Many webmasters have taken for granted the concept that much of the internet is featured in English. While English has remained the language of business, it is not the end-all, be-all communication method when it comes to breaking into new markets and engaging with a new audience. There exists several reasons for broadening your exposure into a new market and language, and there may not be a better example of this than China. If you are wanting to engage with a Chinese audience, you most certainly are going to need to optimize your site to appear in Baidu, the predominant Chinese search engine. This article will help you understand what needs to be done on your end to be featured in Chinese search results.
Content in Chinese
In order to be featured in Baidu search results, your site will need to have some Chinese content for their crawlers to index. English-only sites are virtually unheard of on Baidu, unless they are a very large entity or otherwise prominent on the web. For those who are running a small-scale business, however, having an array of Chinese content is essential. When pinging search engines with Chinese content, Baidu will be able to index and thereby display your site in key search results based on keywords. You can still have a large percentage of your content in English, but a Chinese section will work wonders in regards to breaking into this new audience.
Domain Considerations
While the .com domain is universally recognized and used, Baidu gives preference to domains that have .cn or .com.cn in them. Why? It relates very well to the aforementioned section; Baidu loves Chinese content and strives to index only Chinese content (this may have more to do with certain censoring mechanisms within the country itself than Baidu’s actual preferences). Regardless of reason, it is fairly simple to purchase and subsequently add on a Chinese domain to an existing website, so be sure to implement this in order to be in good graces with the search engine.
Tags and Breadcrumbs
Being indexed is crucial, so you must ensure that any website is properly tagged and has elements that allow it to be indexed and crawled with ease. Using both alt tags and header tags help make the key points of your content, such as titles and keywords, viewable by search engines and give your site a better chance of being picked up in search results. The same can be said for making sure that breadcrumbs are enabled, as well as using standard text links throughout the site. As always, a site map is a great thing to have in place for web crawlers.
Original Content
Baidu is even more strict than Google at penalizing duplicate content, so be sure that your content is in fact legitimate and unique. Whether it is in Chinese or English, Baidu will check to make sure that no other site has the exact same content featured; do not make the mistake that some do and simply edit small portions of content that does not belong to you. When pinging search engines like Baidu, the content is heavily inspected and may not pass muster.
Devising the most efficient content strategy is something many bloggers, webmasters and businesses contemplate when managing their websites and blogs. Deciding on whether you will be using news-based content or static content is a tough decision for many and each method has certain advantages and disadvantages. For those trying to decide which way to go, we have put together a cheat sheet of sorts that explains each approach, as well as the pros and cons you will encounter. The final question is, “Which is better? News based articles or evergreen content?”. Continue reading to find out the verdict.
Countless business professionals have flocked to LinkedIn as a place where like-minded people can interact, network and likewise increase their clout in the business world. Whether it is in the pursuit of a new career or in search of a new solution for a particular business objective, LinkedIn has the largest gathering of professionals online than any other outlet on the planet. LinkedIn profiles have a dual function: they help people find you within the confines of LinkedIn, but they also are displayed in certain search results. For those wishing to raise their profile rank and appear more prominently in search results, continue reading to find out how to do so.
Social media is the latest element of the web to be revolutionized by marketing approaches, leaving many in the field wondering what they can do to get the most out of their marketing strategies. Google+ was a rather late addition in the world of social media, but has grown exponentially due to a large Google web presence and constant promotion of its existence through multiple Google products. If you have been looking to get more out of your Google+ presence, then continue reading to find out how you can optimize your social media to be more effective when it comes to marketing.
Building a brand via the internet can be a challenging task for those who have never had first-hand experience in doing so. Between knowing where to begin, what to acquire in terms of intellectual property and how to maintain your presence in a positive light, the process can be nerve wracking for many. Fortunately, creating a positive brand image online utilizes some of the same basic tactics anyone would use in the physical world, but with slight twists. We will walk you through the process of beginning to build your brand image in a way that suits both the desires of your brand and your business.
Marketing via social media has become all the rage as of late, offering virtually anyone the ability to micro-target and reach anyone else who is using the same platform – all while being incredibly affordable. Twitter has been shown to have the most effective marketing platform in terms of click through rate, so it is just common sense that more and more people are using it in order to reach their niche audiences. Still, mistakes can be made when utilizing a marketing campaign on Twitter; one wrong move and you can cause serious damage. The following will help you to avoid making the most common marketing mistakes when using the Twitter platform.
