Eastern SEO: A Study of the Taiwan SEM Culture
Apogee recently had the privilege of visiting and studying SEO in Taipei, Taiwan over the last few weeks. Our intention was to study the role SEO plays in Asia and how it differs, if at all, from SEO in the United States. Despite the obvious language barrier, we were able to gain some insight into the industry based on local surveys and interviews.
The percentage of Taiwan Internet users obtaining info from the use of search engines is 80%, similar to that of users in the United States; and although they have a wide variety of local search engine options (popular sites include Coo, Sogou, Bai-du, Monstersearch, Web Classific, Whatsite, Yam, and YesNet), people interviewed often viewed small directories as sponsored and biased. The most used search engines, like here, are Google, Yahoo, and MSN. During agency visits, we discovered that the SEO specialists were very conscious of SEO activity worldwide- not just focusing on the local search engine front, but also pushing to monitor what’s new in Asia and the U.S.
Surveys were given to students at the Taipei American School, National Taiwan University, and Zhong San Elementary in order to compare search habits between students that attended an American school in Taiwan and local Taiwanese schools, respectively. The surveys were originally created online, but after learning that local grade schools, junior highs, and some high schools in Taiwan carry no computers on campus we moved to a more traditional survey method. Results yielded that the American students were more likely to use the Internet on a daily basis. American students were also more likely to both shop online, and use search engines as a primary resource for school-related research. This however, is not the result of a lack of computers in Taiwan classrooms, but more of a culture difference between American and Taiwanese students. In the U.S. students are accustomed to surfing the web almost immediately after receiving a homework assignment. In Asian culture however, the students still perceive books from the library as the best resource for academics, while the Internet is viewed more for leisure. A local grade school teacher explained it best by saying, “Internet is for after-school.”
After our time spent with Taiwanese students we decided to shift our focus to the professional sector of SEO and interview one of the founders of one of Taiwan’s largest SEO firms.
Is SEM a new area for Taiwan? How common are search engine agencies in Taiwan today? Are there many companies dedicated to this area?
It’s a very new concept for Taiwan, or anywhere for that matter. You’ll find that most agencies work abroad because there are no firms dedicated only for Taiwan clients. Like ours, most agencies located in Taiwan are part of larger international branch.
What type of clients do you have? Are there particular websites that have more success with SEM in Asia, whether it is web retail, or services? B2B or B2C?
From 1999-2003: everything was very B2B. After 2004 and the popularity of Google exploded, B2C websites became more common. In the future for Asia, or anywhere for that matter, everything will be through Google and Yahoo because of faster search.
What are the top search engines in Taiwan and has this changed in the past few years?
MSN was the most common search engine prior to 2006. MSN started in Asia, so that was the most familiar, and even among older generations today, it is still the most familiar. As for now and the future, Google will become the most popular. Looking at our cell phones, PDAs, and iPhones all with Google search options, we begin to see MSN is slowly losing ground. Language barriers are also a factor that affects what directories people use to search. There is no Google in Indian language so people in India are less exposed to it. In Singapore though, Google is very popular because it easily translates English and Chinese, or “Singlish” is what we call it here.
You point out an interesting fact with differences in language. Do people use search engines differently? Can you comment regarding search patterns in Taiwan?
Many Asian agencies put great emphasis on link building, but don’t realize this aspect is only one piece of the campaign. They overlook DNS, the importance of blogging, and other aspects. In America, instead of just using links, they research the reason behind the link, if it still exists, problems, etc. Here there’s an obsession with building links just to build links, and many agencies overlook the need to research.
There are no great differences in search patterns. We use search engines just like you do. There is however a difference in the way we generate keywords because you have to consider how words are being searched in a variety of languages. For example, in the U.S. you can call a cell phone a ‘mobile phone’, or ‘cellular phone’. But that’s really about it. On the contrary, in Mandarin there are over 10 different ways to convey “cell phone” including slang. Not to mention different dialects of the language in China. Moreover, Chinese people today are beginning to integrate English words into their regular vocabulary, so now there’s another array of English words to consider when we do our work.
As previously mentioned in the interview, one of the most interesting observations made in Taiwan was seeing the proliferation of Google all over again. Google seems to have an uncanny sense as to how and when to dive into a market. Moreover Google seems to also know how to divide and conquer preexisting competition; doing to MSN in Taiwan, exactly what they did to Yahoo in the U.S. Which raises the question— Will the U.S. search engine market share soon transcend its own borders?
