SEO in Finland

Finland is located in Northern Europe, bordering three countries: Norway, Sweden and Russia. It is a republic divided into 19 administrative regions, where Finnish is the official language, used by about 90 percent of the population. Finland has been a member of the European Union since 1995 and the Euro is its national currency.

Finland has a population of around 5.5 million people. 97 percent of them have access to the Internet. The country is mostly covered by forests (222,000 square kilometres out of a total area of 337,000 square kilometres). This obviously has an impact on the economy. The homeland of Santa Claus is home to two of the world’s four largest forestry and paper companies.

Finland is considered by many to be a land of milk and honey. This is confirmed, for example, by the 2020 ranking, where Finns were voted the happiest people in the world. Finland boasts one of the highest human development indexes, and the GDP, which fell by 3% due to the coronavirus, is set to return to growth again.

When thinking of Finland, the natural association for many is Nokia. And rightly so, as it was in this country that the world’s first GSM connection was made. Moreover, back in 1997, the inaugural mobile transaction was paid for on a Coca Cola machine via a text message. Shortly after that came mobile banking and the further development of digital content.

Coming back to modern times, computers are most commonly used to browse the Internet in Finland (data for February 2022):

• desktop (63.76%),
• mobile (34.14%),
• tablet (2.1%).

When it comes to social media use, this applies to 85.2% of Suomi’s total population, with Facebook being the most popular social media platform (data for February 2022):

• Facebook (51.41%),
• Twitter (15.53%),
• Pinterest (12.35%),
• Instagram (10.19%),
• YouTube (5.04%),
• Reddit (3.02%).

The number of social media users in Finland, comparing 2022 to 2021, increased by 6.1%.

E-commerce market in Finland

E-commerce revenues in 2021 exceeded 7 billion US dollars in Finland. The average annual growth rate of this market is estimated at 7% for the next few years until 2025. At least one product was bought via the web by 67% of Finns in 2021. Equally importantly, Finns spend a lot online. According to data from a decade ago, an average EU household spent EUR 1,696 annually on online shopping, while their Finnish counterparts spent as much as EUR 2,821. This difference, with minor deviations, has remained to this day.

Over the past 5 years, interest in e-commerce in the land of Santa Claus has increased by 20%! It is certainly a consumer society that likes to use the Internet for this purpose. Finns pay attention mainly to the quality of the product they are interested in. The origin, brand and compliance with European standards are also important to them. The latter, of course, also proves the first mentioned condition, i.e. proof of quality.

Finns also pay attention to ecology when choosing products, including even the type of packaging in which the parcel will be delivered. For example, RePack, i.e. reusable parcels, operates there. When entering this market, it is worth seriously considering this type of solution.

As far as e-commerce companies with the highest turnover in Finland are concerned, the first 5 companies are as follows (data for 2021):

• verkkokauppa.com (USD 689 million),
• giganti.fi (USD 359 million),
• k-ruoka.fi (USD 184 million),
• zalando.fi (USD 161 million),
• motonet.fi (USD 160 million).

For the Finnish consumer, when shopping online, the accessibility and accessibility of the website they use is also important. It is not only about the readability and clarity of the information contained therein, but also about the detailed aspects of the UX or UI.

Postpay, as the name suggests, makes it possible to postpone payments for a later period. SEPA, on the other hand, is an area for settlements in EUR, both cross-border and within Member States, with the same rules, legal regulations and obligations.

Among the deliverers of products purchased online, local representatives have the largest market shares, led by the Post Office:

• Posti (67%),
• Matkahuolto (26%),
• PostNord (19%).

It is worth taking a closer look at the pre- and post-purchase behaviour of Finns, because once we know their preferences, we will gain an extremely valuable customer for a longer period of time.

Why should you start promoting your business in Finland?

With $7 billion in e-commerce revenue, Finland ranks 30th in the world. This places it ahead of Chile and right behind Argentina. Suomi’s growth rate of 18% has contributed to the global growth of e-commerce (29%). It’s a very attractive market, in which, if you establish the foundations of your business well, you can permanently reap the rewards.

Finns like to shop online, regardless of their age. They are used to the Internet and use it on a daily basis, including people over 60 yeas of age. They are interested in a wide range of products and services. If you provide them with a good product at a reasonable price, with respect for the environment and top-quality service, they will appreciate and remember the transaction for a long time. This is a country that is open to foreign suppliers, which is worth exploring, and it is no coincidence that it is the home of Santa Claus.

Link building in Finland

The best way to start operations in Finland is to provide users with a Finnish language version of the website. It is a must-have element, without which it is not worth trying. Then our Takumi 匠 come into play, starting with dedicated optimisation of the site, including adjusting its structure to Google’s requirements and the preferences of Finnish users.

It is a demanding market, including for Google robots. This is because of the language’s use of suffixes, i.e. words that, within one word, can denote different variations or positions. In this case, if it is necessary to use them for operations, it is best to choose the most popular ones, i.e. those with the highest search volume. This, of course, has to do with the selection of phrases within the keyword catalogue, but also with the conducted link building. In many aspects, the available SEO tools will not help, and many years of practice of an experienced SEO specialist in a demanding market will count.