Xpandir

𝐈 𝐠𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐈’𝐦 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐰𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 Shenzhen SEO Conference 🐢 (Just got home after my extended China trip 🇨🇳) Lily Ray warned us in Shenzhen about patterned listicles… So I probably shouldn’t be writing one. But anyway - here are my 7 highlights from Shenzhen SEO Conference 😂 1️⃣ 𝐌𝐲 𝐓𝐰𝐨 𝐅𝐚𝐯𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐊𝐞𝐲𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐬 - Lily Ray: One of the most eye-opening sessions - especially seeing how some of our old tactics can actually come back to bite us. Can’t wait to go through the slides again and discuss further! - @Sasha Gusain: As an ex-Canva person, I spent most of her session nodding. Radical localisation is definitely one of the reasons Canva became such a great global SEO example. 2️⃣ 𝐓𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 Jiyoung Lee 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐊-𝐒𝐄𝐎 🇰🇷 Even as an SEO specialist, SEO alone is NEVER enough when entering S. Korea - one of the reasons I built Xpandir with an experienced marketing generalist like Jiyoung, and why doing this session together made so much sense. It was so much fun sharing our knowledge and insights. Thank you for all the lovely feedback and follow-up questions! 🙏🏼 3️⃣ 𝐒𝐨 𝐌𝐚𝐧𝐲 𝐆𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐅𝐢𝐞𝐥𝐝 & 𝐋𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐓𝐚𝐥𝐤𝐬 - Kun Tang: "Cracking the China GEO Code" - Mao Kawana & Polina Kogan: "The Unwritten Rules of Japanese SEO" - Sebastien Edgar: "Revenue-First SEO" (esp. the 2nd chapter: SEO X SEM) - Nik Ranger: "The Invisible Penalty" - Max Hobbs: "How a Cartoon Lion Changed Our Brand Forever" (Jiyoung Lee, I think we perhaps need a company character too 🤔) - @Nik White: "What Makes Buyers in Any Country, Say "Yes" ... And many more! 4️⃣ 𝐋𝐨𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐂𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐛 𝐎𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐬 🤝🏼 Just like last year, we received quite a bunch of enquiries - mostly AI/tech/SaaS businesses looking at S. Korea & Japan not simply for traffic, but for revenue potential. Thanks to everyone who came to us or referred someone! Now that the Mid-Autumn Festival is over, let’s continue chatting on WeChat. 🙌🏼 5️⃣ 𝐕𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 ��𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐚𝐢𝐝𝐮 𝐎𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐞! 🐾 6️⃣ 𝐌𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐊-𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐞𝐬! (4+ times more than last year) 7️⃣ 𝐀𝐧𝐝 𝐅𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 - 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐛𝐞𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐝 𝐒𝐄𝐎 After attending 2 years in a row and hearing JP Zhang's closing speech, I realised I was learning about 𝐫𝐮𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚 𝐛𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 in real life too. The personalised attendee experience (= listening to what users actually want), seamless speaker support (= a quality product, ready to deliver), attention to detail (= UX & quality control), and an amazing team behind it all (= process & systems) - while keeping the event fun and never too salesy despite so many sponsors. 👏🏼 As someone running a relatively young business myself, I’m genuinely impressed by what JP and the team have built - and there are definitely (more than) a few things I’d love to bring back to my own business too. 💪🏼 👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼

We’re halfway through Shenzhen SEO Conference 2026, and the first day of our main conference is a wrap! From Monday’s workshops and city tours to Tuesday’s SEO Mastermind and today’s main-stage sessions, the past three days have been packed with insights, meaningful conversations and stories from across the globe. Thank you to today’s speakers: Gary Illyes, Lily Ray, Nik Ranger, Sam Penny, ZIJING (Jine) WU, Doug Pierce, David Carrasco Pamies, Kun Tang, Mao Kawana, Polina Kogan, Cristina S. S., Jiyoung Lee, Andrea Abbondanza, Jodie Chan, Xinyuan (Loki) Y., Konstantin S., Killian Kostiha, Wasin Mekkit, Helen Han, Si Quan O. and JP Zhang. We appreciate the work, research and perspectives you brought to the stage! A special thank you also to Jessica Malnik, Marc Moeller, Tom Qiao and Zack Franklin for leading Monday’s workshops and sharing your expertise with our attendees. And to everyone participating this week, thank you for making time to learn from one another. Bringing people together across markets and cultures is why we do this. Here are a few moments from the past three days, with more still to come. Tomorrow brings the second day of our main conference, followed by Friday’s private VIP networking programme at MGM Shenzhen for VIP ticket holders and conference speakers. Check the event app for tomorrow’s schedule and add the sessions you’d like to attend. See you back at The St. Regis!

𝐒𝐨 𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐲 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐞𝐞 Search SEOul 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐢𝐭𝐬 (proper) 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐝𝐞𝐛𝐮𝐭! 🇰🇷✨ While attending and speaking at SEO conferences around the world, I’d always wondered: 𝘸𝘩𝘺 𝘥𝘰𝘦𝘴𝘯’𝘵 𝘚𝘦𝘰𝘶𝘭 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘰𝘯𝘦? So this was an especially meaningful moment for me. And it was also fun taking on a slightly unusual role this time: conference MC alongside Raquel González Expósito (라켈)! 🎤 Someone recently joked that there are more SEO conferences than clubs these days 😂 And with so many events happening around the world, I think it’s becoming increasingly important for each conference to have its own clear identity and reason for people to attend. For me, that’s where Search SEOul really found its place: bringing together what’s working globally while also digging into what’s specifically happening in Asia and our local markets. As an agency owner helping global brands break into APAC markets, including South Korea, the Asia SEO panel with Marcus Pentzek - 潘择科, Kenichi Suzuki, and Jiyoung Lee was especially meaningful to me. China, Japan, and S. Korea 🇨🇳🇯🇵🇰🇷 are neighbours with some similarities - but when it comes to search, there are also SO many differences. I honestly wish all my potential clients could have watched this conversation too! 🫠 Huge kudos to our 3 hosts - Michaela Park, YONGJOON YANG, and Raquel González Expósito (라켈) for all the sleepless nights and hard work behind the scenes. As you guys said, this is an independent event built by 3 SEO enthusiasts who simply wanted to make something great happen in Seoul. I couldn’t be prouder of you all. 💙 And of course, it was awesome having such a great group of speakers - old friends and new: Gary Illyes, Aleyda Solís, Moojin Kang, Kenichi Suzuki, YunHee Choi, Seyong Park, Natalia Witczyk, Ray Grieselhuber, Anikó Hoang, Marcus Pentzek - 潘择科, Stephen Burns, Hyowon Yang, Jonathan Moore, Andre Alpar, Alex (Sungwon) Hwang, Silvia Martin Palacio, Jori Ford, Si Quan O., Isaac Díaz Carpio, Glen Ingram, Fabian Seow, Jiyoung Lee 🫶🏼 그리고 전&현직 Ascent Korea | ListeningMind 분들도 한자리에서 만나 너무 반가웠습니다! 어센트가 계속 승승장구하는 모습도 직접 보고, 오랜만에 동창회(?) 같은 시간을 가질 수 있어서 더 좋았네요...! 급변하는 우리 업계에서 앞으로도 서로 응원하고 서포트하며 함께 성장할 수 있기를 바랍니다. 다음에는 또 언제 어디서 어센트/어센트 출신 분들을 만나게 될지 벌써 기대되네요! 🙌 To all my SEO friends from Korea and around the world - I don’t think LinkedIn is going to let me tag everyone here 🥲, but I couldn’t have been happier to see old friends and make so many new ones in my own country! :) I’m already looking forward to the next Search SEOul. I know the organisers are planning to make it bigger, better, and even more fun next time. 𝐒𝐞𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐚𝐠𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐢𝐧 𝐒𝐞𝐨𝐮𝐥! 🇰🇷👋

[ENGLISH BELOW] 🎤 Search SEOul의 새로운 세션을 소개합니다: 패널 토크 두 개가 준비되어 있습니다! 첫 번째는 인터내셔널 SEO 패널입니다. Mosquita Digital 창립자 나탈리아 비치크(Natalia Witczyk)님과 Holafly Head of Content 아이작(Isaac)님이 참여하며, Seoulful Connect 대표 라켈 곤잘레스(Raquel González Expósito (라켈))님이 모더레이터를 맡습니다. Google을 넘어 얀덱스, 바이두 같은 다양한 검색 엔진에서의 findability 전략과 여러 시장에서의 실전 SEO 경험을 함께 나눕니다. 두 번째는 아시아 SEO 패널입니다. 송승희(Cristina S. S.)님이 모더레이터를 맡고, 켄이치 스즈키(Kenichi Suzuki), 마커스 펜첵(Marcus Pentzek - 潘择科 Pentzek), 이지영(Jiyoung Lee)님이 함께합니다. 일본, 중국, 한국 각 시장의 검색 생태계가 어떻게 다르고 어떻게 접근해야 하는지 심도 있게 다룹니다. 9월 3일부터 4일까지 열리는 Search SEOul에서 여러분을 기다리겠습니다. 🎤 We're excited to introduce two panel sessions for Search SEOul! The first is our International SEO panel, featuring Natalia Witczyk, CEO & International SEO Consultant at Mosquita Digital, a Barcelona-based consultancy specializing in findability strategies for global markets beyond Google, including Yandex and Baidu; and Isaac, Head of Content at Holafly, who leads long-term blog strategy across 12+ languages after eight years driving SEO growth at Wise. Raquel González, Founder of Seoulful Connect, will moderate the panel. The second is our Asian SEO panel, moderated by Cristina Song, SEO Lead & Co-founder at Xpandir, bringing together Kenichi Suzuki (Faber Company), Marcus Pentzek (Jademond Digital), and Jiyoung Lee, Co-CEO & Digital Growth Strategist at Xpandir, who helps global brands enter and grow in the Korean market through full-funnel marketing strategies. Together they'll dig into what makes SEO in Japan, China, and Korea genuinely different. 📅 September 3–4, Hotel Naru Seoul MGallery Ambassador #SearchSEOul #SearchSEOul2026 #InternationalSEO #AsianSEO #SEO컨퍼런스

Today marks 11 years since I became a pilgrim on the #CaminodeSantiago. 🇪🇸 Back then: 🥾 800 km on foot 🎒 Starting alone 🇪🇸 (Almost) no Spanish 💸 A very tight budget ⛰️ No long-distance hiking experience But somehow, I made it to Santiago - with a lifelong friend: myself. Now, 2 years into running my own agency, I've realised how surprisingly similar the two journeys are. - You start with a destination in mind, but no idea what will happen along the way. - You learn as you go. - Some days you move fast, some days you barely move at all. - You meet people who walk with you for a while, some who leave, and some who stay. - And the further you go, the more you realise how far you've come. When I started the Camino, 800 km sounded almost impossible. But I never had to walk 800 km at once. I just had to walk that day's distance - and do it again the next day. Running a business sometimes feels exactly the same. Still walking. Just on a slightly different Camino now. :) Whether you're walking the actual Camino or running your own business - just keep going. 𝐁𝐮𝐞𝐧 𝐂𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐨! 🥾