• 10+ years in Digital with 6 focused on Search & Social across Japan and Korea markets

• Born and educated in the US and now enjoys traveling throughout Japan and Asia

Andy RadovicManaging Director, Outrider Japan

• 5+ years in Search & Social planning, execution and management in Japan and Korea

• A native Bostonian who loves Mexican food, oil painting, photography and the Red Sox

Shawn FinnAssociate Director, Outrider Japan

Your Presenters:

SEO SEM

Performance

LPO Analytics

Social

An Experienced Team21 dedicated search marketers in Japan with a thorough command of the search medium and over 10 years of experience globally with industry vertical experience

Proprietary TechnologyDecide DNA is our proprietary double-byte compatible search and ROI technology helping clients manage complex search campaigns across the region/globe

Results Driven ExperienceDelivering strong ROI for our clients is at the heart of what we do as a group, and all the search programs we build focus on delivering these results

Local, Regional, & Global LeverageWith offices in all the major regions of the world, and now in Japan, we can leverage our network experience to provide added value to our clients

Outrider is part of:

Strategy Search Marketing & Consumer Driven Solutions

TODAY’s AGENDA1. Why Japan?

2. Search Landscape in Japan

3. SEO Best Practices: How to Be An SEO Ninja

4. Who is Doing Well

5. Final Thoughts

Why Japan?

#2[current global ranking for internet penetration]

13.2%[estimated growth of `12 search spend]

31%[estimated growth of `12 mobile search spend]

15%[current smartphone penetration rate]

34%[estimated smart phone penetration rate by end of 2012]

307%[total growth in # of Facebook users within 2011]

Still #3 global economy = Massive purchasing power

Population that is very digitally switched on

Strong infrastructure and

very networked

Very concentrated & trend-focused

consumer mindset

HUGEAll this equates to a

Opportunity for those who are in or soon to enter Japan

The search landscape in Japan

+

Similar to other markets, Japan has a proliferation of search engines…

Over 10 billion searches per month in Japan with Google recently overpowering Yahoo as the dominate search engine

…However, 2 search engines control over 92% of the market share

Source: Google Internal - averages based on a sample of available industry-related Google data. Future results may differ from provided. Please use as a directional guide.

And Mobile search is taking over…

Breakdown of Beauty Search Trends (Desktop vs. Mobile)

Mr. Google Mrs. Yahoo

Introducing…

A Recent Goo Research Survey Found that:

› More than 60% of consumers surveyed indicated they had seen a television advertisement that asked them to search for a key word

› More than 32% of those that had seen the ad, had then actually used that keyword in a search.

The majority of both television & train advertisements in Japan have a keyword in a search box as the primary user action, often with no URL

“Call to Search” Concept

Impact of TVCM on Mobile Search Queries…

Mobile Search Query

• We see a shift in client mindset with a skew towards SEO and less reliance on pure media

• There is a realization that the fundamentals of SEO are not currently in place

Where is Search Headed…Survey: What are the top digital channels where you see opportunity in 2012?

• The key challenge is how to make a more local experience, while retain your efficiencies of scale

• We see a more continual shift to mobile SEO and ways to properly address that channel

Source: Japan Marketing and Creativity magazine Jan 2008* Questions directed at marketers across 74 companies

#1: Mobile #2: SEO #3: Social

How to be an SEO Ninja

What it Takes to Succeed in JP

1. Domain & Hosting Considerations

2. To Localize or Not to Localize

3. Keyword Strategy

4. On-Page Fundamentals

5. Content

6. Social

7. Linking

Domain hosting is best served locally1

Domain & Hosting Considerations

Key Takeaways

• Local domains (.jp, .co.jp) see ranking benefits

• IDNs can and do rank well for domain name terms

Format Example Hosted Local Search* Bonus

Roman .com Tenshoku.comOverseas none

Locally minimal

Roman .jp/.co.jp/ .net, etc. Tenshoku.jpOverseas minimal

Locally moderate

Japanese .com 転職 .comOverseas moderate

Locally potentially strong

Japanese .jp/.co.jp/.net , etc. 転職 .co.jpOverseas moderate

Locally potentially strong

*in Google/Yahoo JP from a Japanese IP address

The power of IDNs: ranks 4th for 香港ホテル (Hong Kong hotel)

To localize or not to localize…

2

Let’s Get Emotional

Successful localization in Japan relies on two overarching themes:

Emotion Relevancy

&

Emotion and Relevancy through Localization

+

Emotion and Relevancy through Localization

=

Emotion and Relevancy through Collaboration

+

Emotion and Relevancy through Localization

=

Emotion and Relevancy through Localization

+

Emotion and Relevancy through Localization

=

Breaking the Mold, and the Template

Key Takeaways

• Localize your templates whenever possible, even if it’s just the top page

• Look to connect with users through emotion and relevancy

Successful localization also involves adapting global templates to Japanese visual aesthetics and UI preferences . . . a site that looks especially “foreign” will likely not do as well as a properly localized site!

Exbear – Expedia’s very Japanese mascot – has helped connect the brand with Japanese users in both a relevant and emotional way

Keyword Strategy

輸入車

Yunyuu Kuruma

ゆにゅうくるま

ゆにゅう　くるま

ゆにゅう くるま

輸入 車

輸入　車

yunyu kuruma

ユニュウクルマ

ユニュウ　クルマ

ユニュウ クルマ ゆにゅう車

輸入くるま

3

Keyword Strategy

Keyword Type Searches*

輸入車 kanji, no spaces 480,000

輸入 車 kanji, single byte space 240,000

輸入　車 kanji, double byte space 560,000

ゆにゅうくるま hiragana, no spaces 3,900

ユニュウクルマ katakana, no spaces ~100

輸入くるま mixed kanji/hiragana 47,000

yunyu kuruma romaji 2,200

import car English 15,600

Key Takeaways

• 4 different character sets to optimize for: kanji, hiragana, katakana, romaji

• Watch your spacing – single byte vs. double byte influences Yahoo rankings

• Japanese tend to search in the infinitive, which can be hard to naturally work in to copy

• Kanji: Chinese characters used for everything• Hiragana: phonetic alphabet used for conjugation and

spelling out words• Katakana: phonetic alphabet used to spell loan words

and brands• Romaji: Roman characters

*Combined Google/Yahoo Japan, February 2012

Four Character Sets to Optimize for….

Japanese grammar rarely matches how searches are formatted – the above (literally “car to sell”) sees 40,000 searches a month, but cannot be naturally rolled in to copy.

車 売る

On Page Fundamentals

On-page best practices for Japan do not vary from standard best practices:

On-Page Content

Social

Links On-page HTML Elements

(H1s, Alts, Anchor Text, etc.)

Page Speed / Load Times

Keyword-rich Title Tags

Fresh Content

Quality Copy

Use HTML Content

4

Content: more is better5

Above all else, do not just use Google Translate! Users will know. User will disapprove.

Content Best Practices

• More Is Better: Japanese users expect to see lots of information. The Western meme of “less is more” doesn’t work in Japan, so don’t be afraid to load up on text-heavy details

• Write content specifically for the Japanese user, don’t just translate existing English content – it won’t resonate with the user as well, and you’ll miss keyword density opportunities

• Highlight Local Management: Trust is a huge part of the online experience in Japan, and demonstrating commitment to the market by highlighting Japanese management can go a long way in cementing that trust

• Localize Forms: Remember, date formatting, credit card input fields, name fields etc. are all formatted differently in Japan

• About Us Pages ( について ) are often among the most viewed pages on brand sites, especially foreign brands. Put some love in to these pages!

• Stock Images: Avoid the typical multi-racial corporate imagery common in the West – this is Japan, show Japanese people with your brand and products

Social

Tea still on for tomorrow afternoon?

Moved to Sunday, didn’t you see my FB update?

She’s still stuck on mixi…

6

Link Building

Social media in Japan is both

highly developed and highly stratified

Key Takeaways

• Facebook, Twitter and mixi should all be part of any brand’s social strategy – but remember that mixi is a closed system and offers zero SEO value

• Yahoo! 知恵袋 (Q&A) is a great place to engage users; create a “brand ambassador” who transparently answers product, service and brand questions – great for backlinking too!

• Social gaming on services like Glee and Mobage are massively popular; if your company can swing it, think about creating a branded social game to drive traffic and build awareness

It’s a stereotype, but: Japanese social media users are a lot more polite than you might be used to – Japanese FB brand Pages tend not to see the negative comments and brand attacks that can be so frustratingly common in other markets

A Nation of Bloggers: With over a million blog entries a month, the Japanese are the world’s most active bloggers

mixi is slowly dying: For almost a decade, mixi had been Japan’s biggest SNS by a wide margin, but the past few years have seen Facebook and Twitter catch up and eclipse the homegrown network:

Social

Linking

#1: Go Native #2: PPP is OK With Me

#3: Don’t Expect Transparency

When looking to build backlinks, remember that engines value links originating from Japanese IP addresses and surrounded by Japanese content – overseas link building is less effective.

Japanese anchor text is essential as well; large volumes of backlinks with English anchor text won’t cut it.

Tip: Place links with JP anchor text in the footers of other PoS sites

Pay Per Post backlinking programs are popular in Japan and can be reasonably effective at boosting rankings for a low investment.

PPP programs also drive solid traffic, especially those that run on top blog networks like Ameblo.

Japanese users are not turned off to sponsored blogging in the way that North Americans tend to be.

Tip: PPP programs work great with limited-time campaigns

A hard pill to swallow for most digital marketers, link building programs in Japan rarely report more than a sample of all sourced backlinks – around 10% is the standard.

Tip: If you want to fully undertake a complete SEO program in Japan, accept that link building providers will not provide the level of transparency you’re likely used to seeing in other markets. Shoganai yo ne.

7

Best-in-ClassSEO in Japan

http://www.mcdonalds.co.jp Light and fast loading Editable content Localized domain Great title & header tags Localized site template

http://www.expedia.co.jp Great keyword targeting Localized domain Lengthy content Great title & header tags Localized site template

http://www.cosme.net/ High quality of content Social signal integration Great interlinking Targeted keywords Clean & light pages

Go Local Whenever Possible: whether domain hosting, localizing templates and other assets, researching keywords, developing content or building links, look for a Japanese solution

Final ThoughtsFinal Thoughts

Trust Your Guys on the Ground: who better to help provide a local solution than your Japanese team? We’ve seen many foreign companies fail in their digital endeavors because Global refused to listen to Local

Know Your Audience: you may have a clear idea in your head about your target audience in Japan, but understand that there will be cultural differences in user tendencies and expectations; speak to your Japanese audience

One last time: Do not use Google Translate!