Everyone who knows anything about marketing online would be familiar with SEO, or search engine optimization. With the prevalent use of search engines, in particular Google, there are algorithms and requirements that can help websites and search results rank on the first page of Google.
Why is this important? Because data shows that people seldom go past three pages of search results in order to find what they are looking for, with a 93% click through rate for results on the first page, which is why ranking at the top would increase a website or result’s chances of being noticed.
Are there differences in optimizing for different countries?
The answer to this question is a hard yes. Taking into consideration the syntax of each English-speaking country, there are different keywords that one has to optimize for depending on what country they are targeting. For instance, those using British English would use different terms for different things, such as chips instead of fries or apartment vs flat. So if you’re in Australia, for example, you might want to use SEO services Melbourne instead of one that’s situated in California or even England, even if the latter also uses The Queen’s English, Melbournians might search for Maccas instead of Maccy D’s amongst other things.
Understanding your consumer base is also one of the key factors when it comes to SEO. You can’t optimize for an audience that you are not familiar with, which is why it is important to think about your audience before you start optimizing your content. What kind of content would they be interested in? What would resonate with them? How do they like their content? Video-form, listicles, or long academic articles? It all depends on the audience that you are targeting, which is why it is best to use an agency that best understands your audience.
Western and Eastern adoption of SEO
Google is not widely used in China or Korea, but it is definitely used in South East Asia. When targeting audiences overseas, one has to think about their behavior. In China, big brands have had great success marketing their businesses over social media such as WeChat or Weibo. In China, there are many different social media platforms that they use in place of Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter, so businesses looking to break into their market would do well to learn where their audiences are browsing on.
In Western countries however, SEO is something that is widely adopted and websites are very professionally made in order to stand out from the competition. While this isn’t the norm in China, it has become an expectation of many using Google to search for reviews and businesses. If a particular website does not meet certain standards, it is likely to have a high bounce rate. Things like user interface, how easy it is to navigate, how fast it loads and even how pretty it is are things that are important to consumers hailing from the Western world and South East Asia.