SEO in Slovenia
– what do you need to know?
The Republic of Slovenia is located to the south of central Europe. It is directly bordered by Croatia, Hungary, Austria and Italy. Its shoreline (a mere 44 kilometres) borders the Adriatic Sea to the southwest. The country’s largest city and capital is Ljubljana. Slovenia is a member state of UN, NATO and EU. It has belonged to the Eurozone since 2007. It is the richest and most developed (especially in terms of economy) former Yugoslav state, and one of the most prosperous countries of Central-Eastern Europe. Slovenia is relatively small, both in terms of area (it is 15 times smaller than Poland!) and in terms of population (currently approx. 2 million people).
As of early 2022, as much as 90% of the population (or approx. 1.87 million Slovenians) enjoyed internet access, and this number continues to increase. Between 2021 and 2022, this number increased by 2.3%, or 41,000 users. Residents of Slovenia are still more eager to user computers than mobile devices. The specific device breakdown is as follows:
- desktop (57.54%),
- mobile (40.99%),
- tablet (1.48%).
The vast majority of Slovenian internet users frequent social media outlets. In January 2022, there were some 1.61 million social media users, which translates to approx. 77.5% of the population as a whole. Still, we should keep in mind that those “users” do not necessarily represent actual, unique people. Social media popularity is experiencing exponential growth – in the period of 2021–2022 alone, the number of users increased by 11%, or by approx. 160,000 people. The most popular social media outlet is Facebook, favoured by as much as 80.31% of users. The overall ranking of Slovenia’s most popular social media outlets is as follows (as of Feb. 2022 data):
- Facebook (80.31%),
- Twitter (6.62%),
- Pinterest (6.06%),
- Instagram (3.2%),
- YouTube (1.76%),
- Reddit (0.9%).
The most important sectors of Slovenia’s economy are industry and services. Industry (an umbrella term including the chemical, pharmaceutical, automotive and electronic industries) is responsible for almost 24% of the country’s GDP.
As far as services are concerned, their most important elements are direct sales, financial/business services and tourism. The latter had been growing apace until the coronavirus pandemic struck.
2 million
Slovenia’s population
90 %
of the population enjoys internet access
1,87 million
internet users
95 %
of users use Google
Search engines in Slovenia
Google is by far Slovenia’s most popular search engine, as it is the SE of choice for almost 96% of the users. The overall local ranking of the most popular search engines is as follows:
- Google (95.58%),
- Bing (3.15%),
- DuckDuckGo (0.52%),
- Najdi.si (0.32%).
If you are thinking about positioning your company on the Slovenian market, it follows that you should focus your efforts on Google, as the remaining search engines are practically inconsequential.
The website should be optimised especially for the most popular web browsers. Google’s Chrome is the most popular browser in Slovenia, as it is favoured by over 68% of the users. The full breakdown of the most popular internet browsers is as follows:
- Chrome (68.14%),
- Safari (12.12%),
- Firefox (8.25%),
- Edge (5.1%),
- Samsung Internet (3%),
- Opera (2.19%).
Of particular note is the runner-up, Safari (Apple’s flagship browser), as it suggests that Apple’s devices enjoy considerable popularity in Slovenia. Just as importantly, Android is the most popular mobile device operating system (at 78.61%), but the runner-up is Apple’s iOS with an overall result of 20.85%.
E-commerce market in Slovenia
Slovenia is the world’s 77th largest e-commerce market. The overall e-commerce income for 2021 was USD 641 million. This particular market’s growth rate is 16% per annum. Slovenia’s online penetration (which stands at 48%) illustrates the market’s saturation level. In plain English, 48% of the country’s population bought at least one product online in 2021.
Slovenia is the Balkans’ richest country. Local consumer behaviour is notably influenced by the standards of Western Europe. One could say consumerism in Slovenia is on the rise. However, having said that, Slovenians are becoming more demanding and aware, as they prefer to pick famous local brands over unknown foreign ones. They are willing and able to pay more for superior quality.
By far, Slovenia’s most powerful e-commerce player is mimovrste.com, which has the overall income of USD 59 million. What is the overall e-commerce outlet ranking by total sales volume in 2021? Let us find out:
- mimovrste.com (USD 59 million),
- merkur.si (USD 31 million),
- mercator.si (USD 26 million),
- bigbang.si (USD 19 million),
- lekarnar.com (USD 17 million).
Three largest online stores outlined above are responsible for 20% of the overall online income in Slovenia.
Online shopping
What do Slovenians buy online most frequently? Below is the list of the largest e-commerce players in terms of their overall 2021 income:
The delivery service provider most frequently recommended by Slovenian online stores is Pošta Slovenije (at 52%). GLS is the runner-up (at 30%), followed by DPD (at 19%).
What domain should you choose?
When planning marketing activities in Slovenia, you should provide a local-language version of the website and an appropriate domain. It is preferable to select the national suffix (“.si”). The domain used should be short and to the point, as it positively affects the website’s browser visibility.
If you are active on numerous markets, consider using the European domain (“.eu”) or the global one (“.com”). If you choose this solution, specific language versions should be placed within the same domain’s catalogues and marked with the correct national code. For instance, a Slovenian address would come with the “.com/si” suffix.
Why should you begin to promote your business in Slovenia?
The Slovenian consumer is the most prosperous in the Balkans, and his consumer behaviour is not unlike that of his Western European equivalents. This is critical information if you are planning to enter the local market. The Slovenian consumer is well-informed, prefers local, proven products, but is willing to pay a premium for higher-quality goods. In spite of their attachment to local products, Slovenians buy foreign goods as well. These are most frequently imported from Germany, Italy or Austria.
The Slovenian market is an interesting choice for your business. Local e-commerce income continues to grow in a dynamic manner. Considering Slovenians’ ever-increasing disposable income and their love of quality goods, promoting your business there may prove to be a brilliant move.
Link building in Slovenia
SEO activities are based on two foundations – website optimisation and link building. In the case of the latter, your strategy must be adapted to the local market. When planning link gathering activities, you should determine the competition’s activities in the same field and adjust your publication schedule accordingly. Your link profile should be first-rate. You should first work to secure links from national domain (“.si”) websites. The most effective solution here is to embed links in articles published on popular, respected websites. However, you should also embed links in blog/forum entries and comments to diversify your link profile.
The most comprehensive service
SEO360® ensures the most comprehensive service among other similar on the market, such as SEO or SXO, which has been confirmed by research.
Guaranteed sales increase
The service provides a guarantee of the final effect, an increase traffic and revenue / leads.
Hybrid settlements based on success fee
Once 100% of the original target is achieved, any results above are based on a success fee.
Guaranteed link maintenance
We do not remove acquired links even after the end of cooperation.
We work all over Europe
Under one contract, we can carry out our work for all European countries with the support of a network of quality partners.
Individual strategy
We prepare a comprehensive, extensive strategy in which we examine the real needs of consumers (customer insights) before starting any actions.
See how your website traffic and revenue will increase!
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SEO360®
regular SEO
How does the SEO process work in Slovenia?
Strategy
It is the starting point for SEO360® actions, individually priced and created on the basis of the customer’s needs and expectations included earlier in the brief filled in by the customer. As part of our conceptual work, we establish the KPIs necessary for successful implementation of further stages of the project, in particular analysis, content marketing plan and estimations, which are the components of the strategy.
Analysis
In this step, we carry out all the activities verifying the current state of the selected website in terms of SEO and its potential in a given country when compared to the competition. At the same time, we analyse the full user path based on the customer journey. The result of the analysis is a large amount of data that can be used to implement further SEO360® steps.
Content Marketing Plan
Individually prepared for the industry represented by the Client and for the given markets where SEO360® activities will be conducted. It includes a scenario concerning the type of created content and the way of its distribution in order to reach the consumers with it precisely and to be one step ahead of the competition. Content Creators guarantee the successful implementation of this plan.
Estimations
An extremely valuable and final component of the strategy, where we estimate individual values related to the visibility of the website in the most popular search engine of a given country, taking into account the increase in traffic and, more importantly, the increase in conversions over a specified period of time.
Technical SEO
When starting proper SEO activities, one of the necessary steps to achieve final success is technical SEO, also called technical analysis or technical optimisation for SEO, i.e. the part of optimisation that does not concern content. It consists of all activities that affect the architecture and code of a website in such a way as to make it as friendly as possible to the most stringent search engine requirements and, at the same time, to stay one step ahead of the competition.
Content optimisation
Part of optimising a website for SEO, in addition to technical SEO, is content optimisation. Valuable content for the user is one of the key elements that will help to achieve high search engine visibility as well as increase conversions and thus revenue.
UX + CRO
As part of the SEO360® service, we provide analysis and optimisation of User Experience metrics with a particular focus on heuristic experiments and A/B testing as well as Conversion Rate Optimisation. In this way, we analyse consumer activity at each stage of their purchase process, increasing sales effectiveness.
Link Building
We conduct link building using the highest quality permanent links acquired from external sources or services, from reliable publishers with a guarantee of their maintenance even after the end of cooperation. As part of this process, we take care of the correct link profile, which brings end benefits.
Ongoing Data Analysis
In SEO360®, through advanced tools supervised by the Client Success Manager, we constantly measure the progress related to the evaluation of conducted activities, and on their basis, our customers have access to extensive reports 24/7.
Increase in traffic and revenue
The ultimate value of SEO360® is the increase in brand awareness, traffic, conversions and revenue generated from the service, which is significantly higher than in the case of ‘regular SEO’ and above all, it is long-lasting.
Data source:
- https://gs.statcounter.com/
- https://www.statista.com/topics/3076/slovenia/#dossierContents__outerWrapper
- https://ecommercedb.com/en/markets/si/all
- https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2022-slovenia
- https://ecommercegermany.com/blog/european-ecommerce-overview-slovenia
- https://www.lloydsbanktrade.com/en/market-potential/slovenia/ecommerce
Let’s stay in touch
+48 500 050 939
office@seogroup.pl
FAQ
What is the best positioning language in Slovenia?
You should definitely use Slovenian, the native tongue of almost 96% of the country’s inhabitants. Although Slovenia is home to several ethnic minorities (Serbs, Croats and Bosnians, to be specific), you should still focus only on the national language due to anticipated commercial benefits.
What should you keep in mind while positioning in Slovenia?
If you decide to position your website in Slovenia, you should first provide a Slovenian version of the online store and adjust it to the local version of Google. You should certainly consider using the local domain (“.si”) or placing the website in the appropriate global domain directory (“.com/si”).
