Overseas Seo
International SEO — SEO Best Practices 2021 – Moz
What is international SEO? International SEO is the process of optimizing your website so that search engines can easily identify which countries you want to target and which languages you use for you need to go international? If you know that a good share of your website visitors come from a different country than where you’re located, speak different languages, or both, then it may be time to make some changes to your website to create a better experience for all of your international the surface, international SEO may seem like a totally foreign concept, but in reality, you may be more familiar with it than you know. Think of international SEO as geotargeting, but instead of optimizing your website to attract traffic from your city or state, you’re optimizing it for different countries and languages. If you’re looking to create a completely internationalized site (i. e., one that specifically targets a different country and a different language), your high-level to-dos for accomplishing this “international geotargeting” are threefold:Specify your target country and/or region with an international-friendly URL structure (country targeting). Establish which language your pages are targeting with the use of language tags (language targeting) and maintain content in your target users’ language(s). These are the raw materials with which you’ll actually metimes, you may be only looking to target a specific language or a specific country. In these cases, you may only want to work towards one or two of those three goals. Say, for example, you have an online clothing company that specializes in T-shirts with slogans in Spanish. Since Mexico is just as relevant to your business as Spain, you’d want to target the Spanish language, but not any specific ternational SEO best practicesURL structures for international sitesThere are a few URL structures webmasters can employ to target a particular country with their websites. They include using a country code top-level domain (ccTLD), a subdomain, a subdirectory or subfolder, a gTLD with language parameters, or even using a different domain name entirely. Let’s take a closer look at each one of these options:ccTLD — As defined by Google, ccTLDs use two-letter codes to indicate to users and search engines in which country, sovereign state, or dependent territory a website is registered. Note that some country codes, like for Libya, are used so commonly for other purposes that Google treats them bdomain — Internationalized content is placed on a separate “third-level domain” that may or may not pass or receive link equity from the root bdirectory — Internationalized content is placed in a specific subdirectory, or subfolder, of a root with language parameters — A general top-level domain (like,, or) is targeted to speakers of a specific language by appending a URL parameter. Different domain — Internationalized content is placed on an entirely different root domain than the non-internationalized engines may interpret each different URL structure slightly differently, so each technique has its pros and cons — including the resources required to implement and maintain them. Before choosing the right structure for you, it’s worth looking into more details about each table looks at a few combinations of potential URL structures that could be used to internationalize a site and who search engines interpret each structure is trying to target:Whichever structure you choose, Google recommends that you organize your hierarchy in a similar way in each section of your site so that it’s intuitive and easily nguage-target your website (or website pages)Show search engines which languages you’re set up to handle using hreflang or language meta tags — bits of code that indicate in which language(s) your content is available. The following example would tell Google that an alternate version of the content is available in French at the link provided:Example hreflang tag:A few other best practices:Make sure that everything from your site navigation, to your content, to your help desk, is in the primary language of the region you’re ‘t use machine translations (they’re still just not good enough)’t automatically redirect a user to a different language based on location. It’s fine to suggest an alternate language site, but you don’t know (without asking) if that English-language searcher in France is an expat, a student of foreign language, or someone who’s lost on the away from using cookies or scripts to show different-language versions of page. Search engines can’t crawl that type of dynamic content, and human users may not be able to see it, your content to your target user’s language and cultureMake sure you are providing information that’s suited to your target audience(s). By using the local language, currency, and timezone together with contact information like addresses and phone numbers, you’re sending users and search engines strong signals that they’re in the right spot. Also think about cultural differences when you’re creating your design and content. Different regions look at things like color, layout, and style of humor in very different making it unambiguously clear that your page is for them, you’re increasing the chances that they’ll have a positive experience. It’s also worth noting that, implemented properly, international SEO should be nearly invisible to users. They should simply get relevant content, in their language, and within their region (when applicable). So, the signals are far more about helping search engines show the right content to the right people than they are about cluing users SEO signalsOther signals to show search engines that your site targets a specific country include:Hosting your site on a local IPLinking to local contentBuilding links from local resourcesFinding ways to rank on local search engines like Yandex in Russia and Baidu in ChinaInternational targeting in a nutshellIf you’re targeting a specific country, think about using a ccTLD. But, if you are focusing on language targeting only, a ccTLD probably isn’t your best choice as they’re meant for targeting a specific geographic area and not specifically the language spoken there. In these cases, you’ll likely want to use a different internationalization technique such as using hreflang, subfolders, or subdomains in combination with or instead of using a ccTLD. If you choose not to use a ccTLD for your internationally targeted site, check out this discussion of the pros and cons of subdirectories versus learningThe Guide to International SEO – Just getting acquainted with international SEO? Start International SEO Checklist – Aleyda Solis walks you through everything you need to know to get started with international ternational SEO – Google Technical SupportTop 15 Myths for International SEO – Kaitlyn presents the story of how international SEO has evolved over the years and digs into what and what not to worry about in this your skills to workKeyword Rankings – If you have an active campaign for your website, track keywords and ranking pages for your site plus three competitors in up to four different international search – When you’re doing some competitive research in a search engine results page, you can pull up real-time ranking info for your keyword queries and check out those results for the specified target ternational SEO ROI Calculator – This calculator helps you decide if an international SEO effort will produce a good return for your company at this time.
What Is International SEO? – AccuraCast
Businesses that serve customers from many countries usually have specific sites for each international audience group. Optimising each local site to get more traffic through higher organic ranking in search engine results requires a considerable degree of technical SEO expertise. While the basic tenets of search engine optimisation don’t change, the process for international websites includes significantly more planning, strategy, and finition: International SEOInternational SEO is the sum of all activities aimed at improving a website’s organic search presence in more than one country or language. This includes, but is not limited to technical SEO changes that indicate language and country targeting preferences, content localisation, and multilingual link more traffic to your site with our expert international SEO servicesInternational Website OptimisationMultilingual websites can be set up on separate country-specific domains, or on sub-domains or directories within one international domain, typically a,, or Most international businesses face challenges with duplicate content, and country-specific site delivery to appropriate audiences. Google and Bing use language and country preference indicators from web page headers. The hreflang tag, “content-language” meta tag, and even the language-location declaration in the html tag on a web page serve this rategy and PlanningGrowing an international presence is not an overnight process. Businesses of any size need to consider a number of important factors, most of which will have significant long term effects. While Google offers solutions for all standard implementations, the multilingual / multi-national structure adopted has ramifications on future SEO strategy. Planning beyond just technical implementation is crucial for international SEO Building for SEOMost SEO experts know that inbound links from authoritative external website are a very important ranking factor. This is true when optimising multilingual websites too. An additional consideration for international marketers to keep in mind is the location and language of the link source is also important. In other words, the majority of links pointing to a site are expected to come from other sites from the same country and in the same for BrandsWhen considering an international SEO strategy, brands should consider the implications of the multilingual site structure and plan for at least 3 years of activity, which should include:Content optimisation in all languagesRegular addition of fresh content on each local siteLink bait creation for all localised sitesOutreach for link building in each target marketSocial media marketing and advertising campaigns to complement international SEO efforts in all languages.
How to Implement International SEO in 4 Steps – Alexa Blog
How to Implement International SEO in 4 Steps – Alexa Blog
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Do you serve customers in more than one country? Do any of your customer segments speak different languages? If you answered yes to either of those questions, then international SEO should be on your radar. By applying best practices to your website, you can attract more traffic, grow your global presence, and serve your customers better with these international SEO tips.
What Is International SEO?
International SEO refers to optimizing your search presence for people who are in different countries or speak different languages. Using geo-targeting, hreflang tags, and other localization signals, you can target content to your users around the world.
Using geo-targeting, hreflang tags, and other localization signals, you can target content to your users around the world. Click To Tweet
How international SEO works: Google makes efforts to match search results to the language and location of the searcher. Special signals you add on your website help Google or other search engines know when your site has content that would be suitable for someone who is in a particular country or is searching in a specific language.
Here are four important steps to implementing international SEO on your site.
Step 1: Determine What International Content You Will Provide
Do you want to optimize search results based on language, geo-targeting, or both?
Some sites choose to focus on language, like Facebook’s home page which allows users to select their own language. Air Canada uses a pop-up to let some users select their language, and country, sending them to a specific URL based on their selection.
Air Canada’s home page prompts visitors to choose a language.
You can also target content by country AND language choice, like eBay, which makes separate marketplaces available in the local languages of 23 different countries. British clothing retailer Boden customizes content by country, with separate websites for customers in the United Kingdom, the United States, Germany, France, Australia, and more.
As you can see, the spectrum of content ranges from simply translating your English material into more languages to creating fully customized experiences like eBay does. Once you know what international content you will provide, you will need to decide how to structure your website for international SEO.
Related: 3 Content Marketing Examples You’ll Want to Know About
Not sure which countries to optimize for international SEO? One input to consider is to identify countries that are generating a lot of links or traffic to your site. Use Alexa’s free Site Overview tool to check what countries are driving traffic to your site. If you see a lot of traffic from a country you’re not optimized for, you might consider optimizing for those countries. You can also use the Language report in Google Analytics to see what languages your users speak.
Step 2: Set Up an International SEO-Friendly URL Structure
Your URL structure helps Google figure out which of your pages to show searchers in different countries. This is part of geo-targeting, which focuses on location. To further target for language, we’ll show you how to use the hreflang tag in a moment, too.
Most businesses either set up a whole new website for each target country or add a subdirectory structure on their existing website. The approach you choose will depend largely on the resources you can dedicate to the creation and maintenance of it. Let’s talk about the pros and cons of each URL structure for international SEO.
A Subdirectory for Each Country on Your Main Website
To set up a subdirectory structure, create a folder on your website for each target country labeled with that country’s two-letter ISO code. For example, to signal content targeted to people in Spain, your subdirectory would look like this:
Pros of using subdirectories: A subdirectory structure is easy to set up and maintain. Adding subdirectories to your website is simple and cost-effective. It only requires one website domain, and the authority you build up for that domain applies sitewide. Some think this option has emerged as the clear choice for nearly any business.
Cons: The international SEO signal for a subdirectory is weaker than if you were to set up a website completely dedicated to a country.
Best for: A business or organization that wants to serve companies across multiple countries and keep its communications on one website.
Examples of companies that use subdirectories for their international websites:
Apple ( for users in the United Kingdom)
Nike ( for users in South Africa)
Spotify ( for users in Argentina)
A Separate Website for Each Country
Some companies choose to set up a separate website for visitors from each targeted country. This is called a local country code top-level domain (ccTLD). A ccTLD for your users in Spain would look like this:
Some codes are “open, ” meaning they can be registered for uses other than to represent the country. For example, is the official country code for Columbia, but you probably know it more for its association with “company” or “corporation. ” Some ISO codes have also been adopted for use with cities: is used for Toronto and Tokyo in addition to Tonga. ICANNWiki maintains a list of country code top-level domains.
Pros of using ccTLDs: Dedicating a separate domain using a country code offers the most powerful country signal to search engines for international SEO. It also tells website visitors that your brand is dedicated to its presence in that country.
Cons: Maintaining separate websites for different countries can be expensive. When it comes to international SEO, you’ll also have to build authority for each website separately.
Best for: Large businesses with deep resources. Because maintaining multiple websites is so expensive, it’s not usually a good choice for smaller businesses. An exception is if you are targeting China. It can be difficult for websites to rank on Baidu, China’s most prominent search engine, without the top-level domain.
Examples of companies that use separate websites (ccTLDs) for different countries:
Sony (corporate website for China:)
Disney (shopping site for France:)
McDonald’s (in Serbia:)
Subdomains Not a Popular Choice for International SEO
In theory, you also have a third choice: You could set up a subdomain on your website for each country. However, the disadvantages generally outweigh the advantages.
The international SEO signal is weaker for a subdomain than it is for a dedicated country domain. It may also be more difficult to take advantage of the authority of the main domain for subdomains than for subdirectories. (While Google says they treat subdomains and subdirectories equally when it comes to ranking sites, SEO experts debate whether this actually holds true. Many believe that pages on a subdomain don’t reap the benefits of the root domain and are actually seen as separate domains by Google, or that subdomains may possibly dilute the authority of the root domain. ) Additionally, you will have hosting costs for each subdomain.
If the best URL structure doesn’t seem clear for your business, take a look at competitors in your target country.
Use Alexa to see which countries your competitors are getting traffic from.
One way to gain international competitive intelligence using Alexa is to run a Site Comparison for your top 10 competitors. You can click the top right-hand drop-down and change views for any country worldwide. If your main competitors are getting a ton of traffic from one of your target countries, you can check out their international SEO tactics for that country.
Make sure of the proper country code before setting up your URL structure. And keep in mind that regardless of the choices you make for your URL structure, Google may still occasionally show the wrong content to searchers. The hreflang tag can provide additional signals to help Google sort out when to show what.
Step 3: Use Hreflang Tags for Language Targeting
Hreflang tags are small snippets of code used on websites with content in multiple languages. They help search engines match up the correct language with the searcher. French speakers will see your French content instead of your English or Italian content, for example.
How does Google know which language a user prefers? The terms the searcher enters are big clues, of course. But Google also looks at data such as the user’s settings, search history, location, and which Google domain they are using ( vs., for example).
The hreflang tag is useful when providing translations of your content in subdirectories or subdomains. While search engines can usually detect the language on a page without hreflang tags, the tags help prevent your different page versions from competing with each other in search results. Hreflang tags are not necessary when using separate domains (ccTLDs) because of the signal from the country code, although some people elect to use them with the reasoning that the hreflang tag can strengthen the location signal.
If you decide to use hreflang tags, follow the guidelines below. WordPress users: You may be able to use a plugin to manage your hreflang tags.
How to Use Hreflang Tags
Consider that international content is often a translation of English-language pages. That means you end up with a different version of the same page and a similar URL for each language, which means that these versions could compete with each other in search results. A hreflang tag accompanies each version of a URL across your website, helping to avoid this competition.
The hreflang tag can include two components:
Mandatory: The language code (using ISO ISO 639-1 codes)
Optional: A country code (using ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country codes)
The format for a hreflang tag is hreflang=“languagecode-countrycode. ”
Hreflang Tags Example
By pulling up the source code for Apple, you can see its hreflang attributes:
See how Apple uses hreflang tags in its code to signal the language and country to search engines.
Each tag specifies the country and language of users and is placed after the URL. “en-US” refers to English speakers in the United States, “ar-AE” is for Arabic speakers in the United Arab Emirates, “en-AE” is for English speakers in the United Arab Emirates, and so on.
If your main page automatically redirects users based on their location or asks them to select the language for the page (like the Air Canada example above), you may also need an x-default hreflang tag. Google explains that this attribute value “signals to our algorithms that this page doesn’t target any specific language or locale and is the default page when no other page is better suited. ”
You have three choices for where to use hreflang tags:
In the source code of the header on each page (most popular)
In the HTTP header on every page
In your sitemap
Choose the one that’s easiest for you to maintain, but be sure to use your hreflang tags in only one of these places on your site.
Step 4: Support International SEO with More Signals
Localizing content goes beyond the technical choices outlined above. International SEO can benefit from a well-rounded view of the users of a target country or language.
Consider Search Engine Preferences
At 92% worldwide, Google holds the largest share of Internet searches. But this isn’t the case in every country. In China, for example, Baidu captures 65% of the market segment share. Yandex is popular in Eastern European countries.
Source: While there will be many similarities among search engines, you will want to explore more deeply how to optimize your international SEO efforts for Baidu or Yandex, for example, if China or Eastern European countries are part of your global presence.
Target Content to Fit Device Preferences
People in different countries prefer to access the Internet in different ways. Making your content easily consumable via the most popular devices can help with usability, which can impact SEO. Knowing how people access search helps you know where to put your efforts to optimize their experience.
Source: Consider Additional Local Signals
Additional geo-targeting signals can work in your favor. Consider using the following strategies to signal the country or language of your users:
Include links to your presence on popular local social media outlets.
Display prices in local currencies.
Include location data such as address and phone number for your local offices.
Because the end goal of your international SEO efforts is to serve your customers well, it will also be worth your while to understand local preferences for colors, design aesthetics, organization of content, and other cultural factors. Do make sure your translated content is prepared by a native speaker and reviewed by members of the intended audience whenever possible.
Get Started with International SEO
International SEO starts with understanding how to best serve your customers and then making efforts to customize your content and search experience to their needs. Using the steps above, you can get started with international SEO to optimize your website for your audiences who are in different countries or speak different languages.
And remember, you can use Alexa tools to support your international SEO with competitive insights and more. Sign up for a trial of our Advanced plan today.
Frequently Asked Questions about overseas seo
What is international SEO?
International SEO is the sum of all activities aimed at improving a website’s organic search presence in more than one country or language. This includes, but is not limited to technical SEO changes that indicate language and country targeting preferences, content localisation, and multilingual link building.Nov 24, 2018
How do you do international SEO?
Here are four important steps to implementing international SEO on your site.Step 1: Determine What International Content You Will Provide. … Step 2: Set Up an International SEO-Friendly URL Structure. … Step 3: Use Hreflang Tags for Language Targeting. … Step 4: Support International SEO with More Signals.
Is SEO different in different countries?
4. SEO isn’t that different around the globe — but you still need a strategy for each country. Because platforms like Google, Bing, and Yahoo are still present around the world, optimizing your website for them won’t be that different from country to country.Jul 7, 2020
