The wrong country ranks
Searchers in one market land on the page meant for another, with the wrong currency or phone number.
International SEO
Show each country the page built for it.
A buyer in Mexico City and a buyer in Madrid should each find the page built for them, in their words and their currency. We set up your site so they do.
What we measureInternational SEO3/3
- Right version shown in each market
- Indexed pages by language and country
- Qualified visits and leads by market
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No cost and no commitment.
The search problem
Translation is the easy part.
A company translates its site into Spanish and waits. Google keeps showing the English page to Spanish searchers, or the page for Spain to buyers in Mexico, with prices in euros. The words were translated. The signals that tell Google which page belongs to which market were never set.
We start with demand in each market, since people in two countries rarely search the same way even in one language. Then we set the structure and the language tags, and have each version checked by someone who lives there.
In plain terms
What is international SEO?
International SEO is the work of making a site findable in more than one country or language, and of sending each searcher to the version built for them. It has three parts: a URL structure with a clear home for each market, language tags that tell Google how the versions relate, and content that fits how people in each place search and buy.
The tag that does most of the work is called hreflang. It is a line of code on each page that lists every language or country version of that page. Google ignores it unless every version lists all the others in return, which is why a half-finished setup does nothing at all. We test it as part of every technical SEO review on a site with more than one market.
When a site needs this work
Translated pages get no visits
The new language version is live, indexed and silent.
A new market is opening
You are about to launch in another country and have to choose between a new domain, a subdomain and a folder.
Visitors are redirected by location
The site sends people to a version based on where they seem to be, and search engines only ever see one.
What we do in international SEO
We research how people in each market describe the need, in their own words. Spanish in Mexico and Spanish in Spain share a grammar and not always a vocabulary, and the same holds for English in the United States and Britain.
Each market needs its own address. A country domain sends the clearest signal and costs the most to run, while a folder on your main domain is the easiest to maintain. We weigh the trade for your case and write down the role of every version.
We build and test hreflang across every version, with return links on every page and a default for everyone else. We also remove any automatic redirect that guesses a visitor’s language. Google advises against it, and its crawler mostly visits from the United States.
A reviewer in each market checks the copy, prices, units, phone formats, shipping terms and calls to action. A page can be word-perfect and still wrong if it offers a service that market cannot buy.
Check your own setup
The hreflang mistakes that cancel the tags.
Hreflang fails quietly. Nothing breaks on the page, no error appears, and Google carries on showing whichever version it prefers. Most failures come down to a handful of mistakes, and you can check for each one by viewing the page source and searching for the word “hreflang.”
Two older habits are worth dropping as well. Google ignores geographic meta tags, and the country targeting setting that used to live in Search Console has been retired. The tags and the URL structure now carry the whole signal.
- 01Open one page and confirm it lists every version, itself included.
- 02Open each listed version and confirm it lists the first page back. Without the return link, Google ignores the pair.
- 03Check the codes. Language comes first and the country is optional: “es-mx” is valid, and a country alone, such as “mx,” is not.
- 04Use full addresses that begin with https, never relative paths.
- 05Add an x-default version for searchers who match none of your markets.
What you get
Work you can hold.
- Search demand research for each market, in its own language
- A structure decision, with the role of every version written down
- A tested hreflang setup across all versions
- A review of key pages by a reader in each market
- Reporting split by country and language
The readout
How we know it worked.
We record a baseline before we change anything, then read search visibility beside the actions that pay the bills.
- Right version shown in each market
- Indexed pages by language and country
- Qualified visits and leads by market
Pricing
Your investment in being found
Three ways to invest in your business showing up when buyers search. Each package is billed monthly, month to month, and each one includes everything in the one before it.
Foundation
The work every site needs, done properly and kept up every month.
$1,000a month
Month to month
We recommend
Growth
Foundation, plus the pages, articles and links that reach more of your buyers.
$2,500a month
Month to month
Leadership
Growth, plus press outreach, more markets and reporting that follows each lead to revenue.
$5,000a month
Month to month
The price changes only when the scope does, such as a very large catalog, many locations or a move to a new platform, and we agree any change in writing before the work starts.
Questions
Before we start.
Is translation enough for international SEO?
No. Translation gives you the words. You still need a separate address for each version, language tags that connect them, and copy checked against how people in that market search. A translated page with none of those usually stays invisible.
Should we use a country domain, a subdomain or a folder?
Each can work. A country domain such as .mx gives Google the clearest signal and means running a separate site. A folder such as /mx/ keeps everything on one domain and is the simplest to maintain. A folder suits most companies, and a country domain earns its cost where local trust or local law calls for it.
Is machine translation bad for SEO?
Unreviewed machine translation at scale is a risk. Google’s spam policies cover pages produced in bulk with little value added, and automated translation is one of its examples. A machine draft corrected by a fluent reader is a different thing, and it is how most large sites work.
Will a second language version count as duplicate content?
No. A page in Spanish and its English original are different pages to Google. Two versions in the same language for different countries are closer, and hreflang is the tool that tells Google which one to show where.
Which languages do you work in?
We write and review in English and Spanish. For other languages we plan the structure and the tags, and work with a fluent reviewer in the market for the copy.
Keep exploring
Find the next useful page.
All SEO servicesExplore the full search program and its specialized services.Technical SEOThe crawl and index review every multi-market site needs.Enterprise SEOSearch across many templates, teams and regions.SEO Website MigrationsRestructure domains and folders without losing traffic.E-commerce SEOCatalogs that sell in more than one currency.SEO Content WritingPages written for the reader in each market.
Tell us which markets you serve and which you want next. We will show you what Google sees in each one today.
- How your buyers search for what you sell
- Who shows up above you today, and why
- Your website, as Google reads it
Prefer email? Write to hello@wearemachina.com
Prefer to talk? Call (831) 230-7787
What we measureInternational SEO3/3
- Right version shown in each market
- Indexed pages by language and country
- Qualified visits and leads by market
Get your free SEO audit
No cost and no commitment.