International SEO across five markets
For regional brands and international organisations that run one website in several countries and languages.
shakalakaa is a global SEO agency for brands whose site serves several countries. We plan each market separately: hreflang and market folders, content in English, Chinese and Bahasa Malaysia, a keyword set per country, and AI-search checks per market. Proof: our own five-market site, North (AMP) in Australia and Nuffield Dental in Singapore.
Kuala Lumpur · Singapore · Sydney · Taipei
International SEO is not one site translated five times. Buyers in each country search with different words, trust different sources and see different AI answers.
More detail on this section
This page is for the marketing leads of regional brands and international organisations: the people who own a site with country versions and need each one to win its own market.
What our international SEO covers
- Hreflang and market folders. One URL per market and language, hreflang tags that pair them, and a folder or domain plan Google can read.
- Content in English, 中文 and BM. Pages written for each market, not run through a translator. Hong Kong and Taiwan Chinese are drafted separately.
- Keyword sets per market. Demand measured country by country, so each page targets what that market actually types.
- AI search in each market. Buyer questions checked in ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews per country, with the cited pages recorded.
- Technical checks across versions. Canonicals, sitemaps per market and redirects that never send a searcher to the wrong country.
Why each market needs its own keyword set
The same service is searched differently from one market to the next. A few patterns we plan around:
- Hong Kong buyers write 營銷 and 數碼; Taiwan buyers write 行銷 and 數位. One Chinese page cannot serve both.
- Malaysian, Singaporean and Australian English searches share words but not demand, competition or intent.
- Bahasa Malaysia searches reach Malaysian buyers that English pages miss.
So keyword research runs per country, and each market page has its own primary search.
Proof from our own site and client work
- Our own five-market estate. shakalakaa runs English pages for all five markets, Traditional Chinese for Hong Kong and Taiwan, Simplified Chinese and Bahasa Malaysia, tied together with hreflang clusters and market-split sitemaps.
- North (AMP), Australia. B2B SEO and app store optimisation for a wealth platform. Read the North wealth platform SEO case study.
- Nuffield Dental, Singapore. Treatment-level SEO across several clinics. Read the Nuffield Dental implant SEO case study.
How a multi-market SEO programme runs
- Audit. Current country versions, hreflang errors, duplicate content and where each market stands today.
- Architecture. The folder or domain plan, hreflang pairs and sitemaps, agreed before any content work.
- Market pages. The highest-demand pages first in each market, written in that market's language.
- Reporting by market. Visibility, enquiries or sales and AI citations, reported per country.
SEO in each market: SEO in Malaysia, SEO in Singapore, SEO in Australia, SEO in Hong Kong and SEO in Taiwan.
Related: AI search optimisation, cross-border marketing for Singapore and Malaysia and marketing for large brands.
Running one site in several countries?
- Book a free strategy call
- Cite this
- shakalakaa (Plixitt Solutions). “International SEO.”
- https://shakalakaa.my/services/international-seo · Updated 2026-10-10
- Licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- shakalakaa (Plixitt Solutions). "International SEO." https://shakalakaa.my/services/international-seo. Updated 2026-10-10. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is international SEO?
It is SEO for a business whose website serves more than one country or language. Each market gets its own pages, its own keyword set and the hreflang tags that tell Google which version to show to which searcher.
Should each country have its own domain, subdomain or folder?
It depends on how the business is run. Country domains suit separate local businesses; folders on one domain pool authority and are simpler to maintain. We recommend after an audit of your current set-up and team.
Do you translate our existing pages?
We write for each market rather than translate word for word. Hong Kong and Taiwan Chinese use different phrasing for the same service, and English searches differ between Malaysia, Singapore and Australia.
Which markets do you cover?
Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, Hong Kong and Taiwan, in English, Traditional and Simplified Chinese and Bahasa Malaysia. We operate from Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Sydney and Taipei; Hong Kong is served remotely from Kuala Lumpur.
How do you report international SEO?
By market: visibility, enquiries or sales for each country version, plus a monthly check of the AI answers buyers see in each market. One blended global number hides the market that is falling behind.