BAIDU MOBILE SEO IN THE AGE OF WECHAT 

MOBILE SITUATION IN CHINA 

THE OPPORTUNITY 3 Users (millions) 400 500 600 700 800 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 Total Internet Users Mobile • Mobile users in China now make up 97% of total internet population • This is largely due to the increase in mobile payments and the rise of WeChat • Coupled with an undeveloped mobile SEO competitive landscape, the scale of the opportunity is huge 

WHERE DOES BAIDU COME INTO THIS? 4 • 657 million monthly active mobile search users • 80% share of total China mobile search engine market • Over 50% of total traffic comes from mobile • Baidu, Tencent (WeChat) and Alibaba (Taobao) and affiliated apps account for for around 60% of time spent on mobile by Chinese users 

INTRO TO WECHAT 

6 Apps (e.g.Taxi booking) Email Marketing Payment Messaging • 800 million monthly active users • Go to place for messaging, article reading, payment, and, well LIFE. • https://www.techinasia.com/use-only-wechat Utilities WECHAT OVERVIEW 

WECHAT OVERVIEW OFFICIAL ACCOUNTS H5 BUILDS Brand hub, CRM option and links to sites Campaign mechanisms to drive traffic to sites ADVERTISING On subscription accounts or in “Moments” feeds to drive external traffic 

MOBILE SEO FOR BAIDU 

9 BAIDU SITEAPP 

10 BAIDU SITEAPP? BITEAPP. • Transcodes non-mobile friendly sites into mobile-friendly versions for you • Quick and easily done via Baidu WMT • Baidu decides what to and what not to include for you • Easy/Free • Great if you have client who doesn’t care about SEO Pros • Transcoded pages register on Baidu’s domain, not yours • Transcoding may mess up your formatting and body text • Baidu decides what to and what not to include for you • NO ACTUAL TRAFFIC • You probably should care about SEO if you’ve got this far Cons 

11 RESPONSIVE DESIGN OR SEPARATE MOBILE SITE? 

12 Baidu has recommend opting for responsive design and have written articles on its benefits on their WMT blog, and official BBS suggesting a preference in terms of mobile SEO RESPONSIVE WEB DESIGN VS SEPARATE MOBILE SITES 

13 Case study from tuicool.com Indexation: Separate m. site Indexation: Responsive site RESPONSIVE WEB DESIGN VS SEPARATE MOBILE SITES 

14 Case study from tuicool.com RESPONSIVE WEB DESIGN VS SEPARATE MOBILE SITES 

15 M. SITE OPTIMISATION FOR BAIDU SITE SPEED • Run your site through Qihoo Speed Test to see performance in China • Aim for internal CN hosting • If not, apply for an ICP licence • Pay particular attention to image size • Minimize JavaScript elements • Stick to clean structured H5 coding GENERAL ON-PAGE • Meta titles must be less than 17 Chinese characters • 60 character meta descriptions still factor highly in Baidu mobile ranking • Make sure you’re not blocking Baiduspider. Baidu’s mobile agent is Baiduspider, not Baiduspider- mobile • Use 14 px font size and 0.42-0.6 line spacing for body text • Ensure consistent image width https://zhanzhang.baidu.com/college/courseinfo?id=156 

16 BAIDU WMT SETUP Desktop Site Mobile site same as desktop site with different URLs Separate mobile site Responsive site Dynamic serving site http://zhanzhang.baidu.com/dashboard/index 

17 WHAT ABOUT AMP? 

18 INTRODUCING MIP • Rolled out by Baidu in August, still in early stages • Recommended in favour of AMP project due to general censorship of anything Google-related in China • Baidu has claimed major Chinese news sites have added these however no hard evidence or indication of this • No current effect on organic rankings though Baidu have said this will change and is likely to follow Google’s suit • Pages submitted and verified on Baidu WMT https://www.mipengine.org/ 

19 KEY TAKEAWAYS • Given the prominence of WeChat in everyday mobile life and its integration with sites, getting mobile SEO right for Baidu has never been more important • Avoid Baidu Site App like the plague, regardless of what Baidu tells you • Baidu has banged the drum for responsive design though it’s one for the future. Best to stick with separate m. sites for now • DON’T BLOCK BAIDUSPIDER • As most of us will be hosting outside of China, site speed has mattered like never before • (Look into getting an ICP licence) • Baidu’s AMP project is in its infancy and is one to keep an eye on 

20 RECOMMENDED READING Seozac.com Baidu WMT Guide to Mobile Configuration (Baidu College) Further Learning on Mobile SEO for Baidu (Baidu College) Mobile SEO Baidu Tieba Forum Chinaz.com SEOwhy.com Sitemap Submission Guide for Mobile (Baidu College) 

KEEP IN TOUCH! 21 @Owain_LW WeChat ID:owainlloydwilliams [email protected] [email protected] 

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