Nag

M Posted 12 years 7 months ago

t 9 min read

How well do you know your global technology markets? Let’s find out. In which country was the first MP3 player invented? Hint: the iPod was not first! Where was the retina display invented? Which country ranks number two for smartphone adoption with a 73% adoption rate (only 0.8% behind number one)? Which country has the highest internet speed globally? Which country launched the world’s first question-and-answer site? Think you know the answers to these questions? Read on.  

Were you right?

The answer to all of the above questions is South Korea. That’s right. Apple was not actually the first to market today’s most prolific music product. The first-ever MP3 player was launched in 1997 by Saehan Information Systems and known as the MPman. And while Apple did coin the phrase “Retina display”, the first such product was actually developed by South Korean company LG Display. With worldwide leading Internet speeds of 14.2 Mbps and maximum smartphone usage among residents, South Korea stands strong as a technology leader.

As for the first question-and-answer site, yes, that too was the brainchild of a South Korean company. Knowledge Search debuted in 2002 thanks to search portal giant, Naver.  

More than just Q&A

In addition to owning a robust question-and-answer site, Naver is the leading search engine in Korea. Boasting a 73% market share, Naver is clearly where South Koreans turn for online searching. The level of sophistication among Korean consumers is something of which global companies should take note. The country sees three times the average global amount of online content digested and has one of the highest rates of online purchases worldwide.

Source: http://www.techpolicydaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Internet-and-IP-traffic-per-user-2013.jpg  

How do you spell opportunity in South Korea?

Leveraging the power of Naver is one of the most critical channels to promote your company, products and brand to Korean customers. This means more than simply crafting Korean-focused content, although that is important as well. By making full use of Naver to distribute conten, it enables you to reach a highly active and engage your audience online of tremendous sizes, with a willingness to buy. BridgeEdge’s CEO, Jim Yu, wrote a powerful article on Search Engine Watch that outlines some key ways that savvy global marketers can take advantage of this tremendous opportunity known as Naver. In 'Naver Optimization: 5 Best Practices', Yu outlines the importance of these key activities:

Create a true Korean language site

Translations are not enough when you want to make the most of an engine built around a specific language and culture.  

Register on Naver and use associated services

Show Naver that you are serious and become part of the network as a way to get more bang for your buck.  

Participate in Naver’s user-generated content sections

Content is important and in more ways than one. Make use of Naver’s built-in functionality to develop your credibility and increase your results.  

Leverage Cafe, Naver’s social media network

If you are going to engage yourself in the leading South Korean search engine, go all the way and expand your social media presence here as well.  

Apply key SEO best practices to Naver

While Naver has some features that are very different to those you may be familiar with on Google, that does not mean that you should forget everything you have ever learned about SEO. Be smart and make sure that you apply the search basics here as well. Taking the time to learn more about Naver and how it is similar or dissimilar to Google will be important as you build an effective strategy for this market.  

We can help you track and expand your success on Naver

At BrightEdge our top value is customer success and helping you to engage your audience, and we constantly innovate to help you keep up with the rapidly changing search landscape. Engaging with users in South Korea is a massive opportunity and there is no better place to do that with than Naver. Following the Naver optimization best practices sets you on a solid path, but you still need a way to track, monitor, and report on your progress with Naver. BrightEdge Global SEO coverage now includes support for Naver, which includes:

1. Naver analytics across result types - Track your keyword performance for Naver across the top search results categories - images, videos, shopping, places, blogs, cafe, and knowledge
2. Blended rank - Gain a comprehensive view of your actual placement in the SERP with Naver
3. Competitive analysis - Track your competitors performance across all Naver categories
4. Trended impact of optimizations - View changes in performance over time, and understand the impact of optimization efforts

Please contact us to learn how you can leverage Naver Reporting in BrightEdge.  

The Bottom Line

Global brands have the opportunity to think beyond Google, and optimize their search marketing efforts for Naver, South Korea’s leading search engine. With BrightEdge’s Naver Reporting brands can gain insights and optimize effectively on Naver and engage your audience. Those that take on this challenge will find great rewards for their global brands and bottom line.  

A BrightEdger

M Posted 12 years 8 months ago

t 9 min read

BrightEdge’s Winter Release has arrived. Want to know what’s inside? How about a bunch of new features to prep you for SEO in 2014? At BrightEdge, we work hard all year developing innovative technology that empowers you to stay ahead of the changing search landscape. Every five weeks like clockwork, we release new product features, and we’re happy to say, our Winter Release wraps up the tenth release of 2013.  

Three months, thousands of customers managing secure search

Less Than 3 Months After the Announcement of Secure Search, Thousands of Customers Have Unwrapped our Technology to Address This Change. How is that possible? At BrightEdge our top value is customer success, and we saw change on the horizon. Over the past two years we have invested and innovated ahead of the curve to ensure that our clients are fully equipped to deal with revolutionary changes (Google’s shift to 100% secure search) in the SEO landscape.  

Unwrap more data with page reporting

At Share13, in August, we previewed Page Reporting, and in September introduced this innovative technology to our clients in limited release. Today, we are thrilled to announce that Page Reporting is generally available to all our clients with active Google Analytics integrations! Page Reporting provides you with real (not estimated) business metrics at the page level including traffic, conversions, and revenue.  As previously mentioned in a past blog post, we’ve also empowered all our users with a seamless self-service Google Webmaster Tools integration.  

ROI shines in the content performance dashboard

If we could sum up digital marketing in 2013 in one word, it would be “content.” Content is at the heart of every digital marketing strategy, and spans channels and mediums. That’s why we’re pleased to introduce a Content Performance Dashboard, which includes Page Reporting powered charts. The Content Performance Dashboard provides a comprehensive overview of how your most important content is performing. Included in the Content Performance Dashboard:  

Connect business metrics to SEO

In a world of secure search, without keyword correlated metrics, the only way to measure search performance is by looking at traffic and conversions across pages on your site. With BrightEdge’s unique and proprietary Page Reporting, you have the ability to understand the business performance for your most important pages, and measure the specific metrics that matter most to your business. Page Reporting pulls revenue, conversions, and traffic from your analytics platform at the page level, providing a complete and accurate view of content performance. Page Reporting is available across all search engines reported by your web analytics platform, and across all device types (desktop, smartphone, and tablet). Performance can be rolled up into Page Categories/Business Units (i.e. Men’s Apparel, Women’s Apparel, Baby Apparel, etc.) as well as at a total site level. With Page Reporting you gain insights into business performance changes, understand the root cause, and can take action.   

Restore visibility

Google Webmaster Tools Integration (GWMT) helps you better understand organic search performance by restoring partial keyword visibility that is no longer available due to secure search. With GWMT integration you gain a granular way to understand demand for your business, and uncover keywords that you may be unaware of. You can view GWMT clicks, impressions, and CTR information side by side with BrightEdge’s keyword, rank, page, and search volume data, providing in-depth keyword insights all in one place. GWMT integration provides detailed analysis of top-clicked keywords and pages, which can be viewed weekly, monthly, or long-term trended over time (BrightEdge stores data beyond the 90 day limit in GWMT).   

Take action with page manager

Page Manager provides a comprehensive solution for optimizing your most valuable content. Gain a 360 degree into your page performance including, on-page, backlink, internal links, and social factors. Uncover the successful strategies your competitors are leveraging, and take action. With prescriptive and actionable recommendations, you can discover which of your pages, and site categories have the most opportunity, and determine where to invest resources.   

Put a bow on it: your logo on BrightEdge reports

Your brand means everything. And we get that. We want to help you create a more personalized experience when you use BrightEdge S3 by enabling you to co-brand reports with your logo. Now you can upload your logo, for a co-branded experience in the BrightEdge platform header, and within Dashboard PDFs and emails. We hope you enjoy all the goodies in BrightEdge’s Winter Release, and we look forward to being your partner in digital marketing in 2014.