SEO in Thailand: help local customers find you in their language

• The site is in English, while local customers search in Thai.
• A Thai version exists, but translator-written copy does not match how people search.
• You serve tourists and expats and do not know which audience each page is for.

• a justified decision on which versions and pages to build before development;
• a list of technical crawling and indexing blockers (canonical, language versions, language tags (th-TH, en));
• priority pages for local demand and an implementation plan with measurable indicators;
• a comparison of competitors’ site structure and language.

• Search engines. StatCounter data (all platforms, September 2026): Google 99.37%, making it practically the only search engine. All work is built around Google.
• Thai script. Thai text has no spaces between words, so keyword research and snippet checks require tools and a specialist who work with Thai. Dates are often written in the Buddhist calendar (2026 is 2569); we account for this in markup and copy.
• Two audiences. Tourists and expats often search in English; local residents search in Thai. Pages for each audience differ in purpose, not just language.
• Data. The PDPA personal data protection law has been fully in force since June 2022; marketing and analytics need a lawful basis and consent. Your lawyer agrees the details.

1. review the audience, current pages and available demand data; 2) plan pages and language versions, and check crawling, indexing and language tags; 3) recommend pages without template copies; 4) sequence implementation and measure results.

scope and audience → demand and competitor research → priorities and owners → implementation and comparison with the baseline (monthly). Timing depends on the number of pages and versions.

SurfUp has no published cases in this country. General SurfUp cases from other markets (not results for this country): SportFit, a store in 6 languages, average Google position 23.27 → 8.35 (February 2025–September 2026) — sportfit.ee; B2B distributor Weitnauer, international structure and hreflang, traffic +140% in 9 months — Weitnauer.

rankings, traffic growth and enquiries are not guaranteed. Translation and native-speaker copy review, legal review, paid placements and development are quoted separately.

• Do you guarantee rankings? No. Search engines decide what to show; we track measurable changes.
• Do we need Thai? Usually yes if your target audience is local. English may be enough for tourists and expats; we decide based on demand data.

Check hreflang before launching localizations · Sitemap and canonical · Google SEO

GEO in Thailand · SEO

Discuss entering the Thai market