As I have been in Lima the last couple of weeks, I of course couldn’t avoid signing up for MozCation Lima (Twitter) when I saw they where having the event here. It lead to an interesting evening with a bit of networking, and even “a secret trick” from Rand Fishkin I didn’t knew about before. (And that I later proved wrong, sigh)
The event was (as far as I understood) arranged by Lima Valley, a group I have mixed feelings about. (And as I just realized, have the most terrible SEO ever in spite of using WordPress). Nonetheless the event was allright, with a free buffet and some wine – and even free T-Shirts as you can see on the photos in the bottom of this post.
Most surprisingly I actually thought that the people attending this event knew at least the basic of SEO. But when the first speaker came on and asked “How many knows what Keyword Research is?”, only 2-3 other people in the room put their hands up. This was a bit of an “omg” moment; because this is so basic and fundamentally important for SEO in general.
All in all the event gave me some nice inspirations and thoughts about the state of SEO and Internet in general here in Peru. It hasn’t moved much since I came here, and although it is changing bit by bit, the process is really going slow. I’m hoping to spread my series of SEO for Developers a bit in the community, it is certainly something they need to learn here. All good SEO starts with the developers – if your CMS is directly hurting your rankings, all other optimizing is pointless.
I also think there might be some good opportunities in this field now, and to be one of the first movers. This might be something I will try to focus on in the upcoming months.
To sum up, then I am looking forward to following the development of the SEO as the markets in Latin America starts to mature and get more traction. It will definitely be interesting to follow an upcoming and merging market like this.
What is your experiences with SEO in Peru and the Latin American markets? Where is the biggest differences, between SEO en Europe / USA compared to South America?
What is the experience with other countries in Latin America?
Well, to sum up on the most important differences (mainly Europe vs Latin-America) in my opinion:
- Language. You need a local domain (ex .pe for Peru), otherwise Google will be confused. Don’t go for a .com or .net for your localized content; a .pe will help you immensely ranking higher in Peru.
- Competition is less. Thats also why Rand Fishkin noted that there where “less spam”; it comes because very few people know anything about SEO, and therefor also less people “spamming” the results.
I’d love to hear if other people have noticed other differences in SEO for Latin America, but those a just a couple of the things I have noticed.