Tips to localize your website for the Chinese market
Chinese Website localization Tutorials
Tips 1. Chinese website localization – Language translation
Chinese website localization goes beyond simple translating and requires accurate planning and a good understanding of China digital market. Which language will you use for the translation? Traditional Chinese or Simplified Chinese? Will you keep the same page layout, or you should change it? How are you planning to get your website to rank on Chinese search engines? Will you host your website inside or outside of China? These are some of the things you must consider in order to succeed in the Chinese market. In our tutorial to website localization in China, we will give attention to the most important steps in making your website ready for the Chinese market.
Google translating online might be useful in many situations, but not in Chinese. The Chinese language is very complex and a word for word translation cannot catch the point sometimes. Therefore, if your translations rely on a robot, the effect will not be able to compare with the professionals and not appealing to local customers.
Tips 2. Chinese website localization – SEO and Baidu Indexed
Chinese website localization requires your understanding the Chinese cultural differences and technical issues that are not common in the western market. It involves adapting your message, images, user experience, multilingual SEO approach, to make your website perform well. The marketing approach is different also and this will affect the way you present your product and the marketing channels you will use. Moreover, the internet in China is controlled by the government and many resources like Google, are not available in the country. This affects the technical side of your website which will need to be adapted and optimized to rank in China. As a result, your SEO strategy must focus on Baidu. The SEO skills and methods to boost your website on Baidu are not the same as Google. Without a doubt, Chinese web localization requires professionals who have a good grasp of the local culture, Chinese consumer behavior, and technical issues that are related to the local internet environment.
Tips 3. Chinese website localization – China ICP License
ICP license is the abbreviation for Internet Content Provider; ICP registration is a permit issued by the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT). In order to have your website a better performance, you have to consider a migration to a server in China. The readers can often find the ICP license numbers on the bottom of the front webpage. Many websites have suffered to being unable to open or opening very slowly. If your website is hosted outside of China or provided into China via a CDN, that is why a license is required. Another requirement is you can only purchase your domain from China providers and get China domain certificate, Godaddy or other providers are not acceptable. Usually you need a Chinese company as your agent to help you obtain an ICP license. It takes an average span of 20 business days after submission of documents to a hosting provider.
Tips 4. Video Adapting to China Social Networks
Youtube is banned in China. The Great Firewall blocks many sites originating from the western country. In order to localize your video content for the Chinese audience, it requires a lot more than translating the content to Chinese. There are some Chinese video platforms to consider, but please be cautious that they work in quite different way as you use youtube. Anything related to your promotional purpose or commercial content and contacting information are not permitted; The main social media platforms, Weibo, Baidu, Wechat, Byte Dance, Alibaba, are competitor each, for example, your WeChat barcode to be shown on Baidu will possibly lead your account being punished or shut down. You need a local developer to help you set up your hosting, to improve your videos load speed and performance.
Tips 5. Chinese website localization – China social media logins
There are many popular social networks, such as, Facebook, youtube and Twitter, banned in China. Due to that reason, you have to adjust your China social marketing strategy. There are several popular social medias and networks in China, for example, Weibo, WeChat. You should set up social logins in your Chinese version website. WeChat provides you enourous chances, to be connected to your website and to market your products and services in China. Your first consideration is to open a WeChat Official Account and to develope a WeChat app or WeChat mini program.
Tips 6. Chinese website localization – Server based in China
Hosting your website in mainland China is an important decision for your localization strategy. You can still run your website from a hosting outside of China, but you must face to deal with several downsides. A website hosted outside China must go over thorough examination of the Great Firewall. This massive control system will filter and slow down your pages and cut down and minimize the pure performance of your site. Some of your resources may even be banned and not visible on some APPs in China. Most China search engines easily trust the websites from within China, giving it high pages rankings and being quickly indexed by Baidu. It is a necessary step to make your webpages presence in China smooth and effective although hosting a website in China may be challenging.
Tips 7. Chinese website localization – E-shop Alipay and Wechat pay
QR codes of Alipay and wechat pay are popular on mobile E-shop in China. You see them everywhere from TV ads, billboards, and flyers to every website. Popular social platforms like WeChat have contributed greatly to the rise of QR code popularity. Nowadays, all e-commerce use QR codes for basically everything. A typical Chinese user scans QR codes, transfers money, makes payments on e-shops. Chinese people love QR codes, a key marketing tool. If your existing website does not already have QR codes embedded, they must be created and added to please your Chinese customers. In order to complete the codes scanning payment on mobile phones, page load speed is as important in China as in any other part of the world. That is why I mentioned to have your website hosted in China to guarantee its performance.
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Li Sheng makes the video tutorials and like to share with digital marketing managers and e-commerce managers. Hopefully you will benefit from the guide to localize your website for the China market. Li Sheng is a Chinese website developer and SEO specialist. He offers professional translation and website localization services, with over 10 years’experience. He can transform your existing website to meet the taste of Chinese users. Contact us today and get a good start in China.