The Swedish market is huge, and succeeding with your SEO efforts is a possibility for everyone with the right knowledge and tools. So, in this article, we´ll give you a lot of important tips for making it with your SEO efforts on the Swedish market.
Understand basic facts about Sweden
To succeed with your SEO in Sweden, you’ll have to know at least some basic facts about the country. Sweden is the third largest country in the EU, and its inhabitants have a huge purchasing power compared to most other countries.
Tips for Understanding the Swedish SEO-market
As a non-swede, it’s important to get familiar with the Swedish market before putting money and manpower together to implement a functional SEO strategy.
Swedes rarely do impulse purchases
Swedes as a group are generally not prone to impulsive buying. Comparing prices and quality for products online are common before making a purchase. Swedes also generally prefer to buy products from companies they have heard from before.
Google is king
According to the SEO-agency SEO-texter, Google is by far the most popular search engine in Sweden. The current market share for Google is 92,4 % in Sweden according to that source. On second place, you’ll find Bing with a market share of 2,5 %.
The e-commerce market is huge
Most swedes shop online on places like Amazon.se, Netonnet.se and El-giganten.se. Even 7 out of 10 retirees shop online regularly according to the huge Swedish online-marketing investigation Svenskarna och Internet.
Below, you’ll find a number of key takeaways from the same source, ie. Svenskarna och Internet:
- Almost 100 % of swedes born at the 70:s, 80:s or 90:s shop online every year.
- Swedish men and women shop online in about the same frequency.
- Shopping online is more common for swedes with an income above the average salary in Sweden.
- 1 out of 10 swedes were unable to complete at least one online purchase last year. In most cases, the payment solution was too complicated.
- Most swedes shop for products like shoes, clothes, presents and pharmaceutical goods online.
- 1 out of 5 swedes buy groceries online.
- 1 out of 10 swedes buy tobacco and/or alcohol online.
SEO success factors for the Swedish market
Below, we´ll provide you with the most important success factors for succeeding with SEO in Sweden.
Stay away from black-hat SEO
Buying links is possible but must be done without breaking Swedish marketing laws. Bought links must be sponsor-tagged, and the readers must know that the post is sponsored via for example, a message on the bottom of the article.
Link catalogues are no longer used in Sweden and are mostly ineffective and considered a black hat Seo practice. Haro, i.e. help a reporter out link building, is currently not a thing in Sweden.
Try to rank for easy keywords at first
At first, try to rank for long tail keywords on the Swedish market, i.e. keywords with low search difficulty. You should off course try to target all important keywords, even the harder ones, but don’t forget the low-hanging fruit.
Link internally in a correct manner
Try to always link to about 2 or 3 articles in a blog post and make about 2 to 3 internal links pointing to the post you´ve just made. Internal linking in a correct way is appreciated from both users and search engines.
Try to win featured snippets
Finding opportunities for featured snippets and winning featured snippets are an important part of SEO in Sweden. The snippets work about the same as on the English versions of Google, so if you´ll follow the global best practice for winning snippets, you’ll do fine in Sweden.
Match the search intent
Matching the visitors search intent is important all around the world, and in Sweden off course. Matching the search intent means that you’ll provide your website visitors with a fast and correct answer to their search question.
Make logical and selling title tags
SEO-tags, or title tags are used in Sweden, the same way as any other place. It’s also worth knowing that most swedes are tired of “click-baity” SEO-titles, so be descriptive and keep your SEO-tags short, ideally under 70 characters.
Make sure the website has a simple design
Most swedes prefer to visit visually beautiful, but at the same time simply designed websites without flashing lights or complex designs. Swedes, and most Scandinavians prefer a simple and clean website design compared to internet users globally.
Make sure the website loads fast
Using an online tool like Core Web Vitals are usually a good idea. Because if you do, you’ll see how fast your page is right now together with important information regarding factors that can be improved upon.
A page load speed of 2 seconds or lower are generally accepted in Sweden. If the load time is longer than that, you can expect lower than ideal website traffic.
Use social media to your advantage
Around 85 % of swedes use social media platforms on a regular basis. The average time spent on social media is about 2 hours a day per person, so advertising on social media platforms is generally a good idea.
The biggest and most influential social media platforms in Sweden are:
- Facebook with a market share of about 65 %.
- Instagram with a market share of about 15 %.
- Twitter with a market share of about 9 %.
- Pinterest with a market share of about 5 %.
- Reddit with a market share of about 1 %.
Influencer marketing is on the rise
Popular Swedish influencers on the major social media platforms are for example Therese Lindgren, Bianca Ingrosso and Jocke och Jonna. They are primarily followed by girls and women.
For boys and men, influencers like IJustWantToBeCool, Mr Beast and Tomu are the most popular influencers on platforms like YouTube and Facebook.
So, advertising on platforms like Twitch, Facebook and Instagram, when targeting people that follow Swedish influencers, is often a good idea in order to reach out to young people in Sweden.
