What is International SEO? 6 Easy Steps + Examples That Work

International SEO is a marketing tactic that aims to improve your search engine presence in different countries and languages. In this article, we share how you can say yes, oui, and sí to a brilliant global SEO strategy that gets real results.

What do brands like Phillips, Nissan, and Olay have in common?

You can purchase these products online from anywhere in the world. Whether you need a car in Canada, a soundbar in Spain, or face cream in France, these companies’ websites make it easy to buy.

The reason why these businesses have such a strong global presence is because of international search engine optimization (SEO). If you want to sell your products and services to other countries, global SEO isn’t optional – it’s essential.

So, how do you get started with international SEO?

Pack your suitcase and grab your passport, as in this comprehensive guide we’ll take you on a tour of the global SEO process: whether it’s right for you, costs, and what you need to consider.

We’ll also hear from Madison Scherner, Senior SEO Manager at HawkSEM and resident international SEO expert.

What is international SEO?

International SEO is the process of improving your website’s search engine visibility in all the different countries you sell to.

This means more organic traffic to your website and increased conversions.

Here’s an example of what happens when you search for “buy Nissan car” in the US:

“Buy Nissan car” search engine results in the U.S. (Image: Screenshot)

In Australia:

And in the UK:

“Buy Nissan car” search engine results in the UK (Image: Screenshot)

Three countries that speak the same language – but three different sets of search results.

How much does it cost?

International SEO is more expensive than traditional SEO. This is because you need a strong focus on technical SEO. You also need to create content that caters to specific languages and cultures. This may mean many people across different countries need to get involved.

When you work with an agency, you can expect to pay between $500 to $10,000 a month for SEO work. With global SEO, you’re highly likely to receive an invoice at the higher end of the scale.

Of course, it’s important to think about the cost of global SEO in terms of return on investment. You might pay $10,000 a month, but if you get $100,000 a month in sales – it’s worth the cost.

How to implement a strategy that gets results

When planning search engine optimization for an international audience, traditional SEO elements still need to come into play. For example, it’s critical to ensure your site is mobile-responsive and that you get lots of positive customer reviews.

However, there are some additional things you need to bear in mind. Here are some SEO best practices to ensure your global SEO is world-class.

1. Research regions to target and regulatory differences
2. Create an alternative URL structure
3. Find the right keywords
4. Prepare your web content
5. Think about backlinks
6. Consider other technical issues

Research regions to target and regulatory differences

Good global SEO involves a lot of research. While you might have your heart set on selling products in Brazil, your market research may show you’ll see more success in Mexico.

Before you start building new sites and creating website content, you need to understand which regions you’ll target and how you’ll target them.

• Start by identifying your ultimate goal – for example, do you want to raise brand awareness or increase revenue? This will help steer your international SEO strategy
• Determine which countries you will target. Check your website, look at your existing customer data, and see which countries your current competitors sell in
• When you know which countries you want to market to, consider language targeting. For example, if you want to target Belgium, there are three official languages – Dutch, French, and German
• You’ll also need to identify who your new competitors will be – this may not necessarily be your existing competitors

You’ll also need to consider any cultural and regulatory differences. For example:

• Are there any legal requirements you need to adhere to?
• What colors are auspicious and which are bad luck? For example, green is considered a lucky color in Western countries, but red takes its place in China
• What are the national days? For example, 11 November is Singles Day in China, a day dedicated to shopping. However, it’s Armistice Day in countries including the UK, Australia, and New Zealand – a more somber day

P.s Don’t forget to consider your international PPC strategy if you’re using Google Ads and paid social advertising!

Create an alternative URL structure

You’ll need to provide an alternative version of your website to appeal to customers in different countries. For example, here’s Maybelline’s US site:

Maybelline’s U.S. site (Image: Screenshot)

And here’s the brand’s Italian website:

Maybelline’s Italian website (Image: Screenshot)

But how do you host your new site and what href will your target region see?

Here are four different options to consider:

So, which URL structure is best?

“I’d recommend subfolders unless you have a massive site,” says Scherner. “Search engines tend to view separate domains and even subdomains as separate entities, which can have a negative impact on your search engine rankings.”

You’ll also need to consider how to direct customers from the wrong version of your site to the right one. For example, if they’re a UK customer but access the US version of your site.

Some businesses use an IP address to determine which website to show, but we wouldn’t recommend this as IP addresses aren’t always accurate.

A popup like the one below is a better way to gently nudge customers towards the website that will provide them with the best user experience.

Example of a pop-up encouraging customers to visit an alternative version of a site (Image: Screenshot)

Find the right keywords

You’ll need to do keyword research to discover which words will give you the best opportunity to rank in the search engine results pages (SERPs) in your country of choice.

That’s all very well and good for countries that don’t speak your language, but what if you want to rank in a country that does speak your language?

You’ll still need to do keyword research. Market trends, as well as differences in semantics, will affect where you rank.

For example, while sandals are known as “flip-flops” in the US and UK, they’re known as “jandals” in New Zealand, and “thongs” in Australia!

The good news is that keyword research tools like Semrush, Ahrefs, Moz, and Ubersuggest make it easy to discover keyword opportunities in specific countries. Just change your location and you’re ready to search.

Option to change location in Ubersuggest (Image: Screenshot)

Also, consider where your keywords of choice rank on alternative search engines. While Google is most popular in the US, different search engines take precedence in other countries:

• Yandex is popular in Russia, as well as countries including Turkey, Belarus, and Kazakhstan
• Google is banned in China, with Baidu being the search engine of choice
• Naver is the number one search engine in South Korea
• Yahoo is well-used in Taiwan and Japan

Naver search engine  (Image: Screenshot)

Prepare your web content

When preparing your web pages, you might be tempted to run it through Google Translate and paste it onto your site. However, machine translation is never a good option.

Tools like Google Translate simply translate one word into another without considering the nuance behind what it’s translating

Transcreation is better for your international SEO efforts. This is when your content is recreated entirely in another language, taking culture and customs into account.

So take, for example, the English saying “don’t judge a book by its cover.” If you were to translate this directly into French, it would become “ne jugez pas un livre à sa couverture,” which wouldn’t make sense to most French speakers.

Example of a translation in Google Translate  (Image: Screenshot)

A transcreator would use the French version of this saying: “l’habit ne fait pas le moine,” or “the clothing doesn’t make the monk.”

As well as text, you also need to consider the imagery you use. For example, you might want to change photos of people to represent the demographics of the country you’re targeting.

Think about backlinks

Backlinks are an important ranking factor in SEO, but the links you receive need to be relevant and good quality. If not, they may do more harm to your digital marketing than good.

If you create localized content, you need localized backlinks to match. You need to research popular news sites and bloggers in your chosen country to build a strong backlink profile.

And, of course, you need to create great content marketing that encourages other websites to link back to you organically.

Consider other technical issues

It’s essential to optimize your international website for technical SEO. Technical SEO ensures a high-quality user experience and makes it easier for search engines to crawl and understand your website.

Here’s what to consider when developing your international SEO strategy:

• Make sure your web pages are fast-loading. The further away your content is from your customers, the longer it will take to load. A content delivery network can lead to faster loading times
• Add hreflang tags. These tags tell the search engines that you have multiple versions of the same page but in different languages. This ensures the search engines show the right page to the right people and reduces the risk of duplicate content penalties
• Review your metadata. You’ll need to ensure your meta descriptions and page titles appeal to your target market
• If you have a large website with several multilingual versions, we’d recommend creating a separate sitemap per version

“You could have the most accurate, dynamic foreign language content in the world, but if your technical SEO isn’t right, you’ll struggle to make an impact globally,” says Scherner.

“It’s well worth finding a partner with a strong technical background to help you find and resolve any website issues.”

The benefits of international SEO

So, how can global SEO help you sell more to international markets?

First, it opens your business up to a wider audience. Let’s say you sell skincare products through your ecommerce store, and your target audience is women in their 40s.

By promoting your products to customers in target countries (and in other languages) you can increase revenue and become more well-known.

Second, it means global visibility. Just because your website ranks on the first page of US Google doesn’t mean it will rank in French or Spanish Google. A solid international search engine optimization strategy means you’re more likely to rank high in the countries you sell to.

Finally, it means you can get the edge over competitors that don’t do global SEO. Customers may see you have an international presence and assume you’re a larger, more trustworthy organization.

Is global SEO the right choice for your business?

Global SEO isn’t for every business. If you’re a company with a strong local or regional presence, you’ll be better off focusing on local SEO instead.

“The main reason to pursue international SEO is if you sell, or intend to sell, services or products outside of your country of origin,” says Scherner. “If you don’t, then global SEO isn’t worth the time and effort – although, of course, your situation may change in the future.”

A good way to see if international SEO is viable is to check your metrics. Google Analytics lets you see which country web visitors originate from. This can be a good indicator that it’s worth setting up sales pathways for international buyers.

Google Analytics demographics report (Image: Screenshot)

It’s important to remember that you don’t have to be a large brand to conquer international SEO. “While international-serving enterprise businesses invest heavily in international SEO, there is still room for smaller and medium-sized businesses if they partner with the right SEO team,” says Scherner.

A great example of a smaller business doing international SEO right is Snag. A UK-based clothing company, the brand has established a presence in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the EU, by creating individual websites and focusing on country-specific keywords.

Snag’s U.S. website (Image: Screenshot)

Examples of global SEO that work

We’ve looked at a few examples of websites that use international SEO well, but let’s examine a few more.

Coca-Cola is available to buy in virtually every country worldwide.

This means there are 129 different websites, each with its own localized content. This hyper-localized presence means Coca-Cola is more likely to rank.

Location selector on The Coca-Cola Company’s website (Image: Screenshot)

Primark is an Irish fashion retailer that has made inroads into the American market. The brand has carefully reviewed the keywords it uses on its US website to appeal to shoppers and increase its search engine rankings.

Here it uses the phrase “vacation shop,” while “holiday shop” would be the preferred term in Ireland and the UK.

Primark’s U.S. website (Image: Screenshot)

The Japanese and UK versions of the Nissan website look very different. Everything on the Japanese website is very close together, while there’s more white space in use on the UK website.

Japanese Nissan website (Image: Screenshot)

UK Nissan website (Image: Screenshot)

This is an intentional design choice. Japanese website visitors prefer to see lots of information at a glance, while Western website visitors prefer content to be spaced out.

Remember that the more engaging your website and the more value it provides, the more likely the search engines are to see your site as relevant and authoritative.

Your international SEO checklist

Ready to target new markets? We’ve put together a global SEO checklist to make sure you’ve got all bases covered!

• Check that international SEO is the right choice
  • Look at your website analytics
  • Speak to existing and prospective customers
  • Check out your existing competitors
• Do your market research
  • Determine what you want to achieve from international SEO
  • Identify the different regions you want to target
  • Look at the cultural differences and regulatory requirements
  • Understand pricing
  • See who you’ll be competing against
• Work out your URL structure
  • Know the relevant country code top-level domains (ccTLD)
  • Determine which URL structure you will use
• Do new keyword research
  • Check keyword difficulty and search volume for each keyword
  • Identify the search engines you need to rank on
• Prepare your web content
  • Transcreate your written content
  • Optimize headers, body copy, etc, for your chosen keywords
  • Review your existing website assets
• Work on your link building
  • Identify local news sites and bloggers
  • Create high-quality content to backlink to
• Refine your technical SEO
  • Test your page loading speed
  • Focus on hreflang implementation
  • Optimize your meta descriptions and page titles
  • Consider a separate sitemap

The takeaway

“Global SEO can be a tricky process to get your head around. You need to know what you’re doing otherwise you risk ruining your pre-existing SEO efforts,” says Scherner.

“Get it right though, and it will pay dividends for your brand.”

Our final tip? Regularly check and assess your international SEO. The global market, the competitors you’re ranking against, and the search engine algorithms frequently change, so it’s essential to check that you’re still on the right track.

If international SEO feels like a language you don’t speak, working with a global SEO specialist can make the process as simple as possible.

Our team of SEO experts will develop and implement an international SEO strategy that targets the right customers and gets you noticed, wherever you are in the world.

Want to see if international SEO is right for you? Book your free consultation today.