If you’re a business owner looking to increase your brand visibility in China, you should consider using WeChat‘s search engine optimization (SEO) features. In this article, we’ll show you how to use WeChat’s search capabilities to reach more Chinese consumers. We’ll also provide tips on how to improve your SEO strategy for WeChat. Keep reading to learn more!
An Overview of WeChat
Before we talk about how WeChat Search can help raise awareness for your brand and how WeChat SEO works on the platform, we think it’s only appropriate that we talk about what WeChat is and how it stands today as a company.
WeChat is one of the most popular and widely used messaging apps in the world. It has over a billion users that are mostly concentrated in China, making it essentially the WhatsApp equivalent in the country. WeChat was launched by Tencent in 2011 and it has blown up ever since.
WeChat, though, is more than just a messaging app. It’s also considered a social media platform where Chinese consumers can share their location in real-time, play mini-games, and even share their stories through a feature called Moments. Today, WeChat also has a feature called WeChat Out that users can utilize to call landline numbers internationally at relatively low costs.
WeChat is ever-expanding and the company is looking to add features that will make it a behemoth in the social media landscape in China, which makes it a prime destination for businesses both local and international to utilize for increasing brand visibility.
How Does SEO Work on WeChat?
If you already have an official WeChat account then you’re ready to spread the word about your business. So, how does WeChat SEO work? How will WeChat search help raise awareness or visibility for your brand?
WeChat is improving upon its search functions by meeting user behavior as well as expectations, providing relevant channels for products and brands to be easily discovered, and being more proficient in collecting relevant data to help your marketing strategies.
That’s why we urge you to understand the WeChat search engine more.
WeChat search enables its massive user base to look up content that’s available within the platform. The search results will come from friends and contacts but also from third-party sources such as brands like yours.
It’s good news that more and more brand-related content is now being indexed by the crawlers of the platform, giving more chances for businesses to be seen.
When utilized, a search may display the following:
- WeChat moments
- WeChat articles from Official WeChat accounts
- WeChat Official Accounts themselves
- WeChat Mini Programs such as homepage and inside pages
- Products and services
- WeChat Brand Zone or tailored brand pages
- Novels through the Tencent platform
- Music through QQ Music
- Internet content through the Sogou search engine
- Stickers
- Third-party platform content from social apps like Zaker (news), Zhihu (Chinese version of Quora), Mafengwo, and Douban.
It looks more and more as if WeChat itself is slowly turning into a search engine, and knowing how it works gives your brand a better chance to be seen by your target market.
How Do I Promote My Brand on WeChat?
Apart from observing social media and search engine best practices, there are other ways to promote your brand on WeChat. Below are some creative ways to grow your following in the Chinese market.
Be Innovative
One of the best features of WeChat is that you can connect your page with virtually any other platform. For instance, French luxury fashion brand Yves Saint Laurent created a WeChat mini program in 2018 to promote exclusive entry to its pop-up store. In the same year, Hermès, another French luxury fashion brand, developed a mini spaceship game to advertise its new menswear collection. You too can practice innovation to stand out in a sea of WeChat competition.
Develop Loyalty Programs
The Chinese market supports reward systems and gamified incentives. If you want to capture this audience, a loyalty program should be a priority. If your competitors implement such strategies and you don’t, you will quickly put your brand at a disadvantage.
Integrate Online and Offline Efforts
Like YSL and Hermès, you can use your WeChat page to promote offline efforts. Similarly, you can also use offline strategies to bring more followers and fans to your WeChat space. For instance, you can put QR codes on your physical products and encourage customers to scan them using promotions, discounts, or games. Another idea would be to share your QR codes on other digital platforms.
How To Leverage WeChat Search To Promote Your Brand
WeChat is an app that combines the elements of social media pages and search engines in one convenient platform. Promoting a brand in this space requires incorporating best practices you typically observe on Facebook and Google.
With WeChat’s active monthly users reaching 1.26 billion, this activity could be the game-changer for products and services that want to tap the Chinese market. Plus, Tencent recently announced that WeChat users can now shop directly on JD.com, narrowing the gap between marketing efforts and sales boosts.
We have three tips for you if you’re ready to engage and convert Chinese audiences into customers through WeChat’s search function. They are as follows: maintaining an official account, producing high-quality content, and investing in relevant search properties.
Register an Official Account
Think of an official WeChat account as your Facebook business page. You can use it to gather followers, send notifications, and redirect visitors to an e-commerce site.
Naturally, WeChat’s search engine component prefers official accounts because they exude authority and credibility. WeChat also favors pages with many followers, original content, and frequent postings.
Wechat Brand Zone
In 2018, WeChat launched a brand zone function — a space for brands to display their physical and e-commerce stores and custom content. You can only enjoy its features if you have an official WeChat account, receive trademark protection, and accept WeChat Pay transactions.
Work on improving the rank of your official account
- Rank A: can include a banner, four modules, and other marketing modules. They can choose up to 5 keywords to have their brand zone appear on. You’ll need an official account older than a year old, a brand logo, a verified account, regular promotion activity as well as traffic to your account over 300K, and a brand zone that gets more than 800 visits a day.
- Rank B: need an official verified account – a brand zone that gets more than 800 visits daily, as well as a CTR above 50%. Wechat Brand zone of rank B account will be able to display 3 modules & choose 3 keywords.
- Rank C: official verified account – a brand zone that gets more than 100 visits daily, as well as a CTR above 30%. Can be displayed on 1 keyword – generally branded keywords. Have access to 3 pre-defined modules: Company logo, introduction, and a simplified menu.
Produce High-Quality Content
As with other social media platforms, content is king in WeChat. It’s not enough to post random videos, photos, and captions. Instead, you should observe proper keyword use and create content that resonates with your target market.
WeChat’s algorithm ranks viewer engagement rate, including clicks, impressions, and interaction. And valuable, high-quality content can be your ticket to the top of search engine results.
Invest in Relevant Search Properties
Like Google, WeChat provides its users with relevant results. For instance, when a consumer type in the keyword white sneakers, results pages will show purchase links, Wikipedia articles, and different content types published by WeChat accounts. If you want to grow your audience using WeChat Search, we recommend being present in various search properties.
How To Increase WeChat Official Account Visibility
Now, going back to the official account of your business, how do you make sure to increase its visibility?
Well, for one thing, you need to gain and attract more followers. We’ve touched on a few of the points that you need to do earlier so this would serve as additional knowledge. What you need to do is to:
- Post consistently.
- Know the landscape and post timely content.
- Utilize WeChat Moments.
- Make sure to optimize your summaries and headlines.
- Make use of QR codes.
- Make use of name cards.
- Advertise.
- Utilize offline payments.
- Explore WeChat Search further.
Can You Search WeChat Moments?
Yes, users can search WeChat Moments.
In 2016, WeChat launched the WeChat Moments search feature. This move allowed users to search their friends’ moments by time.
Several components make up WeChat Moments, including these shareable ones:
- Photos: The limit per post is nine photos, which users can upload from an existing album or take directly through the app.
- Sights: This feature lets consumers take photos of exciting views and share them through Moments, groups, or a drafts folder. You can also use existing photos from your phone or gadget.
- Text posts: WeChat users can share direct posts in their Moments feed within seconds.
- Links: Consumers can share links on their feeds about products, services, or promotions.
WeChat Moments is similar to Facebook posts, and the Moments feed resembles that of Facebook too. However, in WeChat Moments, users can only share their content with friends, except for their first ten posts, which the platform automatically sets as public.
If you build a strong following on this platform, you can use WeChat moments to build relationships with a targeted and trusted market who don’t usually don’t enjoy seeing ads. Additionally, like Google, WeChat provides marketers and advertisers with high-quality visualization and tracking capabilities.
Need help gaining visibility on Wechat?
Contact us: we have comprehensive Wechat solutions to help you grow on the platform and build your company reputation!