101 Things About China – #3 – Do You Baidu? I do!

Online search in China is a US$3 billion industry that enjoyed a 70% growth in 2011 and while there are seven major players within the industry, only one is worth talking about. Baidu dominates the China market with well over 80% of the market and it is the first port-of-call for over 90% of all online searches in China. If you want your marketing and communications strategies to be effective in China, and if you have serious aspirations of reaching and engaging with a Chinese audience, it’s time to forget what you’ve learned about Google. If you don’t Baidu, it’s about time you do!

Baidu vs Google – It’s All About Baidu

A Nasdaq-listed company, Baidu is the #1 ranked site in China and the #5 ranked site globally, according to Alexa.  Baidu is king of online search in China with its nearest rival – Google – gaining a mere 11% of the market. The other key players barely even warrant a mention given how small their percentages. Baidu also signed an agreement with Bing last year to run its English searches in China, and its portfolio of web services does share similarities with Google, including search, maps, blogs, news, internet TV, an Android-based operating system and a web browser.

Baidu is now also listing real-time content from the big four microblog (Twitter-like) sites in China, owned by SINA, SOHU, NetEase and Tencent. This is a huge move and is something Google is yet to do in its home market. Given the power and influence of social media, this will add to Baidu’s dominance and will seriously impact any attempt Google has to compete here.

Having dominated the local market, Baidu is now also looking overseas to get extra customers. It recently announced a new R&D center in Singapore and opened an office in Brazil as it looks to compete with Google in South America. In fact, according to stats from Net Market Share, Google lost 7% of its global market share to Baidu last month, while all other players went unchanged.

There are interesting times ahead for Baidu. Google still has a large workforce in China that includes over 300 engineers, despite not having a China site. The China market is clearly one that Google is interested in, but it remains to be seen if they’ll ever really compete with Baidu. One thing is clear though, Baidu is definitely looking to compete with Google in other markets.

SEO – The Baidu Way

The first step to online success in China is to build your own website. It sounds like a no-brainer, but it’s amazing how many organizations seem to miss this key step. There are 513 million internet users in China and all but the smallest percentage of searches are done in Chinese, meaning if hundreds of millions of searches are being made in Chinese, it makes a whole lot of sense to ensure your site is in the language being used to search. In fact, a report by the Localisation Industry Standards Association noted that every dollar spent on localization returns an impressive $25. That’s the kind of ROI your boss would be happy to see, I’m sure.

Of course, it’s not just about the website. The website will need to be optimized, and you’ll need other content to help drive people back to your website. You’ve probably spent hours learning how to do this in English and with Google in mind, but it’s important to remember that Baidu is a very different puzzle to crack, and it has its own set of rules.

Chinese Domains – A Chinese top-level domain (.com.cn or .cn) is a great place to start when looking to optimize your site for Baidu. While Google’s geographic location tool allows for generic top-level domains (.com or .org) to specify a location for local searches, Baidu has no such tool. It’s therefore in your best interests to purchase the Chinese domain.

Censorship – Google was kicked out of China because it didn’t want to filter search results. Baidu is 100% supportive of government regulations, and it’s important that you keep this in mind. Baidu will not rank sites that are seen as offering inappropriate content and will crawl for certain keywords that it deems unacceptable. While 99% of businesses won’t need to worry about this, it’s always worth remembering, and even if you don’t agree with this from a personal standpoint, your online content will have to.

Language – Content should be created in Simplified Chinese rather than Traditional Chinese (more common in Hong Kong and Taiwan). It’s also best to use native speakers to produce content, if possible. While certain translation software will do a decent job (some are just awful), they will always include contextual errors when translating large amounts of content. You should also remember that word-for-word translations rarely result in great content, and a native speaker will be able to localize content more effectively. It may prove more expensive to hire a native Chinese person, but the long-term benefits will ensure it’s a worthy investment.

Keywords – Another reason to have the support of a native speaker is to ensure the right keywords are present in your content. Baidu offers a keyword tool and its Baidu index, but it’s not going to be easy without the right expertise. By using the Baidu Index you have a free tool that allows you to check trends to enable you to better select keywords, while the paid keyword tool offers a good alternative for those willing to spend to get ahead. Once you’ve selected your keywords, you should be looking to put the main keywords in titles, subheadings, and in the first paragraph, as Baidu’s spiders don’t dig as deep as Google’s.

Metadata – While Google has long since decided that metadata is no longer worth the effort, Baidu is still very much a fan. You need to pay attention to your metadata when optimizing for Baidu, and you need to ensure your descriptions are in Simplified Chinese. Don’t forget those images too!

Inbound Links – We all know Google adds more weight to those sites that are more credible, and while Baidu is improving in this area, it’s no where near as reliant on differentiating between high- and low-quality links. This means that getting your content out to as many sites as possible will improve your ranking on Baidu, and utilizing tools that can make the most of this will ensure better results. Also, as with Google, internal links from your own site (in Simplified Chinese, of course) are also very important.

Paid Search – Perhaps one grey area for Baidu is that paid searches tend to dominate top places in search results. A good PPC campaign could see you rocket to the top of the rankings instantly, with paid searches often filling the first couple of pages. This is improving though, as Baidu adjusts its algorithms, but there’s still a way to go before organic searches regain their place. That said, all the above SEO tactics will help ensure your audiences can find your content, and Baidu does clearly mark both organic (百度快照) and paid (推广) searches, allowing for users to make their own decisions on which links to access.

Overall…

When you think of SEO in China, think Baidu. It’s important you remember that “Local Content is King” and that you give people the content they want in the language they want. Building a website, distributing press releases and engaging on social media platforms will all help you improve your presence in China and they will help ensure you don’t get lost without a trace. If you are serious about China, it’s time you started to pay attention to what over 80% of China’s 513 million internet users are doing.

If you don’t Baidu, isn’t it about time you do?