Issue 01
The wrong country ranks
UK shoppers land on USD prices. The Australian subfolder is outranked by the US version of the same page.
International SEO for Shopify
Shopify international SEO for brands selling across borders
The right page for each country, in a language written by a native speaker, with local currency and shipping. We set up Shopify Markets, subfolders or expansion stores and hreflang so Google stops showing your US page to shoppers in Sydney.
What breaks
Where international Shopify stores leak traffic
Issue 02
Machine translation nobody checked
Literal German product titles, inches left unconverted, sizing terms that no local buyer uses. It reads like a machine wrote it.
Issue 03
Hreflang that contradicts itself
An app adds a second set of tags, or expansion stores never reference each other. Missing return links mean Google ignores the annotations.
Issue 04
Near-identical English markets
/en-gb/, /en-au/ and /en-ca/ with the same copy and the same prices. Google picks one canonical and the others vanish.
Issue 05
Forced redirects by IP
Googlebot usually crawls from the US. Force-redirect by location and it may never see your other market versions.
Issue 06
Broken links between markets
Hard-coded links in menus and content that point at the primary market, or at URLs that 404 in a translated subfolder.
From Shenzhen to your markets
One catalog, the right page in every market
Structure
Subfolders, country domains or expansion stores?
The three ways to go international on Shopify, and when each one makes sense.
| Compare | Markets subfolders | Country domains | Expansion stores (Plus) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Example | example.com/en-gb/ | example.co.uk | Separate store on example.de |
| Shares authority with main domain | Yes | No, builds its own | No, builds its own |
| Hreflang | Added by Shopify | Added by Shopify when set up in Markets | Manual, across stores |
| Separate catalog, inventory and apps | Limited | Limited | Yes, fully separate |
| Setup effort | Low | Medium | High |
| Best for | Most brands starting out | Markets with strong local-domain trust | Very different catalogs, pricing or operations |
Process
How we take a store international
Pick markets by demand
Search volume, competition and your shipping reality per country. We rank markets before anyone translates a word.
Choose the structure
Subfolders, country domains or expansion stores, based on catalog differences, pricing, legal needs and team size.
Audit hreflang and canonicals
Crawl every market, check return links, x-default, canonicals and duplicate tags from apps or old theme code.
Translate and localize
Native editors rewrite machine output, convert units, localize product names and research local keywords.
Set local signals
Local currency, shipping and returns on the page, in schema and in Merchant Center for each target country.
Monitor per country
Search Console filtered by country, rank tracking per market and a check that each country gets the right URL.
Deliverables
What you get
Market prioritization based on search demand
Structure recommendation with trade-offs
Hreflang and canonical audit across every market
Fixes for duplicate or conflicting tags
Keyword research per language and country
Native-speaker editing of translated collections and products
Localized schema for price, shipping and returns
Per-country reporting in the monthly report
Proof
International fixes, measured in revenue
For a Chinese automotive accessories brand, fixing international SEO issues like broken internal links and cannibalization was part of taking organic traffic from near zero to almost 100,000 visits a month.
Chinese automotive accessories brand7 months
$758,772
organic revenue in 7 months
$758,772.94 in organic revenue in 7 months, from 30 products
Read the case studyChinese tech brand (industrial hobbyist niche)4 months
$150,000+
organic revenue in 4 months
A Chinese tech brand to 1,000 clicks a day and $150,000+ in organic revenue
Read the case studyDeep dive
How international SEO works on Shopify
Subfolders or expansion stores?#
Shopify Markets lets one store serve many countries through subfolders like /en-gb/ or /de/, subdomains, or country domains. Shopify's own help center notes that subfolders benefit from the primary domain's existing authority, while country domains build their own. For most brands we start with subfolders. Expansion stores, available on Shopify Plus, make sense when catalogs, pricing, apps or teams are truly different per region. They cost more to run and need manual hreflang between stores.
What Shopify does for hreflang, and where it breaks#
When you set up international domains or subfolders in Markets, Shopify creates hreflang tags automatically. Problems start around it: a translation or currency app that injects its own tags, expansion stores that never reference each other, or market URLs that redirect or 404. Google also ignores hreflang pairs without return links. We crawl every market and check each annotation resolves to an indexable, self-canonical page.
Native translation vs machine translation#
Machine translation is a fine first draft. It is not a finished page. German buyers search with different terms than a literal translation produces, and French product names often need rewriting, not translating. We have native speakers edit collection and product copy, and we run keyword research in each language so the translated page targets what locals actually type.
Currency, shipping and redirects#
Local prices, delivery times and return terms should appear on the page, in Product schema and in Merchant Center for that country. Shopify offers automatic redirection by browser location, with restrictions in the EU. Google advises against forced redirects because its crawler usually comes from the US. We prefer a clear country selector and banner over forced redirects.
Chinese brands selling to the US, EU and Australia#
Many Chinese brands launch with one English store and a US bias. Australia and the UK need their own spelling, units, shipping promises and often their own keyword research. Europe needs native-language pages, not English with a flag switcher. We plan that from Shenzhen, alongside technical SEO and schema.
FAQ
International SEO questions
Does Shopify add hreflang tags automatically?
Yes, for international domains and subfolders set up in Shopify Markets. Shopify generates the tags for each language and region version. It does not handle hreflang between separate expansion stores, and it can’t stop apps or old theme code from adding duplicate or conflicting tags. We audit every market to make sure the annotations are clean and each one points to an indexable page.
Should I use subfolders or separate stores for each country?
Most brands should start with Markets subfolders on one store. They share authority with your main domain and are the simplest to run. Separate expansion stores on Shopify Plus make sense when catalogs, pricing, apps, legal requirements or teams differ a lot between regions. They add cost and need hreflang maintained across stores by hand.
Should visitors be redirected to their country automatically?
We usually advise against forced redirects. Google’s crawler mostly comes from the US, and forced location redirects can stop it from reaching your other market versions. Shopify offers automatic redirection, though it is limited in EU regions. A country selector or a suggestion banner lets shoppers and search engines reach every version while still guiding people to the right market.
Is machine translation good enough for SEO?
As a first draft, yes. As a finished page, rarely. Machine output tends to translate words instead of search behaviour, so pages miss the terms locals actually use. We keep machine translation for speed, then have native speakers edit collection and product copy and run keyword research in each language before publishing.
Do US, UK and Australian stores need different English pages?
If the pages are identical, Google will usually treat them as duplicates and show one. Separate English markets earn their place when prices, currency, shipping, spelling or product ranges differ. We localize what matters, such as units, spelling, delivery promises and local keyword choices, so each version gives Google and shoppers a reason to exist.
Related services
Shopify Plus SEO
Shopify Plus SEO
SEO for Shopify Plus brands: expansion stores vs Markets, multi-store hreflang, B2B on Plus, checkout extensibility, headless Hydrogen builds and launch governance.
Technical SEOTechnical SEO
Fixes for the crawl, index and schema problems Shopify creates on its own: duplicate product paths, tag pages, filter URLs, app bloat and Markets hreflang.
Chinese brands going globalChinese brands
Shopify SEO and GEO for Chinese brands selling to the US, UK, Europe and Australia: native-English content, entity and trust building, hreflang across markets, run from Shenzhen.
Structured data & Merchant CenterSchema & Merchant Center
Clean Product, ProductGroup, Offer, return, shipping, Organization and breadcrumb markup for Shopify, aligned with your Merchant Center feed for free listings.
Selling in more than one country?
We will check hreflang, canonicals and translations across your markets and show where traffic is going to the wrong page.