International SEO
What is international SEO?
International SEO is the practice of setting up a website so search engines show the right version to people in different countries or speaking different languages. It covers choosing a URL structure, adding hreflang annotations, translating and localising content, and doing keyword research separately for each market.
There are three common URL structures. Country-code domains such as example.de give the clearest country signal but split authority across sites. Subdirectories such as example.com/de/ keep everything on one domain and are easiest to maintain. Subdomains such as de.example.com sit in between. Google says all can work; choose based on your business and resources.
Hreflang tells Google which language or regional version to show for a given searcher, and helps it treat translated pages as alternatives rather than duplicates. Google says it doesn’t use the HTML lang attribute to determine language, but works it out from the content.
Why international SEO matters
Without a clear setup, the wrong version may rank: your US page in the UK, or English content for Spanish searchers. That means lost clicks and confused visitors.
Keywords also differ between markets. People in different countries use different words, currencies and spellings, so direct translation often misses what people actually search.
How to set up international SEO
- Decide whether you are targeting languages, countries, or both.
- Choose a URL structure: ccTLDs, subdirectories or subdomains.
- Do keyword research in each market rather than translating keywords.
- Localise content properly, including prices, units, examples and spelling.
- Add reciprocal hreflang tags for every version, including a self-reference and an x-default where useful.
- Avoid automatically redirecting users by IP; offer a language or country switcher instead, so Googlebot can crawl every version.
International SEO example
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="en-gb" href="https://example.com/uk/">
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="en-us" href="https://example.com/us/">
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="de" href="https://example.com/de/">
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="x-default" href="https://example.com/">International SEO FAQ
Is a subdirectory or ccTLD better for international SEO?
Neither is always better. ccTLDs send the strongest country signal; subdirectories are simpler and share one domain’s authority. Many sites choose subdirectories for ease of maintenance.
Is translated content duplicate content?
No. Translations into different languages are not treated as duplicates. Very similar pages in the same language for different regions should use hreflang so Google picks the right one.
Related SEO terms
Hreflang is an annotation that tells search engines which language or regional version of a page to show to which searchers.
The lang attribute declares the language of a page’s content, usually on the <html> element, for browsers, screen readers and translation tools.
Keyword research is finding the search terms your audience uses, then judging which ones are worth targeting by demand, difficulty and intent.
Technical SEO is making sure search engines can crawl, render and index your site, covering speed, redirects, canonicals, sitemaps and mobile.
Duplicate content is the same or very similar content available at more than one URL, on one site or across sites. Google picks one version to show.