SEO Optimization in Japan: Keyword Research and Strategic Fundamentals

The Importance of Web Marketing in the Digital Age

In the realm of marketing promotion, there are various methods, including television commercials and direct mail. However, for foreign businesses entering Japan, the most crucial aspect is digital marketing, such as web marketing. In this digital marketing sphere, what matters significantly is the ability to make your website rank high when using search engines like Google. This task is referred to as SEO, and though it can be quite challenging, achieving a top position can yield substantial returns.

Search engine rankings are controlled by Google’s invisible search algorithms, making it potentially one of the most precise marketing tasks. But this precision can lead to high returns at a low cost, which emphasizes the importance of SEO optimization.

Choosing Best Keywords with Free Tools

The importance of having your website rank high on search engines is a universal concept. The choice of keywords is equally crucial. For this, keyword research is essential. But how do you go about selecting the right keywords?

One way to choose keywords is to set Google’s “gl” parameter to the region code of your target location. For Japan, you can use “&gl=ja” when searching on Google.

URL: https://www.google.com/?gl=ja

This link will direct you to Google’s Japan site. Searching from here should yield search results different from those of your home country. When translating keywords from English to Japanese, DeepL offers high accuracy and is recommended.

In keyword research, the crucial aspect is finding relevant keywords. Main keywords primarily consist of company names, brand names, and product names, which are easy to imagine. The challenge is in selecting related keywords. Related keywords are those that relate to the main keyword users search for. For example, the “price” in “A Service price” is a related keyword. Finding related keywords is made more straightforward by using various tools. Several tools are available, but when considering Google’s regional code, the following site is recommended for use in Japan:

URL: https://related-keywords.com/

This site is free and doesn’t require any login. When you input a main keyword here, it provides you with several related keywords. These are keywords that users have searched for and can help you understand user search intentions.Here is the site’s display. Please enter the main keyword in the red-bordered box.

Additionally, you can use Google’s Keyword Planner.

URL: Keyword Planner

The Keyword Planner is free to use, but it requires a login. Here, you can find information such as monthly average search volume, trends, competition, and more. The advantage of the Keyword Planner is that you can assess the quality of related keywords based on the bid price.

In Conclusion

In the digital age, web marketing is more cost-effective and promises higher returns compared to traditional forms of promotion. However, keyword research is a complex task, and selecting the ideal keywords is no easy feat. Particularly for the Japanese language, which uses a combination of “hiragana,” “katakana,” and “kanji,” it’s a complex language to navigate without native expertise.

At BizMOWA, we’re here to assist you in finding the most suitable SEO strategies. We support you in selecting the right keywords, optimizing titles and headers with SEO in mind, and building your website as part of our Japanese localization strategy.

If you need further assistance with your translation, feel free to ask here.