Expanding into a new country is one of the biggest SEO opportunities a business has, and one of the easiest to get wrong. The technical setup has to tell search engines which version of a page is for which audience, and the content has to match how people in that market actually search.
First decide: language, country or both?
- Language targeting serves speakers of a language wherever they are: one German site for Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
- Country targeting serves a specific market, where prices, currency, delivery, regulations or vocabulary differ: separate UK and US English versions, for example.
Many businesses need a mix: English for the US and UK, German for Germany, Dutch for the Netherlands. Write the plan down before building anything.
Choosing a URL structure
There are three common options:
- Country-code domains (example.de, example.nl): the strongest local signal and a natural fit for local trust, but each domain builds authority separately and costs more to run.
- Subdirectories (example.com/de/, example.com/nl/): the simplest to manage, and they share the main domain’s authority. A good default for most businesses.
- Subdomains (de.example.com): possible, but usually no advantage over subdirectories.
Avoid using URL parameters (?lang=de) or automatic redirects based on IP address for language versions. Search engine crawlers mostly crawl from the US, and visitors should always be able to choose their version.
Hreflang: telling search engines which version is which
Hreflang annotations tell search engines that pages are equivalent versions for different languages or regions, so the right version appears for each searcher.
- Use language codes (en, de, nl), optionally with a region (en-GB, en-US).
- Every version must reference every other version, and itself.
- Add an x-default for visitors who don’t match any version, often a language selector or your main international page.
- Implement it in the HTML head, HTTP headers or the XML sitemap, consistently in one place.
- Make sure each hreflang URL is canonical, indexable and returns a 200 status.
Missing return links and pointing hreflang at redirected or noindexed URLs are the most common errors.
Translation is not localization
A direct translation of your English keywords often misses how people search in another language. Research keywords natively for each market, adapt examples, units, currencies and spelling, and translate the metadata as well as the body text. A fluent human review is worth the cost on your most important pages.
Local signals still matter
Rankings in a new market also depend on authority in that market: links and mentions from websites in the country and language, local citations where relevant and, for a physical presence, a Business Profile in that country. This is where location-aware link building helps.
AI answers are multilingual too
AI assistants answer in the user’s language and often draw on local sources. Consistent, well-structured information about your business in each language makes it easier for them to describe you accurately in every market.
A sensible order of work
- Choose the markets and the URL structure.
- Research keywords natively for each market.
- Build and translate the priority pages first: home, key categories or services, contact.
- Implement hreflang and check it in Search Console and a crawler.
- Build local authority and monitor rankings per country.
We work with businesses targeting the United States, United Kingdom, Germany and the Netherlands. Our On-Page SEO & GEO service covers the technical setup and on-page optimization for each market version.