Of the over 900 million internet users in China, 83% of those used search engines (as of March 2020) – that’s a whopping 750 million people. Just as in the West, Chinese internet users frequently turn to search engines to gauge trends and research products, which is why it’s so important for brands wanting to break into the Chinese market to have a strong presence on Chinese search engines.

Enter Chinese search engine marketing.

The first thing to be aware of is that Google is not accessible within China’s Great Firewall. Instead, China has its own unique landscape of search engines.

In this blog post, we take a closer look at the top search engines in China, and give you our top tips for succeeding in search engine marketing in China.

Top search engines in China

1

Baidu

With a market share of around 70% (as of July 2020), Baidu is the most popular search engine for both advertisers and consumers. 

Baidu is one of the three Chinese internet giants, also known as BAT (i.e. Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent), and there is very little crossover between them. For example, articles published on WeChat (owned by Tencent) can’t be searched on Baidu.

It’s worth remembering that Baidu favours results from their own products, including Baike (similar to Wikipedia), Zhidao (similar to Quora) and Tieba (similar to Reddit). It therefore pays to have a presence on these platforms too.

2

Sogou

Sogou (which means “search dog” in English) is heavily back by Tencent (the “T” in BAT). As of July 2020, Sogou holds around a 17% market share.

Sogou has the unique advantage of integrating social content from QQ and WeChat into their search engine results – content not available to other search engine players. All QQ browsers also use Sogou as their default search engine. Sogou also has the advantage of having the most popular Chinese input software, Sogou Pinyin. 

Sogou has announced it will shift its focus from more traditional keyword-based search to natural language search, no doubt in the hopes of capitalising on the popularity of voice search.

3

Shenma

With around 3% market share, Shenma is a joint venture between UC Web and Alibaba (the “A” in BAT), and comes preinstalled with the UC web browser, one of the most popular browsers in China.

Crucially, Shenma is a mobile-only search engine – they call themselves the “experts in mobile search”. Considering China is far and away a mobile-first market, this places them in a good position to grow their market share over the coming years.

4

360 Search (previously Haosou)

Once the second-most used search engine in China, 360 Search, also known as Haosou, has since dropped to fourth place, with a market share of around 4% as of July 2020.

360 Search is owned by Qihoo 360, the largest cybersecurity firm in China. Many businesses recommend that their employees use the 360 browser for its security features, making 360 Search an ideal channel for B2B marketing – indeed Qihoo claims 360 Search is the most secure search engine in China. 

5

WeChat Search

WeChat Search enables users to search content within WeChat, including WeChat Moments, WeChat Official Accounts and WeChat Mini Programs. WeChat has also struck deals with other platforms to include results from microblogging platform Weibo, question-and-answer site Zhihu and social e-commerce platform Little Red Book (Xiaohongshu). This gives users the kind of valuable social data not available on other search engines.

Top tips for search engine marketing in China

Just as with Western internet users, Chinese internet users look at organic search results as more trustworthy. Search engine optimisation (SEO), therefore, is an effective way to build authority in a cost-effective way.

To give your website the best chance of ranking highly on Chinese search engines, here are some of our top tips for search engine marketing in China.

1

Local hosting, native domain name and ICP filing

For organic search results, Chinese search engines tend to favour local sites, giving higher rankings to websites that are hosted on servers in China, have a Chinese domain (.cn) and have an Internet Content Publishing (ICP) licence. 

2

Localised content

Chinese search engines require websites to be in Mandarin, using simplified Chinese characters – that means all site copy, including SEO resources and meta tags.

3

Mobile-first website

Over 99% of Chinese internet users access the internet via mobile devices. That’s why it’s important to have a mobile-responsive website – not only will it rank higher on Chinese search engines, but it will also have a much lower bounce rate from mobile users. 

4

Keyword strategy

As with Western search engines, keywords are important to SERP rankings, though Baidu tends to require a higher keyword density than other Chinese search engines (around 8–12%). But stay clear of “keyword stuffing” – Baidu’s span-combating algorithm will penalise keywords that don’t seem relevant to the content, or that are placed in unnatural positions.

5

Localised social media

Outbound links to non-Chinese sites can lead to loading errors, again worsening a site’s ranking. This includes links to Western social media sites like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Instead, link to Chinese social media sites like WeChat, Weibo and Douyin. 

6

Blog

Chinese search engines favour websites where content is updated regularly. That’s why a blog should be a key part of your search engine marketing strategy. Be sure the content is fresh and original.

Jump-start your Chinese search engine marketing

By being aware of the key differences between Western and Chinese search engines, and adopting a localised approach to your website, you can set yourself up on the right track towards high SERP rankings.

At Sinorbis, we know how to get the results your website deserves. Our team will develop an SEO strategy to suit your target market and optimise your site accordingly in order to achieve top rankings. Contact us today to find out more about marketing in China.