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Country & language targeting

International SEO

Also known as: multilingual SEO

International SEO is the optimization of a website for users in several countries or languages. The goal is that search engines show each audience the right language or country version.

What does international SEO include?

Google distinguishes multilingual sites (more than one language) from multi-regional sites (targeting users in different countries, possibly in the same language). A site can be both.

A central decision is the URL structure. Google describes country-specific domains (ccTLDs), subdomains, subdirectories and URL parameters, and does not recommend parameters because versions are hard to separate. A ccTLD signals the target country most clearly but needs more infrastructure; subdirectories are easier to set up.

The versions are linked with hreflang, set in HTML, HTTP headers or an XML sitemap. According to Google, it detects a page’s language from the visible content and not from code-level information such as the lang attribute or the URL.

Localization matters as well. Translated pages should reflect search terms, currencies and units of the target market instead of only swapping the wording.

hreflang cluster with four language versionsFour pages de-DE, de-AT, en and x-default all point to each other. Only between en and de-AT the return link is missing: en points to de-AT, but de-AT does not point to en. Google therefore ignores this pair.de-DEexample.com/de-de/de-ATexample.com/de-at/enexample.com/en/x-defaultexample.com/point to each other: validone-way only: pair is ignoredEvery page lists all four versions, including itself.
Four language versions of one page. Each lists all versions, including itself. de-AT does not list en, so Google ignores the one-way link from en to de-AT. Source: Google Search Central: Tell Google about localized versions of your page.

Example

A retailer runs example.com/de/ for Germany, example.com/de-at/ for Austria and example.com/fr/ for France. Each page lists all variants in hreflang, including itself.

Common mistakes

  • Automatic redirects by IP address or browser language (see ip-weiterleitung)
  • Missing return links between versions

More on the searchVIU blog

Sources

  1. Managing multi-regional and multilingual sites – Google Search Centraldevelopers.google.com
  2. Localized versions of your pages – Google Search Centraldevelopers.google.com
  3. What is international SEO? – Yoast (secondary)yoast.com
  4. International SEO – Phrase (secondary)phrase.com

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