Keyword research is the fundamental step before content optimization, which is critical for SEO of any websites, including SEO for Baidu. All Baidu SEO agencies provide services of keyword research and content optimization, so does Jinray.
But the work process has become very rigid while content work needs inspirations and flexibilities to find the best keyword and content solutions for websites. And here are six reasons why your way of keyword research could keep the best keyword options away from your websites.
Search volumes of keywords from any tools could be inaccurate
In years, we’ve been using professional and official tools offered by Baidu to determine search volumes of any keywords, these volumes are the most reliable figures on the planet, cannot be provided by any SEO agencies outside of mainland China, except they are cooperating with a Chinese agency like Jinray SEO.
But we also found that these official volumes could also be inaccurate. In some cases, we spot a great keyword with significant search volumes and we write splendid content around it, but later we could find that few people actually search this word.
This doesn’t happen often, but such keywords do exist, its volumes might also be real, but it should come from some SEO personnel or agencies, not real users of Baidu.
Learning from these lessons, we choose to believe our knowledge about linguistics and understanding of Chinese users of Baidu, instead of blindly believing what the tools provide.
Web Analytics are also important for keyword research
Speaking of keyword research, most people would mention keyword tools. It’s true that there are specific keyword tools for both Google and Baidu, including official ones and third-party ones.
But keyword tools are not always reliable, not only because the search volumes from them are not always accurate, but because the best keywords you could find on them might not be the best.
In an ordinary keyword research task, about 10 keywords would be selected from dozens or even hundreds of potential keywords for one page, and only 1 to 3 keywords would be finally used in the article for this page, the most keywords are actually wasted.
However, are they really worthless? The answer is no in many cases. Our suggestion is that we should think out of the box, use as many as valid keywords possible in your articles, and then check your search data on Baidu Analytics (Baidu Tongji) or any other third-party tools.
There are big chances that you would find great keyword options in these tools, and these keywords are suggested by real visitors of your website, not by any SEOs based on their assumptions.
Ordinary Chinese SEO agencies don’t bother to spot any keywords by tracking data of your website, but Jinray is committed to find the best solutions for its clients.
Keyword data from Web Analytics aren’t always reliable
By looking at data of your website, you could find that some traffics are from not really relevant keywords and are thus undesirable, as they could make Baidu misunderstand what your website is about.
In this case, we need to make some adjustments to your keywords, content or internal links, to help Baidu or any other Chinese search engines understand your site better.
And this also requires Chinese native speakers with outstanding SEO and linguistic skills, where Jinray is proficient.
SEOs and copywriters need to cooperate to make miracles
Jinray’s SEO team members are both SEOs and copywriters, but sometimes we would need to inquire industry experts from clients to create or edit specialized content.
In some cases, the two sides would need to work closely to find sparks of inspiration, it’s not about only delivering sheets and making comments. Instead, we would need to develop a customized solution for your website.
For example, when the keywords we spot face too fierce competition, and your website is not authorized highly enough to get its ranking, we would need some cutflanking tactics. This is a bit more complicated than normal keyword research and content optimization work.
SEO for Baidu requires professionals familiar with the Chinese-language internet
Sometimes, clients provide their English articles and ask us to translate them into Chinese and adapt them for SEO uses. That’s a good idea but not a great one.
Keywords popular in the United Stations don’t have to be popular in China, so are articles. Your English articles could be completely useless for your Chinese website, and you would need experts in both Chinese language and Chinese internet to identify such content.
Keyword mining for Baidu needs imagination by Chinese linguists
This sounds a bit metaphysical, but that’s what high-end SEO work looks like. Only translating English keywords would probably miss the best keyword options. Qualified SEOs for Baidu should be great Chinese linguistics, if not also English ones, and they shouldn’t be too dependent on any tools – their imagination is the best weapon to gain the best SEO results.