Wednesday, March 17, 2010

It's Been a While for AK Works - New Blog Coming Out

It's been a while since AK Works Blog has come out. Big changes here at AK Works. The company was always a consulting company but will be moving into more SEO research with a focus on International SEO and Mobile SEO.

Why is this the case? Because the future of SEO and business is International.

As an active investor, I look for companies with international exposure to invest in. With the financial meltdown for the last 2-3 years, the case for investing in companies with international markets is even stronger.

For SEOs, the majority of work and understanding of SEO has been English-based and US/UK centric. To stay relevant, SEOs must learn business in the 2010s and the business priorities of this new decade.

Inevitably, this leads to International SEO.

While there are still plenty of SEO business in working with the SMBs of the United States, Canada, and even the UK, SEOs as a profession need to be versed in the global business landscape.

The SEO profession can only survive and remain relevant if SEOs fill business needs of all spectrum from the mom-and-pops to the local SMBs to the global Fortune 500 enterprises.

AK Works will spend time researching the global search landscape, the mobile landscape, and present data and analysis. We will also present case studies of existing projects that we do as well as research and results from our existing projects.

This blog will be used as one vehicle for the main website, currently at AK Works. Blog posts will originate there but also be promoted here as well. That site will be redesigned shortly.

Our goal with AK Works and with the blogs is to present data, third-party and primary market research, and critical analysis on International SEO, International markets, China & Asia markets, developments in International Search, Mobile SEO, mCommerce, and also stock investing in SEO-related firms.

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MSFT Bing is NOT the Winner in Google Pulling Out of China

Now that Google is 99.9% certain it will pull out of China, there is speculation that Microsoft Bing will be the winner and be able to snatch more market share. After all, with Google out of the picture, Microsoft can compete on more even ground against Baidu, Sina, or Sohu, right?

That's conventional wisdom. Conventional wisdom also says that Google pulling out of China is a bad business move.

After all, Google would be pulling out of a country that has 1.3 billion people with 600 million of them in urban areas (presumably connected to the Internet). China's urbanized population alone is DOUBLE the entire population of the United States. Plus, China is estimated to be about 20% of the world's population. Conventional wisdom says this is a market that Google should learn to appease.

But conventional wisdom has more than once been proven wrong. Google is making a bet on Mobile

Google, if and when it pulls out of China, will essentially be breaking up with a cantankerous woman. A woman who is fine, but just way too full of drama.

Google's "lover on the side" or "cut buddy" is Mobile. And that's where Google is placing its bet on. Google itself has made plenty of strides into Mobile including the AdMob purchase and Nexus One.

If and when Google perfects mobile search and mobile ads, Google will not only command desktop search, it will command mobile search. And in Asia, Europe, and emerging economies, access to Internet through mobile devices is far more prevalent than in the US.

While Bing chases after Google's desktop search crumbs, Google is setting up the table and dining hall for mobile search.

Over the course of the next few days and weeks, I will be exploring Google and China and Mobile. I will be putting out a collection of articles on Google and China with more details, analysis, and references.

These will be followed by analysis and details on International SEO, Mobile SEO, and the future of the Internet & SEO.

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