International SEO for eCommerce

The internet has broken down international borders and provided businesses in one country with countless opportunities in others.

It was once impossible or price-prohibitive to attempt to find international clients.

All it takes now to improve online visibility are some social media ads, and some international eCommerce SEO optimisation.

What is International SEO?

International SEO for eCommerce is the process of optimising your website to do well with multiple countries and multiple languages.

Customers in other countries can find your store products, see them in their language and currency, as well as not having to struggle with unfamiliar elements that could ruin the shopping experience.

If you don’t optimise for international SEO, Google may be confused about how to rank your pages for international audiences. It won’t know what page to show.

Local SEO vs National SEO vs International SEO

So, how does international SEO for eCommerce differ from local SEO and national SEO?

There are quite some clear differences, which are displayed in the chart below.

Feature	Local SEO	National SEO	International SEO
Target audience	Customers in local area	Customers in whole country	Customers across the world
Keyword focus	Location-based	Broader industry/niche	Country specific and language
Google Business Profiles	Absolutely essential	Not needed	Not needed
Backlinks	Business directories and local businesses	Relevant helpful content	International links from countries being served
Website structure	Location-specific	National-focused	hreflang tags, subdirectories, subdomains, ccTLDs
Search intent	Near me	Broader intent-based	Language and location-based
Competitors	Local businesses	National companies	International companies
Technical SEO	GBP, schema	Strong site structure	Multilingual, hreflang
Paid advertising	Location-based Google ads	National ads	International ads in different languages
Content strategy	Local events and posts	Niche-focused, broader	Region-specific content
Social media	Facebook Groups	Facebook & Instagram	Social platforms in those countries
Mobile optimisation	Critical	Important	Essential

How to Optimise Your eCommerce Store for Multiple Countries

Let’s jump right into how you can optimise your eCommerce store for international visitors.

1. Choose the right URL structure

Before you do anything else, you need to figure out your site structure. This type of advanced SEO for eCommerce is extremely important.

Some website owners base it on the IP address. If the site detects you’re coming from say Germany, then it will switch over to the German pages.

That sounds practical but actually it’s a disaster for SEO. Google will be utterly confused about how to rank the pages.

So the three options are:

ccTLD’s (country-level top level domains): these are perfect for strong country-based presences. This is when you choose a separate website domain. So if your regular domain is superdupershop.com, then you would also get superdupershop.fr (France), superdupershop.de (Germany), and so on.

However, this does nothing for the search engine ranking for eCommerce .com domains and things will feel fragmented, scattered across multiple sites. It can also get very expensive maintaining several domains at once.

Subdirectories: this is probably the easiest and most effective option. This is when you use your normal .com domain, and then add the new country as a sub-directory. So, for example, superdupershop.com/de (for the German site) or superdupershop.com/fr (for French).

This makes managing the site much easier, as everything is on the same domain. It also improves the SEO of your .com website.

Subdomains: This is also an option, but Google treats domains like a separate site, so you would have the same SEO issues as ccTLD’s. This would be like https://de.superdupershop.com for example.

2. Add hreflang tags for language targeting

Once you have the site structure decided, the next step in SEO optimisation for online stores is to add hreflang tags.

These make sure that those who speak a certain language reach the right pages.

So in the header of your website, you would have something like this:

It’s based on the visitor’s browser language, and it ensures that German speakers reach the German subfolder, and so on. But if you choose one of the other two options in the previous section, then the site domains here need to be changed.

3. Get content properly translated

It can be easy to use Google Translate to translate site content. But this would be a mistake.

Translation tools are greatly improving, but it still doesn’t do well with context, region-specific dialects, and slang.

Although it will cost a lot of money, hire native translators to get it right. Otherwise, you’ll risk annoying customers.

4. Optimise with local keywords

A classic example of this is UK English versus US English.

In the US, you’d say sidewalk. In the UK, it’s pavement. In the US, it’s ‘vacation’. In the UK, it’s ‘holiday’.

Like translated content, getting the local lingo right is essential.

5. Display local currencies

Nothing kills a potential transaction faster than putting it in the wrong currency.

If you’re in the US, would you buy from a British site that was displaying only Pounds? No, you’d want the dollar price.

So offer the price in that country’s currency. Don’t forget the taxes for that country.

6. Offer payment methods preferred in each country

Every country has preferred payment methods. In the US, it’s credit cards. In the UK, it’s bank debit cards. In Germany, it’s Paypal and Klarna.

Do research into how each country prefers to pay. Also don’t forget Apple Pay and Google Pay. Using Stripe usually simplifies the process.

7. Offer shipping preferences for each country

Some countries like the US want Federal Express or UPS. Others, like Germany, want DHL.

Make sure estimated delivery times are shown, based on the customer’s location.

And don’t forget that import fees will have to be paid. So don’t forget to add them.

8. Get country-specific backlinks

The cornerstone of any SEO strategy is backlinks. For international eCommerce SEO, that means getting backlinks from sites in the country you’re targeting.

This could be media publications or other relevant online stores that you could informally partner up with. Instagram is perfect for finding possible partners.

Google wants local links. Make sure you get them.

9. Use social media platforms popular in that country

Not everyone uses Facebook or Instagram. Other countries have their own social networks. For example, Germany likes Xing. China likes WeChat, Weibo, and Douyin.

If you’re not familiar with these languages, hire a native speaker to do your social media management for you on those platforms. Optimising eCommerce for multiple countries is dependent on the small things like this.

10. Improve page speed

This isn’t something exclusively for Global eCommerce SEO, but it applies just the same. Make sure your site’s speed is fast – especially for mobile visits.

This means:

Optimising your images to WebP or AVIF. Use TinyPNG for this.
Resizing your images to maximum 1,000 pixels width.
Removing all unnecessary elements from each page.
Making your site theme responsive for mobile devices.
Putting all scripts in the footer instead of the header.
Enabling lazy load for all images.

This is also something to spend a great deal of time on. If your site is too slow, customers will head for the escape hatches.

Final Word

Many online store owners forget that their customers are not only in their own country. If you venture out into the bigger world, you’ll find customers with money ready to buy in your store.

You just need to make some site changes to accommodate those international visitors and make them feel welcome. SEO for eCommerce Platforms will give them a pleasant and seamless shopping experience – and they’ll be back for more.

If you're not sure where to start, our international SEO services can help.