REKURSIVE BLOG

WordPress search engine optimization: H1, Title tags, Permalink/URL structure

WordPress is a good blog publishing system. However due to the complexity and fast-paced evolution of the Internet there are actually a lot of tweaks and customizations that need to be done to maximize the power, reach and effectiveness your WordPress blog:

The theme’s index.php: Are the TITLE and H1/H2/H(n) tags used effectively?
index.php defines the appearance of your blog’s home page. Google and other search engines give more weight to words in the TITLE tag and H1/H2/H(n) tags. The H1 tag should probably be used for the title of the blog – this can be the same or different from what you use in the TITLE tag. H2 tags should be used for the titles of your posts. Not all WordPress themes use the TITLE and H1/H2/H(n) tags as described here.

The theme’s single.php: Are the TITLE and H1/H2/H(n) tags used effectively?
single.php defines the appearance of each single post’s page. This is where some themes screw up by using a TITLE string like “[Blog Title] >> Blog Archive >> [Post Title]”, and using the H1 tag on the blog’s title instead of the post’s title. For maximum SEO effect, the TITLE string should just be the post’s title. The H1 tag should only be used once on the page, for the post’s title string. The blog’s title should just be wrapped in ordinary SPAN, P or DIV tags – not in a H1 tag.

Use a search engine and user friendly Permalink/URL structure
The default Permalink setting (e.g. http://host.com/blog/?p=123) is not search engine friendly (search engines like/highlight keywords in URLs) or user friendly. Go to the Settings/Options => Permalinks page in the WordPress dashboard and define a custom Permalink structure that includes your post’s title, for example:
/%post_id%/%postname%/

Stay tuned - in a later post, I will discuss other WordPress optimizations/tweaks like caching and robots.txt …

China’s Internet users - demographics and statistics

The rapid expansion of China’s domestic market is very attractive to foreign companies and investors – however, when entering the China market (in any field) your enthusiasm must be tempered with a good understanding of the risks and the very different nature of doing business in China. The demographics of Chinese consumers are also very unique. For example did you know that:

• 50.4 million people in China access the Internet using their mobile phones. They represent 24 percent (around one quarter) of all Internet users in China. The largest proportion of them are in Guangdong province – 14.5 million mobile phone Internet users.
• Half of the Internet users (just over 100 million people) in China are aged <= 24 years old. 68 percent of the Internet users in China are aged <= 30 years old.
• Only 36 percent of Internet users have attained tertiary/university education.
• Students form the largest segment of Internet users: 28.8 percent
• 74 percent of all Internet users earn <= 2000 RMB per month (that’s about 293 US dollars per month, assuming 1 USD = 6.82 RMB). 86 percent of all Internet users earn <= 3000 RMB per month.
• 33.9 percent of Internet users go online at Internet cafes.
• The most popular Internet applications are (starting from most popular): online music, instant messaging, online video, news, search engines, gaming and email.

I got these statistics from a survey the China Internet Network Information Center released this year. Their website is a great resource - they also have many other different kinds of statistics and information about the state of the Chinese Internet.

Baidu zeitgeist / hot search trends – some interesting observations

Baidu is currently the most popular search engine in China. Many of their products and services are similar to Google. Like Google, they also have a zeitgeist / search trends service which shows the current top search queries. It’s interesting to see what people are searching for in the Chinese Internet -

The #1 fastest rising search phrase is “什锦八宝饭”: It is literally the name of a sweet, glutinous rice dish in China. However, entering this phrase into Baidu’s image search reveals its true meaning – plenty of pictures of President Hu and Premier Wen appear! Apparently, this phrase is currently used to describe fans of these two Chinese leaders. The #2 and #3 top rising queries are:

• “Pangu Plaza”: a high-end apartment residence next to the Olympics Stadiums where Bill Gates is rumored to be staying
• “Jinan Torch Relay Live Broadcast”: the Olympic torch relay recently passed through this city

The top 5 search queries are:

1. qq - the most popular Chinese instant messaging application
2. You Ku – a video sharing site, like YouTube
3. Tu Dou Wang – another video sharing site
4. Xun Lei – a BitTorrent downloading / file sharing client
5. Chi Bi – a popular Chinese movie that’s currently in the theatres

They also have top ten lists for beautiful women (Baidu image search currently shows several nude pictures of the top ranked lady - odd, I thought such pictures are censored), television dramas, games, movies, books, famous people, universities, cars (the top 5 are: Chery QQ, Mazda 6, Honda Fit, Honda Civic, Roewe 550), tourist attractions, etc.

Facebook and its “clones” studiVZ and Xiaonei

It’s interesting to hear that Facebook is suing the German social networking site studiVZ for “cloning” them. Surely Facebook must be aware of China’s Xiaonei.com, which many people say bears an even closer resemblance to Facebook? Besides shouldn’t be Facebook be much more concerned about social networking sites in China - the country with the largest number of Internet users? I guess some possibilities as to what’s going on are:

• Facebook and Xiaonei are negotiating some sort of agreement/settlement, thus avoiding a lawsuit
• Facebook is preparing to take legal action against Xiaonei, however it’s taking more time because of Facebook’s unfamiliarity with the Chinese legal system
• Facebook is still trying to figure out what to do, because they know Facebook might get blocked in China if they ruffle the wrong feathers by suing Xiaonei. Perhaps it is no coincidence that access to Facebook from within China has been choppy for the past few weeks.

Here is a screenshot of Xiaonei.com - you can judge for yourself how closely it may or may not resemble Facebook (click on the image for a larger view):