International E-Commerce SEO: Structure and Pitfalls
Selling across borders without splitting your authority or confusing search engines.
E-Commerce SEO
URL structure decision
Subdirectories consolidate domain authority and are right for most businesses. Country-code domains give the strongest local signal but split authority and multiply maintenance. Decide once; changing later is a full migration.
Currency, shipping, and trust
Show local currency, local shipping costs, and local return terms. These affect conversion far more than ranking, but pages that do not convert eventually lose ranking too.
The common failure
Duplicating the English store across markets with translated product titles and nothing else. Different markets search using different terminology, different sizing conventions, and sometimes entirely different product categories.
Key takeaways
- Subdirectories consolidate authority best for most businesses
- Local currency and shipping terms drive conversion
- Translated titles alone do not constitute localisation
- Decide URL structure once; changing is a full migration
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