International SEO Agency
International SEO at the technical layer, properly.
We handle the technical layer: hreflang return-tags, ccTLD vs subfolder decisions, Shopify Markets, per-country revenue tracking.
- Hreflang verified across 50+ market pairs
- URL architecture per market on real data
- Per-country revenue, not blended organic
Trusted by ambitious brands worldwide
SEMrush agency
Rated #1 SEO agency in The Netherlands by SEMrush
100% Dedicated to SEO
SEO is all we do, and we're good at it
Most agencies translate the homepage.Then leave the hreflang return-tags broken.We own the technical layer.
Most agencies translate the homepage. Then leave the hreflang return-tags broken. We own the technical layer.
International SEO falls over on three things: hreflang that does not validate, the wrong URL architecture for the markets you actually need, and reporting that blends all countries into one organic line. We have shipped multi-market setups for 50+ country combinations across Shopify Plus, custom Next.js and headless. Strategy decisions are documented with data, not opinions.
See multi-market casesHow an international SEO engagement runs
How a LASEO international SEO engagement runs
Five phases over the first 12 months. Each phase ends with a decision document and a deliverable shipped to your repo or your reporting stack.
- 01
Market prioritisation (weeks 1-2)
Which 3-5 markets actually return ROI in the next 12 months. We score by addressable search volume (SEMrush per-database), current revenue contribution (GA4 country dimension), competitor density (Ahrefs Country Filter) and operational readiness (local fulfilment, support, language). Output: ranked market list with a quantified opportunity per market.
- 02
URL architecture decision (weeks 2-3)
ccTLD vs subfolder vs subdomain, decided per market on data. Score sheet covers traffic potential, link equity transfer, dev cost, brand recognition, ICANN geo-targeting fit. If you are already on the wrong structure, we deliver a migration plan with 301 maps and a 6-week implementation window.
- 03
Hreflang deployment + verification (weeks 3-6)
Implementation via HTML tags, HTTP headers or sitemap depending on stack. Every page in every market gets a return-tag pair to every other market. x-default explicitly set. We verify with Merkle's hreflang testing tool and a custom Screaming Frog crawl that maps the full hreflang graph and flags missing or self-referential pairs.
- 04
Per-market content + local link plan (months 2-6)
Market-level keyword research from per-database SEMrush queries. Native translator brief per page (we do not translate ourselves). Local link acquisition targets per market: directories, partner blogs, native PR. Country-specific content briefs for the 20-50 pages that drive the majority of organic revenue.
- 05
Per-market revenue tracking dashboard (month 2 onward)
Looker Studio pulling per-country GSC properties, GA4 country dimension and per-market campaign tagging. Monthly scorecard shows clicks, sessions, conversions and revenue per country. You see which market compounds and which one needs more content or more local links, not a blended organic number that hides the answer.
Think of us asthe engineering team behind your international rollout.
Your local marketing teams own content, brand and partnerships in their markets. We own the technical foundation underneath: hreflang implementation, URL structure, Shopify Markets configuration, per-country GSC properties, market-level keyword research and reporting. The split most international rollouts get wrong because the agency tries to do both and does neither well.
What international SEO actually means
International SEO, explained without the consultancy fog
International SEO is three problems stacked: the technical foundation (hreflang, canonicals, URL architecture), the localisation layer (translation vs transcreation, currency, fulfilment) and the reporting layer (split your data by country or stay blind). Each problem has a wrong answer that is easy and a right answer that is expensive to undo later.
Hreflang is not a magic switch
Hreflang tells Google which version of a page belongs to which language and region. It does not boost rankings, it prevents the wrong version from outranking the right one. Implementation has to be bi-directional: page A points to page B with a return-tag, page B points back to A with a return-tag. Missing return-tags silently invalidate the whole signal.
ccTLD vs subfolder vs subdomain
ccTLDs (yoursite.de) give the strongest country signal but split link equity and cost more to run. Subfolders (yoursite.com/de/) consolidate authority but rely on hreflang to disambiguate. Subdomains (de.yoursite.com) are the worst of both worlds for most. The decision depends on budget, brand presence per market and how much link equity you already hold on the root domain.
GSC International Targeting is largely deprecated
Google removed International Targeting from GSC in 2022 for sites that use hreflang correctly. If you are still setting country targeting in GSC properties as a strategy, the signal does not carry the weight it used to. Hreflang is the canonical answer for sites running subfolders or subdomains.
Translation vs transcreation vs localisation
Machine translation ranks for nobody. Direct human translation ranks for some queries. Transcreation (adapting the content to local search intent, idiom and SERP) ranks the way you want it to. We do not translate ourselves: we brief native translators and integrate their output via Weglot, Shopify native or Sanity locale fields.
Per-market keyword research is non-negotiable
Run SEMrush and Ahrefs queries per database (US, UK, DE, FR, NL, IT, ES). Same English term can have very different volume and intent between US and UK databases. For non-English markets, native research uncovers terms a translated US list will never surface. This is the difference between ranking and just existing in a market.
Local backlinks per market matter
A ccTLD strategy without local links is a domain with no authority. Each market needs its own link acquisition plan: local directories, partner blogs, native digital PR. We define targets per market and either run the outreach ourselves or hand off briefs to your in-country team.
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Why LASEO vs alternatives
International SEO compared honestly
Generalist agencies, freelancers and in-house hires all have legitimate use cases. Here is where a specialist international SEO partner fits and where it does not.
Translates and hopes
- Generated once via a plugin, never verified, never re-tested after theme updates. Return-tag pairs frequently broken.
- Whatever the dev team had time for. Often subdomains because they were easiest to spin up.
- Auto-translated US keyword list pasted into every market. Same terms targeted in DE, FR, NL.
- We will translate it for you (using a junior or worse, an LLM).
- Single blended organic line covering all markets. Cannot tell which country pays for itself.
- Run the same generic link campaign across all markets. Mostly English-language sites.
Owns the technical layer
- Implementation method chosen per stack (HTML, HTTP header, sitemap), full graph verified with Merkle and Screaming Frog, re-tested after every theme deploy.
- ccTLD vs subfolder vs subdomain scored per market on real data: traffic potential, link equity, dev cost, ICANN geo-targeting fit. Decision documented.
- Separate SEMrush + Ahrefs queries per database (US/UK/DE/FR/NL/IT/ES). Native research for non-English markets. Intent classified per term per country.
- We do not translate. We partner with native translators (transcreation) and integrate output via Weglot, Shopify native, Sanity locale fields. Briefs are written by us, the wording is owned by a native.
- Per-country GSC properties, GA4 country dimension, Looker Studio dashboard split per market. Monthly scorecard with revenue per country.
- 30-60 native link targets per priority market: country directories, partner blogs, native PR. Either we run outreach or your in-country team executes against our briefs.
International rollouts at scale
Multi-market work that paid back the engineering investment
What our international SEO clients say
Multi-market expansion in their own words
Our hreflang had been broken across DACH and Nordics for two years and we did not know. LASEO mapped the full graph, fixed every return-tag pair, and we saw German organic revenue lift 38% within five months without changing the content.
We were on subdomains across 11 markets and bleeding authority. LASEO scored the migration to subfolders, mapped the 301s, ran the cutover in six weeks. UK organic sessions doubled within four months on the new structure.
The per-country scorecard changed how my board reviews international. Before LASEO we had one organic line. Now I can defend the Italian investment with a number, kill the failed Polish test on data, and pour more budget into France because the data says to.
Our hreflang had been broken across DACH and Nordics for two years and we did not know. LASEO mapped the full graph, fixed every return-tag pair, and we saw German organic revenue lift 38% within five months without changing the content.
We were on subdomains across 11 markets and bleeding authority. LASEO scored the migration to subfolders, mapped the 301s, ran the cutover in six weeks. UK organic sessions doubled within four months on the new structure.
The per-country scorecard changed how my board reviews international. Before LASEO we had one organic line. Now I can defend the Italian investment with a number, kill the failed Polish test on data, and pour more budget into France because the data says to.
Honest answers about international SEO 
What buyers actually ask before signing an international SEO retainer.
They send different signals. A canonical tag tells Google which URL is the master version when content is duplicated or near-duplicate. Hreflang tells Google which version of a page belongs to which language and region. They work together: a French page can be canonical to itself and hreflang-linked to its English, German and Dutch counterparts. The most common mistake is canonicalising every market version to the English page, which tells Google to ignore the French, German and Dutch versions entirely. Each market URL should be self-canonical and reference the others through hreflang return-tag pairs.
Senior strategy call
Bring an international SEO problemto a senior consultant.
30 minutes with a LASEO senior consultant. We will not pitch. We will diagnose your hreflang state, comment on your URL architecture, and tell you whether we are the right partner for your multi-market rollout.
