SEO in Poland

Poland has 38 million inhabitants. According to the statistics of the Polish Central Statistical Office (GUS), almost 90% of households in Poland have permanent access to the Internet. In practice, this means that positioning activities make it possible to reach approximately 34 million people across the country! So do you need to know anything more to go for it?

As far as the habits of Polish consumers are concerned, we have recently observed a significant increase in their interest in online shopping. This trend has been undoubtedly influenced by the pandemic and the temporary lockdown, limiting the possibility of shopping in person. Further, Poles who use e-commerce appreciate its benefits, such as unlimited availability of shops, fair prices, speed and safety.

What devices do Polish people use to surf the web? Let’s see:

• phone (62.84%),
• computer (30.12%),
• tablet (2.13%).

Mobile phones, specifically smartphones, have a noticeable lead over other devices, obviously due to their mobility, technological development and ease of use.

As far as operating systems for mobile devices are concerned, the vast majority of Polish consumers use Android (approx. 85%). Second comes Apple OS (approx. 15%). On desktops, Windows wins (a clear leader with 93.65% of users), followed by Apple OS (4.88%) and Unix (1.47%).

It is also worth paying attention to the share and changes of the popularity of mobile applications (data on the number of downloads for 2021):

• TikTok (656 million),
• Instagram (545 million),
• Facebook (416 million),
• WhatsApp (395 million),
• Instagram (329 million),
• Snapchat (327 million),
• Zoom (300 million),
• Messenger (268 million),
• CapCut (255 million),
• Spotify (203 million).

There has been a noticeable decline in interest in Facebook and a big influx of new TikTok users. The electronic photo album, a.k.a Instagram, is still in the lead, along with communicators like WhatsApp and Telegram. The above list has been also shaped by the pandemic, generating a rise in the popularity of tools such as Zoom.

E-commerce market in Poland

The e-commerce market in Poland has been growing exponentially for some time now. Six years ago its value was PLN 27 billion. Prior to the pandemic, it was estimated at PLN 70 billion. Following the outbreak in 2020, the value of e-commerce market in Poland exceeded PLN 100 billion! PwC estimates that in 2026 it will reach PLN 162 billion, with an average annual growth of 12%. The industries expected to experience the fastest sales growth in the near future include food e-shops and health & beauty products.

To shop online, Poles most often use a laptop (78%) and a smartphone (76%). Interestingly, 92% of the respondents among the youngest Internet users (i.e. those aged 15–24) shop online using smartphones.

In 2021, the statistical Pole choosing to shop online was most often a person aged 35–49, living in a large city, with a university degree and assessing their financial standing as average or good.

In 2020, the most popular industries in the context of online shopping were:

• Clothing (including related accessories),
• Footwear,
• Cosmetics / perfumes,
• Books, CDs, films,
• Electronics / household appliances.

Another trend that has recently been observed on the Polish market is the development of quick-commerce services (q-commerce), i.e. instant deliveries of products purchased online, offered by large chains, such as:

• Biedronka (Biedronka Express BIEK),
• Auchan,
• Stokrotka,
• Żabka (Żabka Jush),
• Makro,
• Pepco.

Moreover, Poland has recently seen significant development of brands offering only on-demand delivery services. Companies have entered the market that already have the know-how and a network of couriers:

• Glovo,
• JOKR,
• Bolt,
• Wolt,

along with local brands such as Lisek and GetnowX.

How do Poles pay?

The results of the latest Gemius study from 2021 show that, by far, the most popular method of payment for online shopping was a quick transfer through online payment platforms (70%). This method was followed by mobile payments (e.g. BLIK), declared by 48% of the respondents, and traditional transfers (42%). It is worth noting the significant increase in the share of mobile payments in the last year. As mentioned above, 48% of the respondents used them in 2021, a 13% surge in popularity compared to 2020.

As regards online payment platforms, PayU was particularly popular in Poland, being used by 48% of the respondents. Second came Przelewy24, chosen by 36% of the surveyed group.

Interesting facts:

• over 74% of Poles will maintain their level of online shopping after the pandemic, while 10% plan to increase it,
• over 75% of Poles choose to shop online because of the 24/7 availability of this form of shopping,
• compared to Western European countries, Poland still has relatively few online shops, so their number is likely to increase significantly in the coming years.

If you sell online or are thinking about starting sales in this channel, pay attention to the 4 most important aspects:

1. Omnichannel, i.e. providing the customer with a consistent shopping experience across all sales channels.
2. Customer experience – creating a positive customer experience; interestingly, 42% of Polish consumers are ready to abandon a given brand after just 1 bad experience.
3. Customer activation and loyalty – make sure to prepare appropriate pricing strategies and loyalty programmes to increase customer purchasing activity.
4. Logistics and continuity of supply chains – having a well-thought-out logistics strategy is particularly important in a future that is quite unpredictable (as demonstrated by the recent pandemic).

Why should you start positioning activities in Poland?

Nowadays, one can hardly imagine any business without online activities. Below, you can find the 5 main reasons why you should start positioning your website as soon as possible.

Stay one step ahead of your competition

As has long been known, the competition never sleeps! To be successful in the age of digitalisation, you need to be visible on the Internet. If your see your competitors ranked at the top of search results, you can be sure that they are already doing SEO for their business. The only way to catch up with them is to start similar activities as soon as possible. If you choose to work with us as part of SEO360®, we will provide you with a comprehensive model of activities to guarantee your full success.

Ensure return on investment

SEO is an investment that will pay off. You need to be patient, though. Unlike advertising, the tangible effects of SEO do not come immediately, but after a longer period of time. Nevertheless, it is worth being persistent and waiting for the effects. Why? The return on investment (ROI) from SEO (positioning) is higher than from other forms of digital marketing.

Increase your visibility and brand awareness

Positioning gives you the opportunity to reach a larger audience, thereby increasing your online recognition. You also build greater brand awareness for your audience. In practice, this will help potential customers find a reason to choose your product, so you will gain a competitive advantage.

Conquer the local market

Even if your immediate goal is not limited to attracting customers from your immediate area, SEO will naturally bring benefits in your local market as well. How is this possible? Google’s search engine has long been based on geolocation, providing potential customers with results based on their GPS location. In practice, this means that, for example, when typing the phrase ‘good sushi’ into the search engine (without entering the desired location), you will first receive results of the best sushi in your area (where you are currently located).

Develop your business

In the long term, SEO will bring you a return on investment, which means that you will gain a significant profit for your business over time. This will give you additional funds to systematically expand your range of activities or allocate more budget to additional promotion channels (which will translate into further profits for your business).

Link building in Poland

When positioning your website in Poland, you need to pay attention to whether your link building activities are carried out in the right way. It is important to systematically provide an appropriate number of quality links leading to your website. The more links, the greater the impact and value of your website. So how can you effectively create link building and acquire relevant links? You can do it in many ways; the more of them you use, the better – what counts most is link source diversification.

How should you acquire links?

Creating engaging content

Creating valuable, relevant content on your website may become a ‘natural’ method of acquiring links. What does this actually mean? A user who reads the content posted on your website and finds it worthy of attention or recommendation is more likely to share the link to your website on their own website, blog or social media channels.

Reviews

The most popular way to get reviews and acquire links to your website is to work with a well-known blogger/YouTube user who will test your product and post a review with a link to your website.

Link exchange

Link exchange is a common method which, simply put, means that you offer to post a link to someone else’s website if they do the same for you, a win-win situation.

Guest articles

By publishing a text as its author on popular industry portals, you can achieve a double benefit: first, you will build your image online by publishing relevant content; second, by mentioning your website or your bio in the content, you will acquire an additional link to your website.

Interviews

As above, giving an interview can be a way to achieve a double benefit: self-promotion and acquiring a link to your website.

Sponsored articles

This method is extremely common among link building activities. Creating and publishing a high quality, relevant text about your products or services is an excellent method of acquiring links and, at the same time, building brand awareness and increasing brand recognition on the market. However, you should remember that publishing sponsored articles on popular, quality external portals is expensive, so you should allocate an appropriate budget for such activities.

Creating your own SEO resources

Creating content using your own SEO resources costs money but brings great benefits. What exactly are SEO resources? It is a website (or a collection of websites) that contains content from a particular industry and links to positioned pages. This method of link acquisition will allow you to link your main website.

Buzz Marketing

Buzz marketing means creating and publishing short posts on online forums with a link to your website, for instance a recommendation of a product. Its task is to create the impression of a natural discussion about a given product, service or brand.