Search Engine Around the World: Best International SEO Practices to Dominate

Intro

In today's digital marketing, search engines don’t behave the same way across borders. To rank well internationally you have to adapt to different engines, languages, legal rules, and user habits. International SEO ensures that search engines understand the right language and region for your content.

This article explains how search engine optimization changes by country, what to prioritize, and how brands can benefit long term. We'll present verified facts to help businesses and highlight all the practical steps you need.

Why International SEO Strategies are Important

International SEO is about making your site relevant to people in different countries and languages. It simply improves your online visibility to achieve global reach, as global online audiences consume content in different languages and forms.

Google dominates much of the world’s search traffic with roughly 8990% of global searches. But that dominance is not universal. In markets like China, Russia, and South Korea other search engines lead, so a “Google-only” approach leaves gaps.

Language matters too. English now accounts for about 49% of the web’s content among the top sites. What that means is that over half of high-traffic content is in other languages. To reach international audiences, you have to prioritize language and cultural fit, not only literal translation. Proper planning in international SEO ensures that your site ranks for relevant users.

To reach your global audience, you must tailor your site to the language, culture, and expectations of your target audience. For instance, China had 1.11 billion internet users at the start of 2025. That's a massive addressable audience that rarely uses Google as their primary search tool. If China is a target, you must plan for local platforms and regulatory realities.

Strong international SEO begins with effective keyword research. Using tools like a keyword finder helps uncover search demand in different countries, ensuring your content matches what users are actually looking for in each market. SEMrush is a popular example.

Differences Between Local and International SEO

Local SEO narrows to a city or region. It focuses on visibility in local search results. Meanwhile, international SEO scales across countries and different languages, requiring more technical SEO practices. The differences are practical and technical:

• Local SEO focuses on local listings, Google Business Profile, and nearby citations.
• International SEO requires multilingual content, geo-targeting, domain strategy, and compliance with local laws.

International SEO is about making content relevant across multiple countries rather than a single city or region. One tactical example is using hreflang tags to tell search engines which language and country version of a page to serve. Hreflang helps prevent duplicate content issues and improves relevancy. Google’s official guidance explains how to implement these tags and when to use x-default.

Hreflang is powerful but also fragile. A large study found that over 67% of domains using it had at least one implementation issue, such as broken or missing reciprocal tags. That means many international sites lose value through simple technical mistakes.

Using the tags properly can help your pages rank higher in search in each target country. But even well-intentioned international campaigns fail when common mistakes crop up.

The Best Brand Strategies to Dominate International SEO

Winning in multiple countries means you have to combine technical excellence with cultural intelligence and on-the-ground brand work. Here are what we think are the best practices and tips.

1. Prioritize markets and engines

Prioritize markets and tactics that align with your business goals to maximize ROI. Start where demand and feasibility meet, and don’t spread resources thin.

For example:

• If your target is Australia, Google dominates (Google’s share in Australia is very high), so a Google-centric strategy is often effective.
• If you target China, optimize for Baidu and local platforms and plan for on-shore hosting or local partnerships. Baidu’s indexing and trust signals differ from Google’s.

Analyze which search engines you’re targeting. Focusing on key search engines helps when expanding your business internationally. Before publishing, it’s useful to analyze how your competitors are performing for the same keywords. A good SEO agency can use a SERP checker to reveal which domains dominate the search results in each international market. This would help you refine your local search strategy.

2. Choose a domain & URL structure that fits your goals

Your site structure should be clear for an international website. Here are some options and tradeoffs fitting for a brand in Australia:

• ccTLDs (example.au): Strongest country signal, but higher cost/fragmentation.
• Subdirectories (example.com/au/): Easier to manage, shares domain authority.
• Subdomains (au.example.com): Workable but sometimes treated separately by search engines.

Whether using a single domain with subfolders or multiple ccTLDs, your choice affects rankings. Honestly, there isn't a single "best" choice. Google supports all solutions. You need to decide on budget, legal necessity, branding, and management capacity.

3. Localize far beyond translation

Localization equals translation plus cultural fitness. You need to localize:

• Tone, imagery, examples, and humor.
• Payment, date, and address formats.
• Legal disclaimers and local privacy language.

If you are creating region-specific content such as reviews of the local entertainment or regulations, a localized UX and local trust signals are crucial.

As Jeff Bezos said, “We’re not competitor obsessed, we’re customer obsessed. We start with the customer and we work backwards.”

If you target sensitive industries, local culture and regulations become even more important. Take gambling in Australia, for instance. Search engines favor sites that follow national rules, offer clear disclaimers, and use familiar terms to connect with local audiences while building trust. In that way, it's both informative and compliant with local rules and disclaimers.

Meanwhile, as the online gambling industry continues to grow in Australia, and more platforms spring up daily, the onus is on players in the nation to do their due diligence before signing up for any platform. So, while nearly all iGaming sites in the country offer the popular pokies game, experts always advise that players check review sites and guides to get insights on the best Australian online pokies casinos before they pick an operator to use.

4. Build local authority and link signals

Local backlinks, local media coverage, and alliances are important. They all help drive your pages higher in target markets. For example, where an organization uses country-specific domains (ccTLDs) and tailors content and technical structure per market, one study recorded a 174% YoY increase in non-branded organic traffic.

Also, domain-structure research covering over 1.7 million SERP positions found that 56% of top-3 positions globally are held by ccTLDs.

These numbers show combining technical SEO works with content marketing and local PR improves online presence, brand recognition, and ultimately conversion rates. Partnering with a trusted agency in each market is a great way to strengthen backlinks and PR outreach.

5. Nail technical and performance basics

You can't separate search from user experience. For the best outcome:

• Use a CDN or regional hosting to reduce latency.
• Optimize Core Web Vitals per region. Mobile often dominates in Asia and Africa.
• Confirm correct character encoding for non-Latin scripts.
• Respect local data storage and privacy rules, which may require different handling in the EU, China, or elsewhere.

6. Measure, iterate, and stay local

Create separate analytics views by country and language. Track organic rankings and conversion metrics per locale and A/B test localized offers or layouts. International SEO is ongoing optimization, not a one-time setup.

In Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella’s words, “The way I measure my life is ‘Am I better than I was last year?”

At the end of the day, tailor your SEO practices to the realities of each international market instead of using a one-size-fits-all model.

Practical Implementation Checklist

In short, here is a useful shortlist to follow if you want to dominate international SEO:

1. Run market research. Pick 2-3 priority countries.

2. Decide domain strategy. ccTLD, subfolder, or subdomain.

3. Prepare native translators and cultural reviewers.

4. Implement tags properly. Test with tools and fix reciprocal links.

5. Localize payments, policies, and trust elements.

6. Build local backlinks and PR outreach.

7. Monitor analytics for each market, then iterate monthly.

These steps align with guidance from Google, SEO experts, and real case studies.

Risk & Compliance Notes

Keep in mind that some markets require additional steps. As such, you should keep the following region-specific notes in mind:

China: On-shore hosting requires an ICP registration for legal hosting. While an ICP isn’t the only way to appear in Baidu, on-shore hosting usually improves performance and trust. So, plan for local legal counsel or partners.

EU: GDPR compliance is mandatory for user data. You should tailor consent flows and data handling per law.

The Bottom Line

International SEO multiplies opportunity, but only when executed with cultural care and technical precision. This is what an effective international SEO strategy includes. Google is dominant globally, yet local leaders (Baidu, Yandex, Naver) hold real audiences in specific countries/regions.

Language diversification is now essential. English no longer accounts for a majority of high-traffic web content. So, what to do? Fix technical signals, choose the right domain strategy, and localize deeply. If everything goes well, you’ll see tangible lifts in traffic and conversions. Successful international SEO equals stronger search visibility and measurable gains in conversion rates.

Today, many marketing agencies now offer international SEO services to help brands enter new markets. Only brands that stay adaptable by always testing, localizing, and measuring will be the ones to dominate international search in the coming years.

FAQs

Does Google dominate all global search?

No. Google has some 89-90% global market share in total, but there are other engines that dominate other markets.

Is hreflang required for multi-language sites?

No, but it’s recommended to signal language/country variants and avoid duplicate content. The majority of implementations are defective, so test completely.

Do I need to host within China to rank on Baidu?

Not necessarily. Onshore hosting (with ICP) improves speed and credibility, but off-shore sites can still appear. Study local partners for best results.

How many languages should I support first?

Begin with 1-3 languages where there is demand and you can uphold quality.