Chinese Digital Marketing

Search Engine Marketing In China: What You Need To Know

Search Engine Marketing In China Is On A Different Page

Search Engine Marketing also known as ‘搜索引擎营销’ or ‘sou suo yin qing ying xiao’ in Chinese is not just synonymous with Baidu anymore. Unlike the West, where Google is the Alpha and the beta of search engines, the China search engine market keeps welcoming new competitive players frequently.

Baidu still enjoys a fair dominance over the search engine market share, but there are players like Shenma & Sougou that are emerging in the market because of shifts in consumer behaviour and optimising for the handiest gadgets – The Mobile.

Web traffic is important to understand how to convert those numbers into leads. If you’ve mastered the art of effectively driving traffic to connect with Chinese consumers, then you’re on the path towards boosting your business in China exponentially.

1. Few websites have Chances of Ranking on Baidu

search engine marketing in chinachi

Baidu is a search engine of the Chinese, by the Chinese and for the Chinese. Would you expect a Chinese website to spring up while searching on Google? No. Similarly, you can’t expect your English website to rank on Baidu. However, there are a few exceptions for some non-Chinese websites (We call them the lucky ones) that rank on the search engine.

2. First Page Ranking On Baidu Is Difficult But Not Impossible

Baidu’s first page is heavily focused on ad content, but it has made massive changes over the years to make sure that its first page isn’t dominated by ads. What does that tell us about SEM? It’s a straight indication that the ad space is competitive but if strategized and optimized well, chances of it ranking are higher.

3. The Best Way To Boost Organic Search Traffic On Baidu?

There is, however, a range of different ways that you can optimise your SEO’s using different Baidu products. Baidu Webmaster Tools allows you to alter the crawl rate through your site, and answering questions about your company on Tieba allows you to become more trusted.

4. One More Secret To Grabbing Your Spot On Baidu?

Create Your Company profile on Baike – China’s equivalent of Wikipedia. The Baidu SERP prominently features Baidu Baike entries, because the more you patronise the search engine’s products, the better the results.

5. Engage on Baidu’s Quora – Zhidao

Zhidao is another essential part of Baidu’s infrastructure. This is a Q&A website which allows people to answer questions about their business. Since research is an essential part of the buyer’s journey as well as a massive part of Chinese buying culture, this is an excellent way to increase your reviews and create an organic search presence.

6. Sogou, the new kid on the block

Now If your strategy isn’t limited to Baidu, you could spread your eggs in another basket. The Tencent backed search engine – Sogou is slowly gaining its popularity in China. Sogou is owned by Sohu, an internet company that offers a range of internet services including news, games, search and advertising.

7. Haosou is another very important search engine in the Chinese market

Haosou is backed by QiHoo 360 one of the largest internet companies in China. They provide a range of internet services but are most well known for their web browser and cybersecurity products. One advantage that Haosou has is that the QiHoo 360 browser comes preinstalled on most computers in China. Many businesses in China also recommend that their employees use the browser for its security features, making it an ideal channel for B2B marketing.

8. What you need to know about Shenma

The search engine is a joint venture between UC Web, the company behind UC Browser, and Alibaba. As the 2rd letter in the popular acronym BAT, which stands for China’s tech giants (Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent), Alibaba couldn’t be the only one without a product in the search engine category. With the help of UC Web’s UC browser and China’s preference toward mobile over desktop Shenma has been gaining market share in recent years and is only expected to grow.

 

Conclusion

With all that being stated, you wouldn’t fully understand the temperature of the waters until you dip your feet into it. It will take you a Chinese server, domain names & ICP licenses, Chinese content and Chinese seo to help you get started with your search engine marketing in China. We’d recommend local assistance to help you navigate the Chinese digital market for better results for you to get a grip on understanding how its done in China.

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