International SEO
International SEO for selling in more than one market
Domain structure, hreflang, content localisation and keyword research per country. We help Spanish companies grow across Europe and European companies enter the Spanish market, without duplicate content or language versions competing against each other.
The challenge
Translating a website is not launching a market
The most common mistake we see is treating internationalisation as a translation project: the site is copied, run through a translation tool and published under /en/ or /de/. Months later the new versions barely get any traffic, Google shows the Spanish page to German users and nobody knows why.
International SEO has three layers that need to be solved in order: the technical layer (how versions are structured and how Google is told which to show to whom), the market (what people in each country actually search for, using which terms and against which competitors) and the content (how much adaptation each page needs).
Getting any of the three wrong cancels out the work on the other two. That’s why we start every project by deciding the architecture and validating demand before a single page is translated.
Architecture
ccTLD, subfolder or subdomain: how to choose
There’s no universally best option. It depends on your resources, your brand and how different your markets are. This is the comparison we use to decide.
| Criterion | ccTLD (example.de) | Subfolder (example.com/de/) | Subdomain (de.example.com) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Geographic signal | The strongest: the domain itself indicates the country. | Set through hreflang and content; a generic domain doesn’t point to any country. | As with subfolders: relies on hreflang and content. |
| Authority | Each domain builds its authority from scratch. | All versions share the main domain’s authority. | Shares the brand, but in practice tends to behave more independently than a subfolder. |
| Cost and maintenance | High: several domains, sometimes several CMSs, separate links and SEO. | Low: one site, one CMS and one technical set-up. | Medium: one domain, but often separate infrastructure. |
| Local trust | High in some markets, where users prefer their national domain. | Good if content and customer service are localised. | Similar to subfolders. |
| When we recommend it | Markets with their own teams, catalogues or legal requirements, and the resources to maintain each domain. | Most SMEs and mid-sized companies starting to internationalise. | When a version has to live on another platform for technical reasons. |
Hreflang
Error-free hreflang: the technical piece that breaks most often
Hreflang annotations tell Google which version of a page corresponds to each language and, optionally, each country. They don’t improve rankings on their own, but they stop the wrong version being shown and keep versions from competing with each other.
The rules are simple and easy to break: every version must link to every other version and to itself; links must be reciprocal (if page A points to B, B must point back to A, or Google ignores the relationship); codes use ISO 639-1 for language and, optionally, ISO 3166-1 for region (en-GB, not en-UK); and URLs must be canonical, with no redirects or blocked pages.
The x-default value marks the page for users who don’t match any version, usually a language selector or the main version. We check all of this with full crawls, not spot checks.
- Implemented in HTML, HTTP headers or XML sitemaps, depending on your CMS
- Reciprocity and canonical validation across the whole site
- No forced IP-based redirects that stop Google seeing your versions
Content
Translation, localisation or transcreation
Not every page needs the same level of adaptation. Deciding page by page is what makes a multilingual project viable.
Translation
Rendering the text faithfully in another language, with human review and consistent terminology. Enough for documentation, technical specs, legal copy or support pages where content doesn’t change between markets.
Localisation
Also adapting units, currencies, date formats, examples, legal references, payment methods and, above all, the keywords each market uses. This is the level most service, category and product pages need.
Transcreation
Rewriting the message from scratch for the market, keeping the intent but not the sentences. For home pages, value propositions, campaigns and any copy where tone and selling points matter more than literal accuracy.
Process
How we launch or fix an international website
Market prioritisation
We analyse search demand, competition and your operational capacity in each candidate country. A market with plenty of volume but no ability to serve it (logistics, customer service, language) isn’t an opportunity.
If you already get international traffic, Search Console and Analytics tell us where it comes from and which pages attract it, often without anyone having planned it.
Activities
Outputs
- Prioritised markets with rationale
Architecture and technical decisions
We choose the URL structure, hreflang method, canonical handling, language selector and behaviour for visitors from other countries. We document it for your development team or implement it ourselves.
If the site is already multilingual, we audit the existing set-up and fix errors before scaling.
Activities
Outputs
- International technical specification
Keyword research per market
We research each language from how people there actually search, not by translating your Spanish list. People search for different things in British and American English; in Germany, the intent behind a term may be more informational than in Spain.
We work with native speakers to validate terms and nuances.
Activities
Outputs
- Keyword map by market and URL
Content localisation
We assign each page a level of adaptation (translation, localisation or transcreation) and coordinate production with native review. Key pages are written with the market in mind from the start.
We review structured data, metadata and alt text in every language.
Activities
Outputs
- Versions published and validated
Local authority and measurement
A German version needs links and mentions from German websites. We plan digital PR and partnerships in each priority market.
We measure each version separately: impressions, clicks and conversions by country and language, and spot when Google serves the wrong version.
Activities
Outputs
- Monthly report by market
Both directions
From Spain to Europe and from Europe to Spain
Spanish companies expanding abroad
We help you decide which markets to start with, set up the technical structure without breaking what already ranks in Spain and produce content that reads natively in English and other European languages, coordinating native reviewers.
Learn moreEuropean companies entering Spain
We know the Spanish market from the inside: how people search in Spain, how vocabulary and intent differ from Latin America, which competitors dominate each sector and what users expect from a local website.
Learn moreFAQ
International SEO: common questions
Is it duplicate content to have the same English page for the UK and Ireland?
Google doesn’t penalise these versions if they’re properly annotated with hreflang, but it may pick one as canonical if they’re practically identical. For both to work well, each should have real differences: currency, prices, contact details, shipping or local examples.
Can I automatically redirect users based on IP or browser language?
We don’t recommend forced redirects: Googlebot mostly crawls from the United States and might never see your other versions, and users lose control. It’s better to suggest the right version with a notice or banner and let them choose.
Is machine or AI translation good enough?
As a first draft it can speed things up considerably. Publishing it unreviewed is another matter: terminology errors, unnatural tone and poorly chosen keywords show, both to users and in perceived quality. Every translation we publish goes through human review.
Does Search Console still have country targeting?
No. Google retired the International Targeting report in Search Console. Today the signals are hreflang, the domain (if it’s a ccTLD), localised content and local links and mentions.
What about the HTML lang attribute?
It should be set correctly for accessibility and for other search engines, but Google has said it mainly relies on the visible content to determine language, and on hreflang to choose between versions.
Do you work in languages other than English and Spanish?
Our working languages are English and Spanish. For other languages we coordinate native writers and reviewers and take care of the strategy, technical set-up and SEO quality control.
Related
Keep reading
Multilingual SEO and hreflang
A practical guide to multilingual SEO and hreflang: URL structure, language and region codes, x-default, return links, canonicals and common mistakes.
International companies
SEO for international companies: enter the Spanish market or grow from Spain across Europe with genuine localisation, hreflang and a strategy per country.
Technical SEO
Technical SEO: crawling, rendering, indexing, Core Web Vitals, site architecture, canonicals, hreflang, structured data, log file analysis and JavaScript SEO.
Ready to grow beyond your home market?
We review your multilingual set-up and the demand in your target markets, and propose a roadmap.