Asia SEO GuruBlogging SEO in Bangkok Thailand

A few weeks ago, old family friend and Brisbane SEO from way back, Ben Wilks (www.benwilks.com) passed through Thailand.

Ben has been involved in SEO since 1996, starting out working on a Queensland tourism portal developed by his family.

Our discourse took place throughout a series of robust drinking sessions in Bangkok’s night life hot spots.

Towards the end of Ben’s journey in Thailand, I had the chance to interview him to get some of his thoughts about both SEO and the domain industry. The interview was recorded in my bungalow at a Muay Thai camp surrounded by jungle in the hills of Phuket. You can even hear the crickets in the background.

Watching the SEO industry change.

Right about here, early in the conversation our focus turned from SEO to the domain name industry.

About the domain industry.

Quality domains and SEO.

On Domain Development

During our conversations we spoke quite a lot about the new .Asia domain extension. Most of the time we diplomatically agreed to disagree :). Even though Ben did agree that .Asia may have a positive future, he did not value it as a attractive domain investment. As I wrote in the previous post, this seems to be consensus amongst most in the domain industry.

Speaking of .Asia

The future of .Asia and domain parking.

Read More

Read Ben’s thoughts on SEO in this article from The Melbourne Age

Get some great insight into the domain industry by watching Frank Schillings key note at the Seattle domain round table (2007).

You might notice that there is not a great deal of buzz about the net’s newest TLD .Asia. Domain industry folk are certainly not excited. Reading the banter on industry forums such as namepros.com, .Asia is described as “crap” or “as worthless as .mobi”

Domain industry big daddy Frank Schilling has openly expressed a lack of interest in the .Asia name space, encouraging domain investors to focus on ccTLDs and generic TLDs such a .com (primarily), .net, .org etc.

So what’s the vibe here on the ground? In Asia.

Big money is flowing through the .Asia domain auctions.

Taking a look at some of the top auction names it is clear to see that at least some people with dollars believe in .Asia

sushi.asia $22,500
cooking.asia $21,500
water.asia $19,388

Some naughtier names have auctioned for over $70,000 US

Big spends on on generic .Asia names are taking place across the entire spectrum of meaning. Any words with broad meaning and commercial value are fetching auction prices anywhere between $3000 - $5000. Good luck picking one up at the registry. Even xylophone.asia is gone

So lets break down some of the arguments that have been passed for and against .Asia.

Against:

Asia is a western conception. It has been said that people of the region, Japanese, Korean, Thai, view themselves in terms of their nationality, not as “Asian”. This is a compelling argument and makes you wonder what meaning people of Asian countries will derive when surfing the new name space. If .Asia doesn’t resonate, maybe it wont succeed.

On top of this, Asia is awash with name space. Each country with its own ccTLD as well as language / character IDN’s. With this fragmentation of name space, language and meaning, who’s to say which name space will dominate and retain the most traffic.

For:

Very little of the of the trade or commerce that takes place across borders in Asia uses ccTLDs or IDNs.

Tourists booking their holiday in Thailand don’t book on .co.th

A development firm opening office in Tokyo is unlikely to use .co.jp

An importer ordering products from a Chinese factory is unlikely to buy from .cn

The emergence of a new name space to represent the region may serve as the new home for the international commerce that takes place in Asia.

Not to mention that Asia is booming. Previously closed economies are increasingly opening up, and with the ease of travel borders are becoming fluid.

Maybe the changing state of the region makes it the perfect time for the new name space that names in the domain business love to hate.

During the last day of SMX China I had the good fortune to share lunch with Matthew McDougall, Laker Chen and Jessica Zhang from China based search marketing agency Sinotech Search.

I gained a lot of great insights from talking to Matthew especially about the search industry in China and operating a business in Asia.

On operating a business Matthew spoke a lot about how to structure a company to keep staff motivated and said that even on Saturdays and Sundays his team are in the office working away because its what they love doing. He seemed genuinely proud that his company is making a positive difference to the lives of his 120 or so employees.

Matthew has set up companies before, previously setting up in Silicon Valley. Probably the biggest piece of encouragement I took from him was when he said “The first company you setup is always a mess, you do everything wrong. You just have to take everything you learn and use it the second time around.” Really good advice for someone like myself making a lot of hard decisions about company setup in Asia.

After the conference i fired some quick questions to Matthew to get a better understanding of the industry in China.

How should companies targeting Chinese audiences approach beginning paid search campaigns in China?

Matthew: Consult with Sinotech Search Understand local language nuances, local seasonal trends and the way local search engines work (each SE has particular algorithmic structures to contend with)

How does natural search on the major Chinese search engines differ from search engines like Google and Yahoo?

Matthew: Baidu is King! Major difference is number of paid inclusions within organic results. Some keywords will have pages of paid inclusion.

Any predictions about major developments in the search industry in Asia over the next two years?

Matthew: Local Search Providers will continue to dominate. Will see the use of cost per day and cost per acquisition advertising models- support for text, display and video ads.

For more information about the Sinotech group see their website: China SEO Agency Sinotech Search

To read more of Matthew in the Blogosphere check out this post on Thomas Crampton dot com or some comments by Matthew about business in China in the New York Times.

It’s that simple.

But there are some companies out there that are breaking this simple equation.

I see it all the time in Thailand and Bangkok. Web development outfits re branding Content Management Systems like Joomla and Wordpress, then selling them to businesses at a premium.

Lets look at some of the reasons this is shifty practice.

1. It shows a myopic lack of vision and creativity.
Just because you can’t make money off the CMS doesn’t mean you can’t make money. There are dozens of ways you can structure your business relationships around open source and still profit. I’m not going to go in to detail here obviously :P, but use your noggin.

2. It builds inefficiency in to your business relationships.
Taking money from a business for doing nothing, or selling them something that is free, builds inefficiency in to your relationship. Great business relationships come when two organisations really have something to offer each other, be it knowledge, skills or products. If a web developer or SEO is going to start off a business relationship by charging for an open source CMS, you’ve got to ask the question, what are they going to charge for next?

3. Open source is developed by passionate and dedicated people.
Trying to profit off other peoples work is…..not cool. Businesses that re brand and profit off open source are essentially leaches. If you dig open source, best to contribute instead of leach. Even just being an advocate of open source is a valuable contribution.

Hopefully as time goes on, open source brand recognition will go upward and more people will be able to spot open source when they see it. That day will be the downfall of the open source moochers.

Wordpress 2.5 was sneakly released today only days after Release Candidate 2 was made available.

Some business people hesitate when you offer an open source (free) web development platform and tell them that it will be good for their business.

Sounds too good to be true right? It’s SEO, it’s powerful, fast and stable like a brick….and it’s free!

If you don’t believe the hype, check out some of the other small businesses running wordpress

Ebay
Yahoo Corporation
New York Times
CNN

It’s fair to say the open source juggernaut is powering on.

The great thing about deploying wordpress for clients is, once it is configured properly and ready to run the whole focus of SEO changes.

When clients ask what they can do to get more search traffic I simply say “Start writing about your business.”

Need a custom search friendly wordpress install for your business?

Contact me.

In a rush?

Ask me about professional outsourced template design and coding to get you up and running in the space of a week.

After becoming full time SEO guy in January this year, my first consultation was with a well known Phuket Muay Thai camp. The camp is run by two accomplished Muay Thai and MMA fighters and a Thai family with a long history in Muay Thai.

The gym’s business website, even though visually appealing, had never really ranked for any of the search phrases that related to their business. For most searches they were found on page 18.We spent about 5 days together working on the site.By the time I had left they were on page 3. A week later they had hit page one for most of their key phrases.I asked the guys from Tigerpitt to come in to the office and spend some time talking about their business experience and how they felt about the importance of SEO and the Internet.

Sean talks about how he came to open the Tigerpitt Phuket MMA Camp.

Aaron’s introduction and how he started as a Trainer at the camp.
The Tigerpitt is typical of a lot of great Thiland tourism experiences. As you arrive at the camp, built on 4 Rai of Phuket paradise, you feel that you are in for a different experience. As you are train amongst coconut palms and jog along peaceful island roads you find yourself wondering how you could find any experiences back home that could possibly compare.

Sean talks a little more about the Tigerpitt Gym in Phuket

A lot of markets in Thaialnd are not particularly competitive when it comes to organic search space. This was not the case for Muay Thai camps in Phuket. There are about 10 gyms on the Island, all actively using the internet to compete for students.

Aaron talks about the Gym’s customer base.

Time for a Testimonial.
Ok, Ill be honest, when I asked these guys to come in and talk I said something along the lines of “I want you to come to my office and say good things about me.” Not exactly subtle.But nevertheless, it wasn’t hard for them because the results we achieved were great, and like a lot of businesses, they had had bad SEO experiences in the past.

Sean talks e commerce in Phuket & gives the Guru a plug.
So that’s it. 2008 Customer #1 story told. But I know what you are thinking.
You want to see a fight.
Blood lust. I understand. It’s only natural.

See Sean fight (and win) at Singapore King of the Cage.

Here are some of the sources that educated me in the month of March.

A lot of aspiring businesses want big search exposure and inevitably come up with a multiple site
strategy that involves copying sites across different domains. Copy / Paste works well in word but has some consequences if you are looking for search exposure.

Check out SEO Moz’s Quality Content vs Spam

Be familiar with the properties of spam, and then avoid a network that matches those properties. Think quality, not quantity. Google does.

Who’s managing your Pay Per Click?
Are your pay per click dollars being spent on browsers or customers? How many of your dollars are being spent on dubious clicks coming from domain parking pages? I’ll admit, I’m a big fan of pay per click. Instant traffic and widespread exposure. Even though it is satisfying to see targeted clicks coming through your site, the refinement process in Pay Per Click is complex and extensive.

Pay Per Click Hero help me keep on top of the topics. But the one stand out pay per click piece in march was from El Reg. Zeitgeist inspired Please ignore the cash machine behind the curtain gives a good analysis of how the rush to spend pay per click dollars sees a lot of advertising budgets drained on dubious keyword matches and the enigmatic content network.
Definitely some anti Google sentiment in that one. No reason to hold a grudge against the Google. Seems that pay per click gets additional refinement features as each new week roles around. Know the game before you spend big on it.

Still holding a grudge against SEOMoz for not publishing my article “Chicks don’t dig Analytics“, but I’ll get over it.

This week saw me running around town, making a few new relationships with some creative folk in Bangkok.

First was Nicolai Kehlet From Bangkok Recording & Post Production Studio, Paradise Productions.

Paradise Productions is Bangkok’s newest audio studio and is packed full of boutique audio gear that will make most audiophiles drool.

Nicolai has a long list of credits in post production for radio, TV and film in Denmark and supports all production projects in the studio with his knowledge of recording, mixing and mastering.

I will be using Paradise Productions for any production projects that need that extra professional studio touch.

Check out some photos of the recently completed studio.

If you have an audio project & would like to use the Paradise Productions studio, you can Contact Nicolai Directly.

If you would like consultation on using audio as a part of your website marketing and search engine promotion strategy, please get in touch with me.

Next cab off the rank was a talented graphic designer by the name of Bee.

Bee is a Bangkok based freelance graphic designer that has done a lot of great designs and worked on quite a few large projects. My personal favorite from her portfolio is her design for the Marriott Gold Card site. Simple, yet elegant. Stylish, yet sophisticated.

Even though I am a bit of an Adobe Photoshop wizz (its true Bee), and love tinkering with graphic design and digital imagery, I am by no stretch of the imagination a professional graphic designer.

So for those projects and clients which require fresh and original website designs, I will be using Bee’s services.
Bee can produce in Photoshop and Illustrator formats, and also produces Flash content.

Ill be producing the super search friendly code……. and you?

You’ll be seeing traffic and conversions going through the roof!

Really….you will.

Up next, is a client. Saying exactly that.

Registration Paid, Flights booked.

Really pleased to be attending SMX (Search Marketing Expo) in China in April.

Lately I’ve had a deep and burning desire to talk SEO and web analytics.

I’ve tried it with my friends, but I see them tune out after about 45 seconds.

I’ve tried talking about it with girls at bars. They usually just finish their drink and walk away.

Last week a client even said to me “Look, this stuff is really boring. How about you just do it and then Ill pay you.” Straight to the point.

Yes, its been hard to find that special someone in Bangkok that will engage in decent SEO conversation.

So hopefully my pilgrimage to SMX China will help me get this out of my system & keep up to date with the trends.

Might even use the opportunity to see some sights.

In an earlier post, I wrote about attending the Position Front Page Bangkok Conference.

Being an SEO geek, I’d been hanging out to hear people talk about SEO for months.

So I returned from the conference and punched out a blog post titled “Bangkok Position Front Page SEO Conference”

A week later, in the Google search window, I Typed “Position Front Page Bangkok” or “Position Front Page”

Who’s on top? Not them.

So effectively, I can assume that anyone searching for their SEO Firm, is going to find mine also. There is no nasty business involved. They are a good SEO Company. It’s Just Business and how the technology works. My Site, although spartan in design, has sweet sweet SEO Power.

You can see how this opens up a plethora of opportunities for organisations to gain search exposure on a variety of different issues, just by Blogging.

Cutting Edge SEO? Was in 2002.
But I thought it would be nice to show the Bangkok Business community an example of it in action.

A great display of the power of Content Management Systems and content production to gain search ranking on-the-fly or as an organic process intertwined with the day to day running of your business.

Two words of advice Position Front Page.

1. Word.
2. Press.

Click below to see the evidence.