China - Zhong Guo

1 search engine, 12 directories

[Woz]

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China - Zhong Guo	Fact sheet
Domain(s):	.cn
Online population:	22,5 million (1.78%)
Native language(s):	Mandarin (official) & many dialects
Understanding of English:	Low
Active domains:	?
Pages in language:	6.1 million
Pages in domain	8.8 million
Local presence required for domain registration:	Yes
Multiple domains allowed:	Yes
Professional help:	See bottom of page

Known general search engines:  

Ni Hao		Things that help ranking:
Language interface:	Chinese	Meta description used in search replies:	?
English Interface:	YES	Local language:	?
Traffic volume:	?	Local domain:	?
Local language(s) required:	No	Keyword in URL:	?
Local domain(s) only:	No	Keyword in title:	?
Search technology:	Own	Keyword in description:	?
Add URL	?	Keyword in meta keywords:	?
General Notes		Keyword in header:	?
		Keyword in 1st paragraph:	?
		Other:	?

  Known general directories:  

ADM City China		Things that help ranking:
Language interface:	Chinese/English	Meta description used in search replies:	?
English Interface:	Integrated	Local language:	?
Traffic volume:	?	Local domain:	?
Local language(s) required:	No	Keyword in URL:	?
Local domain(s) only:	No	Keyword in title:	?
Search technology:	Own	Keyword in description:	?
Add URL	Yes	Keyword in meta keywords:	?
General Notes		Keyword in header:	?
		Keyword in 1st paragraph:	?
		Other:	?

 

Ah Shun		Things that help ranking:
Language interface:	Chinese/English	Meta description used in search replies:	?
English Interface:	Intergrated	Local language:	?
Traffic volume:	?	Local domain:	?
Local language(s) required:	No	Keyword in URL:	?
Local domain(s) only:	No	Keyword in title:	?
Search technology:	Own	Keyword in description:	?
Add URL	Yes	Keyword in meta keywords:	?
General Notes		Keyword in header:	?
		Keyword in 1st paragraph:	?
		Other:	?

 

China Site		Things that help ranking:
Language interface:	Chinese/English	Meta description used in search replies:	?
English Interface:	Integrated	Local language:	?
Traffic volume:	?	Local domain:	?
Local language(s) required:	No	Keyword in URL:	?
Local domain(s) only:	No	Keyword in title:	?
Search technology:	Own	Keyword in description:	?
Add URL	Email	Keyword in meta keywords:	?
General Notes		Keyword in header:	?
		Keyword in 1st paragraph:	?
		Other:	?

 

China Vista		Things that help ranking:
Language interface:	English, Chinese interface pages available	Meta description used in search replies:	?
English Interface:	Main Page	Local language:	?
Traffic volume:	?	Local domain:	?
Local language(s) required:	No	Keyword in URL:	?
Local domain(s) only:	No	Keyword in title:	?
Search technology:	Own	Keyword in description:	?
Add URL	?	Keyword in meta keywords:	?
General Notes		Keyword in header:	?
		Keyword in 1st paragraph:	?
		Other:	?

 

cseek		Things that help ranking:
Language interface:	Chinese	Meta description used in search replies:	?
English Interface:	No	Local language:	?
Traffic volume:	?	Local domain:	?
Local language(s) required:	No	Keyword in URL:	?
Local domain(s) only:	No	Keyword in title:	?
Search technology:	Own	Keyword in description:	?
Add URL	?	Keyword in meta keywords:	?
General Notes		Keyword in header:	?
		Keyword in 1st paragraph:	?
		Other:	?

 

Goyoyo		Things that help ranking:
Language interface:	Chinese/English	Meta description used in search replies:	?
English Interface:	Integrated	Local language:	?
Traffic volume:	?	Local domain:	?
Local language(s) required:	No	Keyword in URL:	?
Local domain(s) only:	No	Keyword in title:	?
Search technology:	Own	Keyword in description:	?
Add URL	Yes	Keyword in meta keywords:	?
General Notes		Keyword in header:	?
		Keyword in 1st paragraph:	?
		Other:	?

 

How Hunt		Things that help ranking:
Language interface:	Chinese	Meta description used in search replies:	?
English Interface:	Integrated	Local language:	?
Traffic volume:	?	Local domain:	?
Local language(s) required:	No, results in page language	Keyword in URL:	?
Local domain(s) only:	No	Keyword in title:	?
Search technology:	Own	Keyword in description:	?
Add URL	?	Keyword in meta keywords:	?
General Notes		Keyword in header:	?
		Keyword in 1st paragraph:	?
		Other:	?

 

iEarthBoud		Things that help ranking:
Language interface:	Chinese	Meta description used in search replies:	?
English Interface:	YES	Local language:	?
Traffic volume:	?	Local domain:	?
Local language(s) required:	No	Keyword in URL:	?
Local domain(s) only:	No	Keyword in title:	?
Search technology:	Own	Keyword in description:	?
Add URL	Yes	Keyword in meta keywords:	?
General Notes		Keyword in header:	?
		Keyword in 1st paragraph:	?
		Other:	?

 

Inside China		Things that help ranking:
Language interface:	English	Meta description used in search replies:	?
English Interface:	Sole	Local language:	?
Traffic volume:	?	Local domain:	?
Local language(s) required:	No, site is in English only.	Keyword in URL:	?
Local domain(s) only:	No	Keyword in title:	?
Search technology:	Own	Keyword in description:	?
Add URL	YES	Keyword in meta keywords:	?
General Notes		Keyword in header:	?
		Keyword in 1st paragraph:	?
		Other:	?

 

Net Ease		Things that help ranking:
Language interface:	Chinese	Meta description used in search replies:	?
English Interface:	NO	Local language:	?
Traffic volume:	?	Local domain:	?
Local language(s) required:	No	Keyword in URL:	?
Local domain(s) only:	No	Keyword in title:	?
Search technology:	Own	Keyword in description:	?
Add URL	?	Keyword in meta keywords:	?
General Notes		Keyword in header:	?
		Keyword in 1st paragraph:	?
		Other:	?

 

Sina		Things that help ranking:
Language interface:	Chinese	Meta description used in search replies:	?
English Interface:	NO	Local language:	?
Traffic volume:	?	Local domain:	?
Local language(s) required:	No	Keyword in URL:	?
Local domain(s) only:	No	Keyword in title:	?
Search technology:	Own	Keyword in description:	?
Add URL	?	Keyword in meta keywords:	?
General Notes		Keyword in header:	?
		Keyword in 1st paragraph:	?
		Other:	?

 

Sohu		Things that help ranking:
Language interface:	Chinese	Meta description used in search replies:	?
English Interface:	YES	Local language:	?
Traffic volume:	?	Local domain:	?
Local language(s) required:	?	Keyword in URL:	?
Local domain(s) only:	No	Keyword in title:	?
Search technology:	Own	Keyword in description:	?
Add URL	?	Keyword in meta keywords:	?
General Notes		Keyword in header:	?
		Keyword in 1st paragraph:	?
		Other:	?

  Local people who can help with translations and advise: This area will be updated with e-mail and/or web addresses to translators and SEO specialists, who have posted a reply in this discussion. Please state your name, web and/or e-mail address, languages to/from and what you can help out with. Prices and promotional stuff will be edited out. The easy way to post a reply: Copy from above, click button, paste and change. Updated Mar 25, 2001 Edited by: Woz

[rencke]

Great stuff, Woz!

Here are two more SE:s for you:
[cn.lycosasia.com...] and
[sinohome.com...]

Both use Fast.

[AndyJ]

Hi Woz great list. Try [myrice.com...]
It's done by Lycos.

[georged]

Woz, that's excellent! Timely, too. This has become quite important for me in the last couple of weeks.

The 'add URL' page for HowHunt is:
[reg.howhunt.com...]
Like Yahoo, you then have to find the appropriate category to add to.

[Eric_Jarvis]

the thing I would find useful is some idea of what encoding each of the SEs uses for Chinese characters...this appears to be a major issue with some of them and it's something I know little about

[Woz]

Good point Eric,

Most of the Chinese SEs I have visited seem to be in Simplified Chinese, most with an English interface, and a few with a Traditional Chinese (also called Big5) interface as well.

I would imagine that if you stick to Simplified Chinese you should be OK as Traditional Chinese is mainly only used in Hong Kong and Taiwan these days. It may be used in other places as well but it is certainly in the minority.

In any case, if you code your pages correctly the SE should pick up wich one you are using.

Hope this helps

Onya
Woz

[Eric_Jarvis]

thanks Woz

that's a relief...are we going to be OK using Unicode?

having a non-latin script adds a whole new layer of complexity to the process :(

[Woz]

>having a non-latin script adds a whole new layer of complexity to the process :(

Ha Ha Ha! Trying to speak a non-latin language puts a WHOLE new layer on life!

>that's a relief...are we going to be OK using Unicode?

The bilingual engines can handle it quite well so you should be OK. Of course the pure Chinese SEs will have "a whole new layer of complexity" with it..

Onya
Woz

[Eric_Jarvis]

thanks Woz

yep...I have a feeling I ought to learn Chinese...that's what most web users will be speaking within a couple of years

so...any suggestions on how a multilingual site should present Chinese? do we need a set of pages presented different ways and chosen by content negotiation between browser and server?

[Woz]

>I have a feeling I ought to learn Chinese

actually Spoken Chinese is not too hard to learn, you just need the practice. However, the characters..., I must admit I just gave up.

You could sniff browqsers I suppose but there is room for error. I would keep it really simple by having the site replicated in both languages with a link to the "other" language on each page.

Onya
Woz

(edited by: Woz on 2:03 pm (gmt) on June 19, 2001

[maatrix]

it will be usefull to select
these engine some of them dont work.

[Woz]

Let us know Maatrix and I will update the listings.

Onya
Woz

[Eric_Jarvis]

warning about Net Ease...somehow they have messed up their submit site cgi so that you can end up always being asked to choose another directory category but never actually getting to submit the site

make a nice large pot of tea before trying to submit a site to it...especially if you don't understand Chinese

[Woz]

Thanks for that Eric. I'll update Net Ease.

Have you been able to find any information along your travels to help us fill the blanks in the lists above whilst I am at it?

Onya
Woz

[Eric_Jarvis]

definite add URLs at Sohu and Net Ease

none of the following require a local domain...Ni Hao, ADM City China, Ah Shun, iEarthbound, Inside China, Net Ease, Sina, Sohu

so far the only one I'm getting significant traffic from is Sohu

[Eric_Jarvis]

I've also just found an add URL link at How Hunt

:)

[Eric_Jarvis]

a month on and traffic on the Chinese section of our site just overtook Danish and looks like overtaking Dutch fairly soon

almost all the traffic is coming from Sohu as far as I can tell

[9238]

hi,eric:
would you like to tell me where is your site?

hi,woz:

The present day, if ranks from search pageview, the search engines in china are like this
---------------
the first group:
sina.com.cn ,sohu.com
---------------
the second group:
netease.com(also named 163.com),cn.yahoo.com,
---------------
the third group:
263.com, chinaren.com, cn.tom.com, 21cn.com, fm365.com, china.com,
---------------
the other search engines in china are either have few pageviews, or are deading like nbci,excite,altavista,etc.

thanks

[bill]

What is a good general limit for the number of characters to use in the title, description and keyword meta tags for Chinese SEs?

Also, what Chinese engines actually even consider title, description or keyword meta data?

[Woz]

*bump*

<quote>
What is a good general limit for the number of characters to use in the title, description and keyword meta tags for Chinese SEs?

Also, what Chinese engines actually even consider title, description or keyword meta data?

</quote>

For some reason we forgot to get an answer to Bill's questions.

I have no idea myself. it is something I have noe researched but should have. Anyonen got any ideas???

Onya
Woz

[Topcat]

Since the extent of my remembered Mandarin is "a glass
of beer" and "I love you", I know I need some help on the
Chinese side. Quite by chance, I was contacted by one company
who claim to be able to do keyword, title optimization etc. So, I decided to ask them to pre-qualify themselves a little.

They came back with the Chinese Top 30, as below.

I've posted this raw, before I check out some of the new
ones.

[search.dreamer.com.cn...]
[goyoyo.com.cn...]
[search.focus.com.cn...]
[chinaok.com...]
[yippee.com.cn...]
[wander.cis.com.cn...]
[search.sina.com.cn...]
[pccms.pku.edu.cn...]
[sohu.com.cn...]
[howhunt.com...]
[linefan.com...]
[cseek.com...]
[beijixing.com.cn...]
[cn.lycosasia.com...]
[163.com...]
[search.china.com...]
[infonavi.gznet.gov.cn...]
[5415.com...]
[search.lotof.com...]
[263.net...]
[compass.net.edu.cn...]
[search.zhaodaola.com...]
[infonavi.cei.gov.cn...]
[robot.com.cn...]
[mypcera.com...]
[21cn.com...]
[search.jlonline.com...]
[search.i-panda.com...]
[tnet.beijing.cn.net...]
[cn.yahoo.com...]

TC

[bill]

I need to submit a site to get some Chinese visitors for my Chinese site, and thought I'd take advantage of the wealth of info on WebmasterWorld...Also we need to rattle Woz's cage every once in a while or he'll just prattle on about Australian SEs and forget about China...;)

I checked out all of the Chinese SEs listed in this thread and thought I'd give you an update...some of these sites no longer exist, and some URLs have changed. I was really just checking to see what sites were still available before I get someone to do submissions for me. I cannot read or write Chinese, so this was no small feat.

Ni Hao
[nihao.net...]
Doesn't seem to be a search engine at all....more of a web hosting/domain reseller.

cseek seems to have been absorbed by ChinaByte
[chinabyte.com...]

How Hunt
the howhunt.com domain is for sale...merely asking $58388.00

Found a spelling error: iEarthBoud should be iEarthBound

Inside China
[searchchina.com...]
now redirects to
[europeaninternet.com...]

The 2 mentioned by rencke are still good:
Lycos
[lycos.com.cn...]

Sinohome
[sinohome.com...]

[myrice.com...] simply redirects to [lycos.com.cn...] now.

9238 mentioned a few sites that weren't mentioned elsewhere
chinaren.com [chinaren.com] is just a Sohu portal
cn.tom.com [cn.tom.com] is a portal with a directory powered by Baidu. It looks like Baidu [baidu.com...] has it's own directory results.
fm365.com [search.fm365.com] has a directory

That list of 30 that TopCat shared with us...
[search.dreamer.com.cn...] DNS error
[goyoyo.com.cn...] Goyoyo you've already listed this one
[search.focus.com.cn...] I guess you could call this one 'Focus' as there is no English name listed that I could find. This is a directory.
[chinaok.com...] DNS error
[yippee.com.cn...] Yippee! a Yahoo! clone...directory
[wander.cis.com.cn...] ChinaNet a directory
[search.sina.com.cn...] Sina you've already listed this one
[pccms.pku.edu.cn...] No clue what this page is...looks like a university student's page. It's not a directory or SE though.
[sohu.com.cn...] redirects to [news.sohu.com...] Sohu you've already listed this one
[howhunt.com...] For sale
[linefan.com...] Linefan Tech has a search box, but all results seem to be from the site itself...
[cseek.com...] now ChinaByte [chinabyte.com...]
[beijixing.com.cn...] Beijixing directory
[cn.lycosasia.com...] rencke spotted Lycos first...
[163.com...] Net Ease you've already listed this one
[search.china.com...] China.com directory
[infonavi.gznet.gov.cn...] no English name...a directory
[5415.com...] 5415.com directory
[search.lotof.com...] DNS error
[263.net...] 263.net portal of some sort. The directory and search are here [search.263.net...]
[compass.net.edu.cn...] Connection refused
[search.zhaodaola.com...] Zhaodaola directory
[infonavi.cei.gov.cn...] DNS error
[robot.com.cn...] has something to do with domain names and the CNNIC...doesn't appear to be an SE or directory...maybe a WhoIs of some sort?
[mypcera.com...] MyPCera portal connected to [cj888.com...] both of which use Sohu type graphics...may be part of Sohu
[21cn.com...] 21cn.com portal with directory apparently run by China Telecom
[search.jlonline.com...] got error on search page, main portal here [jlonline.com...]
[search.i-panda.com...] i-panda directory redirects to [cn.i-panda.com...]
[tnet.beijing.cn.net...] This site looks like a Chinese Adobe training and certification site...not an SE or Directory
[cn.yahoo.com...] Yahoo! China directory

It looks like the only thing we're missing now is Google
[google.com...]

Now get to work Woz, and update all this info :)

[Woz]

Thanks Bill,

yes my time has been occupied elsewhere (earning money???) but I do need to do an update. Thanks for ferreting out all this info, I'll get onto it, um, er, soonish??

Onya
Woz

[bill]

Just an observation from my quick run-through of all those Chinese sites yesterday...I use AnalogX's CookieWall to filter cookies and I noticed that very few of those sites I looked at used cookies at all. Had I gone through the same amount of English SEs and Directories I'd expect to see 2-4 times the amount of cookies.

Also the preferred ad type seems to be those DHTML blobs that float all around your screen in front of what you're looking at...after all that surfing yesterday on Chinese sites, I think I actually prefer pop-ups to those ads...at least you can close a pop-up. never thought I'd say that

I see a real high level of standards compliant browsers in my logs for Chinese sites, and little or no NN4.x. Almost everybody has IE 4-6 which is probably why the Chinese advertisers can rely on those DHTML thingies. I guess I can be a little more creative with CSS and XHTML on my next site updates ;)