International SEO agency for brands going abroad.

What an international SEO agency does

International SEO makes sure the right version of your site shows up in the right country. An international SEO agency works on three layers at once. The technical base: hreflang, the tags that tell Google which language or country version to show, and a domain setup (country domains, folders or subdomains) that fits your markets. The local layer: keyword research per market and content adapted to how people in that country search. And reporting: Google Search Console set up per country and revenue split per market.

Multilingual SEO is more than translation. Machine-translated pages do not rank, and a word-for-word translation misses the terms people actually use. We do not translate ourselves: we brief native translators with the target keyword per market and add their work to your website through the setup you already use, from Shopify's own language tools to a translation plugin.

Why brands choose LASEO for international SEO services

LASEO does exactly one thing: SEO, for brands like Philips, Bang & Olufsen and Bugaboo, and 98% of our clients stay. In an international setup, every strategic choice, from country domain versus folder to which market goes first, is backed by data, not opinion, and each phase ends with a written decision. See an example in the Berlin TV Tower case.

Think of us as the technical team behind your expansion. Your local teams handle brand, content and partnerships in their markets. We handle the foundation underneath, including the website migration when your domain setup changes. Growing mainly within Europe? See how we work as a European SEO agency.

International SEO for AI search

Buyers in every market now ask ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google's AI Overviews before they click. These tools answer in the language of the question, so every language version has to be clear enough for them to read and quote. With AI SEO we make your site easy for AI tools to read in each language, and get your brand mentioned in the places AI draws its answers from.

We test the questions buyers ask in each market and track how often AI tools mention your brand, next to your Google rankings per country. Your monthly report shows both.

International SEO, explained in plain language

International SEO is three problems stacked on top of each other. The technical foundation: which version Google shows in which country, and how your web addresses are set up. The local layer: translation or real adaptation, currency, delivery. And reporting: split your data by country, or fly blind. Each problem has an easy wrong 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 country. It does not push rankings up. It stops the wrong version from beating the right one. It has to work both ways: page A points to page B, and page B points back to page A. If that link back is missing, Google quietly ignores the whole signal.

Country domain, folder or subdomain?

A separate country domain (yoursite.de) gives the strongest country signal, but splits your authority across domains and costs more to run. A folder (yoursite.com/de/) keeps all authority on one domain, but relies on hreflang to tell the versions apart. A subdomain (de.yoursite.com) is the worst of both for most companies. The choice depends on budget, how well known your brand is in each market and how much authority your main domain already has.

Google's country-targeting setting is largely gone

In 2022 Google removed the country-targeting setting (International Targeting) from Google Search Console for sites that use hreflang correctly. If you still rely on that setting as a strategy, it no longer carries the weight it used to. For sites with folders or subdomains, hreflang is the answer.

Translating vs adapting for each market

Machine translation ranks for nobody. A straight human translation ranks for some searches. Adapting the content to how people in that country search and speak, often called transcreation, ranks the way you want it to. We do not translate ourselves. We brief native translators and add their work to your website through the translation setup you already use.

Per-market keyword research is non-negotiable

Research keywords separately for each country (US, UK, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain). The same English term can have very different search volume and meaning in the US and the UK. In non-English markets, research by a native speaker finds terms a translated US list never will. That is the difference between ranking in a market and just being there.

Local backlinks per market matter

A separate country domain without local links is a domain with no authority. Each market needs its own plan for earning links: local directories, partner blogs and local press. We set the targets per market and either do the outreach ourselves or hand briefs to your team in that country.