Should SEO Planning Differ Across Websites and Markets?

Yes, different fields call for different SEO strategies. The underlying logic does not change; the strategies need to adapt to the users in each field. For example, some fields call for technical terminology, so you need to plan around long-tail keywords. Others appeal to a general audience, which changes the copy and how it is presented. Website structure, layout logic, and other factors also shape the SEO strategy.

Choose Your Target Market Before Deciding on an SEO Strategy

A simple example is international SEO. Before you begin, you need to understand local conditions, especially questions such as: “Which search engines do people use?” “What language do they usually search in?” “What do they expect a website to look like?” and “How reliable and fast is internet access in that country?” Simply translating articles is not enough. Before working on SEO, you therefore need to understand the following:

• Market: Which country or region will you serve, and what languages and search habits do local customers have?
• Goals: Do you want more product orders, bookings, or inquiries from potential customers?
• Platforms: Set priorities based on local search habits rather than simply applying search engine market-share figures from Taiwan or the global market.

Start With the Website Optimizations That Offer the Best Value for Your Effort

Another common SEO mistake is trying to follow a fixed sequence of optimization steps to improve your website. In reality, the value of each optimization varies from site to site. Differences in the underlying technology can even mean that a problem others struggle with requires no work at all on your site—and the reverse can also happen in many cases. Looking for a one-size-fits-all optimization process is therefore a naive beginner’s approach.

For example, an e-commerce site should first check its category pages, product pages, and technical foundations. Questions include: “Are product names, specifications, images, and comparison information complete?” “Are stock changes and product removals handled appropriately?” and “Do internal links work smoothly, and can search engines crawl and index the site correctly?” These are largely structural issues. E-commerce pages tend to have limited content and change quickly, so adding more content offers relatively little value compared with fixing structural problems.

By contrast, a website centered on a blog should focus on whether its content is concise and gets its meaning across quickly. In other words, whether you serve B2B or B2C customers, target overseas markets, use a particular underlying system, cater to a certain age group, or focus on a particular search engine—all of these need consideration. Choosing the right direction is what allows you to do SEO most efficiently.

Define Success First, Rather Than Just Chasing Rankings

Finally, SEO KPIs must be set according to the market, rather than using rankings alone as a broad measure of success. Rankings themselves are vague: Which keywords are you ranking for? Can those keywords actually help you achieve your goals? Have you overlooked other goals?

Without resolving those questions, SEO often becomes an empty exercise in chasing traffic for its own sake, and the marketing results naturally suffer. I would instead recommend assessing SEO through a combination of “keyword market share,” “core keyword rankings,” “changes in organic traffic,” “order or booking results,” and “user reviews.”