International SEO is just SEO set on difficulty level: hard.
Pick the wrong URL structure? Rebuild everything from scratch.
Misunderstand local search behavior? Watch your content strategy crumble.
Skip proper hreflang implementation? Google shows Hindi content to German users.
The brands winning at international SEO don’t simply wing it. They follow a systematic approach to handle market research, technical setup, localization, and more.
That’s why we created this international SEO checklist. Skip the costly trial-and-error approach and follow a step-by-step playbook that scales your brand globally.
Our international SEO checklist to dominate local search
This international SEO checklist gives you a stage-wise framework to expand your brand internationally without the usual headaches. Follow these stages to build an international SEO strategy that actually delivers traffic and conversions.
Stage 1: Strategy and Market Selection
Implementing an international SEO strategy is a lot like building a house.
You have to survey the land, check local building codes, and prepare the groundwork before you start building.
For international SEO, that means researching different markets to select the most promising one(s) and outlining your strategy based on this research. Let’s see what you should focus on at this stage.
Evaluate opportunities to pick a target market
Most companies face the same temptation when starting international SEO: go for the biggest markets.
But market size ≠ market opportunity.
For example, if you have a SaaS tool, your first instinct might be to target the US market. But this region is massive and highly competitive for your business to thrive.
You want to balance size with competitive advantages to strategically bet on a market.
Here’s how to identify the right markets based on size, demand, and competition:
Assess search demand with Google Trends
Use Google Trends to compare search interest for your business category across different countries/regions.
Look for markets showing consistent growth for your target queries rather than just high volume. High-growth markets often present less saturated competitive landscapes.
When I searched for “process automation,” I discovered Singapore, South Korea, India, and the US as potential target markets.
Deep-dive into Google Analytics
The existing data in your Google Analytics dashboard is even more valuable. It tells you international markets from where you’re already receiving traffic.
Go to the “Reports” tab in your GA4 dashboard. Then, navigate to Users > Demographic overview to find out where traffic is coming from. This report will tell you what percentage of your traffic is coming from which market, revealing regions where you already have a headstart for SEO.
Analyze the competition with Semrush/Ahrefs
Tools like Semrush and Ahrefs let you reverse-engineer your competitors’ international SEO efforts. You can pinpoint which markets they’re actively targeting through SEO.
For example, Semrush’s “Domain Overview” report lets you compare a site’s traffic in different countries.
Here’s a comparison of Notion’s traffic in four key markets. It shows that the US is the biggest market for Notion, followed by Japan and India.
Analyze local search behavior and competition
Search behavior varies dramatically across cultures, languages, and regions. This cultural layer of search behavior often determines brands’ success or failure in international markets.
So, before you dig into keyword volume and difficulty, understand how people search.
You want to discover how people phrase their queries and questions on search engines. And look into the type of content ranking on top and learn why.
For example, people searching for “vitamin C serum” show varied behavior across markets:
- United States: “anti-aging serum”
- South Korea: “glass skin routine”
- France: “sérum vitamine C pharmacie”
Same intent. Completely different search approach.
Here’s where it gets more interesting: this cultural context extends to content preferences on search engines.
Spend some time evaluating the search results for your core keywords in different markets. You’ll notice some distinctions: a few markets prefer detailed guides while others lean on visual content.
Use SEO tools to evaluate the top 10-15 search results for your target market and document these varying preferences.
Choose between country vs. language targeting
While laying the foundation of your international SEO strategy, it’s important to choose between:
- Country targeting: Canada vs. France vs. Australia
- Language targeting: Spanish vs. Arabic vs. French
This decision will shape your URL structure, content strategy, and technical setup.
Target by country when…
Country targeting makes sense when your business model has meaningful geographic variations.
Consider an e-commerce brand selling gaming accessories.
Price differences, shipping costs, distribution channels, and warranty terms will vary significantly across countries — even if they speak the same language. A $200 gaming headset might be positioned as “mid-range” in Spain but “premium luxury” in Mexico due to income differences.
Despite sharing language and gaming culture, the business realities require distinct country-specific strategies. With country-specific SEO, you can localize and optimize each site for these factors.
Target by language when…
Language targeting works best when your primary offering remains consistent across borders and cultural similarities outweigh geographic differences.
The same gaming accessories brand can target Spanish-speaking markets because the core products work identically across cultures. Spanish-speaking countries like Spain, Mexico, Argentina, and Colombia can also have similar gaming preferences and terminology.
The same product page emphasizing “sonido envolvente” and “diseño ergonómico” resonates equally well in Madrid, Mexico City, or Buenos Aires.
💡Learn more: How localization fits into your market entry strategy
Stage 2: Domain and URL structure
Once your target markets are locked in, you’re ready to set up the technical infrastructure for international SEO. This setup can make or break your SEO efforts in the long run.
Let’s see what’s covered in this stage.
Choose a scalable international URL structure
Your URL structure impacts everything — crawl budget allocation, domain authority distribution, long-term scalability, and more.
Choose from these three options for a URL structure based on your resources and SEO goals:
- Subdirectories (site.com/fr/): A subdirectory consolidates your website’s domain authority in one place rather than distributing it across different sites. This approach also scales efficiently with less technical effort and easy management.
- Subdomains (fr.site.com): A subdomain structure offers more flexibility with different sites for each market. This setup is ideal when you want to treat each market as a different entity and use varied technical setups.
- Country-specific domains (site.fr): A country-specific domain offers the maximum local relevance among all options. It also allows search engines to understand your brand’s geographic targeting. However, this approach is resource-heavy, and you have to build + maintain each domain from scratch.
Once you’ve made a choice, remember to follow a uniform structure for all markets. Make it easy for search engines and users to navigate your site easily.
💡Pro tip: Set up domain-level signals for geo-targeting. Use Google Search Console to geotarget subdirectories or subdomains.
Implement hreflang tags correctly
When your website includes content in multiple languages, you have to use hreflang tags to tell search engines which language or region each page targets. This prevents duplicate content issues and helps Google serve the right version of your content to the right audience.
For example, automotive brand Jeep uses hreflang tags to correctly attribute its country-specific domains to the right regions.
An hreflang tag follows this syntax:
<link rel=”alternate” hreflang=”language-code” href=”URL” />
The link rel=”alternate” explains that this link is an alternate version of the primary page. The hreflang=”language-code” part defines the country this alternate page targets. The href=”URL” is the alternative page’s URL.
You can use hreflang tags in two ways:
Basic language targeting
Use this approach to target users based on their language preferences, regardless of their location. No matter where users are, the hreflang=”es” tag shows Spanish content only.
Language + location targeting
Use this approach to target users based on language and location for more specific localization needs like currency or regulatory differences. For example, the hreflang=”es-mx” tag shows Mexican Spanish content, and the hreflang=”es-es” tag shows Spanish content.
📈Scale your sites effortlessly with hreflang tags
As you expand internationally, managing hreflang tags manually becomes challenging. Include hreflang annotations in your XML sitemaps to maintain hreflang relationships centrally and update them systematically. It reduces errors and makes auditing much easier.
Each URL should specify its language/country targeting and reference all alternative versions. This creates a comprehensive map that search engines can follow to understand your international structure.
Stage 3: Language and content localization
Now, you’re ready to localize your brand and win at international SEO.
Let’s discuss the core action items to complete to gain search visibility in your target markets.
Perform market-level keyword and LLM research
We know that behavior varies significantly between countries, even when they share a language. So, you can’t simply translate your existing set of keywords and use them across markets.
But here’s how you can get a big edge over the competition: go beyond keyword tools.
Check out local communities, subreddits, Slack groups, and more to study your target market. Pay attention to:
- How people discuss your business category
- What problems are they stuck on
- What solutions do they need
Make your target audience the focus of your research. More than keywords, discover different user journeys, pain points, and decision-making factors.
Once you’ve done this legwork, work on in-depth keyword research from scratch for every target market.
Every keyword research tool lets you set a target location to find what’s capturing interest in a specific region. You also want to see what your local (and global) competitors are ranking for.
These insights will shape your content and SEO strategy.
Strategize and implement localization
Think of localization as creating a truly native experience for each market.
The localization process considers how people in different regions actually browse, shop, and interact with brands online.
Here are different aspects of localization you should focus on for international SEO:
Cultural adaptation
Adapt your messaging and positioning to resonate with local audiences. You want to rethink your brand as per the cultural beliefs and practices of a local market.
For example, if you have a financial services business, you want to:
- Emphasize family savings in collectivist cultures of Japan and China
- Highlight individual investment growth in individualistic markets like Canada and Australia
Similarly, make sure your brand truly blends in with the local culture. That means featuring the local people in your product photos and different parts of your site.
For example, Google has different blogs for its target markets. Each country’s blog features local stories and updates.
Local values
Another side of localization involves customizing currencies, date formats, addresses, and contact numbers for each market.
Americans expect MM/DD/YYYY dates while Europeans use DD/MM/YYYY. You should also display prices in local currency with proper symbols. And remember to tweak your contact forms to accommodate different address formats and phone number lengths.
Plus, if your site has a payment process, make sure you feature locally popular payment methods to make shopping convenient.
Legal and regulatory compliance
Go beyond translation to localize your brand for local regulations.
Your privacy policies must reflect regional laws like GDPR in Europe or CCPA in California. Terms of service, shipping policies, and return procedures also need to align with local regulations and consumer expectations.
Scale your localization process
Your localization strategy would work perfectly if you target 1-2 markets.
But what happens when you’re managing content for five different countries? Chaos.
You have to track dozens of translation projects, coordinate with multiple contributors, oversee handoffs between design, content, and developer teams, and a lot more.
That’s why savvy teams use localization management platforms to streamline their workflows.
Tools like Lokalise keep projects moving smoothly by:
- Centralizing translation workflows
- Automating quality checks
- Simplifying collaboration
You get version control, translation memory, AI translations, and automated workflows that scale with your international growth.
And the payoff: Faster time-to-market for new regions, consistent brand voice across cultures, and the ability to update content globally without coordination headaches.
EMBED: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONTlFw5jsy8
Adapt and optimize the user experience
Besides localizing your website’s content and images, you also want to rethink the user experience for every market.
You want to localize your website layout structure based on reading patterns.
For Arabic and Hebrew markets, mirror your entire layout to accommodate right-to-left reading. This means placing navigation menus, call-to-action buttons, and form fields on the opposite side.
This is how layout mirroring works:
Moreover, you can also modify the navigation style based on varied preferences for information hierarchy. Research your target markets to find what works best for each and test different menu depths for the optimum experience.
Here are a few navigation styles to choose from:
Besides, you should also consider regional preferences for visual density and whitespace.
For example, Scandinavian users prefer minimalist designs with lots of whitespace, while Japanese audiences go for maximalist, information-rich layouts.
While you’re on design, focus on implementing culturally appropriate imagery and iconography. Hand gestures, clothing styles, architectural elements, and even facial expressions in photos should reflect local norms.
✨ Find inspiration: We analyzed the best 5 examples of multilingual websites
Stage 4: Local SEO and performance optimization
Your foundation is built ✅ Your content is localized ✅
Now comes the part where you optimize your website’s SEO performance to generate serious traffic.
Here are a few things to keep in mind for this stage:
Improve load speed with CDNs and local hosting
Internet infrastructure, device capabilities, and user expectations create different performance thresholds in different markets.
So, you want to mold your international SEO strategy in a way that maximizes ROI in every region.
Here’s how.
Configure your CDN to serve content from edge locations closest to your target markets. If you’re targeting Germany, make sure your CDN has a robust presence in nearby cities like Frankfurt. For Brazil, São Paulo. For India, Mumbai or Delhi.
Plus, you should also monitor Core Web Vitals for specific markets beyond your domestic location.
Use tools like Pingdom and Google PageSpeed Insights to test your site from different locations. Based on these performance insights, optimize site performance to deliver a fast and seamless experience.
You also want to consider each region’s local internet infrastructure and mobile usage patterns. Some markets are predominantly mobile-first. Here, image optimization is crucial for a frictionless browsing experience.
Build local authority through backlinks
Just like your usual SEO strategy, backlinks play a crucial role at the international level too.
Links from reputable local domains signal trust and relevance to search engines. As a result, you can secure higher rankings for local searches.
That’s why you should build relationships with local publications and influencers for linking opportunities.
That said, don’t focus exclusively on building backlinks.
Think about building brand awareness to establish your brand as a trusted name in your industry. Work with credible partners to shape your brand image in the local ecosystem and improve your SEO performance.
Your international SEO success starts now
The brands winning internationally aren’t the ones with the biggest budgets or the flashiest campaigns. They’re the ones who work with a strategic, methodical process.
This international SEO checklist is your key to unlocking massive growth.
Start with one target market and build a solid technical infrastructure. Then, focus all your effort on localization because it’s an ongoing process.
Use a localization management tool like Lokalise to streamline all the behind-the-scenes work and produce consistent output without hiccups. Sign up for a 14-day trial (without any credit card) to see how it works.
