2017 SEO Strategy in China

As you may know, Baidu is the second most used search engine in the world, almost a monopoly in the Chinese search engine market. So, to be viewable on the China’s internet, you have to master how to deliver a campaign with good SEO strategies to dominate the search engine market.

First to be recognized by Baidu, you had better translate your website into Chinese and operate it in China. Hong-Kong can be a good alternative. You have to know the most efficient keywords. Like Google, you can choose a long tail strategy (more focus on what people look for, yet less competitive and more efficient key words). Then, when you appear on the first page of the searching results on Baidu, the first part of the job will be done.

On the mobile websites，Baidu started up the mobile instant page (MIP) project which is very similar to Google’s AMP in 2016. A report shows that more than 2,800 sites have implemented MIP, reducing the loading time by 30 to 80 percent and subsequently increasing page clicks from 5 to 30 percent. By December 2016, three months after the release of MIP, Baidu had already indexed more than 900 million MIP pages.

Since the release of China’s Internet Ad Law, Baidu cut down the number of sponsored results in the main column of the SERP(Search Engine Results Page) from “up to 10” to “no more than 5”. Obviously, it is a positive change for SEO. Here are some recommendations for your 2017 SEO strategy in China.

1. If you haven’t used Baidu Webmaster Tools, you should sign up immediately. It provides the only eligible data source for SEO and a set of exclusive features, such as brand/site name protection and site link management.

2. To have a good rank on China’s search engines, you must have a large amount of content. New publications and updated information have a key-role to help yourself rank high. The big difference between Google and Baidu is that the Chinese search engine does not punish copy-pasting. Therefore, you can add a lot of content to your website, even if it has been published already. The Chinese leitmotiv is quantity rather than quality.

3. Brands with rich content or a clear content strategy should focus on their mobile site. A responsive site may not be adequate in 2017. Adopting MIP should be a priority.

4. Backlinks are very popular on China’s search engines. Adding links onto some websites allows a random website to be nicely placed on search engines. The webmaster can also share these links on different social networks. A nicely written and polished article can be quoted by other websites or famous people, which will improve the rank of the website among all the searching results.

5. For media and publishers, too many ads on your pages will probably lead to penalties from the engines. Development on native ad placement could be a cure, following the new Internet Advertising Law of China, published in September 2016.