On this page
International SEO is the work that makes search engines show the right page to buyers in each country and language. We choose the site structure for your markets, set up hreflang, research demand in each country and prepare pages that answer local questions. For a site in three languages, that means three versions of every page, each one pointing search engines to the other two. We also check how ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews describe your company in each market, because those answers differ by country and language too.
Who this is for
- Companies opening a new country and unsure whether to use a new domain, a subfolder or a translation.
- Sites that already have language versions, but Google shows the wrong one, or one version takes traffic from another.
- Companies in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and the UAE that sell in more than one country, and businesses from Kazakhstan and Central Asia entering these markets in English.
What we do
| Step | What you receive |
|---|---|
| Market research | demand for your services in each country and language, from Google Ads data, and who ranks in the top 10 there |
| Structure decision | a country domain, a subfolder or a subdomain for each market, with the reasons and the cost of each option |
| Hreflang and technical setup | hreflang tags or sitemap entries for every page pair, canonical tags, a default version for other countries, checks for missing return links and conflicting tags |
| Pages for each market | a page map per country, texts written for local buyers rather than word-for-word translation, local prices, addresses and contacts |
| AI answers by market | the same buyer questions asked in each language, who gets named, and what to change |
| Monthly report | Search Console data split by country, AI answers by market, work done and next steps |
What you get every month
A report you can forward to your team
Same questions, same assistants, three runs. What changed, what we did and what comes next, with every change linked to the live page.
visibility report
Sample filled with real data from our own site, aoe.kz (Almaty, Kazakhstan). Your reports show your client only.
1. Summary
- Google AI Overviews started citing two of the updated pages.
- New citations appeared 1 to 7 days after the pages were updated.
2. AI answers, 3 runs per question
| Assistant | Question | Named |
|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | recommend a marketing agency (city) | 3 of 3 |
| Perplexity | recommend a marketing agency (city) | 3 of 3 |
| Perplexity | where to order a website (city) | 0 of 3 |
Domain, subfolder or subdomain
| Option | Example | Works best when |
|---|---|---|
| Country domain | example.de, example.kz | you have a team, prices and legal entity in that country, and local buyers trust the local ending |
| Subfolder | example.com/de/ | you want one domain and one technical setup for all markets |
| Subdomain | de.example.com | a market needs a separate platform or team, and you accept more separate work |
There is no single right answer. Some countries also have rules about where a site on the local domain must be hosted. Kazakhstan, for example, requires sites on .kz to run on servers inside the country (Order 354/НҚ of 2020). We check such rules for each market before we recommend a structure.
Our experience
ждёт данныхTO CONFIRM with owner: permission to describe these projects without client names.
- A medical clinic with separate websites for two countries on country domains, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, each built for its own market.
- Our own agency: a Russian-language website for Kazakhstan and this English website for other markets.
ждёт данныхTO FILL before publishing: one measured result per project, for example search clicks by country before and after, from Search Console.
Pricing
International SEO is quoted per project after the brief, in US dollars. We usually start with an audit of one site and two or three markets, then agree monthly work per market. Work outside the agreed scope gets a separate estimate before it starts. All prices are on our pricing page.
Frequently asked questions
Is translating the site enough?
No. Buyers in different countries search with different words, compare different competitors and need local prices and contacts. We research demand in each language first, then adapt the pages. Machine translation without that research often brings pages that no one searches for.
Does hreflang make a page rank in another country?
No. Hreflang is a signal that tells Google which version is meant for which language or country. Google treats it as a hint, not a command. The page still needs its own demand, content and links in that market to rank.
How long until results?
Months, not weeks, and it depends on the competition in each country. A market where strong local sites hold the top 10 takes longer than one where foreign sites rank with weak pages. We show this from the search data before you choose markets. Nobody can guarantee positions.
Can you work with our developers?
Yes. We give your developers the hreflang table, redirects and page changes, and check the result after they publish. Read more in our guide to SEO outsourcing.