SEO services in South Korea
An SEO company for Korean businesses. Korea is the rare market where Google is the challenger: Naver holds the majority of search and widened its lead again last year, which makes the platform question really a question about who your customers are.
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Naver and Google, with different requirements for each
On the most widely used measure of Korean search, Naver sits around 63% and Google around 30%, with Daum and Bing sharing what is left — and Naver widened its lead over the previous year rather than losing ground. That single fact reorganises everything. A plan written on the assumption that search means Google is describing under a third of the market you are standing in.
Naver is also not a search engine in the sense the rest of this site uses the word. It is a portal that answers most queries from inside its own properties — its blogs, its cafés, its Knowledge iN answers, its Place listings — so ranking there is a matter of publishing Korean-language content inside those platforms and sustaining it, not of optimising a website in the classical sense. It requires Korean, and it requires being inside the ecosystem, which is why that half of the work is delivered by a Korean partner rather than attempted from outside.
The split maps almost exactly onto audience, which makes the decision easier than it sounds. If your customers are Korean consumers, the work is largely Naver. If your buyers are outside Korea — and for an export economy of cosmetics, components, electronics and machinery, plus a substantial English-language medical tourism trade, a great many of them are — the work is Google, in English, and that is the half we run directly.
- 63%Naver’s share of Korean search — a plan built only on Google covers under a third of it
- KRNaver work delivered by a Korean partner, because it lives inside Korean-language platforms
- 48hThe free Search Review: written findings from your market’s data inside two business days
- 1One point of contact and one report, whatever mix of languages the work needs
Fees are published and quoted in writing. How we work internationally.
Where we work in South Korea
Each city page is written from that city’s own market. More Korean cities follow as their pages meet the same standard.
What SEO for a Korean business involves
Deciding which platform your customers are on
Korean consumers, largely Naver. Overseas buyers, Google in English. Most businesses need both, in a proportion worth working out before anything is written.
Naver work delivered in Korean, in market
Blog and café content, Knowledge iN, Place listings, sustained over time. Done by a Korean partner under one plan rather than approximated from outside the language.
English pages built for buyers abroad
Cosmetics, components, machinery and medical tourism all sell to people searching in English. Those pages are their own site, not a translation, and that is the half we run directly.
One plan and one report across both
Two platforms, two languages, one strategy and one blended cost per enquiry — rather than two agencies reporting two versions of the same month.
South Korea SEO, answered plainly
Is Google enough on its own in Korea?
Only if your customers are outside Korea. Domestically Naver holds the majority of search and extended its lead again last year, so a Google-only plan aimed at Korean consumers is working the smaller part of the market. For exporters and for anyone selling to buyers abroad, Google is exactly the right and often the only target.
Why is Naver so different from Google?
Because it answers most queries from inside its own properties rather than sending people out to the open web. Its blogs, cafés, Knowledge iN answers and Place listings are where the visibility sits, so the work is publishing and sustaining Korean-language content inside those platforms. It is a different discipline from website SEO, not a dialect of it.
Can you do the Naver side?
Through a Korean partner, under the same plan and the same reporting. It cannot be done well from outside the language and the ecosystem, and we would rather say so than sell you a version of it that does not work. The Google and English-language side we run directly.
We export. Does any of the Naver question apply to us?
Much less. If your buyers are in the United States, Europe or elsewhere in Asia, they are on Google and searching in English, and the whole Naver conversation is beside the point for that part of your business. Many Korean exporters need a small Naver presence for credibility at home and a serious English programme for revenue abroad.
How long does this take in Korea?
On the English and Google side, first measurable movement typically shows inside three months, with useful positions in four to eight depending on the category — often faster, because few competitors write properly in English. Naver visibility runs on a different clock and is judged differently. See how we manage Google Ads for the paid side.
See how your Korean market ranks
A free written review of your rankings and your ad account — read for the buyers who are outside Korea as well as the ones who are not. Two business days, yours to keep either way.
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