Why you should avoid ‘Twitter’ in China – eConsultancy
- After recent changes, China’s biggest search engine, Baidu, no longer automatically ranks pages with an overly high keyword density above others. Before this the recommended amount was between 6-12%, it is now 3-4%.
- Baidu may be the major player in search in mainland China, however it is barely used in Hong Kong, so businesses should look at local search behaviours when targeting specific provinces of China.
- Unsurprisingly, Chinese search engines prefer sites hosted in China. Businesses would have more success in terms of SEO by getting hosted in China, or at least adopting a local domain i.e. com.cn.
The popularity of social networking sites in China is also a factor that needs to be addressed when it comes to marketing. One third of the 384 million domestic internet users are also regular SNS users. Again, locality is important. The top SNS sites in China are QQ and RenRen, and businesses are more likely to reach the Chinese demographic if they develop marketing strategies here than on the popular Western sites such as Facebook and Twitter.
A localised approach and a good understanding of search dynamics are essential to the success of websites in overseas markets. By adapting websites to improve SEO and SEM in China, UK businesses can open themselves up to the biggest online market in the world.
Oban Multilingual SEO Director Greig Holbrook
http://econsultancy.com/blog/5686-why-you-should-avoid-twitter-in-china
