Your website has to be completely different in China because of pecularities in the Chinese Internet and web user behaviours

China has the world’s largest population and the second largest economy. It is classified as an upper-middle-income country. More importantly, it is the world’s largest e-commerce market, with double the size of its American counterpart. It makes perfect sense for businesses not to ignore the distinctive attributes of the Chinese internet.

If you want to succeed in marketing your products to customers in China, it’s not enough that you create a traditional e-commerce website and apply the usual SEO strategies. You need a website that is perfectly suited for the Chinese market. Take note of the following points.

Flash may not be trash

Chinese Internet users apparently don’t mind the “clutter” on their websites. This is evident in the flashy appearance of many of their popular websites such as Taobao.com, Youku.com, and Tudou.com.

These sites notably feature large imposing images in their homepages, along with animated and other eye-catching elements. They prominently have a “busy” look, which is in contrast to what most Western websites are trying to achieve.

It’s difficult to pinpoint the reason for this considering that China also has major websites whose designs seem to take cues from Western guidelines. Baidu and RenRen, for example, maintain a “clean” minimalist look, ditching the general tendency of Chinese websites to pack as much information and media content in the immediately visible part of a page.

Still, most Chinese websites are notable for cramming a lot of content on a page. Some would argue that this can be attributed to the Chinese teaching of collectivism, which emphasizes the importance of the “face” or the impression left by what is visually perceptible.

Also Read: The growing opportunity: Why China should be the next market for your startup or scaleup

The Chinese are said to believe that a bare looking page is not a good representation for a business. As one SEO blog on Chinese website design says, it’s common to pack a lot of content in a Chinese website as it supposedly creates the impression that the business has a lot to offer and is doing well.

If you are trying to offer your products to the Chinese market, it wouldn’t hurt following local conventions in web design, especially with regards to making things “flashy” or ostentatious. It’s generally what locals are used to seeing.

Abundant links are meant for navigation

Another key feature of Chinese websites is the copious amount of links on pages. These links are generally not added for the sake of internal linking SEO benefits. The Chinese propensity in packing pages with loads of internal links can be traced to the early days of the Internet’s unique relationship with the Chinese language.

Back then, website creators were encouraged to provide clearly written linking anchors. These were necessary to avoid spelling mistakes and to make sure that website visitors are led to where they really want to go.

Relying on internal site searches (i.e. doing a search within a site to find the desired page) was not popular among Chinese users before mainly because of the differences in spelling for certain words or phrases (used as keywords) in the Chinese language. As such, websites had to employ links to make it easy for users to find the content they want.

Also Read: What you need to know about data privacy in China

Even though link-based navigation is no longer that necessary at present, Chinese Internet users have already become accustomed to this link-based navigation.

It has already shaped the general behaviour of Chinese website visitors. Hence, most sites in China are designed for clicking (for navigation) instead of internal searching.

Links open in new tabs

It is not uncommon for Chinese websites to open a new tab or window whenever a link is clicked in them. This is what almost all Chinese web design specialists recommend. This is another unique feature you need to bear in mind as Chinese users usually expect to keep the original page they access open in one tab, so they can go back to them as they explore different pages.

This is not necessarily the most efficient way to browse websites, but it is what the Chinese are familiar with. It would be unwise to try to break this norm. Doing so may only drive away visitors from your site, which means lost sales or ad revenues.

SEO focuses on Baidu

This is a critical fact every website designer must know. There’s no Google in China. Search engine optimization is based on the Chinese counterpart of Google – Baidu. Here are some of the most important points you should take into account when doing SEO for Baidu.

1. Get a .CN domain name

This Chinese search engine behemoth prefers websites that bear the Chinese domain suffix. Some even say it’s useless trying to make other domains rank, as Baidu is unlikely to give them any consideration let alone priority.

2. Don’t spread out a site over several domains.

Baidu reportedly prefers top-level domains. This is at least what one Chinese SEO blog

3. Avoid creating a subdomain for the blogging side of your website

It is common for most Western business sites to come with a blogging section. This is where they fill up their site with content that can augment search engine optimization and attract clicks. In the Baidu side of the Internet, however, creating a subdomain (example: blog.mychinasite.cn) for blogging can get your site penalized.

4. Use a web host based in China

China has a policy of controlling its Internet, and part of it is the requirement for all websites (trying to be accessible to the Chinese audience) to be hosted in China. If you can’t do this, forget about having a website for the Chinese market.

5. Be mindful of censorship

That China censors its Internet is already common knowledge. That’s why you need to make sure that the content you publish on your site doesn’t go against cultural and sociopolitical sensitivities.

Aside from Baidu, there are several other search engines in China, but their market shares are minimal. Optimizing for Baidu, though, is just as good as optimizing for these search engines.

You need to make sure that you have fast page loading times, and that you use the Chinese language. Make sure you publish new content regularly. Also, you need to incorporate meta tags (in Chinese, of course) such as the title tag, alt tag, H tags, and meta descriptions.

If you don’t have someone fluent in Chinese in your team, you will have to use a language translation services, preferably someone with expertise and a proven track record in website localization.

Sites must be WeChat-connected

WeChat is China’s most popular social media network that comes with multiple services. Almost all of China’s successful businesses take advantage of WeChat particularly when it comes to using QR codes to facilitate subscriptions, purchases, the access of information, and other actions.

This is why you find most Chinese websites prominently displaying a QR code on their homepages or other pages crammed with calls to action. Most of China’s online shoppers use WeChat so it would be a big mistake not to get involved with it.

WeChat also provides mini-programs and apps, in addition to the WeChat Store, that can help attract and retain visitors to a site. These are custom mini-programs and apps that WeChat can design to suit specific needs.

Opening a WeChat account, however, is not going to be easy to non-Chinese businesses. Still, you need to exert the effort to get an account so you don’t get left behind in reaching out to the Chinese market.

In conclusion

If you want to tap on the massive Chinese online e-commerce market, you need to change the usual ways you do things for your online store and web marketing, all of which are directly and indirectly related to web design.

–

Editor’s note: e27 publishes relevant guest contributions from the community. Share your honest opinions and expert knowledge by submitting your content here.

Join our e27 Telegram group here or our e27 contributor Facebook page here.

Image Credit: Hanson Lu

The post Why your website design should be completely different in China appeared first on e27.