01
Market and language selection
Which countries and languages to target first, from search demand, your sales data and the competition in each market.
FIG 01 · International SEO
International SEO services that rank you market by market
The right URL structure, hreflang that validates and pages localised for each market, not machine-translated copies. Built by engineers and SEO specialists, for US, UK and Indian brands selling abroad.
See how it works
FIG 02 · Quick answer
What are international SEO services?
International SEO services help one website rank in several countries and languages. Elgrith audits hreflang and x-default tags, chooses ccTLDs, subfolders or subdomains with you, researches keywords in each language, and localises pages rather than machine-translating them, so Google shows the right version to each market.
- Keyword research, content and reporting for each country
- Per market
- Projects delivered since 2015
- 1,000+
- Clients across the USA, UK and India
- 250+
- Your Search Console, analytics and CMS
- 100%
FIG 03 · Why it matters
Google doesn’t guess your market. Your URLs and hreflang tell it.
Three facts from Google’s own documentation that most international SEO pages miss, each checked 24 Oct 2026.
Free callAuditFixed written quoteSprints with weekly demos
01
Ignored
Geo meta tags do nothing
Google says it “ignores locational meta tags (like geo.position or distribution) or geotargeting HTML attributes”. Country signals come from your URL structure and hreflang instead.
Source: Google Search Central, Managing multi-regional and multilingual sites (updated 10 Dec 2025)(opens in a new tab)02
No header
Googlebot sends no Accept-Language
Google’s crawler sends requests without an Accept-Language header, and its default IP addresses appear to be in the USA. Pages that change by visitor location or language can stay unindexed.
Source: Google Search Central, How Google crawls locale-adaptive pages (updated 10 Dec 2025)(opens in a new tab)03
Deprecated
The International Targeting report is gone
Search Console’s International Targeting report has been deprecated and country targeting there is no longer supported. Google says it will keep using hreflang, and it doesn’t use hreflang or the lang attribute to detect a page’s language.
Source: Google Search Central, Localized versions of your page (updated 21 Sep 2026)(opens in a new tab)
FIG 04 · URL structure
ccTLD, subdirectory or subdomain?
Google’s guide lists trade-offs, not a winner: none of these structures ranks better by itself. Our default is a subdirectory on your main domain, unless legal, hosting or brand needs say otherwise.
| Country domain (ccTLD) | Subdirectory | Subdomain | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Example | example.de | example.com/de/ | de.example.com |
| Country signal | Clear: the domain names the country | From hreflang and content, on one domain | From hreflang and content, on one domain |
| Set-up and upkeep | A domain, hosting and rules per country; some ccTLDs are hard to get | Easiest: one site, one host | Easy, and each market can sit on a different server |
| Watch out for | Each domain targets one country only | One server location; harder to split later | Users may not read the market from the URL |
| When it fits | Legal or brand reasons to run a separate local site | Most brands entering new markets | Markets run by separate teams or platforms |
Google lists URL parameters (such as ?loc=de) as “Not recommended”. From Google Search Central, Managing multi-regional and multilingual sites (updated 10 Dec 2025), checked 24 Oct 2026.
The full international SEO checklist for 2026FIG 05 · What you get
What our international SEO services cover
From choosing markets to country-level reports, one team covers the research, the engineering and the writing, so fixes don’t stall between an audit and a developer’s backlog.
02
International technical audit
Crawl, index and hreflang checks per market, including canonicals, redirects and pages that change by visitor location.
03
URL structure
ccTLD, subdirectory or subdomain chosen with you, and a migration plan if the current set-up needs to change.
04
Hreflang and x-default
Tags in HTML, HTTP headers or XML sitemaps, with self-references, return links and an x-default fallback that validate.
05
Localized keyword research
Keywords researched in each language and market, not translated from your English list, because people search in their own words.
06
Content localization and transcreation
Pages adapted for each market’s terms, prices, units and examples, with a native-language review agreed in your written scope before they go live.
07
Local search features
What each market’s results pages show, from AI Overviews to local packs and shopping results, and the pages that can win them.
08
Country-level reporting
Search Console and GA4 reports split by country and language, so each market has its own baseline and results.
Deliverables
12
deliverables, in writing
Included in every build, written into your fixed quote before work starts.
FIG 06 · Beyond Google
Search engines beyond Google
Google leads in most markets, but not all of them. Where another engine matters to your buyers, we check how your site appears there too. We make no claims about results on any engine.
Bing
- Where it matters
- The US, the UK and other English-speaking markets, alongside Google
- What we check
- Bing Webmaster Tools, sitemaps and crawl errors
Baidu
- Where it matters
- Mainland China
- What we check
- Hosting, licensing and speed questions to raise before you plan a Chinese site
Naver
- Where it matters
- South Korea
- What we check
- Korean-language pages and Naver Search Advisor set-up
Yandex
- Where it matters
- Russian-language markets
- What we check
- Whether the market is in your plan at all, then the basics
Seznam
- Where it matters
- The Czech Republic
- What we check
- Czech-language pages and how they are crawled
FIG 07 · Hreflang
Hreflang and x-default, done right
Most international SEO problems we see are hreflang problems. Google’s rules are short and strict, so we build to them and test every set of tags.
06principles
Self-reference and return tags
Google says “each language version must list itself as well as all other language versions”. If two pages don’t point to each other, the tags are ignored.
The right codes
Language codes in ISO 639-1 format, with an optional region in ISO 3166-1 Alpha 2, such as en-GB or de-AT. A region code can’t be used on its own.
An x-default fallback
An x-default page for visitors whose language matches none of your versions, usually a language or country selector.
HTML, HTTP header or sitemap
Google treats the three methods the same, so we pick the one your platform can keep correct: sitemaps for large sites, header tags for PDFs.
Canonicals that agree
Each localized page canonicalizes to itself, never to the English version, so hreflang and canonical signals don’t cancel out.
Hreflang isn’t language detection
Google says it doesn’t use hreflang or the lang attribute to detect a page’s language; it reads the visible content. So the page itself must be in that language.
FIG 08 · Redirects
No IP redirects: let users choose
Google says “Don’t use IP analysis to adapt your content”. Its crawler sends no Accept-Language header and mostly crawls from US IP addresses, so automatic redirects can hide your local pages from Google.
04principles
No forced redirects
Every market version stays reachable at its own URL, for people and for Googlebot, wherever they are browsing from.
A language switcher
A visible switcher that links each page to its equivalent in other languages, not back to the home page.
A suggestion, not a redirect
If you want to point visitors to their local site, a dismissible banner suggests it and remembers their choice.
Locale-adaptive pages fixed
Pages that change content by location or language are split into separate URLs and tied together with hreflang, as Google recommends.
FIG 09 · Multilingual
Multilingual SEO services
A multilingual SEO agency has to do more than translate. Google warns that translating only the menus and boilerplate, while the main content stays in one language, can show the same content several times in search results. We localize the content that sells.
05principles
Native-language review
Where your scope includes it, a native-language reviewer checks each localized page for meaning, tone and search terms, not just grammar.
A glossary per market
Product names, technical terms and brand phrases agreed once per language, so every page uses the same words.
Transcreation for key pages
Headlines, offers and calls to action rewritten for each market, where a literal translation would fall flat.
Start with the pages that sell
You don’t need to translate the whole site on day one. We start with the pages each market needs, then grow from search data.
SEO content writing
Briefs, drafts and expert review in each language, written to rank and to be cited by AI search.
SEO content writing
FIG 10 · Measurement
Country-level reporting
Each market gets its own baseline before we change anything, then reports split by country and language. Measurement windows are agreed in your written scope.
| Metric | What it tells you | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Clicks and impressions by country | Whether each market version is being found | Google Search Console, country filter |
| Hreflang and indexing health | Whether the right version is indexed for each market | Search Console, crawls and our hreflang checks |
| Wrong-version visits | Visitors landing on another market’s pages | GA4, landing page by country |
| Rankings per market | Progress on each market’s keyword list | Rank tracking set to each country and language |
| Enquiries and sales by market | Whether international search pays | GA4 conversions by country |
We don’t promise rankings or traffic numbers in any country. We show the method, the window and the result.
FIG 11 · Process · 6 steps
Audit first, then market by market
A free call, an international audit, a fixed written quote, then sprints that ship structure, hreflang and content for one market at a time.
- Step 01
Free call
Tell us about your site, your markets and what search is doing for you today. We ask about your stack, your team and your release process first.
- Step 02
Audit
We crawl every market version, test hreflang, canonicals and redirects, and compare search demand by country, then recommend the URL structure and the order to enter markets.
- Step 03
Fixed written quote
A written scope and a fixed quote, with the timeline, access and reporting agreed before work starts. Your Search Console, analytics and CMS stay in your name, and you own the code and IP.
- Step 04
Sprints with weekly demos
URL changes, hreflang, language switcher and localized pages built sprint by sprint, each shown in a weekly demo before release.
- Step 05
Launch
A monitored release per market, with hreflang validated, sitemaps submitted and redirects checked in Search Console.
- Step 06
Support
Ongoing localized content, new markets and country-level reporting, or a hand-over to your team, as agreed in your written scope.
FIG 12 · What you get
Everything included
Written into your fixed quote, so you know exactly what you are paying for before work starts.
12items
- Written scope and fixed quote
- Market and language plan
- International technical audit
- URL structure recommendation
- Hreflang and x-default set-up, validated
- Canonical and redirect rules per market
- Language switcher with no forced IP redirects
- Localized keyword research per market
- Native-language review, where agreed in scope
- A glossary for each language
- Country-level reporting in Search Console and GA4
- Your Search Console, analytics and CMS stay in your name
FIG 13 · Tech & tools
The tools behind the work
Proven, well-supported tools, chosen for your project and set up in accounts your business owns.
- Google Search Console
- Bing Webmaster Tools
- GA4
- Semrush
- Screaming Frog
- XML sitemaps
- Next.js
- WordPress
- Shopify
- Webflow
- Looker Studio
- Schema.org
FIG 14 · Who it’s for
International SEO for brands crossing borders.
Same method everywhere: the right structure, hreflang that validates and content each market can trust.
4 audiences
US brands
Going beyond the US.
US companies entering the UK, Canada, Europe or Latin America, often with English and Spanish first. US work runs through our New York client partner.
- en-US, en-GB and es variants
- Structure before translation
- Market-by-market roll-out
- New York client partner
UK brands
International SEO agency for UK brands.
UK organisations selling into Europe, the US and beyond. UK work runs through our London client-partnership centre, with delivery from our New Delhi HQ, in UK English throughout. For London search and local SEO, see our London SEO agency.
- en-GB alongside en-US and EU languages
- UK English throughout
- Fixed written quote in GBP
- London client partner
India
For Indian exporters and SaaS.
Indian manufacturers, exporters and SaaS companies selling to the US, UK, Middle East and Europe, served from our New Delhi HQ.
- Market selection from export data
- English variants per market
- Localized pages for key markets
- New Delhi HQ
Ecommerce
Stores in several countries.
Multi-currency and multi-language stores need hreflang on thousands of product and category URLs, kept correct as the catalogue changes.
- Hreflang in sitemaps at scale
- Prices and units per market
- Category pages localized first
- Ecommerce SEO alongside
FIG 15 · Working with us from the USA and UK
Built in New Delhi. Run on your hours.
Every project gets a point of contact in New York or London and an engineering team in New Delhi. Here is how today’s working days line up, live.
New York
North America
--:--ET
New Delhi team Your working day- Shared working time
- ≈ 3 hours today
- New Delhi is
- 10.5 h ahead
- Live calls, your time
- 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. ET
London
UK & Europe
--:--UK
New Delhi team Your working day- Shared working time
- ≈ 4.5 hours today
- New Delhi is
- 5.5 h ahead
- Live calls, your time
- 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. UK
Three ways to work together
- 01
Fixed-scope project
A written scope, one fixed price and a dated plan. Suits websites, apps and MVPs.
- 02
Dedicated team
Designers and engineers on your roadmap every month, billed monthly.
- 03
White label
For US and UK agencies: our work, your brand, unbranded deliverables.
Every engagement
- Fixed quote in USD, GBP or INR after a free 30-minute call
- NDA before discovery. You own all code, designs and content
- A working demo every sprint, not status slides
- Reply within one business day, calls inside your hours
Book a call
Calls on ET or UK hours
FIG 16 · Rules and dates
International SEO rules and dates: what changed and when
What changed in Google’s international guidance, and when. Each item was checked on Google’s own pages on 24 Oct 2026; we re-check before every engagement.
| Date | Guidance | What it means for your site |
|---|---|---|
| 11 Jun 2025 | Google removed its advice on blocking automatically translated pages with robots.txt from the multilingual docs | Judge translated pages on quality, not on a blanket block |
| 10 Dec 2025 | Managing multi-regional and multilingual sites updated | No IP-based content changes; geo meta tags ignored; URL parameters not recommended |
| 10 Dec 2025 | Locale-adaptive pages updated | Googlebot sends no Accept-Language header and mostly crawls from US IPs |
| 21 Sep 2026 | Localized versions of your page updated | Self-referencing hreflang, return tags, x-default; hreflang isn’t language detection |
| Undated | Search Console International Targeting report deprecated | Country targeting rests on URL structure plus hreflang |
Sources: Google Search Central documentation and Search Console Help, checked 24 Oct 2026.
FIG 17 · Compare
International SEO consultant or agency?
| International SEO consultant | International SEO agency | |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | Teams with developers and writers who need a plan | Teams that want the plan built and run for them |
| What you get | Audit, URL structure decision, hreflang spec and a hand-over | All of that, plus the engineering, localized content and reporting |
| Who ships the fixes | Your team, from our tickets | Our engineers, in your CMS or codebase |
| Best when | One or two new markets, or a hreflang clean-up | Several markets and languages at once |
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Straight answers about International SEO with Elgrith.
Market and language selection, an international technical audit, a URL structure decision, hreflang and x-default set-up, canonical and redirect rules, localized keyword research, content localization and country-level reporting. As an international SEO company with its own engineers, Elgrith also ships the fixes, not just the audit.
FIG 18 · Related
Keep exploring
Free 30-minute call
Rank in every market you sell to.
Tell us which countries and languages matter. After a free call you get an international SEO plan, a written scope and a fixed quote.
Pick a day for your call
OpenPick a day. You'll choose a time in your own time zone on the next step.