International SEO
Make one offer discoverable across countries and languages.
Language folders and translated pages are not a market strategy. International SEO decides architecture, hreflang and localisation so countries do not compete with each other.
More than one market
Markets need a URL model before they need more copy.
Copying the homepage into another language folder is how international sites cannibalise themselves. Pixoflix starts with the market decision: which countries, which languages, and whether the URL model is ccTLD, subdirectory or subdomain. Then come hreflang, locale rules, and localisation that keeps commercial intent, not only the words. Legal pages can be translated. Offers, pricing and proof have to be localised. The work is technical and editorial at once. Treating it as a translation invoice is why hreflang fails in production.
Where international programmes fail
The markets are live. Google is still picking one URL for all of them.
- 01Country sites copy each other and cannibalise in the same results.
- 02Hreflang is missing, not reciprocal, or pointing at 404s.
- 03Language folders exist without a market decision behind them.
- 04Legal and UI strings were translated. Commercial intent was not localised.
- 05One ccTLD is trusted and the rest are treated as thin mirrors.
- 06Product names differ by market and no URL model holds them.
What international work produces
A market model, hreflang that holds, and localised commercial pages.
Scope is the countries you intend to rank in, not every locale in the CMS. We will recommend fewer markets done properly over twenty thin copies.
01
Market and URL model
A written decision on ccTLD, subdirectory or subdomain, with the operational cost of each made explicit.
02
Locale and language rules
Which language serves which country, how defaults work, and what happens when a locale is missing a page.
03
Hreflang implementation
Reciprocal annotations, x-default, and a validation pass after release so the map matches the live URLs.
04
Localisation of commercial templates
Titles, offers, proof and next steps adapted for the market, not machine-translated and shipped.
05
Cannibalisation controls
Internal links, sitemaps and Search Console properties organised so markets stop competing for the same query.
06
Country indexation monitoring
A view per market for coverage and queries, so a failure in one locale is not hidden by traffic from another.
How multi-market SEO is sequenced
Decide the markets. Then encode them in the URLs.
Architecture is cheaper to get right before the second language ships. We will say if you are not ready for a third market yet.
01
Choose market URL models
Countries and languages are listed against hosting, legal and team capacity. The URL model is chosen last, not first.
02
Set language and locale rules
Defaults, fallbacks and 'this page does not exist in this locale' behaviour are written down before templates change.
03
Implement hreflang maps
Annotations are generated from the live URL set, made reciprocal, and checked for 404s and mismatches.
04
Localise commercial copy
Money templates are adapted for the market: offer, proof, currency and next step, with a native review where we cannot provide one.
05
Stop cross-market clashes
Sitemaps, internal links and targeting are split so Google has a reason to serve the local URL.
06
Monitor country indexation
Each market is watched for coverage and query quality. Thin locales are paused instead of copied again.
Useful when
International SEO is for offers that must hold in more than one country.
- You are adding a language or country and the CMS default is 'duplicate the site'.
- Hreflang was installed once and Search Console still reports conflicts.
- SaaS or product pages rank in the home market and nowhere else.
- A European or APAC expansion is planned and the domain model is still undecided.
- Translated pages exist and conversion copy still reads as the original market.
- Paid media is geo-split and organic URLs are not.
What we judge
Each market has a URL Google can prefer on purpose.
An architecture you can operate
The URL model matches the team and the legal reality, not a blog post about ccTLDs.
Hreflang that matches production
Annotations are reciprocal, current, and free of 404 targets.
Localised commercial pages
The offer still makes sense in the market, including proof and the next step.
Less cross-market cannibalisation
Google has a reason to serve the local URL instead of the original language everywhere.
Related work
International SEO work will be added here.
Multi-market work is published when we can discuss architecture and localisation without inventing country-level percentages. The Work index is available now.
Published case studies will appear here when they are cleared.
Related services
Work that usually sits beside this.
- Technical SEOCrawlability, indexation, architecture and performance work that search engines can trust.
- SEO Content StrategyTopic systems and briefs that support both search demand and the sales conversation.
- SEO ConsultingSenior advisory for teams that need direction, prioritisation and in-house enablement.
Questions
Buying questions, answered directly.
Not by default. ccTLDs, subdirectories and subdomains each have trade-offs for trust, operations and hreflang. We pick from the markets you can actually staff and host, not from a universal rule.
Next move
International search breaks at architecture, not translation.
List the countries you intend to rank in and the URL model you have now. We will say whether you need architecture, hreflang repair, or a narrower consulting pass.