International SEO: Tapping Into New Markets – How International SEO Works

International SEO encompasses all measures that help improve a website's visibility in the organic search results of different countries.

High visibility is achieved on the one hand by the website being displayed for many different keywords in the respective national language, and on the other hand by placing it as high up as possible in the search results. International SEO is therefore a sub-discipline of search engine optimization.

It's not always about different languagesInternational SEO often becomes necessary because other languages are simply spoken in other countries. However, international search engine optimization is far more than the translation of content and the provision of various language versions. Rather, the goal is to understand and satisfy the culturally different needs of the nationalities.

A good example is Germany, Austria and Switzerland, which do share a language area but are different countries with distinct language usage. Corporate strategy and product portfolio are not always identical in every country. Sometimes not even the brand. So International SEO is sometimes about placing different brands and products that better match the needs of the local target audience.

Who Is International SEO Worthwhile For?

International SEO is interesting for all companies that also want to sell their products or services abroad – that is, want to tap into new markets. For companies that are already active on the international stage, international search engine optimization is even a must.

Because without a sufficient presence in the regional search engines, these companies give away valuable potential. Or to put it plainly: money!

To find out whether international SEO is worthwhile for you, you should first ask yourself whether there is an international market for your offering at all. Unless you happen to be selling a collection of German laws, this will quite often be the case. But besides the question of whether there are potential buyers, the legislation in the respective country also plays a role, for example. Sometimes the taxes for certain products are so high that some markets simply aren't worth it.

Sometimes logistical reasons also speak against tapping into certain markets. Only once you've checked all of this does it make sense to deal with international marketing.

A good indicator of the existence of an international market is when you already receive comparatively a lot of traffic from abroad. This can be found out relatively easily with a web analytics tool, such as Google Analytics.

SEO tools also help you check the search volume and the competitors. These, too, are important indicators that will help you with decision-making and orientation. However, view the search volume with caution. A low search volume doesn't necessarily speak against market entry. That depends entirely on your individual goals.

Especially if you're active in the B2B sector – or generally have a very narrow target audience – low search volumes aren't unusual. What matters more is how well you manage to address the small target audience. More on that in a moment!

As you can see, the question of whether investing in international SEO is worthwhile can't be answered across the board. In addition, there's quite a bit to consider. As an experienced agency, we'd be happy to help you with an expert analysis that also includes the competitors in the respective target market.

Criteria for Analyzing New Markets

The following criteria help to analyze the lucrativeness of a foreign market and its possible risks. The internationalization strategy is also derived from them.

• Market size (population)
• Purchasing power
• Purchasing behavior
• General internet affinity
• Specific product affinity
• Competitive environment
• Number and type of languages spoken as well as linguistic peculiarities
• Cultural idiosyncrasies
• Demographic structure
• Socioeconomic particularities

Attention: Google doesn't dominate everywhere!

When we talk about a search engine in Europe, we actually always mean Google. According to Statista, the market share of the American search engine in this country is 80 (desktop) or almost 90 percent (mobile), making it even larger than in its home market.

Worldwide, too, Google is one of the dominant players, but it has more competition from Bing in the USA, for example, and from Yahoo Japan in Japan. And even though they are very thinly scattered, there are individual countries where regional players call the shots. For example Yandex in Russia or Baidu in China.

If a search engine other than Google dominates the market in your target country, then you have to inform yourself about the respective particularities. As a rule, however, the algorithm will work similarly to Google's.

Opportunities and Advantages of International SEO

If your business concept works internationally, International SEO offers you many opportunities and advantages:

• Tapping into new markets
• Enlarging the target audience
• Increasing brand awareness
• Expanding the (potential) business and cooperation partners
• Global ranking
• Effective, cross-country online marketing
• Competitive advantage
• Revenue growth

Other Countries, Other Search Behaviors: How International SEO Works

If you want to dominate the search results in other countries, then you have to familiarize yourself with the target market. You can't transfer your national SEO strategy one to one to a foreign country. Rather, you have to ask yourself how and for what people search in your target market. Language is only one aspect of this – albeit an important one. After all, even within the German language and even within Germany there is regionally differing language usage.

While Bavarians order a “Krapfen” at the bakery and Berliners a “Pfannkuchen,” the rest of the republic orders a “Berliner” to enjoy the jam-filled yeast pastry deep-fried in fat. The linguistic subtleties become even clearer when we look at Switzerland: while the German goes on “Urlaub” (vacation) and googles accordingly for “Urlaub,” the Swiss would never think of using the term “Urlaub.” After all, they take “Ferien.” If you optimize for the Swiss market on the keyword “Urlaubsreisen,” don't be surprised if the desired success fails to materialize.

International SEO doesn't differ in the “What,” but in the “How”

What you do is no different in international SEO than in national SEO. After all, the same factors for ranking apply to the other country versions as to the main website. In the “How” of marketing, however, there are in part serious differences. The differences between international and national search engine optimization can essentially be divided into two areas.

The goal of the technical part is to build the various country or language versions cleanly and make them accessible to visitors and search engines. This includes first and foremost a well-thought-out structure that enables crawling by the search engine and prevents duplicate content. The second pillar is the content, which has to be adapted to the respective target country.

Domain Strategy for Internationalization

The first question that arises when internationalizing the website is that of the domain strategy. In principle, there are three common variants:

1. Top-Level Domain for Each Country

Every country has its own domain ending – or even several. Accordingly, it's obvious to provide the respective country version under the country-specific top-level domain. These are also referred to as Country Code Top Level Domains and abbreviated as ccTLDs.

Examples of country domains: farbentour.ch for Switzerland, farbentour.nl for the Netherlands

1. Subdomains

There is a main domain that either has the ccTLD of the country in which the company has its origin or headquarters. Or it's a generic top-level domain (gTLD = Generic Top Level Domain), which has an ending that is common across countries. Probably the most famous example of gTLDs are .com domains.

No matter which case you decide on with this domain strategy – the different versions for the countries are set up as subdomains.

Examples of subdomains: fr.farbentour.de, pl.farbentour.de

1. Subdirectories

With this domain strategy there is likewise a main domain (ccTLD or gTLD) that has individual subdirectories for the country pages. So on the central website there are different sections.

Examples of subdirectories: farbentour.de/en/, farbentour.de/fr/

The different options have various advantages and disadvantages. For instance, top-level domains of the respective country are considered particularly trustworthy. In return, backlinks can only unfold their power on the respective country version, whereas with a directory structure they work across countries. On the flip side, however, penalties also affect all country pages directly, while individual domains and subdomains form closed ecosystems.

Which variant is the most suitable for you depends on the specific individual case and therefore can't be answered across the board. With our agency, we'd be happy to support you in developing a tailor-made strategy.

Tip: Set up locations in Google Business Profile and link them to the country websiteIf you have locations abroad (shops, warehouses, administrations or even just a mailbox), then set these up in your Google Business Profile and link them directly to the respective country website. This likewise helps Google understand the country assignment and at the same time strengthens visibility in the regional search results.

Hreflang Attribute

Provided your internationalization strategy makes a multilingual website necessary, the hreflang attribute is one of the most important technical measures. With this attribute, mostly integrated in the head (<head>) of the HTML code, you help Google understand the structure of your international website.

The hreflang attribute ensures that the search engine recognizes the respective geographic orientation of the specific page and shows each visitor the correct language version (geo-targeting).

Similar to the canonical tag, with the link attribute you give Google clear instructions and avoid risks such as duplicate content – one of the biggest problems with websites that are provided in several languages. With the hreflang attribute you build a connection between the (multilingual) content and the (regional) target audience.

Examples of the hreflang attribute



< link rel=“alternate“ hreflang=“de-DE“ href=“www.farbentour.de“/ >



< link rel=“alternate“ hreflang=“de-CH“ href=“www.farbentour.de/ch/“/ >



< link rel=“alternate“ hreflang=“en“ href=“www.farbentour.de/engl/“ / >

The code in detail:

• < link opens the tag.
• rel=“alternate“ indicates that there is an alternative version of the page.
• hreflang=“xx-XX“ specifies the language (xx) in the format per ISO 639-1 and the region (XX) in the format per ISO 3166-1 Alpha 2, whereby the region is an optional instruction.
• href=“URL“ contains the absolute URL of the alternative document in the previously specified language version.

/ > closes the tag.

You can integrate the attribute not only in the head, but also in the HTTP header or in an XML sitemap.

If you use the hreflang attribute for geo-targeting, it's very important to create a bidirectional linking. This means that all equivalent content must reference each other so that Google can understand the complete architecture of your multilingual website. So you link all equivalent content to each other – including the mostly German-language main page.

It follows from this that you always have at least two hreflang versions. For a website without other country or language versions, the attribute makes no sense and is thus dispensable.

x-default as a Fallback

In addition to the language- and region-specific hreflang, you should use the x-default attribute. It shows the search engine which language version should be displayed to users whose language or region isn't covered by another hreflang attribute – frequently the English main version.

< link rel=“alternate“ hreflang=“x-default“ href=“www.farbentour.de/“ / >

Common Mistake: Geo-IP Redirects

Avoid automatic redirects based on the IP address. These prevent search engines from being able to crawl all of your international versions – and they confuse users who are traveling or using a VPN. Instead, use internal links and clearly visible language cues in the header (e.g. a language selection with flag or country name).

Tip: Generator for hreflang attributesOn the internet there are various free generators that help you create error-free hreflang instructions. One of the best in German is the generator by Sistrix.

Internal Linking

You shouldn't rely on the hreflang attribute alone to get users to the correct language version of your website. And besides: there is no one correct language version for everyone. Just because someone happens to be sitting in Ireland doesn't mean they also speak English and the English version is the right one for them. Google employee John Müller recommends placing internal links between the various language versions and leaving the adjustment of the language to the visitor themselves (e.g. through flags in the header).

Internal links support not only visitors with navigation, but also the web crawler. A link in the hreflang attribute doesn't serve indexing. Accordingly, every single page must be reachable via internal links so that crawling and indexing are ensured.

Usability and User Experience

Sometimes it can be that different requirements and habits are placed on a website's usability in the target country. The greater the cultural differences, the more likely at least minor deviations from local design standards are. In view of the fact that user signals have at least an indirect influence on the ranking, your market analysis should also take these particularities regarding user experience into account.

These can be, for example, differing conventions in the use of navigation or the typical structure of a website. Colors, too, can internationally (subconsciously) evoke different associations than in our cultural sphere. This can have a negative effect on the conversion rate, for example.

If you aren't able to assess the countries with regard to usability yourself, you should seek professional support for this, ideally originating from the respective target country. This applies especially to the countries that deviate considerably from the European standard, e.g. because they use different characters or because people read from right to left there.

Country-Specific Content – More Than Mere Translation

If you decide to become internationally active in business, then you have to engage with the target markets. This applies to SEO just as much as to other disciplines of marketing. The reason: Different nationalities can have different needs. Only if you manage to satisfy these needs with your content do you have a chance of achieving high visibility with the respective country version of your website.

This means that a mere translation of the existing content may not be enough – not even when your products are certainly suitable for the target country. Native speakers frequently have a different language usage. They speak dialects, know the different meanings between homophonous words or use (also for searching) a colloquial language that is often foreign to outsiders. Language can be a real challenge!

To identify these subtleties or even completely differing needs, you should put a keyword research at the beginning of your content strategy. The keywords and their search volumes reveal to you not only what is searched for, but also in what concrete style. With this analysis you can determine whether a pure translation of the existing content is enough or whether you have to optimize it linguistically – possibly with the help of a native speaker. In addition, the keywords reveal to you which content still has potential and where there are content gaps that should be closed.

Besides keyword research, a review of the competitors (competitor analysis) is also very helpful. What do they do differently than you have so far? Do you notice regional particularities with otherwise identical topics? Does their language deviate from yours? Is their content fundamentally shorter or longer? Do they work with more images? All of this could be indications that the target audience in the target country has different expectations of content.

Content is the most important ranking factor in international SEO as well – and at the same time the biggest challenge. Because here, unlike with the technical factors, you can't simply act by rote, but rather need a feel for the local users and their behavior. If you're serious about internationalization, you therefore have to invest time in order to get to know your target audience as well as possible. Only then can you ensure that your content has the necessary relevance in the target country to achieve noteworthy rankings and delight the users.

Attention: Don't forget the metadata!A classic (careless) mistake when internationalizing websites: existing pages are frequently duplicated and the content is adapted to the respective country or language. In doing so, however, it's forgotten that the metadata also has to be translated. So it appears in the wrong language in the search results and thereby has a miserable click-through rate. Here, too, the rule applies: don't just translate, but pick up on the respective user need and generate curiosity about the content. This way you increase the click-through rate considerably!

Off-Page: Link Building for International SEO

In addition to on-page optimization, a complete strategy for internationalizing your website or your online shop naturally also includes off-page optimization. Backlinks are still one of the most important ranking factors, because they increase the reputation and thus the trust in your website. Link building can therefore bring about a ranking booster – especially when you enter a new market with a new website.

An authentic link profile that has grown as organically as possible is the be-all and end-all. Part of authenticity is that certain country pages also get backlinks from their respective region. So your French language version should have backlinks from French – of course topically relevant – websites. Because these backlinks simultaneously help the search engine assign your page to the right country and give it greater relevance in the respective market.

The best way to build up an authentic backlink profile is high-quality content that offers real added value for your target audience. This is also why it's so important that, in the first step of content creation, you analyze the needs of the regional market and don't just simply translate what already exists.

So that potential link providers become aware of your top content, you mustn't forget content distribution.

Country-Specific Monitoring for Sustainable Success

To determine whether the internationalization strategy is successful with regard to visibility in the search engines, a gap-free analysis of the SEO-relevant metrics is required. For instance, via Google Analytics you should observe whether the users from various countries also land on the respective language version of the website. If the various language versions record hardly any visitors despite international traffic, that's an indication of a missing or incorrectly applied hreflang attribute.

Already when creating the SEO strategy, define the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) with which the success of international search engine optimization can be measured. In the second step, select a suitable web analytics tool. Provided Google prevails in your target markets, Google Analytics and the Google Search Console are recommended. If other search engines set the tone, then you have to choose a tool that delivers meaningful figures on the specific search engine.

What to Do If You Want to Exit a Market?

Not every expansion is successful, not even when you've done everything right in terms of SEO. When you withdraw from a market, the associated website usually becomes superfluous and is taken off the web. Often, however, a certain flow of visitors is still retained for it over a long period.

Don't let these interested parties or customers run into a dead end, but redirect them with a permanent redirect (status code 301) to the respective counterpart on the main domain. This way you can at least keep some customers who are willing, for example, to pay higher shipping costs for the import from the country of origin. Setting redirects is especially important when the country pages don't have individual domains, but you work with directories.

Because then, deleting pages without replacement can create 404 errors, which have a negative effect on the entire domain and thus also on other country or language versions.

Conclusion: Global Visibility Thanks to International SEO

In a globalized world, it has never been easier than today to tap into new markets and customer groups. With International SEO you achieve the necessary visibility to bring your internationalization to success.

Thanks to identical ranking factors, what matters most is how you optimize them – the What remains the same at its core. Above all, country-specific particularities regarding language, culture and user behavior take center stage.

If you observe the globally applicable principles of search engine optimization and take the decisive particularities for international SEO into account, then, similar to a relaunch, you can reduce the risks to a minimum and instead benefit from the diverse opportunities in the international markets.

More revenue through international SEOWith our agency, we'd be happy to support you in making your website fit for the global markets. With a professional strategy and expert implementation you avoid penalties and enlarge your potential customer base. Get advice from us now with no obligation!