International SEO Best Practices

International vs. Local Domains 

Brands can expand their international search presence in a variety of ways. For example, they can create  region-specific separate subdomains. In this case, the URL structure can have the country code after the brand's name, i.e. /de, /fr and others. I don't recommend subdomains, because subfolder structure allows you to focus off-page acitivities on a single domain. Companies can also leverage local domains, but this limits the reach and multiplies the effort and budgets, therefore I rarely recommend such a setup. 

Technical SEO Audit for International Projects

The technical aspect of your website must also be optimised. Google and other search engines use several technical properties to deliver localised content to the respective country instead of canonicalizing it and ranking only English pages. 

Hreflang tags

An absolute essense is to ensure every language or regional version of a page uses hreflang tags. Without them pages may compete with each other, be filtered out by Google or show up in the wrong location.

Structured data markup

Schema markup, particularly data types such as Organization, LocalBusiness, Product and FAQ, help search engines connect your company to relevant entities in each country. This is another tiny technical thing that improves visibility in international SERPs.

Page load speed

Lastly on the technical side of things, fast pages matter globally for good user experience, which is a ranking signal for Google's Navboost system. For certain markets, content that is served from local CDN networks improves load times and thus, user experience factors.

User experience

The user interface of the website also needs to be adapted. I am talking not only about the translation itself, because UX changes for going international also include currency, date formats, address/phone layouts and shipping information. Localised user experiences build trust, improve behavioral factors (Navboost datasets) and increase conversion rate as well.

Google My Business Account

Google My Business (GMB) is one of the ingredients for a successful international SEO strategy. When expanding locally, domestically or internationally, search engines use GMB's presence to indicate your brand's legitimacy. GMB also makes it easy for users to interact with your business, assess your trustworthiness through GMB profile reviews and find the information they need from you. 

International SEO and Content Localisation

Content localization goes well beyond translation. When content is truly localised, in addition to the right language, it uses cultural references, measurements, currencies, FAQs and examples that are relevant to the target market. This makes the page more helpful and increases engagement rate, which signals to search bots that the content is highly relevant for that location.

Off-Page Signals and Digital PR

Building a solid backlink profile that points to your site or a particular web page is as essential for 'standard' search optimization as for international SEO. However, the global linkbuilding is much more nuanced. Search engines may rank your website in your target country higher if the backlink profile has sufficient links from sites in that country.

Align your SEO strategy with international PR efforts to get local brand mentions and backlinks, so that PR channels reinforce your regional authority and send signals about your relevance in each market.

International SEO Services for Australian Businesses 

You can be a large business in Australia that wants to expand its horizons to America and Europe or a small business in South Australia looking to target a new location in a different state. In any case, going national or international is one of the obvious strategies for any business to grow revenue and valuation.  

For Australian small businesses international SEO can be especially powerful. Physical expansion might require new offices, staff and logistic costs. SEO, on the other hand, enables SMBs to compete with enterprise-grade players on a global stage at a fraction of the cost. Localised and optimised content allows even a small company to appear alongside much larger competitors in search results, giving them access to the same audiences without the overhead.

I deliver results using a mix of target keywords research (we work only on keywords that drive conversions), localised content creation using automation that reduces cost, technical SEO for multilingual websites and region-specific off-page SEO activities (linkbuilding in German, French, Italian and other languages, as well as press-releases in the same locations).

International SEO Specialist vs. Agencies

Hiring a freelance international SEO consultant offers several advantages compared to working with an agency. An experienced specialist can provide a highly personalized approach, taking time to understand your business goals, target regions and cultural nuances, then tailoring strategies for each market. In contrast, agencies and companies often spread their focus across many clients and may not deliver the same depth of customization for international campaigns.

Communication with a single expert is more direct and efficient, reducing delays and misalignment that can sometimes happen within larger teams. Independent consultants also tend to stay closely aligned with the latest international SEO trends, search engine algorithm changes and best practices across multiple regions.

Finally, even an expert-level consultant is often more cost-effective than an agency. With lower overheads, they can deliver international SEO services at a more competitive price.

How to Choose International SEO Expert

In my opinion, the most important factor is proven experience with case studies that demonstrate traffic increase in target regions and international ranking improvements.

A strong international SEO consultant should have a track record of success not only across different countries, but also across various industries, showing they understand both cultural nuances and  and competitors in the niche.

In addition, take a look at their reporting and communication methods. The right expert will provide simple but data-rich reports with search rankings and organic traffic for each location.

International SEO Services Costs

An international SEO campaign usually involves two main types of costs: direct costs and consulting costs.

• Direct costs are expenses paid directly for rank tracking platforms, keyword research tools, backlink platforms, press-release distribution tools, copywriters and web developers for technical website adjustments.

• Consulting costs cover the expertise and time of an SEO consultant or agency. They include all actions I described above: strategy development, keyword and competitor research, technical SEO audit, copywriting and content localisation, linkbuilding and press-releases.

In practice, direct costs are usually more predictable, while consulting costs vary depending on the complexity of your SEO project, number of regions and languages targeted.

International SEO Services Pricing

Each international SEO project is unique, and the pricing depends on several factors. The scope of regions you want to target, the number of languages involved and the level of competition determine the end pricing package. 

The smallest prices for my SEO packages start at AUD 2,000 - 3,000 per month (excl. GST), while multiregional engagements with several languages support and competitors with high authority range from AUD 4,000 - 6,000 per month (excl. GST).

All these prices are solely for my consulting efforts. In addition to consulting fees above, there may be direct costs such as translation tools, copywriting and web development services, press-release distribution tools like Newswire.com and regional linkbuilding costs. SEO software subscriptions (rank tracking, keyword research tools, analytics) are included in the consulting price.