1. International SEO
Basics

2. International SEO
It actually means Geo-Targeting. It is the process of setting up a website in a
way that Search Engines can easily identify which country by what language
you want to target.
Tips:
• Hosting Site on their Local IP.
• Provide Content in their Local Language.
• Create Design, Colour, Layout, Styles as per their choice.
• Building links from local sites.
• Connecting with their Local Search Engines.

3. Site Content in Local Language
Site Content should be in Local Language. Also Currency, Time zone should be
as per the local area.
For this:
• Do not use Machine Language because a user in some location may
belong to some other location.
• Do not use Scripts to show the different language versions because Search
Engines do not crawl it.
It is recommended to create alternate language Subdomains/Subdirectories
and let Search Engines know about Language Meta Tags.

4. Site Content in Local Language
For example:
Suppose you have a default English language page:
http://www.example.com
And you have its Hindi language version for India region
http://www.example.co.in
And you have its Urdu language version for Pakistan region
http://www.example.com.pk

5. Site Content in Local Language
Here you can indicate Google that Indian & Pakistani Users will see their Hindi
& Urdu page and other will see Default page.
To do this, just add the Language Meta Tags in the head section of the Pages
<link rel=“alternate” href=“http://www.example.com” hreflang=“x-default”
/>
<link rel=“alternate” href=“http://www.example.co.in” hreflang=“hi-in” />
<link rel=“alternate” href=“http://www.example.com.pk” hreflang=“ur-pk” />

6. Generate hreflang
In order to generate the right hreflang tags, make sure
• Language Code should be as per “ISO 639-1” format.
• Country Code should be as per “ISO 3166-1 Alpha 2” format.
Tool: Hreflang Generator Tools
• http://www.aleydasolis.com/en/international-seo-tools/hreflang-tags-
generator/
• https://www.sistrix.com/hreflang-guide/hreflang-generator/

7. Sitemap
<url>
<loc>http://www.example.com</loc>
<xhtml:link rel=“alternate” hreflang=“hi-in” href=“http://www.example.co.in”
/>
<xhtml:link rel=“alternate” hreflang=“ur-pk”
href=“http://www.example.com.pk” />
<changefreq>daily</changefreq>
</url>

8. Alternate SubDomain/Subdirectories
Three main ways to get this done:
1. Purchase ccTLD along with gTLD
Suppose you have a default domain “http://www.example.com”
Then buy “http://www.example.co.in” for India
& “http://www.example.com.pk” for Pakistan
Pros (+)
• clear geo-targeting
• easy separation of sites
Cons (-)
• expensive
• potential availability issues

9. Alternate SubDomain/Subdirectories
2. Use gTLD and Country specific Subdomain
Suppose you have a default domain “http://www.example.com”
Then buy “http://in.example.com” for India
& “http://pk.example.com” for Pakistan
Pros (+)
• easy to set up
• easy separation of sites
Cons (-)
• users might not recognize geo-targeting from the URL alone (is “de” the
language or the country?)

10. Alternate SubDomain/Subdirectories
3. Use gTLD and Country specific Subdirectory
Suppose you have a default domain “http://www.example.com”
Then buy “http://www.example.com/in/” for India
& “http://www.example.com/pk/” for Pakistan
Pros (+)
• easy to set up
• low maintenance (same host)
Cons (-)
• users might not recognize geo-targeting from the URL alone
• single server location
• separation of sites is more difficult and less clear
(e.g., example.com?loc=de, example.com?country=france, etc.)

11. Testing & Tracking
• Each site has its separate entry in Search Console and Google Analytics.
• Set the Targeted Area when adding property in Search Console.
• Use International Targeting to check any issue with language markup.
Other Tools:
• International SEO ROI Calculator
• MOZ Local