Your International Traffic is Landing on the Wrong Pages

Hreflang is an HTML attribute that tells search engines which language and regional version of a page to serve to which audience. Without it, Google might show your French page to German users, or decide your UK and US English pages are duplicates and penalize both. Done right, it prevents cannibalization and makes sure the right content reaches the right people.

Subdirectories (example.com/fr/) consolidate domain authority and are the easiest to manage -- that's why they're our default recommendation. Subdomains (fr.example.com) give you more server flexibility but split link equity. ccTLDs (example.fr) send the strongest geo-targeting signal but mean separate SEO work for each domain. For most businesses, subdirectories make the most sense unless you've got dedicated regional operations that genuinely justify the extra overhead.

Direct translation misses how people actually search. German users compound words in ways that change search behavior entirely. Spanish speakers in Mexico use different terms than those in Spain. Japanese search patterns differ structurally from English ones. We work with native speakers and regional search data to find the terms your actual audience uses -- not what a dictionary would suggest.

Technical fixes like hreflang corrections and geo-targeting usually produce indexation improvements within 2-4 weeks. Ranking gains from locale-specific keyword work typically follow within 3-6 months, depending on market competitiveness. Sites with existing domain authority tend to gain traction faster than brand new domains.

Most translated sites don't need a full rebuild. We audit your existing hreflang tags, URL structure, metadata, and content localization quality, then fix what's broken. That usually means correcting malformed hreflang annotations, adding missing language variants to sitemaps, and optimizing translated metadata for local search intent. It's rarely as drastic as starting over.

We handle SEO strategy, technical implementation, and the content optimization framework. For translation itself, we partner with professional localization teams or work alongside your existing translators -- whichever you prefer. Either way, we provide keyword-optimized briefs, glossaries, and metadata templates so the output actually ranks, not just reads correctly.