What should I know about SEO when targeting Chinese in China?

Google is difficult to access from mainland China and most people don ‘t use it. So don ‘t waste your time to optimize SEO for Google if you want people in the mainland to look at it. Go for Baidu instead. Google is widely used in Taiwan and HK tough but it is better to have your content written in traditional characters then.

So I will advise that you clarify your customer segment in China first. Maybe you can optimize your SEO to target only a specific region of the mainland which may serve as a test for your business. Some cities have dedicated forums and websites that are very active. There is also huge online communities hosted in forums with focus by topic. Relationship with search engine is very different as well, so maybe SEO isn ‘t the best way to promote your website neither.

This text was originally published in quora.