Chinese Businesses Targeting Western Online Markets with Improved SEO

China is one of the more prominent countries in the world, with a population of approximately 1.4 billion and a rapidly growing economy. According to a Nov. 27 press release, the World Bank recently announced that China's economy is expected to grow by nearly 11 percent in 2007.

It was estimated a few years ago that there were over 40 million Chinese online, and the number of users was expected to grow rapidly. As a result, Internet marketing services have entered the picture, hoping to help Chinese businesses target Western retail markets - something China has been unable to maintain in the past.

The primary reason many Chinese businesses have been unable to build and maintain a place on Western search engines is because of the language barrier and different search engine marketing practices. Another reason is the huge cultural differences between China and Western countries. Web marketing needs to be aligned with the local culture, yet the Internet is global. However, all of that may be about to change.

According to eMarketerChina.com, search engine optimization (SEO) is very disordered in China, despite experiencing very fast growth. Accordingly, Chinese SEO has a long way to go to be accepted widely in U.S. and European marketing circles. However, Internet marketing services, which include an English language website and SEO, are now making it possible for thousands of Chinese companies to tap into the U.S. and European Internet retail market. And little wonder China would want to pursue such an opportunity. Experts estimate that the worldwide Internet retail market is worth more than $500 billion.

One particular company, BackboneITGroup.com, is based in the United Kingdom and currently providing a gateway for retail Internet sales both into and out of China. In addition to an optimized English language website, customers have the benefit of what Backbone calls its "conversion rate optimization." The conversion rate optimization process is said to increase and track the number of website visitors converted into inquiries and/or sales.

Andrew Clarke is the Director of the company. He says that their "office in Nanjing, China, where we've been since 2004, has given us a detailed knowledge of the local market. Combined with our experience of Western search engine optimization, where we've achieved top Google rankings for some of the most competitive search terms in the industry, we're ideally placed to build online brands for customers in either market."

Reportedly Backbone's service has gotten significant attention in China, and the company has entered into some preliminary negotiations with several Chinese companies looking to develop international trade. Time will tell what impact Backbone's and similar companies' SEO in China will have on the Western retail trade in China.

Sources:

Press release, "Chinese Companies Target Western Online Trade;" http://www.prweb.com/releases/2007/11/prweb571776.htm

eMarketerChina; http://www.emarketerchina.com/index.htm

Backbone; http://www.backboneitgroup.com/