Last edited on July 18, 2021 by Digitiz
Over time, China has become the new El Dorado for developing the activities of international companies. With a large population and a social class with increasingly high purchasing power, the country offers numerous opportunities for brands wishing to establish themselves there.
Reputation and brand image are two crucial points in the marketing strategies of companies wishing to develop there. However, China presents a very different Internet sphere from what we know in the West. This changing sphere in search of developments and innovations implies understanding its complexity and it all starts with: BAIDU
Baidu, the Chinese Google of the Middle Kingdom
It is difficult for Google to enter the Chinese market due to the strong censorship it suffers from the Great Virtual Wall. Few people use Google in China, except expats via a VPN. Launched in 2000 by Robin Li, Baidu is the search engine and undisputed leader in the Chinese market, with more than 78% market share and reaching more than 3 billion daily queries.
Source: http://www.marketing-chine.com/
Chinese individuals are one of the most developed populations when it comes to the use of the internet and digital technology in general. This enthusiasm allows Baidu to have an active user base of more than 700 million Internet users, representing double that of the United States.
Search Engine Marketing is a necessary tool to achieve the expected success in China. Baidu is therefore the essential player for companies wishing to carry out their SEO strategies in China. We find several similarities with the methods used by Google but also certain notable differences which we will develop below.
A difference of objectives
Google primarily seeks to promote and encourage the sharing, relevance and diversity of content and information. Unlike Baidu which follows a commercial logic of maximizing its profits. It will primarily offer its own sites such as Baidu Zhidao or Baidu Tieba. The very first results are Pay Per click and not natural referencing.
The domain name: A factor influencing the ranking of your site on Baidu is the domain name which must absolutely end with .com, .com.cn or .cn. Site age is also more heavily factored into ranking compared to Google.
Accommodation: Loading speed is an algorithm taken into account by both Google and Baidu. Accommodation in a country is of little importance. However, Baidu tends to favor sites hosted in mainland China for best results.
Optimization on mobile: Mobile optimization is one of the biggest ranking factors for Baidu and Google. This is all the more true in China where the majority of Internet users browse mainly via their Smartphones to access sites. Indeed, in China we can really consider the smartphone as an extension of the individual. A recent study showed that in the first half of 2017 Chinese people spent more than 30 billion hours on WeChat (Chinese Facebook).
Mobile performance then becomes a criterion of choice in the referencing of the website on the search engine.
The contents : Google and Baidu rank sites that give importance to publishing new content as well as updating old content. An important point to consider for SEO on Baidu is publishing content in Mandarin. It is necessary to take into account Chinese cultural differences and adapt to them when translating your content into Mandarin.
The quantity of backlinks takes precedence over quality: Baidu takes up the Google strategy of the 2000s where quantity will be more easily emphasized than quality. The number of Backlinks is therefore more important than the nature of these links because the search engine is not yet efficient enough in terms of evaluating quality.
Keywords and URL: The table below lists the differences and similarities that can be found mainly on the two search engines.
*Pinyin is the official romanization system for Standard Chinese in mainland China
Trust Rank evaluation on Baidu
Trust Rank is an algorithm that calculates the number of websites that talk about you. If you have different pages or websites linked to your sites, this will increase your score. In China, it is crucial to be ranked as a good reference site, because Chinese people always rely on other people’s opinions.
Baidu manually decides the Trust Rank of a website. So Baidu’s algorithm outperforms Chinese government websites, which are generally not the most reliable information. As for press articles, they generally appear around the 3rd and 4th page.
Starting an effective SEO campaign for Baidu is a little different from a campaign on Google. Baidu is made to adapt to its target of Chinese Internet users and ranks sites accordingly. The focus should be on developing a homepage that has been designed according to the needs and desires of the Chinese people.
It is therefore up to you to adapt to the Chinese market in the hope of finding success there.
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