The most important solution and the first steps in reaching Chinese customers are to create a Chinese-optimized website for China that includes effective keywords and original China-oriented content.

According to the World Investment Report released by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, China was hierarchically the second largest beneficiary of foreign direct investment in the world after the United States in 2021. The country’s economy was ranked as the second largest and is expected to become the world’s largest economy, overtaking the United States, by 2030.

In 2020, China’s online market was over a $2 trillion valuation, making it a goldmine for local and international companies.
However, many brands face many difficulties in making their brand recognized by the Chinese consumer. In fact, in China, social media and search engines are completely different.

Just try to search for your brand within the Baidu.com search engine and you will soon find out, in most cases, that your website does not load or loads very slowly. Here we show you the basic steps to make your website effective and fast in the Chinese market.

Main steps to creating a Chinese website

• Register and secure the domain
• Select your web hosting provider
• Create a website tailored to the Chinese market
• Follow the communication trends of the market
• Ensure legal compliance
• Invest in SEM and Social Media Marketing

Five steps to make a website visible in China

1- Use a local domain extension

Registering a Chinese .cn domain is a great way to protect your online identity and protect your brand both in China and internationally. Furthermore, it is important to be in possession of the ICP license in order to operate legally in China.

What is the ICP License?

ICP stands for Internet Content Provider. An ICP license, or ICP license, is a registration number issued by the MIIT (Ministry of Industry and Information Technology) that allows a website based in China to operate legally in the country.

There are two types of ICP (Internet Content Provider) licenses delivered by the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) at the provincial level.

• ICP license 京 ICP 证 – for commercial (operational) websites. This spread over to any website that countenances a customer to procure goods or services online.

• ICP record 京 ICP 备 – for non-commercial (informational) websites, excluding those that don’t do direct sales.

Having an ICP license is a necessary step to host your website on a server in China and use a CDN service. Using Chinese hosting allows your site or e-commerce to be fast, performing and totally accessible to Chinese users.

2- Optimize the website for Chinese search engines

For your Chinese website to rank highly in China, it must be unambiguously optimized (Baidu SEO) for Chinese search engines like Baidu. Indeed, Baidu, unlike Google, cannot scan (read) JavaScript; this means that many websites built with programs like “Angular” or “React” need to be set up again.

3- Link your Chinese social profiles to your website

To keep in touch with page visitors, it is essential that your website contains links to the pages of your Chinese social profiles, such as WeChat, Weibo, or Xiaohongshu, in order to consolidate the relationship between consumer and company. In China, social media are the most important source of news and the main place for updates and interaction between users and brands. Elaborating an effective communication strategy for the Chinese market must take into consideration not only the website but also social platforms such as WeChat, which are omnipresent in the life of the Chinese consumer.

4- Monitor the performance and interactions between the website and Chinese users

Constantly monitoring the Chinese website is essential to understanding which content and products are most appreciated by the Chinese user. In addition, constant analysis of the website identifies any errors, such as pages that do not load and compromised links. The so-called “synthetic tests” are essential for the following:
• Evaluate the accessibility of your website in all regions of China
• Examine page load time
• Determine your site’s performance in terms of research and script
• Notify us of any website errors

5- Optimize your Chinese website for phone access

With over 1 billion active online users in 2022, China is home to the most established internet community in the world. Therefore, having a mobile-friendly website will give your brand more exposure and credibility. Another strategy that integrates websites with mobile devices consists in structuring a WeChat mini-program (i.e. a mini-website within the WeChat platform) in such a way that the Chinese user is able to access your mini-website directly from the WeChat platform. Let’s not forget that the average Chinese user spends more than 5 hours a day in front of phone browsing platforms such as WeChat, Weibo, Douyin and Xiaohongshu.

For more details on how to build your business identity in China and what strategies you can employ to maintain and expand your identity, check out our services.

Long Advisory digital marketing agency in China

Long Advisory supports American and European companies in China through digital marketing. In fact, our experience has led us to believe that today, the best and most convenient approach to making your brand well-known in China is through a digital approach. Furthermore, thanks to our know-how we know how to make your brand known to potential Chinese consumers. With the effective coordination of Long Advisory, your company will see a new rise in the largest market in the world: China.

Long Advisory is a digital marketing agency specializing in developing digital marketing solutions tailored for the Chinese market. 

Interested in expanding your brand in China? Contact us for more info and details at info@longadvisory.eu

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