Multilingual SEO: How to Optimize Your Site for Global Success

Your business can reach customers from around the world using multilingual SEO to help any shopper find your ecommerce site. International visitors might find your site if they search for your products in English, or if Google includes your site in a machine-translated search result. But if you’re not optimizing for discovery in a searcher’s language—or localizing your site—your global reach will be limited.

Learn how to build a multilingual website SEO strategy, from identifying the right markets and researching local keywords to setting up your URLs.

What is multilingual SEO?

Multilingual SEO optimizes your website for discovery via search in other languages. It accounts for “linguistic, cultural, and technical differences to ensure the website performs well globally and the message resonates with users wherever they’re located,” says Antonio Santarsiero, senior SEO specialist at Shopify.

“Practically speaking, multilingual SEO involves considering technical aspects such as URL structure, as well as implementing hreflang tags and creating a market-specific site map,” Antonio says.

Multilingual SEO can be part of a broader multilingual marketing strategy or an effort that is layered on top of content localization work. Whereas localization involves translating and making your content culturally relevant for a specific market, while multilingual SEO ensures that this localized content is search engine optimized in the corresponding language. 

Multilingual SEO vs. international SEO

While they may sound similar, there are key differences between multilingual SEO and international SEO. Multilingual SEO targets users’ languages (such as Spanish, German, or French), while international SEO targets the right country or region, but the language might stay the same (for example, English pages for Canada versus the United Kingdom). 

In some cases, you may need a combined approach. For example, Represent, a British fashion label, uses both language and regional targeting. As the company expanded to international markets, it launched separate sites for the United States and Europe. The European site features a regional subdomain: eu.representclo.com, but the content is in English. The European site includes euro pricing and local shipping options.

Then, they took it a step further, launching a German version (eu.representclo.com/de/) with a /de/ subfolder, and translated calls to action and payment options. This strategy doubled organic traffic and boosted conversions 30%.

How to implement multilingual SEO

1. Identify your markets
2. Do keyword research for each country you expand to
3. Choose a URL structure
4. Translate your pages
5. Implement hreflang tags
6. Build local backlinks

Before implementing multilingual SEO, you need a localization strategy. Once that foundation is in place, SEO ensures your pages are discoverable in those markets. Here’s Antonio’s step-by-step framework:

1. Identify your markets

Your existing search traffic can help guide your decisions about which languages to prioritize in your localization and multilingual SEO work. Check Shopify Analytics or Google Search Console to see where your organic visitors are coming from. 

For example, consistent traffic from countries such as Mexico or France signals interest. Even though your pages may not appear for local language queries, global users can land on English pages if they search in English or if information in their native language is limited. This would be a strong indicator that there is demand for your content in these regions. 

You can also look at competitor successes. If similar brands in your niche have successfully launched in certain international markets, it’s worth investigating why. Use tools like Ahrefs or Semrush to see which language version of your competitors’ site ranks the best locally and which local-language keywords they’re winning.

Once your localization priorities are set, you can focus on SEO optimization in each target language. 

2. Do keyword research for each country you expand to

Once you know which markets you’re geographically targeting, learn a little more about the search behavior of the people who live there. 

“Understanding the nuances of each market and tailoring your approach to local search behaviors is definitely the starting point,” Antonio says. “In English, users might search for ’luxury watches’ while in French, the equivalent ’montres de luxe’ might have different search patterns. Understanding these differences is crucial for targeting the right audience.” 

Another way to conduct local keyword research is to use Google Translate, layered with Google autocomplete. For example, translating “luxury watches” into Spanish yields “relojes de lujo.” Next, Antonio advises using a tool like valentin.app to access the Spanish Google search results page (SERP). “Once there, start typing ’relojes de lujo’ into the search bar. You’ll notice several autocomplete suggestions appearing, which can provide valuable insights into popular local keywords.”

Antonio advises reviewing Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, and Semrush to find high-volume, low-competition keywords specific to each market. Filter by language and region to spot missed opportunities and keyword gaps. 

Keyword volume can differ between countries, even in the same language, because of nuances in regional terminology and differences in search behavior. For example, the term “paella” has a varying search volume in Spanish-speaking countries:

• Argentina: 9,400 monthly searches

• Mexico: 19,000 monthly searches

• Spain: 43,000 monthly searches

• US: 127,000 monthly searches

Finally, consult native speakers to validate your terms for local nuance. “A native speaker can tell you which term fits your brand best,” Antonio says. For example, in French, both “POS” and “PDV” mean “point of sale,” but one may sound more natural depending on the audience or industry.

3. Choose a URL structure

Your URL structure in a multilingual SEO strategy informs search engines which version of your site to display to each audience. 

• Country code domains (ccTLDs) like example.fr or example.de. These provide you the strongest country signal, but it can be costly to maintain. Since Google treats each of these as separate sites, you’ll have to build backlinks and authority from scratch for each one.

• Subdomains like fr.example.com. While you can manage these on the same server and share a CMS (like Shopify), each subdomain still needs its own SEO work. This means you’ll need to optimize each subdomain’s metadata, content, internal links, backlinks, and hreflang setup. Subdomains will inherit some authority from the main domain, unlike country code domains, which are entirely separate from the main domain.

• Subdirectories like example.com/fr/. This URL structure is the most efficient for most Shopify stores. All versions share the same SEO strength and are easier to track in analytics, since you can track all regions in the same Google Search Console property and from a single CMS like Shopify. However, this option has the weakest country signals, so you’ll need to rely on localized content and hreflang tags to clarify targeting.

“When it comes to deciding which approach to take to structure the website for different language versions, there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Every solution has its pros and cons. Make sure it aligns with your business goals, team structure, and technical capabilities,” Antonio says.

4. Translate your pages

Translation is a key step to building credibility within regions. Multilingual SEO ensures those translated pages can rank and be discovered. Prioritize optimizing high-impact pages that drive visibility and conversions, such as the homepage, product pages, checkout flow, and support content. Use GA4, Google Search Console, and internal data to identify these.

When translating pages, the best approach is to have a native speaker translate the page. At this point, you can also layer in local keywords. A native speaker would be able to confirm that keywords have been incorporated naturally. If you don’t have access to one, you can use Google Translate or ChatGPT to help by plugging in the English version verbatim. However, these often miss tone, idioms, and context.

“You can use AI to draft a first version, but you should never publish what a machine spits out. You need to capture the nuances of the language and make sure your message feels authentic,” Antonio says. If you must use AI, be sure to have a native speaker review and edit the content before publishing. If you don’t have access to one, you can use a professional translation service like RushTranslate or a freelance translator.

Don’t forget to translate your meta tags, including titles and meta descriptions, as well as your URL slugs. Once you have translated your pages, update your site map to include all translated pages so Google can find and index them quickly.

5. Implement hreflang tags

Hreflang tags tell Google which language or region a page targets, so that the right version appears for the right audience and reduces duplicate content issues. If the pages are in the same language, adding in even small regional cues like currency and spelling can help Google understand their differences.

Antonio advises adding as many tags as needed for every language and region your site supports, so Google fully understands your site structure. For example, you might have a French version for France, Canada, or Belgium:

• France: hreflang="fr-FR 

• Canada: hreflang="fr-CA"

• Belgium: hreflang="fr-BE"

This helps Google serve /fr/ pages to French users, /ca/ pages to Canadian users, and /be/ pages to Belgian users, even if all pages are in French.

In addition to hreflang tags, a language or country switcher lets visitors (and Google) easily move between site versions, like switching from English to French in one click. This improves the user experience and helps search engines discover all language versions easily.

6. Build local backlinks

After launching localized pages, help search engines trust them by adapting your link-building strategy for your multilingual sites. For example, French pages need links from French sites to rank well in France.

“Treat your local site like it’s a separate entity, even if the domain is the same,” Antonio says. “The goal is to have Google understand and distinguish between the English version and other versions, so the link-building strategy should focus only on those URLs in the subfolder.”

Localize your link-building efforts by connecting with regional media, influencers, blogs, and directories in your target language to increase your visibility. For example, you might try to get your German store featured in local fashion magazines or affiliate lists. 

To support this effort, your localized site needs to feature content that is worthy of local attention. “Write content that’s so interesting to that specific market that other websites will want to cite it,” Antonio says. “For example, Square might have data about the top-selling items in retail in Japan. Then, other sites in Japan would want to use it as a data source.”

Each local link signals to Google that your store is relevant, trustworthy, and established in that market, not just translated for it.