Yahoo Search (Japan) had 2,609 mil search queries during the month of April, which made them the number 1 search site in Japan. According to the report by NetRatings (netratings.co.jp) “Search Service Usage Report” (the search conducted on PC at home and work), Google search had second most search users and the number of search queries in Japan.
Fields: SearchBrands/SearchUsers/Reach/Queries/PageViews/Sessions (thousands)
In addition to the regular Yahoo algorithm updates, time to time, Yahoo Japan has its own algorithm changes, which are unique to Japanese market. In December 2009, they had another major updates, and many experienced the changes in ranking. Here is a list of some of the changes I’ve seen in the past month.
Of course, the competition level is different depending on the keyword, and that also determines how much of the changes you saw since the last update.
Now, in order to benefit from this update, I recommend following optimization work:
I just posted my presentation about the Search in Japan from International Search Summit in London last month.
As you can see, my presentation shows bunch of numbers, which don’t mean much to you unless you were in the audience. Here’s what I talked about.
Market:
94 million Internet users
75.3% Penetration rate
4% access Internet from TV and gaming devices
73.4% on Broad Band
90% of
Yahoo Japan added a new function to its keyword assist, which will automatically convert Roma-ji typed word into Japanese characters (Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji, see below.) as the searchers type. This could change your target keywords since many searchers tend to pick a word/phrase from a list to get the search results rather than to complete typing their original search query. (Note: When typing Japanese characters, many of us type the words in Roma-ji format using Roman letter alphabet, then select the desired format (Hiragana, Katakana, Kanji, or in many cases mix of 2 or more styles) from a list of words that have the desired character combination. I know, it’s time consuming to say the least.)
New Yahoo Japan Keyword Assist
The keyword assist function was added to Yahoo search box to help searchers narrow the search results by providing a list of popular search queries including the word/phrase typed in the search box. (See below.)
Yahoo Japan announced today that Overture Japan will operate under Yahoo Japan brand starting October 1, 2009. Overture is currently a subsidiary of Yahoo Japan, providing the PPC services for PC and mobile for Japanese search market.
This may be a way to strengthen Yahoo’s online advertising services, which currently provides display ads, text ads, e-mail ads and affiliate programs. By bringing in Overture’s PPC services into Yahoo advertising service plan, they will be able to provide the total online advertising services to its customers.