International SEO Audit: A Step-by-Step Guide to Ranking in Every Market

Introduction

Your German customer searches on Google. She lands on your English page. The prices are in dollars. She leaves.

This happens on thousands of international websites every day. The site looks fine to its owners. But search engines are confused about which page to show to whom.

An international SEO audit finds these problems. This guide shows you how to run one in 9 steps.

Quick answer

An international SEO audit checks how well your website ranks in different countries and languages. It reviews your URL structure, hreflang tags, indexing, localised content, and local authority. The goal is simple. Each user should land on the right version of your site, in the right language, for the right country.

What is an international SEO audit?

A normal SEO audit asks one question: can Google find and rank this page?

An international SEO audit asks a harder question: can Google find the right page for each country and language?

That means checking a few extra things:

• how your site is split by country or language
• whether your hreflang tags are correct
• whether each version is indexed
• whether your content is truly localised, not just translated
• whether you have authority in each market

Who needs one?

You need an international SEO audit if:

• your website has more than one language
• you sell to more than one country
• you're about to launch in a new market
• traffic from one country suddenly drops
• users often land on the wrong language version

Even a site in one language can need it. For example, an English site may target the UK, the US, and India. Each market has different spellings, prices, and search habits.

6 signs your international SEO is broken

You don't need a tool to spot most problems. Look for these signs first.

If you see even one of these, run the full audit below.

How to do an international SEO audit in 9 steps

Work through these steps in order. Each one builds on the last.

International SEO audit · 9 steps in 3 phases

The middle phase is where most errors hide. Fix it before spending on content or links.

Step 1: Confirm your target markets

Start with strategy, not tools. Write down every market you target. For each one, note two things: the language and the country.

This matters because there are two kinds of targeting:

Language targeting serves one version per language. For example, one Spanish site for all Spanish speakers.

Country targeting serves one version per country. For example, separate sites for Spain and Mexico, with different prices.

Many audits fail here. The site targets countries, but the content only changes the language. Or the reverse.

Step 2: Check your URL structure

Google needs a clear URL for each version. There are three common options.

For most businesses, subdirectories are the best choice. They're cheaper and simpler. Use ccTLDs only if you have the budget to market each country separately.

Avoid URL parameters like example.com?lang=de. Google's own guidance advises against them for language versions.

What to check: every language or country version has its own fixed URL. The structure is the same across markets.

Step 3: Audit your hreflang tags

Hreflang tells Google which page to show for each language and country. It's the most common source of errors. (See the example in the next section.)

Here's a correct set of hreflang tags for one page:

<link rel="alternate" hreflang="en-gb" href="https://example.com/uk/shoes/" />
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="en-us" href="https://example.com/us/shoes/" />
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="de-de" href="https://example.com/de/schuhe/" />
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="x-default" href="https://example.com/shoes/" />

Check these 6 rules on every page:

1. Return links. If page A points to page B, page B must point back to page A. Without this, Google can ignore the tags.
2. Self-reference. Each page lists itself as well as the others.
3. Correct codes. Language comes first, in ISO 639-1 format ("en"). The country is optional and comes second, in ISO 3166-1 format ("gb"). A common mistake is "en-uk". The correct code is "en-gb".
4. Full URLs. Use complete URLs with https://, not relative paths.
5. Live, indexable pages. Every URL must return a 200 status. Don't point hreflang at redirects, 404s, or noindexed pages.
6. x-default. Add an x-default for users who match no version. Usually this is your homepage or a language picker.

You can add hreflang in three places: the page's HTML head, HTTP headers, or your XML sitemap. Pick one method and use it everywhere. Sitemaps are easiest on large sites.

Important: Google removed the "International Targeting" report from Search Console in September 2022. Many guides still tell you to use it. Instead, use a crawler like Screaming Frog, or a free hreflang testing tool.

Step 4: Check canonical tags

Canonical tags and hreflang must agree. Each language or country version should point its canonical tag to itself.

A common mistake is pointing every version's canonical to the main English page. This tells Google the other versions are duplicates. Google then drops them from search, and your hreflang stops working.

What to check: every version is self-canonical. No version canonicalises to another language.

Step 5: Check indexing in each market

A page can't rank if it isn't indexed. Check each market separately.

• In Search Console, open the Page indexing report. Look for pages marked "Crawled, currently not indexed" or "Duplicate, Google chose different canonical".
• Use URL Inspection on a sample of pages from each version.
• In the Performance report, filter by country. See which pages actually get clicks there.

Alt text: "Google Search Console Page indexing report showing reasons pages are not indexed"

If one market has far fewer indexed pages than another, that market is your priority.

Step 6: Remove automatic redirects

Some sites redirect users based on their IP address or browser language. This often hurts SEO.

Google's crawler mostly visits from US IP addresses. If you auto-redirect by location, Google may only ever see your US version. Your other versions may never get crawled.

How IP-based redirects block Google from your other versions

Instead, show a banner. For example: "It looks like you're in Germany. Visit our German site?" Let users choose.

Step 7: Audit content localisation

Translation changes the words. Localisation changes the experience. Check each market for:

• Local keywords. Don't translate keywords directly. People in each country search differently. Do keyword research for each market.
• Translated metadata. Title tags, meta descriptions, URL slugs, and image alt text should all be in the local language.
• Local details. Currency, units, date formats, phone numbers, and payment methods should match the country.
• Quality. Machine translation with no human review often reads badly. Ask a native speaker to check key pages.

Step 8: Check local authority

Authority is local. Strong links in the UK don't help much in Germany.

For each market, check:

• links from websites in that country and language
• mentions in local news and directories
• a Google Business Profile, if you have a local office
• local reviews and case studies

A new market with no local links will rank slowly. Plan 6 to 12 months of local link building.

Step 9: Check speed and set up tracking

Your site may be fast in India but slow in Australia. Check Core Web Vitals for each country using Chrome UX Report data. Google's "good" thresholds are:

• Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): 2.5 seconds or less
• Interaction to Next Paint (INP): 200 milliseconds or less
• Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): 0.1 or less

A CDN can help by serving pages from servers near each user.

Then set up tracking by market. Filter Search Console and GA4 by country. Track rankings in each country's version of Google. Repeat the audit every quarter.

Hreflang explained: why return links matter.

Think of hreflang as a group of pages that all agree on who's who. Every page in the group must list every other page. It must also list itself.

hreflang return links · correct vs broken

On the left, all three pages point to each other. Google trusts the set. It shows UK users the UK page and German users the German page.

On the right, the UK page points to the German page. But the German page doesn't point back. Google can't confirm the relationship. So it may ignore the tags for that pair.

This single error is behind many "wrong country" problems. It's also easy to miss, because the UK page looks correct on its own. A crawler that checks both directions will catch it.

7 international SEO mistakes we see most often

1. Using "en-uk" instead of "en-gb". "uk" is not a valid country code. Google ignores the tag.
2. One-way hreflang. Page A points to page B, but B doesn't point back.
3. Canonicalising every version to English. This removes the other versions from Google.
4. Auto-redirecting by IP. Google may never see your non-US pages.
5. Translating keywords word for word. Locals often search with different words.
6. Leaving metadata in English. The page is in German, but the title tag isn't.
7. Checking a report that no longer exists. The International Targeting report was removed in 2022. If your agency still mentions it, ask questions.

International SEO audit checklist

Copy this list and tick off each item for every market.

Strategy

• ☐ Each target market has a defined language and country
• ☐ Targeting type (language or country) matches the content

URL structure

• ☐ Each version has its own fixed URL
• ☐ No URL parameters for language
• ☐ Same structure in every market

Hreflang

• ☐ Return links on every page
• ☐ Self-referencing tag on every page
• ☐ Valid language and country codes
• ☐ Full URLs that return 200
• ☐ x-default in place

Indexing and canonicals

• ☐ Every version is self-canonical
• ☐ Each market's key pages are indexed
• ☐ No automatic redirects by IP or language

Content and authority

• ☐ Keyword research done per market
• ☐ Titles, descriptions, slugs and alt text localised
• ☐ Currency, formats and contact details localised
• ☐ Local backlinks in each market

Performance and tracking

• ☐ Core Web Vitals checked by country
• ☐ Search Console and GA4 filtered by country
• ☐ Rankings tracked in each market

Tools for an international SEO audit

Get an international SEO audit from TGS.

Expanding into new countries? Or losing traffic in one market? Our team can audit your site market by market. We'll find the hreflang errors, indexing gaps, and localisation issues holding you back. Then we'll give you a clear plan to fix them.

Book a free consultation or explore our SEO services.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

References

• The International Targeting report is deprecated, Google Search Console Help.
• Google Search Console to remove International Targeting report, Search Engine Land, 2022
• Hreflang: the hidden crisis in international SEO, Search Engine Land