International SEO Keyword Research

International keyword research is not about translating your existing list. It is about starting from scratch in each market because people search differently, even for the same product. Take "running shoes". In the UK, people type "running shoes". In Germany, the top queries are "Laufschuhe" and "Joggingschuhe", but the intent differs: "Laufschuhe" is generic, "Joggingschuhe" is more casual. In Japan, the search might be "ランニングシューズ" but also "ジョギングシューズ" with a different volume. I have learned that the only way to get this right is to set your keyword tool—Google Keyword Planner, Semrush, Ahrefs—to the exact country and language before you run a single report. Then check the SERP to see what kind of results show up. A keyword that triggers a lot of video results in the US might trigger mostly local business listings in France. If you ignore that, you will optimise for the wrong format. I now start every new market by doing a fresh keyword brainstorm with a native speaker, not by feeding my English list into a translator. That single change doubled my organic traffic from Spain within three months. For more on the broader strategy, see my notes on [International SEO](/international-seo/) and [Multilingual SEO](/multilingual-seo/).

This process matters whenever you have a product or service that could work in multiple countries but the language and search behaviour are distinct. The classic case is e-commerce with international shipping. I worked with a UK outdoor gear retailer that wanted to sell into Germany. We translated "camping stove" to "Campingkocher" and got nowhere. When we did proper keyword research, we found that Germans use "Gaskocher" and "Benzinkocher" depending on the fuel type, and the search volume for "Campingkocher" was actually lower than for "Gaskocher". That insight changed our product page titles and increased German traffic by 140% in six months. It also matters for B2B SaaS. I have seen cases where the English term "project management software" is used as is in the Netherlands, but in France people search "logiciel de gestion de projet" and also "outil de gestion de projet". The intent and competition differ. Another scenario: if you are targeting a country with a different search engine, like China (Baidu) or Russia (Yandex), you need to research keywords on those platforms because their data is not in Google tools. I have a separate note on [Baidu SEO](/baidu-seo/) and [Localization SEO](/localization-seo/) for that. In short, if your audience speaks a language that is not your own, or if they use a different search engine, you need market-specific keyword research. Skip it and you will waste budget on translations that rank for nothing.

I used to think that a good translation of my English keywords would be enough to capture traffic internationally. I was wrong for three reasons. First, I underestimated how much local competition changes the landscape. The keyword "affordable web design" in the UK has a certain difficulty score; in Brazil, "criação de sites baratos" is dominated by local agencies with strong backlink profiles. My translated page never stood a chance because I had not analysed the local SERP. Second, I assumed that global search volume from Google Keyword Planner was useful. It is not. The global volume for "marketing agency" is meaningless because it aggregates 200 countries. The volume in the UK might be 10,000, while in Italy it is 2,000. If I optimise for the global term, I target no one well. Third, I ignored language variants. I optimised for "telemóvel" in Portuguese, thinking it covered Portugal and Brazil. It does not. Brazilians use "celular". My Portuguese site was ranking for "telemóvel" in Brazil but getting zero clicks because the intent was wrong. I now always check the language variant for each country. I also use [SEO Translations](/seo-translations/) services and consult with an [International SEO Consultant](/international-seo-consultant/) to validate my approach. Another mistake: I did not pay attention to SERP features. In the UK, "best running shoes" shows mostly affiliate sites and comparison articles. In Japan, the same query shows many YouTube videos. I was optimising for text articles when the SERP wanted video. That was a hard lesson.