Update February, 2022
ClickStream is currently providing services in Saigon for SEO.
For companies in Saigon with a physical location, there are very large opportunities to drive organic traffic from search. Google Maps is prominent in Ho Chi Minh City SERPs, but most local companies do not know how to optimize for them. If a website optimizes for Google My Business, they can drive 2-5x more walk-in customers to their business. From Nguyen Hue to Bui Vien to Hai Bà Trưng, if you have a consumer or B2B walk-in location, we can optimize your site to appear in top results on Google My Business, aka Maps.
Our services include:
- Keyword and topic research
- Technical and onsite website audits
- Competitor research
- Content strategy and planning
- PR SEO (outreach to get mentions in high authority blogs and editorial websites).
- Hero content creation
After three years living most of the year in Ho Chi Minh City, I’m now confident in my understanding of the differences with Google’s database between USA and South East Asia. Consider, firstly, that AdWords in the developing Vietnam economy is not an important revenue stream for search engines’ pay per click (PPC). Historically, that means a company like Google spends less money on perfecting their algorithm for organic results.
Google totally and completely turned to direct profitability concerns in the last few years, with little to no regard for nurturing relationships when there is no transactional benefit for them. Rand Fishkin is in the lead in showing that the Mountain View company is pushing VERY hard on their search monopoly with little interest in sending traffic off their website. Google in 2020 scrapes and borrows (steals?) copyrighted content on a large scale.
In Vietnam, SEO’s focus almost entirely on gaming search engines. This is misguided. There are opportunities to write legitimately fantastic content and to link-build with traditional outreach tactics. But the disconnect with “gaming” vs. doing real company work is greater here than any other country I’ve done SEO in.
Ranking Websites in Hot, Emerging Markets: Vietnam Case Study
ClickStream is working with Beauty Review, and their success is a clear demonstration of why playing geeky, nerdy games with Google is not needed to rank high in the Vietnam SERP! The site is run by a former magazine editor and PR executive.
In less than a year, it gets over 82,000 unique monthly visitors. It’s monetized via affiliate links and lead generation for courses and consulting. However, monetization just began. Some of the hottest potential I see is in lead generation for her site, as well as for clients that are looking to monetize a website pure-play. It’s just too easy to rank for competitive keywords in Vietnam!
Western SEO wisdom, as espoused at conferences I spoke at or attended in SE Asia, held that it’s easy to rank in Vietnam and emerging ASEAN markets, so just push on grey and black hat tactics and you’re off to the races. The idea is that Google can’t reward or punish all other than the largest sites here. The vast majority of websites are breaking their webmaster TOS, knowingly, but in many cases because they don’t even understand the basic TOS.
We set out to do exactly the opposite: high-quality content written primarily by my partner who is a highly successful editor in Vietnam. Link building was done by writing articles or sponsored content— which did sometimes require a small payment, but sponsored content is never labeled in markets in Vietnam and nearby countries. Doing a “guest post” is simply not accepted here. Remember, this country, like many others in SE Asia, has a government that heavily censors publications, and the lack of transparency seeps into the way editorial and advertising intersect.
SEOs in Vietnam don’t try their hand at media relations. I guarantee they couldn’t get links from sites like Giadinh, Dan Tri, and HELLObacsi within the first 5 months of launching a site as Beauty Review did.
Large Vietnamese websites, even in tech, are doing inbound marketing the way it was done 14 years ago in the US. They think social media and paid media are the only game in town (country).
Search Engine Optimization Job opening in Vietnam, with ClickStream
We are looking for a Content Marketing Specialist. Do you want to work with industry leaders, not just those at agencies that can sell services but have little experience with big dog content marketing strategies? You want to become an expert with “AI Writing” software (Jarvis/Jasper) which will radically change the writing world for websites in the next few years? You want to be a pro with the Mercedes Benz of outreach software, PitchBox? Advanced keyword research; yes please?
If you have highly fluent English or are a native English speaker (for example lived in a native English speaking country 2+ year) and can meet the below requirements, we want to hear from you! This position is heavy on English article writing and communication skills. You must be very confident in your English writing.
We encourage those who want to work remotely to apply.
Job Description
-
-
- Work and train directly with Founder, Eric Van Buskirk, who oversaw nine of the largest SEO and content marketing data studies of 2016 and 2017 (for Neil Patel). He was also the Project Director for one of the 3 largest rank-studies ever conducted (“1 million search results,” done for Brian Dean).
-

- Paid training.
- 20 hours per week which can lead to full-time.
- Work with 360 degrees of content marketing and SEO needed for client sites (this is all about earned media and websites. We don’t do paid media or social media marketing).
- Super smart, enthusiastic co-workers. We only hire people that contribute to a pleasant work environment.
Compensation:
- Based on 20 hours per week, part-time.
- 10,000,000 – 30,000,000 VND per month if non-native English (or the equivalent in USD).
- 15,000,000- 75,000,000 if native English (or the equivalent in USD).
- Paid time off
What You’ll Learn
- The most advanced and sophisticated content marketing tools: ahrefs, Jarvis/Jasper, SEMrush, PitchBox, MarketMuse.
- Link building via guest post outreach, as well as 10X or Hero Content or Skyscraper outreach— If you’ve done media relations PR you have super existing skills for this.
- keyword research techniques.
Requirements:
- 1+ Years of digital marketing, earned media, media relations, or SEO.
- Minimum of intermediate skills with MS Excel and Word.
- Strong writing skills
Not required, but useful:
- WordPress or Shopify CMS experience
- Your experience monetizing websites with affiliate marketing is a +1 for you.
- Experience in a client-facing role? +1.
- All “earned media” (organic) digital marketing experience, especially with an agency, +1 for you.
- Google Analytics certified +1 for you.
About ClickStream
ClickStream is an SEO agency based in USA and run in HCMC by Eric Van Buskirk, its founder. Van Buskirk and ClickStream oversaw nine of the largest SEO and content marketing data studies of 2016 and 2017. The research was for client Neil Patel (NeilPatel.com). The main focus for the studies was keywords, semantic SEO, and how links affect search engine ranking.
Van Buskirk was also Project Director for the “1 Million Google Search Results” rank study for Brian Dean of Backlinko. It was the number one up-voted piece of Q1 2016 on inbound.org and GrowthHackers.com. Current clients are in USA and Europe. Prior to that, he oversaw major accounts for SEMrush, a top 2 research tool for SEOs.
PLEASE EMAIL RESUME WITH COVER LETTER TO:
Vanbuskirk clickstream.cc or use the contact form