Going Global: An International Hreflang Strategy
Client: A B2B Project Management SaaS expanding into Europe and Asia.
Challenges We Faced
The client launched localized sites for German, French, and Japanese markets, but users were landing on the wrong versions:
Cannibalization
The UK site was outranking the US site for American searchers.
Wrong Landing Pages
French users were landing on the English homepage instead of the /fr/ subfolder.
Technical Debt
The Hreflang tags were implemented incorrectly via a plugin, causing conflicts.
Content Gaps
They lacked localized content for specific regional features.
Geo-Targeting Confusion
Search engines lacked clear signals about country and language intent, leading to poor regional relevance and rankings.
Expand Globally
“Users landing on the wrong site? Our International SEO & Hreflang services fix global targeting issues.”
Our Approach – How We Solved These Challenges
International SEO & Hreflang
We manually audited the Hreflang implementation and moved it to the XML sitemap to ensure 100% accuracy without slowing down page load.
Geo-Targeting
We configured Google Search Console to target specific subfolders to specific regions.
Scalable Content Strategy
We used a “Topic Cluster” approach to translate and localize high-performing English content into target languages.
Off-Page SEO
We launched a digital PR campaign to earn links from local European tech journals to boost regional authority.
Results
| Metric | Before | After | Growth |
|---|---|---|---|
| International Traffic | 100k/mo | 450k/mo | +350% |
| Hreflang Errors | 12,000 | 0 | Fixed |
| Global Signups | 5,000/mo | 12,000/mo | +140% |
Free Global Audit
“Ready to enter new markets? Book a Free International Strategy Session with our enterprise seo company!”
Advice for Marketers & Brand Owners
- Hreflang is fragile. One wrong tag can break your global targeting. Validate it strictly using tools like Screaming Frog.
- Localize, don’t just translate. “Project Management” might be searched differently in Germany than in the US. Do local keyword research.
- Use Sitemap Hreflang. Implementing tags in the sitemap keeps your code clean and improves load times.
Extra Factors That Made It Work
- The enterprise seo services included a migration to a subfolder structure (domain.com/fr/) which passed authority better than their previous subdomain setup.
- BrightEdge was used to track share of voice across different countries simultaneously.
