Case study
International SEO Case Study: Doubling Across Three Markets
This international SEO case study is the only genuinely multi-market site in the portfolio, and the most useful thing an Australian service business can take from it is a decision not to attempt the same thing.
The traffic splits United States 40.4 per cent, Sweden 20.8 per cent and Germany 16.6 per cent, with the remaining fifth spread elsewhere. Every other engagement published here is 90 per cent or more one country, several above 95. This one is three real markets at the same time, in three languages, on a custom platform.
Across the year to April 2024 traffic roughly doubled to 24,200 organic visits a month, while referring domains went from about 500 to 1,800.
- $990
- Entry price, published in full
- 30 days
- Notice to leave. No lock-in
- 1pm to 6pm
- AEST, senior-led, contactable
- Organic traffic
- 24,200a month
- Keywords
- 10,100ranking
- Top three
- 477positions
- Referring domains
- 1,800
- Domain rating
- 37
- Traffic value
- $11,500a month
What a 40 / 21 / 17 split actually demands
A single market site has one keyword set, one technical surface and one audience to convince. Three markets means three of each, and the cost is close to additive.
Keyword research per language, done from scratch
Swedish and German buyers do not search the English terms with the words swapped. The category has its own vocabulary in each language, its own question forms, and different competitors holding the results. An English list run through a translator produces terms nobody types.
Hreflang annotation across every page
Without it, Google serves the wrong version to the wrong country and can treat the three versions as duplicates of each other rather than as alternates. With three languages plus regional variants that is a per-template job with reciprocal tags, not a plugin you switch on.
Local currency, local proof, local contact
Pricing in the reader's currency, customers they recognise, and support in their timezone. A German buyer looking at United States dollars and American logos has been told the product is not really for them.
Content written the way the category is discussed locally
The comparisons people make, the objections they raise and the regulations they mention differ by market. Those differences are where the useful pages live.
Do all four properly and you have three sites wearing one domain name. Do them badly and you have one site with two translated shadows ranking for nothing.
1,800 referring domains, and what a domain rating of 37 says about them
The link gain here is large. Roughly 500 referring domains to about 1,800 across the year, which makes it the second largest link profile in the set behind the crypto platform.
| Engagement | Referring domains | Domain rating |
|---|---|---|
| AI SaaS platform | 1,800 | 37 |
| Crypto trading platform | 2,100 | 28 |
| Industrial manufacturer | 1,000 | 53 |
The comparison worth making is with the crypto trading platform. It carries about 300 more referring domains and sits nine points lower on domain rating. More links, less authority credited for them. This site's link growth came with a healthier authority position, which is what a more selective profile looks like from the outside.
The manufacturer row is the reminder that the count is not the measure. Domain rating is Ahrefs' own scale and nothing Google publishes, so read these rows as a rough sense of quality rather than a score to chase. A thousand carefully earned links can be worth more than two thousand casual ones, which is the argument on the link building page.
48 cents a visit, and where the money in SaaS actually sits
Divide the traffic value by the visits. $11,500 a month against 24,200 visits is about 48 cents a visit. That is low against most of this portfolio, under the roughly $1.41 on the pharmaceutical manufacturer and a long way under the $1.83 on the car rental engagement.
The keyword numbers agree. 477 top three positions out of 10,100 ranking keywords is about one in twenty one, and $11,500 across those keywords is roughly $1.14 a term.
That is what a SaaS keyword profile looks like, and it is worth saying plainly. Software categories are heavily informational at the top of the funnel. People search how to do the thing, what it is called, and how two tools differ, and those searches carry a low advertiser cost because the readers are years from a purchase or will never buy. The money in SaaS sits in a small number of high intent terms, product, alternative and pricing searches, rather than in the traffic number.
So a doubling to 24,200 visits is a genuine result, and the kind that can sit beside flat revenue if the high intent terms were not the ones that moved. Anybody reporting the visit count without saying which terms carried the buyers is reporting half of it.
Why an Australian service business should not run a multi-market program
This is the part that should not be softened. Almost no Australian service business should do what this site did.
A trade, a clinic or a professional firm serving Australian customers gets more from one market covered properly than three covered thinly. Each extra market multiplies the content, the technical surface, the link work and the cost. None of it multiplies the customers you can serve, because you cannot attend a job in Malmo and you are not licensed in Bavaria. Three markets covered thinly usually means three markets where somebody local out-ranks you.
Multi-market work makes sense for a software or product business selling across borders, where a customer in Sweden costs the same to serve as one in Ohio. For everyone else the relevant page is local SEO, where the same budget buys suburb level coverage where your vans and staff already go.
If an agency proposes international expansion to a business that delivers its service out of a van, read the proposal again with one question in mind: who does it suit? It grows the scope, the retainer and the reporting deck, and not the enquiry list.
What this does not show
It does not show revenue, enquiries or signups. The $11,500 is Ahrefs' estimate of what those visits would cost through Google Ads, a measure of how commercial the traffic is and not of anyone's income. That holds for every figure on this site.
It shows no Australian traffic worth naming. With the United States at 40.4 per cent, Sweden at 20.8 and Germany at 16.6, any Australian share sits inside the remainder.
There was no Google Business Profile, no map pack position, no service area or suburb work and no local review program. The client is not named, because none of the clients here agreed to be a public reference.
What this costs
A genuine multi-market program is Authority territory at $3,490 a month, because three languages means roughly three times the content and the technical checking. That is $41,880 a year, and nobody should sign it unless cross-border customers are worth that on their own.
An Australian service business covering one market properly starts at Local for $990 a month, or Growth at $1,990 where there are several service lines and suburbs. Full detail is on the SEO pricing page, with no lock-in and 30 days notice.
Run it against your own margin. Local is $11,880 a year, so a plumber clearing about $350 gross on an average job needs roughly 34 extra jobs to break even, which is three a month. If that sounds unlikely in your market, the honest answer is a smaller tier or nothing.
Questions
Questions we get asked
Straight answers, including the uncomfortable ones. Anything else goes to the person who does the work.
Ask your own questionWe sell software to the United States and Europe. Does this apply to us?
Yes, and it is close to the only case here that does. If a customer can buy and be served from anywhere, an extra market adds revenue rather than cost. Budget for real research and real content in each language, not a translation layer over the English site.
Can we translate our existing pages instead?
You can, and it usually underperforms. Translated pages carry the keyword choices, comparisons and objections of the original market, so they read as foreign and miss the terms local buyers use. The technical half still needs doing, because hreflang is what stops the versions competing.
Is 48 cents a visit a poor result?
It is low, and it is normal for the category. SaaS searches skew informational at the top of the funnel, so the average advertiser value per visit is small. Judge a software result on the handful of high intent terms and what they convert, not on the visit count.
Do we need 1,800 referring domains?
Almost certainly not. The renovation engagement here took 541 top three positions off 442 referring domains, because the competing pages were thin. Link counts follow who you compete with, and an Australian service business competes with far less than a global SaaS product.
An agency has proposed taking us international. Should we?
Ask which of your service areas is fully covered first. If you are not in the top three for the suburbs you already work in, an extra country is scope for them and cost for you. The order runs local, then national, then abroad.
Free, by hand, no obligation
Get a free check before you widen anything
Four fields: your website, your main competitor, the suburbs you service, and your email. Within two business days a senior person spends 30 to 45 minutes on it by hand and sends back three real findings, one you can action yourself without paying us anything, and one that needs proper work.
If your current market is nowhere near covered, that is what it will say, and expansion advice can wait. No automated PDF, no obligation, and no sales call unless you ask for one.
- Turnaround
- Two business days
- Follow-up
- No sales call unless you ask
What clients say
In their own words
Upwork reviews, reproduced unedited apart from the spelling of Arbaz’s name.
Thank you for the invaluable SEO keyword research support you've provided during our recent projects. In a short period, your expertise has made a noticeable impact on our strategy and outcomes. Your ability to quickly identify relevant keywords and analyze market trends has been particularly impressive, directly contributing to enhancing our content's reach and effectiveness. Thank you Arbaz!
I had the pleasure of working with Arbaz, an exceptional SEO Specialist who surpassed my expectations. From the start, his professionalism and expertise were evident. He conducted a thorough website audit, developed a tailored strategy, and optimized on-page elements and off-page backlinks. His knowledge of the latest SEO trends and proactive recommendations greatly improved our website's visibility and organic traffic. His ability to collaborate with the content team and implement technical SEO optimizations further solidified their effectiveness. Overall, I highly recommend this SEO Specialist for his remarkable results and dedication to driving business growth.
We had an amazing work experience with Arbaz in the past, so we decided to rehire him for the SEO dofollow link building for our other websites. He delivered excellent results and met our expectations. He is a highly skilled and reliable SEO expert. We will definitely hire him again for our future projects. Thank you for your hard work and dedication. 👍
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