SEO in Serbia

Serbia is a republic located on the Balkan Peninsula. Over 70% of the country is covered with mountains and hills. It is a candidate state for EU accession. Following the European Council’s initial assent, official accession negotiations began in January 2014. The country’s capital and largest city is Belgrade.

Serbia’s population is approx. 7 million people. The ethnic breakdown is as follows: Serbs (83%), Hungarians (3.5%), Bosnians (2%), Romanies (2.1%). The country is also inhabited by Croats, Slovaks, Montenegrins, Bulgarians and Romanians. It is a shrinking, ageing society (approx. 17% of the population is over 65 years old). Based on the available estimates and forecasts, the ageing society will be one of the country’s greatest challenges in the foreseeable future.

It is important that the country is beset by many other problems, too. It fell victim to the crisis of 2008, and has yet to fully recover from its ravages. Several factors contributed to this situation. For instance, no needed reforms have been implemented, and foreign investment (a key pre-crisis economic driver) has decreased. The country is also dealing with high unemployment, private sector corruption, and the economic dominance of large, unprofitable state-owned enterprises.

As of January 2022, approx. 84% of the Serbian population enjoyed internet access. The percentage increased by approx. 4.5% in the period of 2021–2022. Serbs are most eager to access the web using mobile devices. The specific device breakdown is as follows (as of March, 2022 data):

• Mobile (62.23%),
• Desktop (36.65%),
• Tablet (1.12%).

As of early 2022, 57.5% of the population were social media users. However, there is no guarantee that each social media account corresponds to an actual person. As expected, Facebook.com is the most popular social media outlet in Serbia. However, Instagram seems to be gaining on its competitor. The overall ranking of Serbia’s most popular social media outlets is as follows (as of March, 2022 data):

• Facebook (87.54%),
• Instagram (3.75%),
• Twitter (3.42%),
• YouTube (2.08%),
• Pinterest (1.85%),
• VKontakte (0.5%).

E-commerce market in Serbia

The acute crisis that began in 2008 ensured that the Serbian consumers’ most important criterion while shopping is the price. Serbians usually purchase what they need, not what they want. Apart from a high median age and low per-capita GDP, Serbia is beset by significant income inequality across the board. As much as 25% of the population lives in poverty. Nonetheless, Serbians are eager to buy online. In 2021, 35% of the local population purchased at least one product online.

The e-commerce sector has doubled during the coronavirus pandemic. As a consequence, certain industries (ex. food) have grown by as much as 200%. Clothing and footwear sales have increased by 100%. The Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia indicates that in 2020 alone e-commerce generated income worth 395 million Euro (per 3.3 million e-consumers). The e-commerce income in 2021 came to USD 559 million. It is estimated that the overall e-commerce income in 2022 will come to as much as USD 945 million.

The largest e-commerce website on the Serbian market is gigatron.rs. Its overall income in 2021 was USD 44 million. Second (by overall income) is tehnomanija.rs which made USD 40 million. Third is zara.com with the overall income of USD 20 million. These three websites generate 20% of Serbia’s overall online income.

When shopping online, Serbians most often use prepaid cards/vouchers. The great majority of the local consumers use computers to shop online. According to Euromonitor, Serbian consumers are not particularly aware, and tend to mistrust shopping via mobile devices (only a few percent of e-consumers choose this method).

Why should you begin to promote your business in Serbia?

Serbia is the world’s 81st largest e-commerce market with an overall income of USD 559 million (2021). Even though the Serbian society has to struggle with many problems and does not enjoy as much disposable income as its Western European equivalents, local consumers are growing steadily more likely to shop online. The e-commerce income has been dynamically growing in recent years, and future forecasts are promising. If you choose to develop your business in Serbia, you must get to know the average local e-consumer’s preferences and needs. It may be a better idea to sell essential, basic wares rather than luxury goods.

Link building in Serbia

When starting SEO activities on the Serbian market, you must remember that a properly optimised website is a must. Also, you must prepare a Serbian-language version of the website which is well-adjusted to the local version of Google. Link building activities are the second step. Their objective is to gain valuable website links which will eventually translate into greater search engine visibility. The most effective classical method of securing links is Content Marketing, i.e. high-quality articles sponsored on external websites. It is a good idea to select local-domain (“.rs”) websites. If you choose to publish an article on any given site, make sure the link comes with the “dofollow” attribute. If it does, it will be most beneficial from the SEO activities perspective. Buzz Marketing, or word-of-mouth marketing, can be another source of links. Links can be published as forum entries, or website/blog comments.