A word-for-word translation
Spanish shoppers don't search for your products with dictionary words. Without local keyword research, the page is correct and invisible.
Home / SEO / International SEO
International SEO: one country at a time.
I rolled out my shop to Spain (Reino Minerales) and then internationally (Minerals Kingdom). Translating a website takes a week. Getting it to rank in another country is a different job altogether.
- Rattle your competitors.
- Overtake them.
- Protect you from their attacks.
15 years in SEO
4 books on SEO and GEO
200+ sites tracked every day
1M / month visits to my e-commerce site
They trusted me with their visibility
Darty
Eurofins
Cegid
EBP
CNP Assurances
Ingram MicroWhat is international SEO?
International SEO means making a website visible in several countries or languages. It combines a technical structure (domains, folders, hreflang tags) with localisation work: keywords, content and links are specific to each market.
The problem
What makes a move abroad fail.
A cobbled-together structure
Subdomain, folder, one domain per country? The wrong choice at the start costs you a migration two years later.
Countries competing with each other
Without correct hreflang markup, Google shows the French version to Belgians and the English one to Canadians.
Your competitors all look alike. Good.
Fig. 1. Your market, as Google sees it. (You're the purple one. Or you could be.)The answer
The method, country by country.
You don't open ten markets at once. You open one, make it work, then repeat.
- Choose. Which country first: search volume, competition, logistics. A business decision before it's an SEO decision.
- Structure. Domain, folders, hreflang, currencies: the technical framework that prevents duplicates across countries.
- Localise. Keywords, content and proof adapted to the market, reviewed by a native speaker.
- Build authority. Links and mentions earned in the target country, not imported from France.
In detail
The work in detail, market by market.
Choosing the first country
I compare demand, competition and your delivery constraints. You decide with figures in hand.
The URL scheme
A document setting out where each language and country sits on your domain.
Language tags
I write the hreflang rules and test them page by page after go-live.
The local vocabulary
The list of words your foreign customers actually type, drawn up with a native speaker.
Native proofreading
Every priority page is proofread by a native speaker from the target country.
In-country links
I look for local sites, in the market's language, to talk about you.
How it works
How SEO support unfolds, month after month.
- Week 1
Choosing the market
We look at where you already sell a little, and where you can deliver without difficulty.
- Month 1
Local research
I map out the searches, competitors and buying habits of the chosen country.
- Month 2
Technical setup
Your developer sets up the URLs and language tags. I check before launch.
- Months 3 and 4
Adapted pages
The pages that drive your sales are rewritten for that market, then proofread by a native speaker.
- From month 5
Tracking by country
I measure traffic and orders in the new market. We decide together whether to open a second one.
Making the choice
Translate, adapt or open a site per country?
| Adapt | Translate | A site per country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What you do | Rewrite the key pages for the market | Put the French site into another language | Create a separate domain and site |
| Keywords | Researched in the country | Carried over from French | Researched in the country |
| Domain authority | Shared between versions | Shared between versions | To be rebuilt from scratch |
| Workload | Medium, focused on the essentials | Low | High, for each country |
| Suits you if | You're testing one or two markets | You just want to be readable abroad | The offer, brand or law changes from one country to another |
I sell outside France myself with my shops. I generally advise adapting first, to check demand before investing more.
It's for you if…
- You already get orders or enquiries from abroad
- You can deliver, invoice and reply in the target country
- You're willing to start with a single market
- You have someone to handle customers in their language
It's not for you if…
- You want to open ten countries in the same month
- You're counting on machine translation for the whole site, with no proofreading
- Your French site isn't profitable yet
- You have no delivery or service solution outside France
In pictures
What well-run SEO looks like.
Your turn
How much could SEO earn you?
Move the sliders with your own numbers. The maths is deliberately simple: searches, a share of clicks, a conversion rate, the value of a customer.
These are your assumptions, not a promise. We swap them for your real numbers during the call.
Start from a typical profile
Visits / month
Contacts / month
Customers / month
Revenue / year
In practice
What you get.
- A reasoned structure recommendation
- A verified hreflang plan
- Keyword research for each country
- Localised content on your priority pages
- Ranking and traffic tracking by market
Pricing
What budget to open a country with SEO?
The budget is calculated per market. We take stock during a free call, then I write you a proposal country by country.
- The number of countries and languages to open
- The number of pages to adapt for each
- The site's current structure and the changes to plan for
- Local competition on your products
Together, let's devour your competitors.
One by one, and in order. Every spot gained makes the next one easier to take: that's why it keeps growing. See the method
Who you're talking to
Your SEO consultant: a business owner, not just an SEO.
My name is Kévin Papot. More than fifteen years in the job, four co-written books, and the Newp agency, co-founded in Charente. I also run my own online shops, in France and internationally: one of them went from zero to a million visits a month.
Before we talk tags, we talk margin, average basket and profitability. When you book a call, I'm the one who picks up.
FAQ
International SEO: frequently asked questions.
Do I need a domain name per country?
Not necessarily. A single domain with one folder per country is often enough and concentrates authority. A local domain makes sense when the brand changes or the market requires it.
Can machine translation be enough?
To get a catalogue started, yes, provided you rewrite the pages that matter. Leaving the whole site in raw translation, no.
Who works on my account?
The strategy is me, and I'm the one who answers you. For production (content, development, links), I rely on the team at Newp, the agency I co-founded.
Which country should I start with?
The one where demand exists and where you know how to deliver. Your analytics often show foreign visits you hadn't noticed. That's a good starting point.
What are hreflang tags for?
They tell Google which version to show to which visitor. Without them, a Belgian visitor can land on the Swiss page, with the wrong currency. They don't push a page up: they show the right one.
Is one language for several countries a duplicate?
No, if each version is declared for its country and contains its own details: prices, currency, delivery, examples. Google then understands these are two markets.
Do I need hosting in each country?
No. Server location carries little weight. What counts is that the site loads fast everywhere and the target country is clearly indicated.
Do you speak all the languages of my markets?
No, and I don't pretend to. I lead the strategy and the technical side. Keywords and copy are validated by a native speaker from the country.
Does AI answer the same way in every country?
No. ChatGPT, Gemini or Mistral draw on different sources depending on the language of the question. A brand well known in France can be absent from answers in Spanish. I check it market by market.
See also
SEO
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Book a callFig. 2. A K. (The landscape was missing one.)