ServicesInternational SEO

International SEO

Expanding from Australia into New Zealand, the UK or the US means deciding how each market gets its own pages, then telling Google which version to show where. We advise on country domains versus subfolders, set up hreflang correctly and localise content beyond spelling: prices, delivery, regulations and the words local buyers use.

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Structure, hreflang and localisation for each market you serve.

INTERNATIONAL SEO
Market and language opportunity

Check demand before building pages.

Domain structure and hreflang

Tell Google which page suits which market.

Market-level search reporting

Report each country on its own numbers.

Typical path · Depends on markets and platform

What we can help with

What international SEO involves

It suits businesses that sell or deliver in more than one country. If you only serve overseas customers occasionally from one Australian site, a single version with clear shipping information is often enough, and splitting the site would create work without benefit. Scope and fees are agreed first.

  • Market research per country before pages are built
  • Country domain, subfolder or subdomain recommendation
  • Hreflang setup and validation, including x-default
  • Localised copy, pricing, currency and delivery details
  • Country switchers that keep the visitor on the equivalent page
  • Search Console and analytics views per market

International SEO in practice

Choose a structure you can maintain

Separate country domains such as .com.au and .co.nz send a clear local signal and suit businesses with local entities, but each domain builds authority on its own and needs its own content and links. Subfolders on one domain, such as /au/ and /nz/, share authority and are simpler to run, which makes them the usual choice for a growing business. Subdomains sit in between. We also check the practicalities: a .com.au requires an Australian connection to register, and your platform may handle one structure far better than another.

Multi-country sites with many contributors also need the processes covered by our Enterprise SEO work.

Hreflang and localisation

Get hreflang right and localise properly

Hreflang tells Google which URL to show in which country or language. Each page lists every alternate, including itself, using codes such as en-AU, en-NZ and en-GB (en-UK is a common mistake and isn’t valid), and every alternate must link back. Tags should point to canonical, indexable URLs, with x-default for visitors outside your markets. Localisation matters as much as the tags. When Australian and New Zealand pages are near-identical, Google can consolidate them, so each needs local prices, GST, delivery times, contact details and terms: thongs here are jandals across the Tasman.

Hreflang errors often turn out to be crawl and canonical problems, which our Technical SEO service handles. Stores shipping overseas also need market-specific product data and pricing, covered in eCommerce SEO.

How we work

Three stages for a new market

01

Size the market

We research search demand, competitors and terminology in each target country before recommending how many pages to build.

02

Build the structure

Structure, hreflang and localised templates are specified for your platform, whether that’s Shopify Markets, WordPress multisite or a custom build.

03

Validate and report

After launch we crawl every market version to confirm return tags, canonicals and switchers work, then report by country.

Measurement and review

Measuring each market

Each market gets its own numbers: impressions and clicks from Google in that country, enquiries or revenue in local currency, and whether the correct version is the one ranking there. A New Zealand page showing in Australian results, or the reverse, signals that hreflang or localisation needs work.

Google retired Search Console’s International Targeting report, so we filter performance data by country and use crawl tools to monitor hreflang errors instead.

Good questions

International SEO questions

For Australian businesses taking their site overseas.

Can one English site serve Australia, New Zealand and the UK?

It can if the offer is the same everywhere. Once prices, currency, delivery, tax or product range differ, separate market versions serve buyers better and help you rank locally. A middle path is one site with market subfolders only for the pages that change, such as pricing, shipping and contact, while general content stays shared. Hreflang then only needs to cover the pages that actually have market versions.

Should we redirect visitors automatically by location?

Avoid forced redirects based on IP address. Googlebot mostly crawls from US addresses, so automatic redirects can stop it seeing your Australian or New Zealand pages, and travellers end up in the wrong store. Show a banner suggesting the local version instead and let people choose. Make sure the switcher links to the equivalent page, not the homepage, and remembers the choice for return visits.

Do we need US spelling for American pages?

Yes, if the US is a serious market. American buyers search with their own spelling and terms: color, optimize, zip code, cell phone. Australian and UK English are close enough to share spelling, though vocabulary still differs. Units, date formats, clothing sizes and currency also need to match what local buyers expect. UK pages need local delivery terms and returns information too, even when the spelling barely changes.

Which platforms handle international SEO well?

Several can. Shopify Markets can create regional subfolders or domains and output hreflang for them. WordPress can use multisite or a multilingual plugin. Headless and custom builds can do anything but need hreflang specified carefully. Whatever the platform, we check the tags it actually generates, because automated setups still produce errors such as missing return links or alternates pointing at redirected URLs.

What does the free audit cover for an international site?

We crawl a sample of each market version, validate hreflang codes and return tags, check canonicals and switchers, and look at whether pages are genuinely localised. If you’re planning an expansion rather than fixing an existing setup, we review structure options instead. You receive a prioritised checklist, with the hreflang errors grouped by template so they can be fixed in bulk. Read about the free marketing audit.

Connected services

Services that support expansion

01

Enterprise SEO

Process and governance for large, multi-team websites.

Explore Enterprise SEO

02

Technical SEO

Canonical, crawl and rendering fixes that hreflang depends on.

Explore Technical SEO

03

eCommerce SEO

Market-specific category, product and feed work for online stores.

Explore eCommerce SEO

A useful starting point

What the free audit checks across markets

For multi-country sites the audit starts with hreflang and canonicals, because a mistake there can show the wrong country’s page to every searcher in a market.

  • Validate language-region codes, return tags and x-default.
  • See which market pages are too similar to stand on their own.
  • Get structure advice if you’re still planning a new market.
See the 100% free audit offer

Get a free international SEO audit with a fix list.

List the countries you sell into now and the ones you plan to enter.

Get my free audit & checklist