Things to Know about WeChat Search

What is WeChat Search?

The search in WeChat has been there for some time. It was limited in what it could do. User were able to search for WeChat official account and WeChat posts, but that was about it. With the new features and improvement, WeChat search becomes more powerful.

WeChat trying to get into the search game? Not exactly. While the new WeChat search function is a lot more refined than before, it doesn’t quite work like search engines you are familiar with. If you go on Google or Baidu and search the term “maserati”, the official Maserati website, followed some ads if someone is doing SEM bidding there, followed by news & social media mentions and sometimes Wikipedia or, in China, Baidu Baike. If you click on any of the links in the search result you’ll be directly taken to another website, this means you’ve left Google or Baidu and enter another company’s domain.

WeChat search, however, is completely internal. If you search, “maserati” on WeChat instead of seeing Maserati’s website you’ll see recent news related to “maserati” that are from other WeChat official account or properties that Tencent has a stake in, such as Sogou. And clicking on any of the links, the article will open up in WeChat’s own browser.

We really like about the social aspect of the new WeChat search though. WeChat search will also return results of social mention by your friend’s moment in the past. This tallies with WeChat’s preference of friend to friend close relationship nature.

Here is an example of WeChat search on the term “maserati.”

Why does this matter for businesses in China?

WeChat has a lot to gain by building a better search system. Since launching in 2011, it has grown to encompass most functions of daily life in China. You use it to communicate, pay bills, shop, order food, and hail taxis. You can read the news on WeChat, or use it to watch videos and listen to music.

Both users and service providers would benefit greatly from a more finely tuned search system. Given all the user data WeChat has – transaction data, social graphs, and more – the app is well-equipped to make more targeted advertisements and personalized recommendations.

Sometimes we’re faced with a choice to try something new or stick to our old ways. For those of you brave enough to explore a new frontier, we offer you some tips on how to leverage the new WeChat search function for your business.

WeChat Backlinks

So far Tencent has not released any information on how WeChat is going to rank results, and they may never. We can, however, make some best guesses by looking at Baidu and Google.

Even though Google’s algorithm has changed drastically over that past 5 or 6 years one thing they never changed is the value of links. Sure, how Google weight links now differ from years ago, but until this day having a strong backlink profile is how you can rank on Google.

And since WeChat started to allow links between different WeChat official account and other Tencent properties, we believe links will be playing a strong role in WeChat search.

Product Search

So far, all product searches on WeChat seem to return results of eCommerce pages that Tencent has shares in. For example, if you search “lip stick” the top results may return a sponsored ad of a mini program, an e-commerce platform pinduoduo(拼多多)

Some of these mini programs will have a 1-click buy button and with WeChat pay, you can literally purchase a product in less than 2 clicks.

This could be great news for eCommerce business, who are looking for a less competitive channel to sell their products at least for now.

Sogou Baike

Most people search on Google because they’re looking for an answer or information. This will most likely be true for WeChat search as well, after all the nature of the search will never change.

Just like Google or Baidu, we found that many top results on the new WeChat search resulted in Sogou Baike(搜狗百科) which is the equivalent of Baidu Baike or Wikipedia. This again is because Tencent is a shareholder of Sogou.

Unlike Baidu Baike however, Sogou Baike is currently free of charge to use, although that could change any day now as it is gaining more popularities thanks to WeChat.

About Wechatapply

Wechatapply is an award winning China WeChat digital marketing agency based in Sydney.Working across all aspects of the marketing solutions like WeChat promotion, WeChat Official Account Registration, WeChat KOL, WeChat Mini Program Ad. and so on, we will ensure you have a solid marketing strategy together with perfectly delivered campaigns. Wechatapply  will transform your China online marketing to increase your lead generation, brand awareness and market engagement.

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