Taiwan is a relatively small and inward looking country, this lack of scale and exposure to modern practices has led to a relatively poor Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) environment. In short, many SEO services offered in Taiwan are not great. In some cases there is a mistaken impression that Google Adwords and SEO are the same thing, and some SEO companies in Taiwan still use outdated keyword stuffing and bulk link-building strategies that risk long-term Google penalties.

It’s not all bad news though! This situation creates opportunity for those who do SEO right!

Keyword Difficulty in Taiwan

Keyword Difficulty (KD) is a measure of how difficult it is to get a website to rank on the first page of Google for a given keyword. KD takes into account the SEO strength and quality of content in the sites that are already ranking for that keyword, so when aggregated across many keywords, KD can give us an indication of the SEO strength in a specific market.

We analysed the KD of the top ranking websites in Taiwan, USA, France, Italy and the UK across a number of industries, using a keyword that was adjusted for local language.

The results show how websites in Taiwan are much weaker than those of other countries.

Keyword difficulty

Taiwan is a smaller market, so you would expect KD to be less, right? Well, yes, but the market is not that much smaller, and the price of goods and services are pretty much equal with the comparison countries. Therefore, we believe that in general, SEO represents a good investment in Taiwan.

Search Engines

Source

Google has slowly but steadily risen to become the main search engine in Taiwan, with close to 90% of the search market. The gradual shift from Yahoo to Google can be attributed to two major factors.

1. Design – Yahoo is cluttered and busy, Google is clean and simple. This reflects a growing trend in Taiwan for modern webdesign practices.
2. Quality – The quality of Google’s search results are, in our humble opinion, just that bit better.

So does that mean that Google works exactly the same in Taiwan as other countries? Well, it’s hard to say exactly. However, there is evidence to suggest that Google is slightly more lenient towards Black Hat techniques in less competitive markets. We don’t advise that you jump on the Black Hat Train just yet though! All it takes is for Google to update their algorithm in Taiwan and sites that have previously used Black Hat SEO will be penalised.

How to localize SEO in Taiwan

So, how do we build our clients’ websites DA (with White Hat techniques), and how do we teach Google that your business is focusing on Taiwan?

Keywords

Traditional Chinese (繁體中文) is used in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau only. This means that, regardless of localisation, you are only competing with websites from these countries.

When doing keyword research, many people’s first step is Google’s Adwords Planner. This is a great tool and it works just fine in Taiwan. You can set the region to Taiwan and the Language to All Languages to get started.

Hitting ‘Advanced Search’ in the Location pop-up will allow you to hone right in on keywords being searched for in specific regions of Taiwan. For example Zhongli or Keelung.

Once you’ve settled on the location you want to focus on, you can then use your initial seed keyword to come up with some other keyword ideas that are relevant.

After that you can then use one of the paid SEO tools like MOZ to determine Keyword Difficulty or KD for each keyword. KD shows you how difficult it will be to rank on the first page of Google for a particular keyword. Be aware though, many of these tools don’t work very well in Taiwan, some because they struggle with the Chinese language set, and some because they don’t have Taiwan listed as a region.

We love a good NAP!

No, we’re not talking about the Taiwanese habit of taking a short lunchtime nap, in SEO, NAP refers to your Name, Address and Phone number.

The important thing here is that these are consistent, clear and accurate. This may sound simple, but there’s more to it than that.

Firstly, you need to make sure that on your website, your NAP is clearly marked (the footer is a good place to start), and following the schema.org guidelines for local businesses.

We’d hope that your business has been mentioned in many places across the internet, perhaps on business directories or other local sites. In this case, while it’s more of a challenge to manage the consistency of your NAP on external sites, this is a strong indicator to Google and well worth spending time on.

In Taiwan, another challenge in managing the consistency of NAP is that there are many different ways of spelling Chinese words in English. Some people use the Wade-Giles system, others just make it up. For example, 淡水 is (currently) spelled as ‘Tamsui’ on Google Maps, despite many businesses still referring to it as (the more phonetically correct) Danshuei.

The Fullon Dansuei Hotel is a great example!

Another thing to bear in mind is how you arrange your street address in Chinese and English. In Chinese you begin with the country and end with the street number, English is the other way around.

Google My Business

Google provides this as a free service, and it is especially helpful for local businesses. Head over and set yourself up as soon as you can. It’s an extremely painless process and will help Google to understand more about your services and where you operate, which in turn will help potential customers to find you easier online.

Before you register yourself, spend a few minutes to make sure that you’ve not already been listed. If you have, there is a fairly simple process so that you can claim ownership of your listing. Don’t be tempted to ignore a previous listing and set up a new duplicate one – this will confuse things for Google and your customers, not a good thing.

Remember that everything you add is visible online, so make sure you are proud of it! Upload some good quality images of your business, your products and your services. Write a good, compelling description and think about your target audience – are you writing Traditional Chinese for local Taiwanese, or English for expats?

Local Reviews

Once you’re set up on Google My Business, you can start to gather reviews that will be visible in search results. Google reviews can help you both to build trust and improve your rankings.

90% of customers report that they are influenced by positive reviews. This is a massive number and not something to be ignored.

Aside from the trust factor, there is growing evidence that having positive, local reviews on Google will help your business to show up in the map section for search results.

Which Taipei bar would you choose for a night out?

Google wants you to encourage your customers to go ahead and give reviews. So go for it! You might prompt people in email footers, on your website, or even (shock horror) face to face. Don’t ever be tempted to pay for fake reviews.

Blogging goes Local

We’ve discussed already that content is king, but how do you go about local content marketing? Simply stuffing local keywords into existing articles just isn’t going to cut it I’m afraid.

Content marketing is all about becoming a thought leader in something, and surprise surprise, local content marketing is the same. Get creative with your blog, taking your specific niche and talking about any local events, news, challenges etc that are relevant.

For example you might attend an event at Taipei’s Nangang exhibition centre – blog about it! Take some photos of yourself there and share with others how you think it might be useful for them and the rest of the Taipei community. Add local value to your readers.

Local Link Building

We talked previously about Domain Authority (DA). DA is a measure of a website’s trust, and is built by other websites linking to yours. The rationale is that a website must trust you to link to you.

In the current SEO environment, quality of links is far more important than quantity. Quality refers to two things, the DA of the site that is linking to you, and its relevance to your business.

So for localising SEO in Taiwan, the ideal link to acquire would be from a Taiwanese site with high DA that is also relevant to your industry. Links like this are likely to bring real customers to your site, so we like to think about modern link building as online PR.

Getting started, you might want to list your business on a few local Taiwanese business directories. Some examples, along with their DA and monthly traffic can be found below.

Blogger outreach can be a viable form of link building. You might be able to write a guest post in exchange for a link. Or a blogger might just mention you if they feel you can add real value to their readers. Consider exclusive offers for their readers which can sweeten the deal.

Here’s a few examples of popular blogs in Taiwan, again with their DA and monthly traffic.

What’s Next?

SEO is a very cost-effective way for you to get momentum for your business in Taiwan. If you are interested in learning more, give Gremlin Works a shout.

If you’re thinking about working from home, one of the first things you need to think about is where you will work from. Bearing in mind that you will be spending a large part of your day using your computer, you will need a dedicated work station with all the materials you need, good Wi-Fi access, and surroundings that are conducive to being able to concentrate. You need to approach this task with a professional eye, because imagining you can sit at the kitchen table or on the couch with your laptop every day will not make the best working environment.

What you need for your home business

Before you think about where to site your work area, calculate what space you will need. This will depend to a large extent on the type of business you’re running. For a computer-based business, a good-sized desk, ergonomic office chair and storage for your consumables and files will be all you’ll need. If you’re going to be making and/or selling products, you will also need storage space, and for craft businesses a manufacturing area. If you’re only intending to sell rather than make products yourself, then you could adopt a drop-ship model which eliminates the need for you to hold your own stock.

Finding the space

Once you’ve established the amount of space you need, you can then examine your home to see where your work area would best fit in. A spare room is ideal, as it can simply be repurposed for your requirements. If you don’t have a lot of space, you will have to come up with a clever solution, for example:

• Make use of areas that don’t have a specific function, g. alcoves, landings and under the stairs. Even large cupboards can be fitted out as home offices. You might need to have a good clear out to make enough space, but that’s no bad thing in itself.
• Have you got a garage or other outdoor building that could be converted, or do you have the space to build a garden room in the backyard? You do need to check on any planning restrictions on using outdoor buildings before starting your conversion or building project.
• Do you have a basement that doesn’t get used? Often this is because basements can be damp or prone to flooding, but this can be fixed by installing a sump pump to keep the room dry. It’s possible to install a pump yourself if you’re a DIY enthusiast, with a bit of guidance from an expert. You’ll find tutorials online that can help you with the process and give you instructions on dealing with the sump pump weep hole for example, or you can get a plumber to come in and do the job for you.
• Roof-spaces can similarly be converted for home office use, but bear in mind you will need adequate heating and ventilation, as the space will be more vulnerable to outside temperature variations.

Setting up your home work area is an important part of your venture, so make sure you get it right.

It might not seem like a major issue when taking a look at the bigger picture, but suffering from  a dry skin can be one of the most dehumanizing feelings out there, especially considering how just problematic and irritating dry skin can be.

Moreover, dry skin is hands down one of the most unsightly things out there, and it makes things worse by resulting in skin cracks, and a bit of pain as well.

Because dry skin can be caused by quite a number of external issues, it is vital that one takes the necessary precautions to ensure that their skin is in tip-top condition.

This means that one will have to exert more time and effort relative to the average Joe walking down the street to ensure that not only their skin stays soft, but healthy as well.

That being said, of note is that even though some certain people’s skin is not naturally dry, it can still become ashy, dry, and cracked due to some external factors such as the weather conditions.

So without further ado, here are some essential tips to ensuring that skin stays well moisturized and in great condition.

Purchase an exfoliating shower gel that is gentle on the skin

It’s never wise to be too rough and aggressive when it comes to exfoliating skin, particularly when it is dry. Moreover, it would be wise to steer clear from products that are heavily perfumed, as a majority of these products normally contain alcohol, which is not the most gentle on the skin.

In fact, a simple soap should work wonders; and rubbing it gently on the skin during a bath should be sufficient before lightly washing it off.

Take a small amount of time in the shower and let the water be lukewarm

A lot of people, especially ladies, love to take their sweet time pondering in the shower, contemplating their lives, and fantasizing about their love interests. Not only is it a time waster from a business point of view, but turns out it’s not the friendliest activity on the skin. That’s because spending too much time in the shower, particularly in hot or cold water, tends to rob the skin of its natural oils, and thus, turning it completely dry.

In addition to this, one can also have a look at Healthy Skin Solutions to sample more tips on maintaining a healthy skin.

Apply some moisturizer after taking a shower

Tying to the initial point, even if one takes a maximum of 5 minutes in the shower, it’s a given that some of the natural body oils that they initially had would have been naturally expelled during the shower process.

Hence, to replenish these lost oils and ultimately avoid dry skin, then it’s important that one naturally moisturizes after showering.

That being said though, ensure to not take it too far by over moisturizing with lotions as this might lead to other unwanted skin conditions such as acne.

In summary, some of the best skin care practices start home, particularly in the shower, and transcend to our day to day activities. For example protecting one’s skin from excessive sunlight is one way of ensuring the skin remains in prime condition. All in all, having great skin certainly helps one to fully enjoy all the pleasures of life!

Medical jobs have traditionally required working in a healthcare facility with patients in some capacity. However, technology has made it possible for an increasing number of medical professionals to work remotely. Here are eight medical careers that allow you to work from home. We’ll also discuss what these jobs entail, and the relevant credentials needed to qualify for them.

Telehealth Nursing

Telehealth nursing is when a nurse works with a patient through remote patient monitoring instead of checking their vitals and talking to them in person. It is quite possible that both the nurse and the patient are at home during the consultation. Most telehealth nursing jobs require an RN certification and bachelor’s degree in nursing. Doctors are able to fill this role, but they still predominantly work in the office visiting patients. Some work from home consulting with patients but may also travel as required.

Telephone Triage Nurse

Telephone triage nurses talk to patients over the phone to assess their condition. They need to be able to determine the severity of the condition and give advice without actually seeing the patient. Telephone triage nurses often work from home receiving calls after a doctor’s office after hours, determining if the patient needs to go to the Emergency Room or can wait until the doctor’s office opens the next day.

Telephone Interviewer

Telephone interviewers are medical specialists who interview clients to collect information regarding a particular matter. Many of them work for insurance companies. For example, a telephone interviewer may be running through questionnaires with those applying for health insurance. These jobs can be done from home. The greater issue is the ability to work when customers may be calling in to give interviews, so the job often requires working nights and weekends. A medical assistant formation and education program like those featured at Bestmedicalassistanteducation.Com will help you get a position in this field.

Medical Review Specialist

Medical review specialists spend most of their time handling customer service questions. They may perform coding reviews or administrative tasks in between customer service calls. This work is easily done from home.

Medical Transcription

Doctors rarely have the time to type up their handwritten notes from exams, and fewer have time to listen to the recorded audio of a patient’s exam and type it up. This is where medical transcriptionists come in. Medical transcriptionists must understand medical terminology and be able to accurately transcribe the discussion perfectly.

Case Manager

A case manager works with both patients and doctors to coordinate healthcare services. They frequently work with the patient’s family. A case manager may monitor the care a patient receives to ensure that standards are being met.

Radiologist

It is possible for a radiologist to work from home. Radiologist coding is when radiologists verify that procedures performed at a facility are billed correctly, whether to the patient or the insurance company. This job requires understanding both radiology and medical coding.

Medical Billing and Coding

Healthcare providers and healthcare facilities rely on medical billers to process insurance claims and bill patients. These workers often work from home. Those who want to work in medical coding need to graduate from an accredited program and pass a certification exam. Whether someone works in patient billing or processing insurance claims, an understanding of medical terminology and medical office procedures is a must.

Conclusion

There are a number of medical jobs that have long been done by people working from home. Technology and shifting business practices are allowing more medical professionals to work from home, as well.

What does your resume really say about you? Actually, much more than you think! Knowing which features to include in your resume (and which to definitely leave out) goes a long way in getting you noticed by recruiters.

Give your resume the “WOW” factor with these image-boosting elements.

Branding headline

Get ‘em at the get-go! Grabbing the recruiter’s attention from the onset is one important function of your branding headline. It should make them eager to find out more about you and spend a little extra time going through the rest of your resume. So, instead of simply “Project Manager,” try “Internationally Experienced Project Manager.”

Consistent presentation

Whether you use a traditional resume template or some other format, be consistent in how information is presented. A streamlined resume (one that presents the date in the same manner each time, for example) is easier to glance through than a mishmash of styles. If your last turn at job hunting was quite a while back, take the time to research which format best suits your professional profile and the post for which you are applying.

Short paragraphs and white spaces

Put yourself in the recruiter’s shoes – would you rather blocks of unnecessary information or short paragraphs that get to the point of what the applicant has to offer? Aim for tight paragraphs of no more than four lines with a little extra white space between them to help cut down on how busy the page might look.

Easy-to-scan

One study revealed that recruiters spend just six seconds scanning a resume before deciding whether the applicant would be a good fit for the position. You have to make your six seconds count! Use concise headings and subheading, bold text and bullet-points to draw the recruiter’s eyes to the most pertinent information.

Quantified accomplishments

Vague statements like “Increased company revenue” don’t really carry much weight with recruiters. Instead, be more precise by adding in percentages or dollar amounts which actually show just what you achieved – “Increased company revenue by an annual average of $25, 000” sounds much better.

Incorporate crucial keywords

Many companies use Applicant-Tracking Systems which zero in on keywords in your resume. The recruiter, too, is focused on finding certain keywords and phrases as they scan through the information your resume holds. Revisit the job description for the skills required and ensure these occur in your resume. If you are entering a new field, research the most-used phrases in relation to required competencies for the job you are applying for.

Professional email address and relevant URLs

Something as innocuous as your email address could be the reason your application was rejected. Admit it, MackDaddy365 or 2TrueHottie are not going to leave a good impression. Also, links which showcase your strengths (your profession-related blog or LinkedIn page, for example) are a good idea. Links to your social media accounts, however, are out of the question, unless they specifically relate to the job you are applying for.

Your resume is usually your first point of contact with recruiters. Focusing on the main features of your resume will increase your chances of getting noticed … and hired!