How to utilize Naver subsidiary services for marketing

Understanding Naver Properties

In South Korea, where Google isn’t blocked, Naver dominates search traffic, holding the top position with about 60%, while Google ranks second place, and like Daum and Bing follows. Many Naver properties aren't indexed on Google, suggesting that Naver boosts its profitability through internal links.

To expand your online presence in Korea, optimizing your website content on Naver is crucial. So you should study Naver's products and services to plan how to create contents that will be ranked on Naver search engine result pages(SERPs). In this article, we will find what are Naver products and services.

Naver Products and Services

When you enter Naver, you'll encounter various different sections. Let's explore what products and services Naver offers, what their features are, and how you can use them for SEO.

Naver Blog

Naver Blog, user-generated content (UGC) platforms where users post specialized contents on various themes, serves as a multifaceted platform where individuals, brands, and businesses publish diverse contents from personal musings to professional insights.

According to the data that Naver issued in 2023, 33 million blogs were opened, and a total of 2.8 billion posts were posted during a year. In addition, blog users, called 'blogger's, formed a community of 70 million users and expressed 1.4 billion ’likes’, with their audience consisting of 68.97% male and 31.03% female, the largest age group being 25-34 year olds.

Naver Knowledge iN

Naver Knowledge iN, one of the first Q&A webpages and also known as an Open Dictionary function, allows users to ask questions on any topic and receive answers provided by others, with points given to those who offer the most helpful responses.

In the Knowledge In, users have the choice to write their own articles or facilitate collaboration by initiating a series of articles on a shared topic. Additionally, there is an 'Ask an Expert' section where licensed professionals provide answers to users' questions. As of 2023, Knowledge iN had 907 million cases, and 47 million accumulated users.

Naver Cafe

Similar to Naver Blog, Naver Cafe is a user-generated content (UGC) platform where people upload specialized material on a variety of subjects, including study, shopping, lifestyles. Users may form communities on a variety of themes in Cafe. In May 2017, there were 10.5 million active Naver Cafes, making Naver the most popular cafe platform in Korea. Every day, 800,000 new materials are created in 10 million cafes.

Naver Clip

Naver Clip is a short-form video platform of Naver. Recently, Naver released the integrated version of it with Naver Blog's short-form service, Moment. The Clip editor's main feature is the "information sticker," which allows producers to link their films to other Naver services like purchasing and bookings, resulting in a seamless user experience from content discovery to real-world activities.

And Naver Clips received a great response from users of the MZ generation (born in the early 1980s and early 2000s, which is a trending word in South Korea) with more than 2.3 million participations in the blog check-in challenge held in 2023. It is a platform worth considering if you're interested in Naver SEO because it intended to be continuously expanded.

Naver Posts

Naver Post shares the same interface and topics as Naver Blog, but unlike blogs, is a professional-focused site. Its audience consists of 69.64% men and 30.36% women. The largest age group of visitors is 25 to 34 years old.

Naver Post is a platform that has a lower recognition than Naver blogs, but the uploaded posts are mainly focused on categorized premium contents, including paid contents provided by professional influencers in each field or official brands, and thus the number of users is increasing.

Naver TV

Naver TV is an online broadcast network that offers web dramas produced by Naver, as well as user-created material like as videos and live-streaming. It offers diverse content, including Korean idols and web dramas. Although primarily serviced in Korean, the service is also popular in Japan, where foreigners get access to the platform using a VPN. Naver's integration with Naver TV, Naver Topics, and Naver Blogs simplifies navigation. Its audience consists of 67.19% male and 32.81% female. The largest age group of visitors is 25 to 34 years old.

Naver Band

Naver Band, a mobile-based group communication application, supports 10 languages and services to over 50 million users from 168 countries. In South Korea, BAND ranks second in social media app usage after Facebook, with a total usage time of 29 million hours, showing a 32 percent increase from the previous year, according to Wiseapp's September 2017 survey.

After COVID-19, as remote work and online education become more common, this service is gaining appeal as a remote communication tool, resulting in an 81% rise in new users in the US. Naver Band was divided into 3 channels:

1. Naver Band : Main Channel

1. Naver Band Guide

This is one of Naver Band's pages, and the guide account is officially administered by Naver Band. When utilizing the band, you can refer to it through a translator.

1. Naver Band Kids

It has the same features as the Naver Band Main Page, contains no commercials, and kids can only join bands invited by parents and teachers, ensuring safety.

Content Planning Template on Naver

📑 Content Planning Template on Naver

Using the template below, you can plan and track your journey of expanding your online presence in Naver. Here are the steps:

• Select your core channel and its content URLs, which will be a core content of your Naver business, and write them on columns E to H. Through this process, you can organize the core channel's main contents into several categories. For example, if your business is running a dog caring center, you may choose Naver Blog as your core content, and select your content type as picture of your pets. By following this process, you will be able to increase your understanding of the core channel and expand your content.
  • Setting Naver Blog or Naver Post as your core channel, because of its usage, increases the chances of your content being ranked on the Naver search engine.
• Write your HQ content source URL in columns A to D.
  • Choose your content type and categorize it based on the information in columns E through G. The content, keywords, and images offered in the core channel can help you learn about what users are interested in. For example, if you enter a term about dogs into Naver and find that information about dog toys appears in the top SERP, you can use that as your keyword.
  • In column A, enter the URL of the content of the headquarters you want to use, and in column B, write the type of content such as images and artifacts. In column C, set the category of content you want to publish based on the information obtained from local content. In column D, you can determine and write whether to localize from the information obtained from columns E to H. Through this process, users of Naver will become more aware of your product.
• Check your content linking status, and write it in columns I to S.
  • In column I and M, write down the pages’ URL which you want to leverage. Leveraging different types of content for link development will improve your organic search position, traffic, and value in your field. And then put the URLs of them in column J and O, make it easier to identify by recording the content type in columns K and P.
  • After that, In columns L, M, Q, and R, record the status of the link and the date of the content's publication, because it will be make you maintain track of and update this information on an ongoing basis.

Based on what has been explained so far, we will find how to truly localize information and include links in it.

How to actually plan and publish on Naver

Preparing your journey on Naver

Before we start, you should know how to create your Naver account and sign in. This will make your contents planning easier because you can use all the properties with your Naver account. Here's a brief guide to help you create a Naver account:

• Visit the Naver website: Go to the Naver website.
• Access the Sign-Up page: Look for the "Sign Up" or "Join" option on the Naver homepage. It's usually located in the top right corner of the page. Click on it to proceed to the sign-up form. By default, Naver's interface is in Korean. If you’re needed, look for language options at the top or bottom of the sign-up page to switch to English or your preferred language. This will make navigation easier.

And check all the requirements. (You can sign up without checking the options.)

Plan with Article list of your content to leverage your HQ content resources using AI tool

1. Choose your core content category and organize related content to distinguish the source
2. If your native language is not Korean, you should also consider using AI translation tools like ChatGPT. Instructions for using the translation tool may be found on the article list page. Also, you can learn about how to register on Naver in this article.
3. Publish on core channel with inserted links from Naver Blog, Naver Clip or other channels to achieve higher rankings.

   1. Naver Blog

      1. You can post on your Naver Blog channel with two options:

         1. You may access your blog page and select the writing option at the bottom of your profile.

            Naver Blog Page

         2. Also, you may use my blog's writing button straight from Naver homepage.

            How to write a blog content on the Naver main page

   2. Naver Clip

      1. You can upload clips from Naver Blog mobile pages. The clips you upload on your blog will be featured in the clips section of the Naver main application.

         How to upload Clips on Naver Blog

      2. In Naver Smart Block, recommended video bundles that can be found at the top of the Naver search screen, your clip video will be exposed when the user fits your clip categories. Users can watch clip videos and immediately go to various services such as your blog page or shopping page through the link in the video. This shows how the connection between Naver properties is becoming even stronger.

      Naver smartblock (Source: Naver blog official)
      Link in Clip video that lands to Brand Store (Source: Naver Clip page)

Conclusion

Using Naver for SEO in Korea has distinct benefits. Even if you lack proficiency in Korean, you can try to publish using these procedures. Naver's algorithm prioritizes material from its ecosystem.

As a result, the more relevant sources you publish on Naver, the greater your chances of appearing in Naver SERPs. This highlights the importance of building a presence on Naver in order to effectively target Korean audiences and enhance your online visibility in the Korean market.