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International SEO consulting

International SEO consulting plans and fixes how a website is found in several countries and languages: which markets it targets, how its language and country versions are structured, and which version search engines show to whom. As an international SEO consultant I work on multi-site, multilingual setups with more than four languages, from the market plan to launch and maintenance.

When you need international SEO consulting

International SEO consulting is needed when a website already runs in several markets or languages, or is about to, and search doesn’t bring the traffic you expected. These are the situations in which companies most often look for an international SEO consultant:

For any international website

  1. You’re entering a new market or language. You have to decide between a separate domain, a subfolder or a subdomain, and whether to target by language or by country. That decision sets how much work the site will take for years.

  2. Search shows the wrong version. Dutch customers get the English page, Austrians the German one, Australians the British one, and the wrong version converts worse.

  3. Traffic fell after adding languages or merging sites. New languages went live, or country sites moved under one domain, and since then impressions are down or the translations don’t get indexed.

  4. Maintenance is eating your team’s time. Every product or page update means fixing URLs, metadata and language tags in every language, and that can’t be done by hand for long.

  5. You translated your keywords, and nobody searches for them. The translated phrase has no search demand in the target market, or your language versions compete with each other for the same query.

For ecommerce

  1. Customers see the wrong store or the wrong currency. A Spanish shopper lands in the French store, or the country stores carry different products, and the language versions can’t be matched to each other.

For B2B and SaaS

  1. You sell in several markets in the same language. In the US, the UK and Australia, all in English, and search engines can’t tell which page belongs to which market; or machine-translated template pages drop out of the index.

International SEO audit: what I check

An international SEO audit goes market by market and language by language through what search engines see of the site, and what they should see. These are the areas, and what I check in each:

Markets and demand. I check which markets have demand for what you sell, and I research each market on its own terms, not by translating Hungarian or English keywords. The local results page shows who the competitors are there and what kind of page search engines expect. In small markets, where tools show no search volume, I estimate from Search Console and from competitors. Where Google isn’t the main engine (Seznam in the Czech Republic, Naver in South Korea), I look at that engine too.

URL and domain structure. An international URL structure can use a separate country domain (ccTLD), a subfolder under the main domain, or a subdomain. A country domain is a strong local signal, but it has to be built up separately in every market; a subfolder shares one domain’s strength but needs careful language tagging. I check what your current structure allows, and if it has to change, what the risk is.

Language and country versions. Hreflang tags tell search engines which page is for which language and country. First I decide what the goal is: targeting by language or by country, which version is the fallback (x-default), what to do for countries that share a language, and how to match pages when the product range differs. Then I check the tags: do the versions point to each other both ways, do they match the canonicals, and are the language and country codes valid. I also check automatic redirects: if visitors are redirected by IP, the search engine’s crawler may not reach every version either.

Localized content. Localization is more than translation: the search terms, the examples, the currency and the units differ by market. I check which markets are missing content the local search engine expects, and whether a native speaker reviewed the machine translation. If you use a translation management system (TMS), I check how translations get onto the site.

Indexing by language. For each language version I check how many pages are indexed and how long a new page takes to get there. The crawl and the per-language sitemaps show whether the crawler reaches every version; server logs by region show whether a CDN or a firewall locks out a market.

Internal links and links by market. I check how the language versions link to each other, and whether there are local sources in the target market that link to you. In a new market your brand is unknown, so local links and local press count for more than at home.

Legal and privacy differences. Consent handling and privacy rules can differ by market. That affects analytics too: where fewer people accept cookies, the data is thinner.

International ecommerce: stores, markets and currencies

For international ecommerce, search engines have to pick the right store, currency and product range, not just the right language. This is what I check:

  • One store with several markets, or a store per country. With Shopify Markets, WooCommerce or a custom system, what can be solved in settings and what needs a developer differs.

  • Different product ranges. If a product is only sold in one market, the language versions can’t be matched one to one, and the tags have to follow that.

  • Currency, price and stock by market, in the product feed and in the structured data too, so the right price shows in the results.

  • Automatic redirects. Sending shoppers to their own store is convenient, but if the crawler gets redirected too, the other stores can drop out of the index. A store selector banner is often the safer choice.

Category structure, faceted navigation and product page SEO are part of ecommerce SEO.

International B2B and SaaS: one language, different markets

For international B2B and SaaS companies, the job is often to appear in several markets in the same language, and the difference is in how people search, not in translation. This is what I check:

  • One language, several countries. The US, the UK, Canada and Australia search with different phrases, spelling and examples; the versions have to follow that, or they compete with each other.

  • Translating template pages. Machine-translating integration, use case and comparison pages produces many URLs quickly, but if they add little, they can drop out of the index.

  • Material only available in English. Case studies and technical material that isn’t worth translating into every language: you have to decide where they appear, and which language version links to them.

  • Validating a market before entering it. Before a new market, a short paid search test shows whether there is demand, before the full localization is done.

Buying-committee and sales-pipeline SEO is part of B2B SEO.

International SEO in AI search

International SEO in AI search means that ChatGPT, Perplexity or Google’s AI Overviews see the same company in every language. For that, the company’s name, description and services have to match across languages, and each market needs local sources that mention you. Whether AI answers cite your brand in each language can be measured, but I don’t promise that localization will get you into those answers. Measuring by language is part of generative engine optimization (GEO).

How I work: the international SEO process

International SEO has seven steps for me. I look at the same metrics per market before and after the work, so you can see what it delivered in each market.

  1. 01

    Discovery

    The first step is the goal: which markets you want to grow in, in what order, and who works on the site. I also look at the system: the CMS or the stores, how translation works, and who approves the language versions.

  2. 02

    Baseline by market

    For each market and language I record impressions, clicks and visibility in Search Console, the share of pages indexed, and how many language tags are wrong or missing.

  3. 03

    Audit

    The audit goes through seven areas: markets and demand, URL and domain structure, language and country versions, localized content, indexing by language, internal links and links by market, and legal and privacy differences. The result is a prioritized task list for each market.

  4. 04

    Strategy, market order and roadmap

    The strategy says which market comes first, with what structure, and what has to be localized there. In the roadmap every item says who owns it and which market’s metric it will show up in.

  5. 05

    Launch

    Launch runs together with your developers and translators. If the structure changes, we plan the move before go-live, and I check the language tags and indexing on staging before release and in production after it. In markets whose language I don’t speak, I work with a native reviewer, a partner or your local team.

  6. 06

    Governance and maintenance

    A multilingual site stays in order when it’s clear who updates what, in which language, with which template. I set up the workflow with your team, and where possible, templates or rules handle language tags and metadata instead of manual work.

  7. 07

    Re-measurement by market

    Re-measurement happens market by market. In analytics I look at organic sessions, conversions and revenue by landing page and language, compared with the same period a year earlier and with the markets we didn’t touch. Seasonality and local campaigns can’t be separated out precisely, so I mark them separately. I don’t promise timelines. I tell you what we measure and what we compare it against.

Pricing

I charge €50 per hour. Every figure below is hours × €50, so you can see what each budget buys.

Hourly consulting€50 / hour

Example project

Website

A site in 4–6 languages

These are indicative budgets, not fixed prices. The platform, the number of templates, how the site is built and what the audit finds all change the final quote.

No VAT is added to these figures — I’m VAT-exempt under Hungarian law.

When does international SEO pay off?

International SEO pays off when the target markets bring more inquiries or orders from search than the consulting, the localization and your developers’ time cost. The audit and one market entry plan together cost €1,600. If you earn €2,000 on a new client, one new client already covers that. Delay has a price too: as long as search shows the wrong version, customers see your offer in the wrong language or currency.

What the monthly budget covers

Research, strategy, implementation or coordination with your developers, monitoring, meetings and reporting. Reporting time counts in the hours.

You get access to the project management tool, where you can see the priorities, who is responsible, progress and what comes next. Each month starts with agreed priorities and ends with a review of what changed and what the data shows.

Priced separately

Content writing and production, including an external writer if needed.

Outreach and digital PR. The audit includes the backlink analysis and recommendations.

Setting up or repairing measurement. The audit analyzes your existing data; new tracking and integrations are scoped separately.

Development beyond the agreed hours, including external developer fees.

AI search research or monitoring beyond the agreed topics, languages and AI systems.

Before you start

You receive a proposal with the scope, the estimated hours, the audit fee and the monthly budget. It also states whether the first phase includes implementation, when the ongoing work begins, and what your team needs to provide.

There is no lock-in. Any change to the scope or budget is agreed before the extra work starts.

Questions

Will a new language bring traffic, or just double the work?

It brings traffic when the target market has demand for what you sell, and the language version actually answers that demand. A market entry plan shows this up front. If demand is small, one language may be enough for several markets.

Separate domain, subfolder or subdomain?

For most companies a subfolder is the least work, because it uses one domain’s strength. A separate country domain pays off when a market needs a strong local presence and you have the capacity to build it separately. A subdomain is rarely better than either.

Is a plugin or the platform’s own feature enough?

It handles a lot: translation, language URLs, part of the tags. It doesn’t decide which markets you target, which version is the fallback, or what happens when the product range differs. It’s worth configuring after the strategy.

Why does Google show our page in the wrong language?

Most often because the language tags are missing, one-sided or conflict with the canonical, or because the versions are too similar. Sometimes internal links and backlinks point to the wrong version too. The cause differs by page, so I look at the tags and the content of the versions together.

Can we use AI translation?

Yes, many companies start that way. AI translation is worth having a native speaker review where customers make decisions: service and product pages, titles and buttons. Keywords have to be researched in the target market, not translated.

Is it enough to have a translation agency translate the site?

Good translation is needed, but it isn’t enough. A translator carries over the text, not the search terms, URLs, metadata or language tags. The two work together: the translator works on the text, I work on the market and the structure.

How risky is it to merge our country sites?

A merge touches every old URL, so it is risky, but it can be planned: an old-to-new URL map, redirects and language tags before go-live, checks after it. I don’t guarantee there won’t be a temporary drop; I tell you what we monitor and when to step in.

How do you work in markets whose language you don’t speak?

With a native reviewer, a partner or your local team. Keyword research, structure and tagging don’t depend on the language; a native speaker reviews the copy and the local nuances.

Can you work with our existing SEO, marketing and translation teams?

Yes, most work runs that way. I provide the strategy and the structure, your team carries on with the templates and the workflow, and in monthly governance I check that it stays in order.

How long until we see results?

I don’t promise timelines, because how fast search engines process the change differs by market. I tell you what we measure: indexing of the language versions, the right version showing, and conversions by market.

Entering a new market, or showing the wrong version?

Send me your site’s address and your target markets, and I’ll tell you where to start.

Let’s talk