Experiences with Chinese SEO and SEM
Posted on February 1, 2008
Filed Under online marketing | 6 Comments
During several Chinese SEO pitches and SEO projects here in China I often came across the same imaginations about SEO again and again, no matter if giving a SEO presentation at Chinese or international companies.
Here are a few of my Chinese SEO experiences . Feel free to comment on that, I am interested in any kind of opinion:
- A lot of education is necessary, as experiences and understanding of search engine marketing is pretty low. Many Chinese customers don’t understand the difference between SEO and SEM yet. The value of qualified traffic is not appreciated yet, a conversion rate either unknown or often unimportant. Quantity (i.e. website visitors) counts, not matter if relevant or not.
- Chinese SEO agencies promise things that can’t be kept, customers believe it. Often heard potential clients say: “your competitor promised me to be among the top 5 in Google. If you don’t, you’re out…”
- Quality SEO has its price, also from Chinese SEO agencies. For quality SEO in China, experts are required. They are not cheap, but hard to find. Labor costs in this area are far above average.
- SEO is cheap because it is just about adding some things here and there. In fact, good SEO is a strategic approach and has to be planned and implemented thoroughly.
- Long-tail SEO (reverse search) is hardly understood. Customers want to be on position no. 1 with their most competitive keyword. Convincing them that long-tail SEO can deliver much quicker and more converting results is not understood or not wanted.
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6 Responses to “Experiences with Chinese SEO and SEM”
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Stefan is Managing Director of 3digitalminds Co., Ltd., a China Internet marketing agency and SEO company. He shares thoughts and experiences about online marketing in China, China SEO and Chinese PPC.Contact
Although I’ve been in China for barely a month, I have been meeting up with clients to offer SEM and SEO services. I think your analysis is spot on!
Just yesterday I met-up with a client who insisted that we must give him the first spot on Google. The SEM approach here seems to be short burst of tactical spend as opposed to a full-fledged strategic approach.
Maybe it is just too soon to form an opinion like this, but my initial impressiosn coincide with yours.
Hi there. I am not really posting a comment here but rather asking a question to Stefan or anyone out there who is doing SEO in China. I am just wondering, how SEO can be done in the Chinese search market, where it is so much dominated by Baidu who can have as many as 20 or even more PPCs in front of its organic results?
I am looking forward to any answers. Many thanks.
hi yvette, Im working for a european online marketing agency here in china. To answer your question. SEO is tricky in China, for google everything remains the same, you only have to focus on your keywords, but since the main player is Baidu we have to conform and adjust to their algorithms for SEO.
BAIDU shows 3 types of results for their SERP, (compare to Google SERP that is only organic and paid listing) Baidu has 1 Annual paid listing, 2 Pay Per Click and least is Organic.
If the keywords that you’re bidding is competitive, SEO will not be completely useless since chines behavior in searches is going to all over the 1st page of SERP, (relevancy of the results) until they find what thier looking for.
Baidu organic inclusions is quite difficult to understand there’s so many sometimes it works sometimes it doesn’t.
SEO will depend on if you’re bidding for competitive keywords, which would mean that you’re chance to be on top search result is low.
Jo, thanks very much for your reply, which is really helpful.
If I understand you correctly, the bidding systmen at Baidu is not only about the price I pay, but also about the quality and relevancy of my websites. The latter is where SEO can cut into.
yvette
No, BaiDu bidding system is only about the price you pay for the keywords, furthermore, BaiDu AD also show in the first page of search result, I mean on the left side !
I just published an article about Baidu SEO. Take a look, it will give some more answers. Any feedback greatly appreciated!