SEO and digital marketing in Romania: a Google-first market, the RAC code and how to brief an agency

SEO in Romania is almost entirely Google SEO in Romanian: StatCounter puts Google at nearly 97% of Romanian searches, and Facebook sends close to nine in ten of the social visits to Romanian websites. So a good plan is Romanian pages written for the words local buyers type, a complete Google Business Profile for anything local, and a Facebook programme that sends people to those pages. For advertising and influencer work, follow the Romanian Advertising Council's (RAC) Code: ads must be recognisable as ads, claims must be provable, and every paid influencer post must disclose the deal clearly at the start. Keep every Google, Meta and analytics account in your company's name.

The Romanian market in numbers

StatCounter's figures for September 2026 put Google at 96.78% of searches in Romania, Bing at 2.18%, DuckDuckGo at 0.35%, Yandex at 0.32% and Yahoo at 0.21%. That is higher than Google's share in Germany (87.84%) or France (88.16%) in the same month, so Google Search Console is the main measuring tool.

Social traffic is just as concentrated. StatCounter's referral figures for the same month show Facebook sending 87.66% of the social visits to websites in Romania, YouTube 5.78%, Instagram 4.89% and X (Twitter) 0.97%. These are visits to websites, not time spent in the apps, so a brand can be active on Instagram or TikTok while Facebook still carries most of the clicks to its site.

Writing for Romanian search

Romanian pages need native Romanian writers. Translated English copy rarely matches the terms people type, and Romanian word endings change the search terms themselves. Start from keyword research in Romanian. Check your main terms in Keyword Planner with and without diacritics (s and s with a comma, a and a with a breve, and so on), target the forms that show demand, and use correct diacritics in the copy itself. If you run Romanian and English versions, give each its own URL and connect them so Google shows the right one.

The RAC Code: the rules Romanian advertising follows

The Romanian Advertising Council (Consiliul Roman pentru Publicitate, RAC) is the industry's self-regulation body. It brings together advertisers, agencies and media, and its Code of Practice in Commercial Communication is based on the International Chamber of Commerce's principles. The rules an agency will meet most often:

• Ads must be recognisable. Article 1.9 says advertising messages must be designed and presented so that they can be recognised as such. Article 15 adds that the advertiser's identity must be evident, with contact details where relevant.
• Claims must be provable. Article 2 requires technical and scientific references, studies and statistics to be used correctly and in a way that can be substantiated for the whole life of the campaign.
• Comparisons have conditions. Article 12 allows comparative advertising only if it is not misleading, compares goods or services that meet the same needs, compares essential, relevant, verifiable and representative features objectively (which can include price), and does not denigrate a competitor or take unfair advantage of its reputation.
• Native advertising must be marked. Article 5 says native ads must be easy to recognise as commercial communication, the advertiser's identity must be easy to check, and the marking must be visible and easy to understand.
• Distance selling and phone calls. Article 22 requires the advertiser's full name and address in distance-selling communications, a way to ask to be deleted from the database in fax and automated-call advertising, and callers who give the advertiser's name and the purpose of the call at once, and call at reasonable hours.

Influencer posts under Article 4

The RAC Code has a full article on influencer marketing:

• The advertiser is responsible for what influencers publish for it (article 4.1).
• Disclose the deal in every post. The contractual relationship must be disclosed clearly and visibly in each article, post, video or tweet, at the start of the material where possible, or with the platform's own tool such as the Paid Partnership label, and never hidden in the content (article 4.2).
• Affiliate links to products on third-party sites should be disclosed as such (article 4.2).
• Claims must be true and verifiable (article 4.3), and posts about using a product must reflect the influencer's honest, real experience with it (article 4.4).

RAC also runs IMST training for influencers. Build the disclosure wording into every creator contract you sign in Romania, and keep a record of what each creator was paid or given.

Bucharest, Cluj and the regions

Local search in Bucharest works by sector and neighbourhood; in Cluj-Napoca, Iasi, Timisoara or Constanta, each city is its own market. A shop, clinic, office or restaurant should own its Google Business Profile, use the real address and opening hours, add photos of the premises, and have a real page for each place it serves rather than one page with the city name changed.

What to put in the brief

Service	What to ask for in writing
SEO	Pages to be written or fixed each month, in Romanian with correct diacritics, and Search Console in your name
Local SEO	The Business Profile owned by you, with real address, hours and photos
Facebook and social	Platforms chosen from your own analytics, who approves posts, how clicks to the site are counted
Google Ads and Meta Ads	Accounts in your name, ads and landing pages in Romanian, spend separate from the fee
Influencers	The Article 4 disclosure in every post, affiliate links marked, a record of payments and gifts
Claims and comparisons	The evidence behind every claim, and an Article 12 check on any comparison

Romanian agencies price by monthly retainer, fixed project or hourly rate. Compare offers on hours, named people, pages produced, reports and exclusions. Refuse any offer that promises a position: Google's own guidance says "No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google." If your team reads Romanian, our Romanian guide to what SEO optimisation means, what you can do yourself and how to compare offers goes deeper.

Questions about SEO and digital marketing in Romania

Should we target Romanian terms with or without diacritics?

Check both forms of your main terms in Keyword Planner, and write the page itself with correct diacritics.

How should a paid influencer post be disclosed in Romania?

Clearly and visibly in every post, at the start where possible or with the platform's Paid Partnership label, as article 4.2 of the RAC Code asks. Mark affiliate links too.

Who is responsible if an influencer's post breaks the rules?

Under article 4.1 of the RAC Code, the advertiser is responsible for the communication its influencers make.

Is Facebook still the main social channel for Romanian websites?

For clicks to websites, yes: StatCounter gives Facebook 87.66% of social referrals in Romania in September 2026. Check your own analytics before you set the budget split.

When can we judge whether our SEO agency is delivering?

Read Search Console for impressions, positions and indexed pages, the Business Profile performance report for calls and directions, and your own count of enquiries by page. The outcome depends on competition, your offer and your budget.

What a Romanian buyer hears from ChatGPT

StatCounter's September 2026 chatbot figures for Romania give ChatGPT 84.37% of use and Gemini 10.31%. When a manager in Bucharest asks ChatGPT for the best SEO agency in Romania, it gives a short list drawn from Romanian directories, business press, award lists and agency sites. That list is chosen differently from Google's results. AI Knows Us checks it for a business, asking its buyers' questions on ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude and Google AI Overviews and showing which firms each answer names and the sources behind it.