How To Find the Best International SEO Agency

Remember the days when you’d visit the same corner bakery or hardware store? The owner probably even knew you by name. It was all about convenience — these places were just a quick walk or drive away.

Nowadays, unless you need a plumber for that pesky leak, you’re probably turning to the internet for most of your shopping. That means entrepreneurs are turning to Google Ads, social media and search engine optimization (SEO). The world is at your fingertips, and businesses that once thrived locally are now expanding globally.

But reaching a global audience isn’t just about throwing up websites in other languages. It’s about crafting an experience that makes your brand feel like a familiar face in an unfamiliar place. It’s like opening the door to a new café and finding that they somehow make your coffee exactly the way you like it — whether you’re in Tokyo or Toronto.

The same goes for your SEO content, web development and social media marketing. The secret ingredient behind all those choices is usually the right international SEO agency. Let’s break down how they can help your brand.

Local SEO Is Great… If You Want To Stay Local

First of all, let’s get one thing out of the way. There’s nothing wrong with staying local as a business or with your SEO strategy. Local SEO can be great if it matches your business strategy — great if you want to attract nearby customers, but a little too niche if you’re dreaming of opening franchises worldwide.

In that case, you’ll want to have an international SEO strategy in place, with localized digital marketing campaigns or SEO checklists catering to the unique tastes of each region.

International SEO is all about showing your unique profile to help you stand out, thus increasing visibility in your immediate vicinity. Depending on where you sell your culinary experiments between two buns, your potential customers might be searching for a grinder, a sub or a hero. 

But it’s not just about the product name. You can beef up your SEO content writing by sprinkling in cultural references that resonate with your target audience to make that featured snippet your own. If you’re selling cheesesteaks in Philly, you might throw in a playful pun about Rocky or the Eagles. In New York? A clever nod to your favorite Seinfeld episode. You get the idea. These references spice up your content marketing while helping you build a stronger connection with your audience and reinforce the feeling that you’re part of the local scene.

However, what happens when you’re ready to grow beyond the neighborhood? Let’s say your sandwich business is taking off, and now you want to ship gourmet subs — er, heroes — worldwide. That’s where SEO specialists can help. You need to speak the language of new niches (sometimes literally), optimize for searches for the international market and ensure your brand feels local, even when you’re miles away.

Local SEO works when you want to own your block. But if you’ve got global ambitions, it’s time to look beyond your neighborhood deli scene and start thinking about what SEO services will get you ranked beyond the “near me” searches.

Why Your Global Expansion Deserves a Global SEO Strategy

Especially in the age of artificial intelligence (AI), it can feel like someone just handed you jet fuel to get a campfire going. Why worry about those s’mores if you could literally shoot for the stratosphere, right? 

As much as we understand your enthusiasm, you may want to put that lighter down for a second. Expanding your SEO copywriting globally isn’t just a matter of auto-translating into different languages. It’s more like opening a series of boutique stores in cities around the world, each tailored to the unique vibe of the neighborhood. Basically, it’s local SEO at scale. International SEO ensures your business feels natural to your clients, no matter how diverse.

A global content strategy, at least one that follows SEO best practices, is far from a one-size-fits-all solution that will open the global market to you. If your SEO audit tells you something works in one region, it might still miss the mark with some segments of your international audience. For instance, your branding and messaging in France will likely need a more formal tone, while in Brazil, a vibrant and friendly approach may resonate better. And the scale of your strategy matters, too. Breaking into the U.K. might mean competing with major global players, while entering a smaller, niche market like Norway could involve more focused, culturally tailored efforts.

Once you move beyond national SEO, your tasks in tools like Google Analytics are less about repeating successful recipes you’ve already tried and more about learning about the local market’s subtleties. That could be search behavior, local competition or even seasonal preferences. A team of international SEO experts can help you develop a strategy that’s as versatile as the regions you’re targeting, balancing your global brand identity with the local flavor that makes your business relevant in each area.

By investing in a well-rounded multilingual SEO strategy, you’re not just setting yourself up for short-term wins — you’re building long-term credibility across markets. It’s the foundation for a global presence that grows with your business, market by market.

What’s an International SEO Strategy Going To Cost Me?

Alright, you may have already guessed this, but when it comes to international SEO, costs can vary widely. Your expenses may differ depending on your company’s size, business objectives and models as well as the markets you’re targeting. Let’s look at two companies to understand how different strategies can impact your budget.

Company A: Global Tech Solutions

Our first fictitious enterprise is a large, established tech firm specializing in software development and enterprise solutions. With a robust budget and a goal to expand into multiple international markets — such as Germany, Japan and Brazil — their international SEO needs are complex.

They require extensive keyword research tailored to each market, technical SEO adjustments for different languages and a comprehensive content strategy that addresses regional regulations and user preferences.

Company B: Health Startup

Company B is a startup focused on health tech solutions with a more modest budget, as they haven’t received any funding yet. They aim to enter just one new market, Canada, where they have identified a strong demand for their products.

They might get by with local SEO services, rather than a global digital marketing agency to stay more focused and cost-effective. However, they still need to adapt their SEO campaign management for Canadian English and French. And while they’ll also need to perform localized keyword research, their approach doesn’t require quite the same level of international complexity as Company A’s.

Understanding nuances like these highlights how your budget and objectives will dictate the scope and scale of your international SEO efforts. Whether you’re a large enterprise or a growing startup, aligning your strategy with your business goals will help you allocate resources effectively.

The Must-Have Services Your International SEO Agency Should Offer

An international SEO agency needs to act like a travel guide for your brand’s global journey. They need to know local customs and how to avoid getting lost in translation. But not all agencies are created equal. To ensure you’re working with pros, here are the must-have services they should offer:

• Link profile audit with regional relevance: Links are great for your site authority, but they also need to make sense for the regions you’re targeting.
• Local reputation management and language variant consulting: Just because a language carries the same name that doesn’t mean everyone uses it the same way. Your agency should help you decide which variants to choose and manage your brand reputation around the globe.
• Trend tracking in local markets: You need someone with their finger on the pulse of local social media trends to stay relevant.
• Cultural branding consultation: What German clients consider over the top might be too little for your Brazilian audience. Adjust your branding for local preferences where necessary.
• Technical know-how: Things like hreflang tags, URL structure and localized keyword research will be crucial for search engines to know where and how to show your content.
• Content localization and voice search optimization: You don’t want to sound like a robot who learned a second language on an app. Even if you rely on AI for translation, you should still have someone from the respective regions check the results.

Beyond those checkboxes, you also need to see whether your workflows align. What types of reports does your agency provide on a regular basis? How will you communicate? What are the contractual terms? 

We could go on and on about more questions, but first and foremost, you should ensure that you and your agency match culturally before you plan to conquer the world. International SEO is often about tiny nuances, and if you don’t feel comfortable communicating about those in one language, doing so in others will be challenging. 

Be open to experiments, try not to assume and get into the habit of experimenting. Whether a new market is an unsolved mystery or a learning opportunity is up to you.