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What comes to your mind when you think of Sweden?
It’s always a good idea to understand the cultural background of a country before analyzing its market.
Sweden is a modern constitutional monarchy known for innovation, equality, and sustainability. While Swedish is the official language, several regional dialects are still in use.
For many Europeans, Sweden is synonymous with IKEA, ABBA, and Pippi Långstrump, but also with global brands like Spotify, Volvo, and H&M that reflect its tech-driven and design-oriented culture. Modern pop culture icons such as The Bridge (Bron/Broen) or the international success of Swedish gaming studios like Mojang and Paradox Interactive continue to shape Sweden’s global image.
A country ready for SEO – Sweden as the cradle of big business
Sweden is fascinating not only from a sociological point of view. According to Statistics Sweden (SCB), around 25% of the Swedish population has a foreign background — one of the highest proportions in Europe. The country is home to large communities of Finns, Syrians, Iraqis, Poles, and Iranians, reflecting its openness and diversity.
Swedes are known for their innovation, sustainability, and entrepreneurship. The business landscape is driven by small and medium-sized enterprises, alongside globally recognized brands such as Volvo, Ericsson, IKEA, H&M, Spotify, and Skanska. Immigrants also play an important role in shaping Sweden’s economy, often starting successful local businesses and contributing to the growing e-commerce and service sectors.
Swedish e-commerce
Before diving into SEO or marketing strategies, it’s worth outlining the profile of the average Swedish online consumer. According to PostNord’s E-commerce in the Nordics 2024 report, Swedish shoppers are among the most active in the region — around 80% of Swedes shop online regularly, spending an average of 1,750 EUR per year on e-commerce.
Most consumers don’t just visit online stores to buy — they also conduct thorough research before purchasing. Roughly 60% of Swedish users compare products and prices online, and many visit physical stores to verify product quality before ordering online.
Swedish customers value high-quality products, transparent offers, and sustainable business practices, which makes them particularly loyal to trusted, well-established brands.
It’s also worth noting that shoppers from neighboring countries, especially Norway and Finland, frequently order from Swedish online stores due to competitive prices and reliability.
In 2024, the Swedish e-commerce market was valued at around 163 billion SEK (≈14.3 billion EUR) and continues to grow steadily year over year.
Don’t forget about mobile users and adapting the website to their requirements. In Sweden, mobile shopping has become the norm — over 60% of users say they use their smartphones to shop online. Additionally, according to Sveriges Riksbank, as many as 51% of Swedes make payments with their mobile phones in physical stores whenever the option is available. To ensure a seamless user experience and higher conversion rates, consider investing in UX consulting for SEO.
The way to a man’s heart is through… the content
The already mentioned Lars Andersson values proven and reliable content and this piece of information should be crucial when you start the local SEO process. Sweden is at the forefront of daily press readership rankings; every house subscribes to at least one daily newspaper and the available tabloids don’t bear any resemblance to the classic British or American ones. At this point you should notice that a bit cold and distant Swedes like clear and profound content, realistic photos and graphics – all of these accompanied by a minimal dose of expressive message. If you manage to provide Swedes with the high quality of the content and appropriate infographics, any additional encouragement won’t be necessary.
SEO in Sweden – what’s the potential of this country?
According to the 2024 Digital Sweden Report, 98% of Swedish citizens use the Internet regularly, and almost all households (99%) have access to broadband — one of the highest rates in Europe. Sweden also ranks among the global leaders in connection speed and digital infrastructure. The only group showing lower digital engagement remains seniors aged 75 and older.
Swedes are also highly proficient in English, with over 90% of the population able to communicate fluently. This makes English-language content an effective choice for SEO in Sweden, especially for businesses targeting a broad audience online.
How to collaborate with the Swedes?
In building a mutual business culture, it’s not only SEO that matters. Sweden, as a wealthy northern country, is often associated with certain cultural nuances that may make your first contact with Scandinavian partners more challenging than expected. Keep in mind the following:
- Stay formal and professional – Swedes feel comfortable in structured, businesslike settings and appreciate substantive discussions.
- Prove your expertise – Your ideas will be taken seriously only if you demonstrate professionalism and solid preparation.
- Be transparent – When presenting plans, mention both potential results and possible risks, pragmatic Scandinavians value honesty.
- Read the signals carefully – Behaviours like vague answers or hesitation can indicate doubt or concern, so approach such cues thoughtfully.
SEO in Sweden
With all the information provided above, it’s now much easier to outline the optimal SEO process. In Sweden, Google remains the dominant search engine — recent figures from StatCounter show it holds around 89% of the market share in Sweden. The second‐largest player is Bing at roughly 6%.
SEO campaigns in Sweden typically focus on a combination of on-site and off-site optimisation, along with responsive web design (RWD) to cater to high mobile usage. Agencies operating in the Swedish market tend to adopt reliable, long-term methods, rather than chasing short-term gains.
However, it’s equally important to consider the growing impact of AI Search. More users are turning to AI tools like ChatGPT or Perplexity to find product or service recommendations — platforms that show only a few top results instead of endless listings. If your brand isn’t visible there, you’re losing potential customers. That’s why implementing an AISO strategy — SEO with AI in mind — can give you a competitive advantage and secure visibility in this emerging search channel.
What to remember about when running SEO in Sweden?
In Sweden, digital connectivity is nearly universal — according to DataReportal, internet penetration stood at 98.3% at the start of 2025. Social media usage is also high: as of early 2025, there were approximately 8.65 million social-media identities in Sweden, representing about 81% of the total population. These figures underline the fact that when creating new marketing channels for the Swedish market, English content can often work effectively—yet quality and relevance remain key, especially since Swedish consumers expect professional, transparent communication.
What problems can you encounter in the Swedish SEO market?
As it turns out, the difficulties resulting from the language barrier may not be the greatest challenge for a SEO agency in Sweden. Various problems can be encountered much earlier as SERP for the .se domains isn’t prioritized as much as in the case of the British or American ones. In such situation other market analysis tools should be implemented. The Swedish agencies also have to struggle with a comparatively small budget; sometimes it’s even up to 7 times lower than in Western European countries.
How to effectively run SEO for your company?
Remember that any market disadvantage can be quickly turned into advantage. Lack of traffic or insufficient focus on customers’ needs enables reaching the target group faster and more effectively. As it’s been already mentioned, Sweden is still a little sceptical when it comes to SEO, therefore the methods used there are often a bit anachronistic. Johannes Eriksson, the owner of one of the biggest SEO agencies in Sweden, notices: our operations are based on solutions from 2-3 years ago, so there is a gap between the Swedish and British or American SEO. Contrary to what you may think now, such solutions can do more good than harm. SEO specialists can take advantage of methods tried and tested in the West and avoid making mistakes resulting from experimenting with new solutions while running international SEO.
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