Experiences with Chinese SEO and SEM

Posted on February 1, 2008
Filed Under online marketing |

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.
Tags: , , ,

Related posts

Comments

One Response to “Experiences with Chinese SEO and SEM”

  1. Pan Yang on March 21st, 2008 4:07 am

    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.

Leave a Reply