KNOWLEDGE BASE International SEO For Singapore
The information on this page was current at the time it was published. Regulations, trends, statistics, and other information are constantly changing. While we strive to update our Knowledge Base, we strongly suggest you use these pages as a general guide and be sure to verify any regulations, statistics, guidelines, or other information that are important to your efforts.
INTERNATIONAL SEO FOR SINGAPORE
Why international SEO is important
You want people to be able to find you when they do web or mobile searches, and having a global SEO strategy increases your chances they will easily find you in your new market. If you intend to expand into additional global markets beyond Singapore, a global SEO strategy is that much more important. Your international SEO strategy can go from optimizing in English for every country you enter, to localizing in the languages of each additional country or group within each country. Your resources will dictate in part how you proceed, but a targeted SEO optimization strategy in Singapore and in each additional country is ultimately your best approach for success.
SEO for Singapore
People are connected and are looking for products online. SEO should be part of your marketing strategy, but your site and apps can be effective in English.
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While Google.com remains the top website in Singapore for 2023, the local version, Google.com.sg, is still highly visited and caters specifically to the diverse linguistic landscape of the country.According to Similarweb's November 2023 rankings, Google.com leads with an estimated 519.63 million monthly visits, followed by YouTube.com (240.82 million visits) and asuratoon.com (49.85 million visits). Google.com.sg doesn't appear in the top 10, but other sources indicate its significant traffic.
Semrush's October 2023 analysis of travel and tourism websites shows agoda.com as the most visited with nearly 2.08 million monthly visits, followed by klook.com (1.91 million) and booking.com (1.65 million). These platforms cater to Singapore's flourishing tourism industry.
Google.com.sg continues to offer its interface in English, Mandarin Chinese, Bahasa Melayu, and Tamil, aligning with Singapore's four official languages.English remains the dominant language used for education and administration, facilitating communication across diverse ethnic groups.Other languages also play a significant role within their respective communities, contributing to the cultural richness of Singapore. -
People are connected and have the opportunity for searching online for information and products.
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As of 2023, over 84% of Singapore's population actively uses the internet, reflecting a significant jump from 78% in 2020. This growth highlights the increasing reliance on the online world for various aspects of life, from communication and entertainment to work and education.
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A staggering 60% of Singaporeans who research products before purchase find them through websites or apps. This trend emphasizes the crucial role digital platforms play in influencing consumer decisions.
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The current average number of mobile connections per person in Singapore is closer to 1.7 as of 2023. Data from GSMA Intelligence indicates 9.22 million cellular mobile connections for a population of around 5.5 million.
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In 2023, around 35% of Singaporeans who use smartphones do research online before making a purchase. This highlights the crucial role online platforms play in influencing consumer decisions.
Steps to implement SEO for Singapore
As you plan out your strategy for SEO optimzation in Singapore, here is a high-level list of steps you should take.
Evaluate your current state
In order to develop a strategy for international SEO, it’s important to understand the statistics for your current website and mobile application. Create a simple report that highlights the following by country. If you are currently only in one country, you can still learn a lot from evaluating the following:
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What countries are you currently getting traffic from?
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What language do the people speak in those countries?
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What is the traffic volume you are receiving and how has it trended over time?
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What are your top international referral sources?
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What are the keywords people are linking off?
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What are the top pages they are linking to?
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What is the landing page conversion rate by country for each offer?
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How is the behavior for each country different from your current customers?
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How do you rank for your top keywords within each country’s search engines?
Knowing this information will give you a baseline from which to plan a go-forward strategy.
Pick Your Language Strategy
Decide if you plan on creating an SEO strategy using only English, or if you plan to localize using language. Since English is one of the official languages in Singapore and most people speak it, you may be safe to start there. However, if you have a specific target market that culturally associates with one of the other languages or an industry that operates primarily in something other than English, you may want to consider those languages as well.
Understand the Industry you are Targeting and the Competitive Landscape with that Industry
If you plan to expand into Singapore and then other Asian countries after that, you can start by becoming familiar with each market and focusing your optimization efforts there before jumping to the next country. SEO requires time, energy and constant focus. Some of the aspects you’ll want to understand about an industry include:
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How big is the industry?
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Who are the key companies in the space?
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How do the other companies market online?
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What search engines do the people use in your target countries?
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Google.com.sg and Google.com are the top two search engines in Singapore
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What devices do Singapore customers use?
What are the top keywords being searched?
Resources: Google’s Keyword Tool can help you look at top keywords and if you use Moz.com, their tools also can assist with this research.
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What are the identifiable search trends? Is there seasonality?
Identify your target audience and understand them for SEO
The Globig Knowledge Base provides you with an overview on the culture and demographics of Singapore, but for a truly effective laser focused marketing plan, you will want to know even more about your specific target audiences so you can create content that is relevant to them, promote that content where the prospective customers can be introduced to your content, and market to them in a variety of ways.
Understanding search and buying behavior for your target audience is also important so you optimize for the best keywords to increase the chances that your site will be one of the top results of their searches.
Create a plan that you can follow diligently and measure to see how effective your efforts are
Start with your local competitors. Identify their most popular content, pages being linked to, and by which sites. By understanding what’s working in the Singapore market, you can then see how best to approach your own strategy. Sites that link to your competitors are also great prospects for you if you reach out to them.
It’s important to articulate how your product and company will be different from your competitor by clearly doing so in your SEO and marketing efforts. Otherwise, customers won’t understand why you’re a better solution.
Prepare your website for International SEO
There are several very specific on-site optimization efforts you’ll want to implement in order for search engines to recognize your website in global markets, including Singapore.
International domain strategy and country specific website
You will have to decide how best to internationalize your domains and prepare your website. Here are the basics:
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Make sure that the site is easy to crawl so it can easily be read and indexed for search engines by web crawling programs
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Make sure the site is easy to index
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Each country should have their own web structure if your International SEO strategy is by country
There are several options for setting up your website(s) for different countries. Most important is that you have unique page URL’s so search engines as well as your website users can easily identify the country and language. We recommend not using translation tools that automatically translate in a site for international SEO since search engines won’t be able to identify that you have unique pages for each country and point them there.
Option 1- Unique Domain Names
The first option is to purchase the different domain names in each country so you have the top-level domain with the appropriate country code. Examples of this would be Globig.fr, Globig.sg, Globig.uk, Globig.de. This is probably the most expensive and complex way to manage your international pages and also requires the most work for your internal team.
Option 2- Country Specific Sub-Domains
Another option is to have the same country code top-level domain but use different sub-domains for your different sites. Examples of this would be http://fr.globig.com, http://sg.globig.com, http://uk.globig.com, http://de.globig.com. A subdomain is typically easier to manage than buying the different top-level domains and requires less work for your team.
Option 3- Country Specific Sub-Directories
The third option is to set up sub-directories for each different country. Examples for this would be http://globig.com/fr, http://globig.com/sg, http://globig.com/uk, http://globig.com/de. This choice is also easier to manage from a corporate headquarters as compared to Unique Domain Names.
Hardwarezone.com.sg is a good example. They have 5 country extensions to cover Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Thailand.
Localize Your website
For best results, have native speakers assist with translations instead of using only translation tools. Many of the translation services offer native speakers to assist with automated translation tools. Another option is reaching out to university students for their input. The elements to localize can include:
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URLs - language localization
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Title & Meta Description
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Website Branding
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Phone, currency, time, delivery info/maps
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Menu and navigation
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Headings
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Pricing
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Images
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Content - reviews, descriptions, articles, videos
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Colors
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Easy to crawl and navigate menu in new language
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Localized content
Having natives speakers help to localize your website and content will make it more appealing and optimized for search
Pay attention to technical SEO considerations
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For search engines, note the country and language in tags such as hreflang annotations.
-Include annotations in XML site map
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Consider using a country specific Internet Provider if you can, some larger companies offer this as a service, especially for email marketing
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Make sure your site is mobile optimized and has responsive design
Maintain ongoing optimization
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Monitor your SEO keywords to see how you’re trending
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Monitor your competition
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Monitor overall SEO trends and Google changes to their algorithms
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Evaluate your efforts to see what’s working and what isn’t
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Test, test, test
It is worth your time to develop a strategy for SEO optimization in Singapore and any other country you enter. Having a targeted approach to international SEO will help you reach the right customers in any market you enter.
We’ve found that the best overview and resource for you to learn how to optimize your international sites is Moz.com. They have excellent guides for International SEO and step-by-step instructions to follow.
40+ Tools to Advance Your International SEO Process
Multilingual Sites - Google Resource
Hreflang Tag how-to by Moz.com
Datareportal Digital in Singapore
Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI) - Singapore's Digital Roadmap
Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) - Singapore's Digital Economy
eMarketer - Singapore E-commerce Forecast
Statista - Singapore Internet Users
Similarweb Singapore Top Websites Ranking
Semrush Singapore Top Websites Ranking
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Learn more about consumer behavior |
Industry and Competitor Analysis sites
Keyword Tools
Conductor - Enterprise level SEO and Content tools
Other International SEO Tools and Resources:
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https://addons.mozilla.org/es/firefox/addon/foxyproxy-standard/ |
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https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/seo-serp/ofoaoaloeipdofknnaapbmdddddioklg/related |
KNOWLEDGE BASE International SEO For Singapore