can confuse users as well as bots crawling your site; they send weaker targeted signals to search engines; and they make your URL slug look messy.
Pro tip: Make sure to avoid automatic redirects based on location or language.
I often find myself browsing international ecommerce websites, because I’m travelling or want to buy gifts for friends or relative based abroad. Some sites make that process a nightmare, constantly shuttling me back to my local version of the site. These well-meaning but unhelpful automations are hugely frustrating!
In a world where people move across borders and speak multiple languages, offering a flexible UX is key.
Give your users the choice to select their desired language or regional version of the site, rather than redirecting them automatically based on their location.
Sephora provides website users with the option to go to a local version of their site or stay where they are
6. Implement hreflang tags properly
Hreflang tags signal to search engines that there are multiple versions of a webpage, each targeting a different language or region. The purpose of hreflang tags is to help search engines understand which version of your page they should serve up to users based on their language or location.
Implementing hreflang tags makes sure your users see the most relevant version of your content, and it helps avoid duplicate content issues, improving your rankings and traffic.
Check out our full guide on mastering hreflang tags to learn exactly how they work and how to set them up and troubleshoot the most common issues. It’s not as complicated as you think, I promise.
For now, here are the most important things to keep in mind:
- Start by identifying all language and regional variations — you could have Spanish for Spain (es-es), and Spanish for Mexico (es-mx), for example.
- Check that your x and href markup structure is formatted correctly, as in the image above.
- Add hreflang tags to the <head> section of all pages, including the homepage.
- Alongside hreflang tags, use a canonical tag that points to the URL of the page itself to boost page authority and prevent duplicate content.
- Use the same locale codes across all pages on your site for consistency.
- Use tools like Google Search Console to test and validate your hreflang implementation so you can identify any errors.
Unlock new markets with a localized content strategy
Launching an international SEO strategy can open up major global opportunities. But the work doesn’t stop once you’ve set up your initial campaigns. You’ll need to track, iterate, and expand your efforts over time.
That means regularly reporting on rankings, traffic changes, and conversions across markets, to identify wins and areas for improvement you can apply across the board.
Running an effective international SEO campaign requires effort and coordination.
That’s where me and my colleagues at Flying Cat come in. We’re international SEO experts who know how to help companies scale, grow, and target new markets across the globe.
Our team of multilingual, international strategists and content creators have years of experience designing and running localized campaigns tailored to key target markets. We oversee the whole strategy, from in-depth market research, keyword targeting, and tailored content creation to technical setup, site optimization, and link building. And we get results.
We optimize your international SEO for real business impact beyond traffic alone. That means capturing qualified leads, boosting conversions, and growing revenue in every region. In the first 90 days, we typically increase your conversion rate from international search by 50% — and after 12 months, you’ll see 3x your ROI in organic growth.
Ready to make your global ambitions a reality? Get in touch!
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FAQs about international SEO
What are the benefits of international SEO?
There are many benefits of international SEO, including:
- Access to a global customer base, expanding your market beyond local or national boundaries.
- Higher website traffic and revenue from diverse international markets.
- Better search engine rankings in different countries and regions, leading to increased visibility and credibility.
- Global brand awareness and reputation.
- Staying ahead of competitors who may not have an international presence.
- Messaging that connects more effectively with the needs and preferences of users in different regions.
- Improved user experience for international visitors through language and regional customization.
- Gaining valuable insights into international market trends and consumer behaviors.
What’s the difference between international SEO and multilingual SEO?
International SEO and multilingual SEO have a different scope and focus.
International SEO is about optimizing your website for different countries and regions, taking into account local search intents, cultural nuances, and specific regional requirements. It involves strategies like using local domains, hreflang tags, and adapting content to regional audiences.
Multilingual SEO is a component of international SEO, but focuses specifically on translating and optimizing your website content for different languages. The priority here is ensuring that your website is accessible, relevant, and engaging for speakers of various languages.
