Baidu is China’s biggest search engine, commanding an impressive 64% market share, compared to Google’s 31%. And with China replacing the US as the world’s single largest growing economy (Enquiro, 2007), it is definitely a force that cannot be ignored for global search engine marketers. Yet as I was researching SEO for Baidu, it became apparent that there wasn’t a whole lot of information available, at least in English, on how to rank well naturally for it.
To follow, is a brief summary of what I was able to find so far, starting with the basics. I’ll continue to add to this post as I find out more.
Use a .cn Domain
Baidu seems to favor websites which use a Chinese domain (.cn). This is understandable since Baidu is a Chinese search engine, for the Chinese people.
Use Chinese Language Content
In Baidu, very few searches are conducted in English. Therefore, it is important to translate your content into local language (ie: Simplified Chinese) in order to stand any chance of ranking well.
Avoid Certain Types of Content
Since content is controlled by the Chinese Government, Baidu is very sensitive to certain types of information. For example, adult content or other Government “forbidden keywords” are censored from search results. Using such words will not only negatively impact your pages, but potentially blacklist your entire web site.
Optimize on Page Content
Optimize your Heading, Anchor Text, Body Copy, and Meta Descriptions, just as you would for Google (see the HABIT SEO Checklist for tips). Unlike Google, Baidu continues to make use of Meta Keywords as a factor of rank, though it seems to be placing a little less emphasis on this recently.
Inbound Links
Where links are concerned, Baidu takes into account links from both external sources as well as links from within your own site. Quantity is more important than quality. More recently though, they seem to be following in the footsteps of Google and placing more emphasis on external links.
Keyword Research
When doing Keyword Research, Baidu has a Baidu Index tool that can provide you with estimate search numbers, similar to the Google Keyword Tool. The catch is that interface is in Simplified Chinese, but Google Translate can help non-speakers to some extent.
Additional Useful Resources
– Chinese Search Engine Engagement (Enquiro, 2007)
– 2009: A Battle Ground in Chinese Search (Digital East Asia, 2010)
– Google Says No to China (SearchEngine Land, 2010)
— Update 15-Feb-2010 —
Use a Chinese IP Address
Websites that are hosted in China are prefered by Baidu, and will significantly improve your rank.
Refresh Your Content
As with Google, keep your content fresh and updated, since Baidu favors newer content over old.
Aim for 6-12% Keyword Density
Keyword density is still seen as an important ranking factor by Baidu to determine page relevancy.
Keep Your Page Sizes Down
Due to poor connectivity, Baidu’s crawlers will often crawl only the first 100-120k of a page. So keep your page sizes down, with the most important content and keywords toward the top of the page.
Don’t Forget About Alt Tags
Remember to use your keyword in the image alt tag. As with Google, Baidu also uses this information to determine the relevancy of a page.
What I found most interesting was hearing some local perspective on the issue. The small group of people I spoke with (probably about 20 or so) all agreed that Google moving out of China would be a bad thing – they believed (and hoped) that it wouldn’t happen, and that a truse would eventually be made with the Chinese Government. I guess time will tell.
So going in, I was aware of the censorship issues in China, but I guess I didn’t appreciate the extent of it – particularly where social media is concerned – and how disconnected I felt. Literally, it was like losing a limb. Here’s an example of five popular social tools I tried out:
Facebook is blocked. I remember being in China less than two years ago and was able to access Facebook just fine. But when I think about it, the social media scene has come a long way in just two years.
Twitter is blocked and I was unable to access it through TweetDeck or any other desktop application. In Brizzly, you are able to log in, but the feed doesn’t show up, making it about as useful as not being able to log in in the first place.
Blogspot should be re-named Blockspot. At least last week I had a good excuse for not posting to my blog since I couldn’t access it! However, I am told that blogs (just not those on Blogspot, I guess) are quite popular amongst the Chinese audience.
Foursquare is not blocked. I can see how the government could find Foursquare useful, but I suspect that it’s availability may be due to the uptake not being as high as tools like Twitter and Facebook (yet). If you “Check In” or do a “Shout Out” on Foursquare it does feed through to your Twitter account, so everyone on Twitter can see it (just not you!).
YouTube is blocked, of course, and didn’t appear in any of the search results.
The interesting thing is that despite many of these popular tools being blocked, China is still quite active in the social space (as an example, check out Forrester’s Social Technographics Profiling Tool). They are active, just not in the same channels as we may use in the west.
So what do the people of China use? An important question for a company’s global social media strategy.
- There are a number of local Twitter equivalents going around, though I can’t yet comment as to how popular these are, or the profile of the users.
- Sina is a very popular website destination for local news and information, with about 10 million active users. On the site, they host a Forum where people can post and discuss issues.
- In addition to Forums, Blogs (of the non-Blogspot variety) are also popular.
- Probably the most noticeable (and closest to real-time) tool I saw being used was MSN messenger (or equivalent). It kind of takes me back to the early 2000’s, but nonetheless this seems to be a very popular social tool. Whilst sitting in meetings, almost everyone had messenger constantly running with messages popping up every few seconds, accompanied by cute “Manga-style” avatars.
So that was my first-hand experience of going cold-turkey in China (Note: These were results based on going through “normal” channels that most people would use. I’m sure there are clever ways to bypass the firewall).
Whilst researching for my trip I also found that there was not a whole lot of information about how to optimize pages for the biggest search engine in China – Baidu. So in my next post, I’m going to share what I did manage to find out.
It’s the moment any marketer dreads; budget cuts.
This happened a lot to me last year, and I know I’m not the only one. 2009 was a truly horrible year for a lot of folk. But this story does have a silver lining, thanks to the proof in numbers that search marketing can provide.
So getting back to the story; what exactly happened when half of my PPC budget was taken away?
Month 1 – Continue running campaigns as before, at the reduced budget
The first month was the “control” month (aka the “oh shit” month). Nothing was changed in terms of campaigns, adgroups and keywords that were running. The only change was the amount that was spent. This is what happened:
- Clicks through to the web site: Down 53%
- Key actions indicating an intent to purchase: Down 25%
- Online conversions: Down 46%
- Revenue lost (est): 9.5x more than the budget cut
Month 2 – Use the reduced budget to fund top keywords only
To be fair, if your salary was cut in half, you wouldn’t continue to splurge on things. You would take a look at your expenses, downsize, and cut out certain luxuries to try and live within your means.
So in the second month, I focused campaigns back down to basics. The budget was used to fund only the top-performing keywords – those which drove the most traffic and highest quality. As a result, many longtail words went unfunded. This is what happened:
- Clicks through to the web site: Down 61%
- Key actions indicating an intent to purchase: Down 12%
- Online conversions: Down 25%
- Revenue lost (est.): 5.3x more than the budget cut
Month 2 showed some interesting results. When comparing the different approaches it seems that you drive less volume (clicks) when you limit yourself to “head” keywords (this makes sense as you are casting a much smaller net), but as a result you drive better quality results compared to just spreading the budget thinly (as in Month 1).
As a side note, I believe that the Month 2 approach is not a sustainable long-term solution for the reasons highlighted in a previous post: Understanding the Importance of Assist Keywords.
So comparing the two months, Month 2 was better than Month 1. However, that’s not to say that it was good in its own right – especially when the result was still 5x less revenue than the budget that was cut (and we’re talking big numbers here).
Month 3 – I got my budget back, plus a bit more
After two months, I was fighting the budget bearers off with sticks. Looking back I like to see this exercise as more of an experiment, even if it was a forced one.
The results proved a point and served as a reminder of how kick-ass search marketing can be when it comes to metrics and accountability. So if you find yourself in this situation, make sure you keep on top of the numbers, and share it with the people who hold the purse strings.
First of all, a very happy New Year to everyone. The Christmas/New Year weeks have been filled with lots of eating and resting and it’s been great to be able to recharge the old batteries. Over the past couple of weeks I’ve continued to keep in touch with search and social developments through Twitter, and have read many predictions of what different people think will happen in 2010, as well as some interesting reviews looking back at whose 2009 predictions came true.
I’m not going to jump on the Mystic Meg bandwagon. Rather, I wanted to share with you my top three reads that I will be book worming through in the new year. My reading list resolution, I guess.
1. Web Analytics 2.0 (Avinash Kaushik)
Now usually when I see anything with the words “2.0” in it, I will run a mile with my fingers down my throat gagging. But for Avinash I make an exception, since the man is brilliant.
I’ve already read about a quarter of the way through this one. I love Avinash’s unique approach that makes smart analytics understandable and fun. My favourite part from the book so far:
“At my first analytics job… I asked a lot of questions about the use of data and the 200 Webtrends reports that were being produced. At the end of two weeks, I turned off Webtrends. For three weeks, not a single human being called about their missing 200 reports. 200! In a multi-billion-dollar company!”.
My key take-away so far is that people investment in “Analysis Ninjas”, rather than simply tool investment, is what is needed to yield results that make a difference to the bottom line. Although Avinash is Mr. Google, he presents different software options along the way, often playing down Google solutions (maybe even too much).
2. The Art of SEO (Erik Enge, Stephan Spencer, Rand Fishkin, Jessie Stricchiola)
SEO is going to be a much bigger focus for me in 2010. Although this is still on my “to get” list, I’ve seen some great reviews for this book, and with the impressive list of author names on this one, you can’t really go wrong; for example, Rand is the co-founder of the excellent SEOmoz.
3. Rich Dad, Poor Dad (Robert Kiyosaki, Sharon Lechter)
I’ve really been enjoying reading Paul Harrison’s Urban Survival Blog. Paul recommended this book in his latest post, “Getting off my Hamster Wheel…“. Although this book is not about search or social media per se, it serves as a good sanity check, I believe, for anyone who spends half their life in an office. This book is about two conflicting ways of thinking about working and business.
I’ll let you know how I get on. If anyone has already read any of these, please feel free to post your thoughts on them.
- Take a selection (maybe 10) of your most important SEO keywords
- Identify the local language equivalent in your most important markets, outside of the US
- Get someone in your local country office to type in each keyword in the local engine (one Google, one other), and record your SEO rank
- Then also get them to record your competitors’ rank.
If you are ranking well, then no need to read any further – congratulations for being awesome. If, however, your results are on the scary side, then join the club. Here are 3 basic steps for helping you get back on track:
Step 1: Set up Local Language Sites
So I sort of lied – I know that this is far from a basic step, especially if you are starting up from scratch. But if you are a global company, then it’s close to impossible to rank well organically for important local language keywords without having a local language site.
One work around (or cheat) would be to sponsor local language keywords in order to show up on the PPC side, also translating your adcopy. Of course, when this person then gets taken to an English language site, they will likely be a little pissed about it, and rightly so. So you should not be surprised when you see significantly lower conversions when doing this.
Step 2: Build Your SEO Keyword List
If you haven’t already, then make sure you have an SEO Keyword List in English. This should consist of your most important keywords (and Prefered Landing Pages [PLPs]) that you want to be appearing for in the SERP.
Then take these English keywords and ask your local country contacts to help translate them into the appropriate local language(s). Now because several different translations may exist for the same English keyword, you want to make sure that you have identified the best one – best in terms of both volume and quality.
i. Volume
Check for estimate search volumes using the Google Keyword Tool, and the “Country” and “Language” toggles. Generally speaking, the higher the keyword volume, the better as you don’t want to be spending lots of time optimizing for a keyword translation that no-one is searching on. However, with this you also want to take into account quality, as high volume keywords can sometimes be too broad.
ii. Quality
The best way to check for quality, is to look at your PPC results (in particular, some kind of quality score or conversion indicator) for that keyword. If you’re not sponsoring the keyword already, then test it out in PPC first (about two week’s of data is usually sufficient).
In addition to simply translating your English keywords, you can also get other good ideas for SEO keywords from PPC, so remember to check out PPC keyword performance for each language. You may come across a keyword that doesn’t work well in terms of an “English keyword translation”, but works fantastically within that particular country.
Important note: It’s really important to get your keyword list right (as you will spend a lot of time optimizing your site for these words), so don’t skimp on the time/effort to put these lists together – it will save time in the long-term.
3. Optimize Your Local Pages
Once you have your keyword list in place for each language, optimize each local language PLP according to the keyword. At a minimum, make sure you optimize according to the HABIT checklist.
Then of course, continue to monitor, optimize and add keywords to improve your placement and presence over time.
…but have they also got sloppy? Last week, Google made three interesting announcements regarding search marketing. Here’s a quick summary, and some thoughts around these:
1. Personalized Search
It seemed inevitable that search needed to evolve from a general to a more personalized level. Google’s Personalized Search attempts to do just that by using past search history to serve up more relevant results for each individual. This is the case regardless of whether you are signed into Google or not, and it seems that Google have made the opt-out process quite difficult to figure out (not to mention that most searchers will likely be oblivious to it). This, of course, brings up the question of privacy, even more so since there has been talk of cookies being opt-in in Europe in 2011.
What does this mean for SEOs?
Results can now rank higher or lower based upon an individual’s past click behaviour rather than just the search algorithm. This makes SEO harder to optimize for (even more so than before) and can make SEO measurement more complex; measures of success will need to move beyond a traditional rank metric.
To see more, watch Google’s Personalized Search Video.
2. Real-Time Search
Relevance has always been a big factor in good search results, but with the continued rise of social media, recency is becoming more and more important.
Google’s Real-Time Search results sit in the middle of the SERP and automatically flow as new information comes in, mainly from Twitter (though it also includes results from Google News, Google Blog Search, Friend Feed updates and others). Alternatively, you can also click on “Show options” and “Latest” to see a page just with real-time results. Here’s what it looks like:
Although the results are integrated into the SERP, execution doesn’t seem to be the cleanest – which begs the question of whether Google launched real-time search as a knee jerk reaction to Bing. Many reviews I’ve read have also commented that the results are below par and can be easily influenced, though Google claim that only information that is highly relevant (and not spammy) are included… though actual results suggest otherwise.
Other questions also arise regarding Google’s current implementation. For example, with the real-time search results appearing slap-bam in the middle of the SERP, will this mean more people investing in PPC in order to gain more control of their presence above the fold? And will it encourage people to spam more to try and influence real-time results?
What are the implications for search marketers?
Regardless of current execution (which will hopefully improve), search and social are becoming more and more intertwined. Quite simply, web marketers need to get their search marketing and social media strategies in order as the two continue to converge.
Read more about Real-Time Search.
3. Google Goggles
Google Goggles (launched in Google Labs) allows you to simply take a picture (with an Andorid phone) to search the web. It doesn’t work for everything and a valuable business application right now is questionable. However, it is pretty neat in a geeky, experimental kind of way.
-
Finding out what businesses are nearby
-
Identifying objects, places and landmarks
-
Identifying products through barcodes
On more than a few occasions, I’ve been asked to take part in joint PPC programs with resellers. Sometimes the programs have worked really well, other times they have been less than inspiring.
Overall, I’ve seen mixed results. Here’s a few thoughts on some of the lessons learned and what worked best:
Bidding
Although having PPC placements by both you and your resellers mean less shelf-space available to your competitors, competing on bids with your resellers is not always the most efficient use of money, especially when budgets are tight. By pooling resources together you can work to improve placement and increase coverage throughout the day. Collaborating on day-parting can also work well to reduce bidding conflicts.
Analytics
Probably the most important thing is to make sure your reseller has good site analytics in place. There’s no point in driving your PPC traffic to the reseller site if they can’t track what happens to these people once they hit their site. This may sound obvious, but shoddy, even non-existent, tracking has happened more times than I’d like to remember.
E-commerce
Resellers are exactly that; they are about selling. More often than not, the expectation is that resellers have e-commerce capabilities on their site. Therefore, targeting intent through specific “buy” phrases can work well to encourage online purchase (even more so if your own site lacks e-commerce). However, remember to make sure that your reseller’s site can track your PPC investment through to online sale.
Dedicated Landing Page
Be prepared to drive traffic and key conversions for keywords away from your site to the reseller. This is ok, as long as they have tracking in place and searchers are being moved towards a sale. However, be sure that the reseller is landing searchers on a page focused just on your products (for example, a dedicated landing page or microsite). Remember that if the reseller also sells competitor products then you risk the visitor wandering towards competing products, from your paid ad.
Channel Conflict
If you have a number of resellers covering the same geographical areas and products, then you risk channel conflict issues, particularly if your PPC program is just with a selected few.
If this is the case, then sometimes it is best to make joint PPC programs a part of Reseller Certification. For example, companies with many resellers often organize their authorized resellers into different levels (such as Platinum, Gold, and Silver), depending on business requirements. The higher their level, the more support the partner receives. PPC Co-Op programs could be part of this support.
As an example, in order to benefit from joint PPC programs, the reseller has to:
- Be a platinum-level partner
- Have e-commerce capability
- Have robust website analytics in place
- Have a microsite dedicated to your products
When I look at SEO and PPC as part of the search marketing mix, I know how important the role of SEO is. I’ve heard what the experts have said and read the studies that tell me things like how searchers trust organic results more, and that searchers click on organic results more than paid.
Yet despite knowing this, when I look back at my past search marketing plans, 80% of the plan details were focused on PPC, whilst only 20% was on SEO; almost as if it were an after-thought. Maybe it was because it seemed easier to just throw money at paid search. Afterall, it requires less effort, is easier to control (you can turn it on or off in an instant), metrics are often easier to track, and since big media investments are being made then detailed targets and metrics have to be clearly set out up front.
But what about SEO?
The skewed PPC focus had been bothering me for a while. So with web tracking more in order than prior years, I was able to delve into comparative metrics.
When comparing SEO to PPC, I found that in the past year, SEO delivered:
- 10% more clicks than PPC
- 4X more key conversions
It was the conversion comparison that struck me most, since these were *big* numbers (a key conversion in this case was where the visitor provided information about themselves and indicated an intention to purchase). Yet this shouldn’t have been a big surprise. I guess seeing data specific to your business helps to bring the message closer to home.
So the moral of the story:
- Don’t put SEO in the corner. Organic search delivers, so it should always be at the forefront of search marketing and your plans.
- Yes, SEO is free where clicks are concerned but it doesn’t mean that you don’t invest in it. In order to flourish, it needs to be given the necessary time, resource, and commitment it so clearly deserves.
- And last but not least, get your web tracking in order. It will provide you with the most valuable insight relevant to your business.
For me, at least, it is time to put SEO back into the spotlight.
On Thursday I took part in a Social Media 101 panel, held by Business Wire where I met lots of interesting people; some new to social media and some more experienced. There were many good questions asked by the audience. Here’s a small selection of some of these.
Should businesses use Facebook or Twitter?
There is a view that you should just jump straight in, use the tools, and see where it leads. Personally, I disagree with this approach. The question shouldn’t be about whether to use Facebook, or Twitter, or both. Rather, the questions should be:
- What is it you want to achieve?
- Can social media help you to achieve this?
- Are your customers using social media?
- And if so, what social media channels they are using?
This can help form the beginnings of your social media strategy, from which tactics can be derived. Maybe you do find that Twitter is more suited to your business than Facebook (or vice versa). But maybe you find that blogs and community forums are better at achieving your objectives. At least by approaching it this way, you aren’t deep diving into tools or losing sight of what it is you are trying to achieve.
Also check out:
The “5 Knows” of Social Media
There is no Twitter Strategy
Do you have any tips to get started?
I always recommend to read the book Groundswell, if you haven’t already. The POST method (People, Objectives, Strategy and Technologies) in this book will really help to structure your thoughts for your social media strategy.
Also if you don’t fully understand the workings of some of the tools, a good way to gain a practical understanding is to simply experiment and try them out personally in order to get familiar with the workings and nuances of them.
How do you separate work from personal?
For myself, it is very easy to keep work and personal separate in the social space. For business, I share content related to the company I work for, that helps solve our customer’s challenges, and for personal I focus on my interest in search and social media. There is a very clear line.
However, the line is more blurred for someone who may be a consultant in the social media field. Adding in non-business related information helps to make them and their personal brand more human. But there are ways to make businesses more human also, including a person picture, using conversational language, and having a person update tweets rather than just using it as an RSS feed.
Also check out:
10 Tips for Using Twitter for Business
How do you get lots of followers on Twitter?
One view to get lots of followers is to follow lots of people in the hope that they follow you back. However, sometimes it’s all too easy to get wrapped up in number counting. What is more important is to focus upon quality of followers over quantity. As an example, you may get a high number of responses from a demand generation Email, but if those responses don’t convert into a lead or a sale, then the number of responses you get is almost arbitrary.
A better approach is to provide interesting content and make use of popular keywords within your tweets so that you show up in searches. This way you attract followers who are interested in your content, rather than the “I’ll follow you and you follow me” approach.
What are common mistakes in Social Media?
Probably the biggest mistake is thinking that you can’t make a mistake. I think Charlene Li put it best by saying that at the end of the day, mistakes are inevitable because social media is about relationships, and no relationship is perfect. The key is to learn from your mistakes and learn from them quickly so that you don’t do it again.
Another common mistake to make is to believe that you are in control of social media. Just because you have a plan in place doesn’t mean that you are in control. People will always be having conversations about you, your brand, your products, your competitors. The best you can do is to ensure that you are listening to these conversations so that if anything negative does get said, then you can address the problem quickly and in a positive way.
Thanks again to Business Wire and @laurentoday for inviting me to take part in the event.
I love social media. I can say with complete confidence that I am one of the biggest supporters of social media in my company. But at the same time I am also one of its biggest critics.
When I think about social media, my head explodes with all of the possibilities it brings – being able to listen to our customers, talk with them, help them to solve problems, share solutions. But at the same time I have to face the harsh realities of working in a highly accountable, under-funded and under-staffed marketing organization, during one of the crappiest economies that most people have seen in their lifetime.
This is why, before jumping on the social media bandwagon, it is important to consider and understand the “5 Knows” of Social Media:
1. Know Your Audience
Are your audience using social media within the industry in which you operate? And if so, which social media tools are they using (for business, not pleasure)? If you are a global organization, then how does this differ by region and country?
If you don’t know the answers to these questions, then you need to consider how to get this information. Forrester have a useful Social Technographics Tool that can provide general information by gender, age group, and country. Is this enough to provide you with what you need? Or do you need to get more customer-specific data, for example from:
- Website or Email surveys
- Customer focus group research
- Third party research (such as industry magazines)
2. Know What You Want to Achieve
What is it exactly that you want to get out of social media? Do you want to lurk and listen to customers’ conversations to gain a better understanding of their challenges and views? Do you want to engage and interact with them on a regular basis? Do you want to embrace their ideas and use these to drive product development? Do you simply want to support existing customers? What about branding vs. demand considerations? Different tools have different levels of reach when it comes to branding, demand and traffic.
Knowing what you want to achieve from the outset will help you best determine which social media tools (of which there are so many) will best accomplish your objectives. It will also help to keep you on the straight and narrow, so that you do things for the right reasons, not just because it’s cool and everyone else is doing it.
3. Know What You Can (And Cannot) Track
Showing a direct link between social media and ROI is extremely difficult. So it is important to understand that in most cases, the metrics associated with social media will be softer measures, centered around engagement and awareness. For example:
- The number of subscribers to your blog
- The number of retweets and clicks on tweeted links
- The number of active forum members
4. Know How to Integrate Social Media Within Your Marketing Mix
Social media may be relatively new, but in the grand scheme of things it is just another tool in the marketer’s tool box.
More and more companies are finding opportunities to successfully use social media with other marketing communications tools. For example, BestBuy’s Twelpforce (who provide technical advice to people on Twitter) was supported by a TV advertising campaign, Paid search ads and spawned a ton of PR coverage.
5. Know How Much Time and Resources are Needed
Social media requires a lot of time and commitment, and so to do it properly requires adequate budget and resources. Blogs can be updated daily. Tweets can be updated hourly, or by the minute. Posts on forums need to be continuously monitored and addressed.
In a way, social media is like a child. Once you have it, you can’t just return it when it starts to scream and poop. You’re stuck with it. Content and relationships need to be maintained on an ongoing basis, unlike a direct mailer or E-comm which you might send out once a month and not have to think about or work on again until the next time.
Once you and your content is out in the social universe for all to see, there is no undo button. There may be a “discontinue account” button, but it’s at the risk of disappointing the fans and followers you do have (as an extreme, just think of the upheaval caused when Miley Cyrus gave up Twitter!). In which case, do you risk a potential back-lash from the people who are possibly your biggest advocates?
SEM Booty Blog 