International SEO is mostly a planning problem before it is a technical one. You decide which markets deserve their own content, how to structure the site, what to localise rather than translate, and only then add technical signals such as hreflang. Skipping the strategy and jumping straight to tags is the most common way to end up with dozens of thin, near-identical pages.
Step 1: Decide which markets and languages you are targeting
Google separates multilingual sites (more than one language) from multi-regional sites (targeting users in different countries). A site can be both, and the distinction shapes your plan. English for Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States is a multi-regional decision. English plus Chinese is a multilingual one.
Choose markets with evidence, not enthusiasm: existing enquiries, search demand, ability to serve customers, shipping and payment, and legal or regulatory fit. Our guide on how Australian brands can reach international audiences covers market prioritisation in more detail. Start with one or two markets rather than ten.
Step 2: Choose a URL structure
Google lists the main options and their trade-offs on the same page.
| Structure | Example | Strength | Drawback |
|---|---|---|---|
| Country domain | example.de | Clear geotargeting, easy separation | Costly, more infrastructure, one country each |
| Subdomain | de.example.com | Easy setup, can use different servers | Users may not know if “de” means country or language |
| Subdirectory | example.com/de/ | Easy setup, low maintenance | Geotargeting less obvious, harder to separate |
| URL parameters | site.com?loc=de | Not recommended | Hard to segment, unclear to users |
For most growing businesses, subdirectories are the lowest-maintenance route. Country domains make sense when you want full separation and can resource it.
Step 3: Decide what to adapt, translate or leave
Not every page needs a version in every market. Sort your content:
- Adapt fully: home page, product or service pages, pricing and contact, because they carry local currency, availability and legal details.
- Translate with review: guides and articles that stay useful across markets.
- Leave in one language: content with no value to the market, rather than publishing weak copies.
Google warns that generating many pages with little value, including by translating or transforming existing content, can fall under its scaled content abuse policy. The lesson is to publish fewer, better localised pages. Read our explainer on localisation versus translation for the difference.
Step 4: Plan content around local search behaviour
People in different markets use different words, even in the same language. An Australian audience may search with terms that a United States audience never uses. Build a keyword list per market from local sources, then map each term to a page. Keep each page in one language: Google determines page language from visible content and advises against side-by-side translations.
Step 5: Add the technical layer
Once the plan exists, tell Google how the versions relate.
- Give each language or regional version its own URL, rather than switching content by cookies or browser settings. Googlebot mostly crawls from the United States and does not send an Accept-Language header, so dynamic switching can hide variants.
- Use hreflang. Google’s localized versions documentation says each version must list itself and every other version, with fully qualified URLs, and that links must be reciprocal or the tags are ignored.
- Add x-default for users whose language matches none of your versions, such as a language selector page.
- Use correct codes. An ISO 639-1 language code, optionally with an ISO 3166-1 Alpha 2 region code. A region code alone is invalid.
- Avoid automatic redirects based on guessed language. Google recommends linking to other versions so people can choose.
- Choose a preferred version with rel=“canonical” when similar same-language content sits on several regional URLs.
Step 6: Measure per market
Beyond search, think about the wider plan: our guide to building a digital marketing strategy shows how to set objectives and cadence for each market.
Set up reporting by market and language from the start. Look at impressions, clicks and enquiries per version, not combined totals, so you can see which markets justify more investment. Review hreflang errors in Search Console after launch and after any structural change.
Common mistakes
- Launching every language at once with machine output and no review.
- Treating hreflang as a ranking switch. It signals relationships between versions.
- Translating keywords word for word, which is a poor substitute for researching what native speakers actually search.
- Ignoring local currency, units and contact details, which Google lists among the signals that suggest a site’s intended audience.
Where Radiance Impact fits
Radiance Impact’s Global Expansion hub covers localisation and adaptation, and its Growth division works on search visibility. To talk through a multi-market plan, see Global localisation or contact us.
Sources
- Managing multi-regional and multilingual sites, Google Search Central
- Localized versions of your pages, Google Search Central
- Spam policies for Google web search, Google Search Central
