Why is Japan SEO important for your business?

Search engine marketing is an important component for successful business B2B as well as B2C in Japan. Although, as everywhere in the world, various apps for entertainment and ecommerce are sprouting up, limiting the reach of search engines, Google and Yahoo! Japan remain important traffic sources. Despite the reduction in traffic, the search engine can bring in highly relevant visitors.

Which search engines are used in Japan?

Google holds just over 75% of the Japanese search market, followed by Yahoo! Japan with just under 17%. However, since Yahoo! in Japan obtains its search results from Google, it can be said that the Google index serves 92% of the Japanese search market with search results. The remaining < 8% is distributed among smaller search engines such as Bing, DuckDuckGo and other service providers with < 1% market share each.

How many Japanese characters should content for good SEO in Japan have?

There is no definite answer to this question. As you should never build content for the search engines, but rather for the visitors of the website, the answer must be - as much content as needed to satisfy the search intent of the visitor. For proper SEO you should be using the right keywords though. Usually well written content, looking at different perspectives of a topic tend to be longer.

How to grow your online presence in Japan?

Japan is one of the most important markets for brands looking to increase their presence in Asia. However, besides the language hurdle (there are 4 different writing systems that don't make content creation any easier) comes the cultural hurdle. Japan, being a fundamentally culturally Asian country, nevertheless comes up with a completely distinct Japanese culture. Not all Asia is the same. So, to increase your brand presence in Japan, you need to follow the paths of your potential customers along the rules of Japanese culture and install the right touchpoints. We can help you with this.

Can you use Google in Japan?

Yes, Google can be used in Japan and is even by far the most used search engine in the Land of the Rising Sun with 75%. It is often assumed that Yahoo! Japan is the most important search engine in Japan, but this is not the case. Yahoo! Japan only holds a market share of around 17%. What many people don't know - Yahoo hasn't been running its own search index for a long time. Everywhere in the world, Yahoo is supplied with search results by Bing - with the exception of Japan, where the search results are supplied to Yahoo by Google. Therefore, (figuratively speaking) every Yahoo search user is also a Google user.

Japan SEO

Q: How many Japanese characters should content for good SEO in Japan have?

There is no definite answer to this question. As you should never build content for the search engines, but rather for the visitors of the website, the answer must be - as much content as needed to satisfy the search intent of the visitor. For proper SEO you should be using the right keywords though. Usually well written content, looking at different perspectives of a topic tend to be longer.

Q: How to grow your online presence in Japan?

Japan is one of the most important markets for brands looking to increase their presence in Asia. However, besides the language hurdle (there are 4 different writing systems that don't make content creation any easier) comes the cultural hurdle. Japan, being a fundamentally culturally Asian country, nevertheless comes up with a completely distinct Japanese culture. Not all Asia is the same. So, to increase your brand presence in Japan, you need to follow the paths of your potential customers along the rules of Japanese culture and install the right touchpoints. We can help you with this.

Q: Can you use Google in Japan?

Yes, Google can be used in Japan and is even by far the most used search engine in the Land of the Rising Sun with 75%. It is often assumed that Yahoo! Japan is the most important search engine in Japan, but this is not the case. Yahoo! Japan only holds a market share of around 17%. What many people don't know - Yahoo hasn't been running its own search index for a long time. Everywhere in the world, Yahoo is supplied with search results by Bing - with the exception of Japan, where the search results are supplied to Yahoo by Google. Therefore, (figuratively speaking) every Yahoo search user is also a Google user.

Agency

You want your website to be recognized in Japan? SEO with a clear focus on Google and Yahoo is the way to go. Trust the experts in this field from Jademond / Jadegital, data driven, experienced, result driven.

Your Agency for SEO in Japan: Jadegital by Jademond

Our Japanese native speakers are experienced and trained by some of the best international SEOs on the market. We work on a 100% White Hat way, paying attention to everything that is legal, good for visitors and search engines alike. For us there is no "What comes first, the Egg or the Chicken" issue. It is crystal clear that your Japanese website needs to be technically ready for the Japanese market, that there needs to be a proper competitor research performed, an actionable Japan SEO Strategy prepared and steps to be gone in order to succeed the one way.

Qing He

Head of Search (SEA & SEO)

Mr. Qing is the Head of Search at Jademond Digital. He oversees all SEO and PPC strategies for our clients.

Tama Guan

SEO/SEM Specialist for Japan Market

Tama is a SEO/SEM Specialist for Japan Market at Jademond. Previously she worked at a cross-border trading company focusing on…

Some of our JAPAN SEO Services clients:

The Japanese Search Landscape

Japan is one of the three largest markets by GDP. For brands trying to increase their exposure in South-East-Asia, Japan is one of the three key markets (alongside China and South Korea). The unique cultural barriers and the challenge of four scripts in which the Japanese language is written in, are hurdles that need to be taken. Jademond Digital (Jadegital) is here for your rescue with high end expertise and local native language expertise.

Google and Yahoo! Japan are the most popular search engines in Japan. In 2010, Yahoo! Japan decided to implement Google algorithms on its own search functionality, to allow users to gain more effective organic results.

Since Google and Yahoo! Japan utilize the same algorithms (Yahoo Japan doesn't operate an own search index, but operates on Google's index) the listings displayed on the SERP features are mostly identical on the first few pages.

Population size: 125,7 Million (2021 - Source: data.worldbank.org)
Internet penetration: 90.2% (2020 - Source: data.worldbank.org)
Most popular web search engines: Google, Yahoo! Japan, Bing
Currency: Japanese Yen
Gross Domestic Product (GDP): 4.937 Trillion USD (2021 - Source: data.worldbank.org)
Languages: Japanese
Time zones GMT +9
Major cities: Tokyo, Yokohama, Osaka, Nagoya, Sapporo, Fukuoka, Kobe, Kyoto
Most popular Internet TLDs: .jp / .com

We support your Japanese SEO strategy with:

Native Japanese SEO Specialists
Localized Keyword Research
Account Set-Up on Yahoo! Japan
Creating Optimized Content
Link Outreach to Japanese webmasters
Analysis & Reporting in English

On average we could achieve the following results for our SEO clients:

32%

Increase in online transactions
56%

Revenue increase
148%

Increase in organic traffic
46%

Increase in mobile traffic

"A successful SEO strategy is based on high quality content and the front/backend optimization of your online store/Website. Digital Authority is built by organically indexing the right keywords to your Brand and have your products as a reference in East Asian platforms."

Qing He, Head of Search, Jadegital

A Promise from Kun Tang, Founder and CEO of Jademond / Jadegital

Kun Tang, Founder and CEO

I think there is plenty of room for many western brands in China. Although competition is fierce, I guarantee that Jadmon - we - will do everything we can to help your brand succeed in mainland China with German efficiency and Chinese speed.

Fill out the form on the right to receive a free consultation from our experts.