Most sites have no idea which countries are sending them significant organic search traffic until they look. The country-level data in Google Search Console often contains surprises: meaningful impression and click volume from countries the site has never explicitly targeted, or strong performance in unexpected markets that represent real expansion opportunity.
Finding and acting on this data is straightforward. Understanding what the data means — and what the now-deprecated international targeting feature was versus what remains available — is worth getting clear on first.
How to See Country-Level Performance in GSC
Open GSC → Performance → Search Results. In the filter bar, click "New" → Country. You can either add a specific country filter to drill into one market, or leave the filter off and switch the data breakdown to see all countries at once.
To see all countries ranked by performance: in the Queries tab, scroll down past the chart and click "Country" in the breakdown tabs (next to Queries, Pages, Devices, Search Type, Dates). This shows clicks, impressions, CTR, and average position broken down by country across your entire property.
According to Databox, the country breakdown view surfaces which markets rank highest for your content — which can inform both content localization and link building strategies by identifying where organic growth is already happening.
What Disappeared: The Deprecated International Targeting Feature
In early 2023, Google removed the "International Targeting" report from GSC (previously found under Settings → International Targeting). This confused many users who came looking for country targeting settings.
Google explained the removal: the geographic target setting "had little value for the ecosystem" and was removed. It did not affect the country performance data in the Performance report, which remains available. It only removed the ability to specify a target country preference at the property level — a feature that didn't work particularly well anyway.
The correct mechanism for geotargeting has always been hreflang tags (for multi-language content), country-specific subdirectories or subdomains, and ccTLD usage — not the GSC targeting setting. Its removal doesn't change international SEO best practices.
Identifying Unexpected Opportunity Markets
The most valuable use of country performance data is finding markets where your site is already getting significant impressions but low clicks — which suggests demand for your content exists but something (language, localization, or simply not being on page 1) is suppressing clicks.
Sort the country breakdown by impressions. Look for countries with:
- High impression volume relative to clicks (CTR significantly below your site average)
- Average position worse than your target markets by 5+ positions
- Queries in your GSC report from that country that are in a language different from your primary content language
These patterns signal potential: the market is searching for content like yours, but you're not well-positioned to capture it. The question is whether the investment to improve performance in that market (content localization, local link building, hreflang implementation) is justified by the potential traffic and conversion upside.
Setting Up Separate Properties for Granular Country Data
If you serve multiple significant international markets, a single domain property gives you aggregate country data but not query-level data filtered by country. NativeXpand recommends creating separate GSC properties for each country/language combination that's strategically important — for example, adding example.com/en-gb/ as a URL prefix property to get UK-specific query performance data separately from the global property.
This only makes sense if you have distinct URL paths for different markets. Sites on subdomains (uk.example.com) can set up the subdomain as a separate property. Sites using a single URL structure for all markets can only segment at the country filter level within one property.
Reading Country-Level CTR and Position Data
Why CTR Varies by Country
Average CTR differs significantly between markets because SERP feature prevalence varies by country and language. AI Overviews are more prevalent in English-language US searches than in other markets (as of early 2026). Featured snippets and Knowledge Panels also appear at different rates by country. A site that sees 3% CTR at position 3 in the US may see 8% CTR at position 3 in a market where those SERP features are less common.
Why Average Position Varies by Country
The competitors differ by market. A site that ranks #2 in the US for a competitive keyword may rank #6 in the UK because the UK SERP has a different competitive set — local UK domains with strong regional authority, or different content quality standards for the same query. Position by country reveals where your content is genuinely competitive and where it isn't.
The Hreflang Situation
After the deprecated international targeting tool's removal, hreflang tags remain the primary mechanism for telling Google which version of a page to show in which country/ language combination. GSC doesn't have a dedicated hreflang validator anymore, but the URL Inspection tool will show hreflang implementation for individual pages, and the International Targeting report was removed precisely because hreflang is the correct signal — not the property-level country preference.
Google's documentation on managing multi-regional sites covers hreflang implementation in detail. The key principle: hreflang tells Google which URL to serve to which user; the GSC country data tells you whether Google's interpretation matches your intent.
Acting on Country Performance Data
- Identify your top 5 countries by clicks. These are your primary markets. Are you investing in them proportionally?
- Identify countries with high impressions and low clicks. These are opportunity markets. Investigate whether the clicks are suppressed by position (ranking problem) or by language/localization mismatch.
- Check the specific queries from opportunity markets. Filter the Queries tab for a specific country using the country filter. What are people in that country searching for? Are the queries in your site's language or another?
- Decide whether to invest in localization. If a market is sending 10,000+ monthly impressions and you're at position 15, there's a traffic upside to capturing — but only if the queries convert into the revenue the market can generate. Traffic from markets where you can't serve the customer is impressions, not opportunity.
Country-level GSC data is one of the fastest ways to find expansion opportunities that your site is already halfway toward. The market is already showing demand; the question is whether you have the content, positioning, and commercial capability to serve it.