Whether you’re running a café in Bangkok, an e-commerce store in Singapore, or a startup in Taipei, search engine optimization (SEO) is your ticket to driving the right visitors to your website and growing your business in Asia.
This guide breaks down SEO into easy steps, so you can climb those search rankings and get discovered by more customers across Southeast Asia, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.
What is SEO?
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It is the process of making your website more visible on search engines like Google, Bing, or Baidu. In simpler words, SEO helps your business show up when people search online for products or services you offer.
Imagine you own a bakery in Kuala Lumpur. If someone types “best birthday cakes in KL” on Google, SEO is what helps your bakery appear on that first page. The better your SEO, the more likely your target customers will find you without clicking on ads.
SEO helps to increase the chances of your website ranking high on search engine results pages (SERPs) for your chosen keywords.
Key components of SEO include:
- Keywords: Words or phrases your audience types into search engines
- Content: Blog posts, product pages, and other information that answers people’s questions
- Technical aspects: Website speed, mobile-friendliness, and how easy it is for Google to scan your site
- Links: Connections from other websites that vouch for your credibility
The goal? To earn more organic (non-paid) traffic and turn visitors into loyal customers.
Why does SEO matter for Asian businesses?
Billions of Google users search for information, products or services online every day. In fact, Google processes about 8.5 billion searches per day. As a result, search engines are the biggest potential traffic sources for websites.
With about 81% of the overall search market, Google is currently the largest search engine. In Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, and the Philippines, Google dominates. However, that doesn't mean you shouldn't optimize for other search engines, such as Yahoo, Bing, and Baidu.
Internet use is booming in Southeast Asia, with millions searching for products, services, and information daily. Whether your business serves your local community or ship across Asia, ranking higher on search engines means more eyes on your business. With sky-high smartphone adoption, most customers search on mobile. If you’re not visible, you’re missing out.
Did you know that the top result in search gets almost 40% of the clicks? Hardly anyone (less than 1%) goes to the second page of results. Google’s “helpful content” updates (late 2023) make high-quality, user-focused content more important than ever.
SEO is a long-term investment, but it pays off in real business growth. Ready to dive in? Let’s go!
Essential SEO glossary
Before we go any further, let's get you up to speed with all the new terms you're about to learn and understand if you want to optimize your site for search. Don’t worry about jargon—here’s what you need to know:
- Keywords: What people type or say when searching. In Asia, this includes both English and local languages (e.g., Bahasa Malaysia, Thai, Vietnamese, Mandarin Chinese).
- Long-tail keywords: More specific phrases, such as “best bubble tea in Kuala Lumpur” or “affordable web design in Ho Chi Minh City". These keywords or phrases tend to have lower search volumes.
- Keyword difficulty: This metric forms a critical component of keyword research, where it determines the level of difficulty to rank for a specific keyword. Having this knowledge will help you decide if it's worth investing in that keyword or phrase.
- Backlinks: Links from other reputable websites to yours. Local business directories can be valuable sources.
- SERP: Search Engine Results Page—the list you see after searching.
- On-page SEO: Optimizing your website’s content, headlines, images, and tags.
- Off-page SEO: Actions outside your site, like getting mentions or reviews on local blogs or social media.
- Local SEO: Making your business easily found in local searches—crucial for restaurants, shops, and services.
- Googlebot: Google’s robot that “crawls” your site.
- Ranking factor: What search engines use to decide who ranks where (e.g., mobile-friendliness, backlinks, content quality).
- Search algorithm: A collection of formulas that search engines use to determine the quality and relevance of a web page to a search query.
- Sitemap: A list of website pages within a domain or a file that provides information about pages, videos, and how different files within your site relate.
- White hat SEO: SEO practices approved by search engines like Google.
- Black hat SEO: SEO practices that go against search engine guidelines, including tactics like keyword stuffing, cloaking, etc., to attain a higher ranking in search results.
How do search engines work?
To understand SEO, you need to first understand how search engines like Google operate. Here’s a simplified version:
- Crawling: Search engines send out "bots" (called crawlers or spiders) to explore the web and discover new pages.
- Indexing: Once a page is crawled, it’s stored in a giant database (called an index), ready to be retrieved when someone searches.
- Ranking: When someone types a query (like “cheap hair salons in Singapore”), the search engine uses algorithms to display the most relevant pages in order of importance.
Here are some factors influencing ranking:
- Relevance (how closely your content matches the search)
- Quality (how trustworthy and useful your content is)
- User Experience (loading speed, mobile friendliness, etc.)
If your website ticks these boxes, it stands a good chance of appearing on the first page, where 75% of search traffic happens.
Google's algorithm: what you need to know
Google’s algorithm decides which websites rank higher based on hundreds of signals. Some of the most important ranking factors in 2025 include:
- E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness)
- Mobile usability (especially important in countries like Thailand where over 90% of users access the internet via phone)
- Core Web Vitals (measuring page load speed, interactivity, and visual stability)
- Keyword intent matching (understanding whether a user wants information, wants to buy, or is comparing)
It’s worth noting that Google makes thousands of algorithm updates every year. But if you focus on delivering valuable, helpful content to your audience, you’ll be on the right track.
Search for your target keywords to see where you currently rank. Tools like SEMrush, Ahrefs, or free options like Google Search Console can help.
Want to keep it even simpler? Customers who use GoDaddy's Website Builder will also have access to our Digital Marketing Suite, which comes with SEO features to help you track your website performance on search engines all on a single platform!
Types of SEO
1. On-Page SEO
On-page SEO refers to everything you can control directly on your website to help it rank better on search engines. This includes content quality, keyword usage, meta tags, headers, internal links, and image optimization.
Key elements of on-page SEO:
- Title Tags: The clickable headline that appears in search results. It should contain your primary keyword (e.g., “Best Cafe in Penang”).
- Meta Descriptions: Short summaries under your title tag that entice users to click.
- Header Tags: Proper use of H1, H2, H3 for structure and keyword clarity.
- Alt Text for Images: Helps Google understand what your images are about, and boosts visibility in image search.
- Content Optimization: Using keywords naturally and providing value in every blog post or page.
2. Off-Page SEO
Off-page SEO refers to efforts made outside your website to improve its authority. The most important part? Backlinks. This is when other websites link to yours.
Why backlinks matter:
- They act as "votes of confidence" for your content.
- High-quality backlinks (from reputable sites) can boost rankings significantly.
Other off-page factors include:
- Brand mentions on news outlets or forums
- Social signals (shares, comments, likes)
- Guest posting on niche blogs
3. Technical SEO (Mobile, Speed, and Security)
While content and links matter, your website’s technical health is equally important. Technical SEO ensures that search engines can crawl, index, and rank your pages efficiently.
Key elements:
- Mobile responsiveness: Critical in Asia, where smartphone use is dominant.
- Page speed: Slow-loading sites lose visitors and rankings.
- HTTPS: A secure website builds trust and is a ranking factor.
- XML sitemaps and robots.txt: Help Google navigate your site structure.
- Clean code and no broken links: Important for usability and crawling.
Tip: Use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights or GTMetrix to test and improve your technical SEO.
4. Local SEO for Asian markets
Local SEO is crucial for businesses that serve specific geographic areas. It helps you appear in “near me” searches and in tools like Google Maps.
To optimize for local SEO:
- Create and verify your Google Business Profile
- Add consistent NAP (Name, Address, Phone) information
- Encourage and respond to customer reviews
- Use location-based keywords (e.g., “spa in Jakarta”, “language school in Hanoi”)
Do your own search engine optimization in 4 steps
SEO sounds technical and it is — at first. But once you learn the basics it’s an easy routine. Whether you DIY your search engine optimization or hire a pro to do it for you, it’s well worth the investment.
To make SEO easier to understand, let’s try breaking things down to the four crucial steps of any SEO campaign.
1. Keyword research
The first step in any SEO effort is to do keyword research to determine what keywords you want to try and rank for. You can identify the words and phrases that make sense for your website using tools such as:
- Google Keyword Planner
- Keyword Explorer
- KWFinder (for long tail keywords)
The first essential step is putting those keywords into the content on your website. The higher the keyword density on your site, the more likely it will be displayed when someone searches for that keyword or phrase.
If you run a car repair shop in Toronto, start with keywords like ‘car repair Toronto’ or ‘auto shop Toronto.’
Start by identifying all the top targeted keywords in your niche, adding your city identifier because this is how people search for local services.
Next, you want to build out your keyword list by identifying long-tail keywords. These are essentially more detailed (and lengthier) key phrases that some of your competition might not be optimizing their websites for. An example here would be ‘mobile car repair services in Toronto.’
By focusing on geo-targeted and long-tail keywords, rather than something basic like ‘car repair,’ you are more likely to get a higher ranking for those keywords. Remember, most people don’t look beyond page one of the search engine results. So higher on the list is definitely better.
Once you’ve identified your keywords, you add them to your website in a variety of different places including:
- The text on your site’s home page.
- The text on your site’s service or product pages.
- In blog posts.
- Metadata in the source code of your pages.
- In the titles, tags and descriptions on your videos or multimedia files.
In-depth keyword research takes time to understand all the potential keywords that could drive organic (e.g. free) traffic to your website. It’s never about optimizing for just one or two keywords; it’s usually dozens of different keyword combinations and sometimes hundreds, or even thousands, of long tail keywords.
2. Content mapping
The next step is called ‘content mapping’ or ‘page mapping.’ It’s basically building out the site architecture of your website.
Your most important keywords will usually appear on the home page, while other keywords will be grouped and woven throughout specific service or product pages.
A local dentist in Toronto, might use keywords like ‘dentist Toronto’ or ‘dental clinic Toronto’ on her site’s home page.
But for additional services/keywords like ‘teeth whitening Toronto’ or ‘dental implants Toronto’ you will want to create new web pages with text that includes these keywords.
It’s not a good practice to use an infinite number of keywords on the home page; better to give important keyword groups their own web pages. The more focused each page is on a unique grouping of related keywords, the better your chances for higher search engine rankings and more traffic.
If the search query is informational in nature, like “how to get rid of a toothache,” then that is the kind of keyword you would want to target in a blog post, video or other content marketing effort.
3. On-page optimization
Think of this as the nuts and bolts of your SEO strategy. When you’ve paired up keyword groups with individual pages on your website, you now need to add these keywords to those web pages. For example, you want to add your keywords to the following elements:
- The page URL (e.g. https://hk.godaddy.com/blog/what-is-malware-and-why-should-i-care/).
- Page title tags.
- Meta descriptions.
- H1 and H2 header tags (usually the page title and a subtitle, respectively).
- Within the actual text on the web page.
And this is only the beginning. Google literally crawls these different sections of a web page to identify what the content (and what specific keywords!) is all about. So, the goal is to put your targeted keywords into each of these different sections to make sure search engines find them there.
There’s a lot more in the realm of on-page optimization — like site load speed, mobile friendliness and conversion rate optimization. But for now, start with the basics.
4. Link building
Backlinks are the final step in an effective SEO campaign.
Link building is the process of getting other websites to link to your web pages.
Each link or backlink you earn gets treated as a vote of popularity in the eyes of Google. The more niche-relevant and authoritative links your site has, the more credible your site becomes and the higher your organic rankings will be. Search engines see links as direct signals of authority from one site to another!
So how to get started with link-building? After creating optimized content and pages, you need to get other sites to link to your pages so search engines will consider them authoritative. There are some common ways to do this, ideally by ethical link building strategies like:
- Writing guest posts for other blogs.
- Creating partnerships with authoritative sites to raise your domain authority.
- If you are a local brick-and-mortar business, you can also get listed in dozens of web directories like YellowPages, Yelp and many others. Just do a search for “free business listings” in your country.
Social media and SEO
One area where link-building can get a little confusing is social media. A lot of people think that investing in social media is a perfect way to grow their SEO and do outreach at the same time. However, there’s no guarantee that this is the case, at least, not directly.
While there is a correlation between high social media activity and search ranking, there is no direct causation from the viewpoint of Google.
Your social media success won’t necessarily translate into higher SEO rankings. To win in SEO, you need to stay focused on actively building high-quality links related to your industry, month over month. This is the only reliable way to earn Google’s trust.
Why your business needs SEO
Ultimately, the reason that SEO is so important for every business is the classic line: “if a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it, does it make a sound?”
You could have the greatest service or product on earth, but it does little if no one can see it.
Organic search engine traffic is an enormous part of a website’s overall traffic, and this is essentially contingent on having an effective SEO strategy.
In addition, a lot of the steps that increase your SEO performance, like having effective content or building up backlinks, go a long way towards establishing you as an authority in the eyes of customers.
First steps
Whether you bring on outside help or create an internal SEO team, you need firm goals for your SEO program. A lot of people will say that they “want more traffic” but that’s more of a means rather than the end.
Some of the most important goals for any SEO campaign include:
- Getting a customer to buy a product.
- Prompting a request for a service or consultation.
- Getting a customer to engage with content on your site, like videos, articles or white papers.
- Increasing signups to your service/email list.
- Trying to raise general awareness of your brand.
These goals aren’t necessarily independent of each other, but part of the reason that you need to know this beforehand is that it will impact the keywords you choose.
For example, a person who searches “new tires near Singapore” using an action keyword — e.g. ‘buy’ or ‘get’ — is probably looking to make a purchase.
However, “how to change a flat tire” is more of an informational search query, so a customer here might want something more informative like a how-to blog post or tutorial. These distinctions will affect how you optimize the pages of your website and target outside sources for link building.
What is SEO in review
Just as search engines continue to be an essential part of everyday life, so is SEO. In order to attract more visitors to your business website, you need to invest both money and time into improving the SEO of every page on your website.
Make sure to plan accordingly and create an SEO budget with this in mind. Then start with the basics of SEO discussed in this post. Good luck and get optimizing!
Editor's Note: This article was first published in Sept 2022, and updated on Jul 8, 2025.
