How to build a captivating website for China

With over 1 billion netizens, the Chinese internet market is like the ocean for your business. You need to know how to navigate these waters. Of course, it all starts with a good website setup.

To create a website suitable for Chinese users, companies should first know their needs, habits on the web, and also what they like to see on the internet.

4 basic features that a Chinese website must have

1. Native language 

As obvious and repetitive as it may be, if your business wants to reach Chinese audiences, you need to have the site translated into their native language. This is not only because you break down the language barrier but also because the Baidu search engine greatly favors websites in Chinese.

After the language barrier, you will also find the content barrier. Adapting your website to the Chinese language is the first thing that comes to mind, but it should come along with your content. You must adapt and optimize (if not create completely new) content for your target group in China.

3. Internet Compatible Website

Among the major rules when creating a Chinese website is also to avoid using tools and elements that are blocked in China. By now we all know that all Google programs are blocked, so you can forget to insert elements such, for example, Google API, Google Font, YouTube, and so on. Make sure that all users will be able to see your content fully. This can have a terrible impact on your website loading speed, tracking the traffic, and, of course, user experience. 

Most Chinese people surf the internet on their mobile devices and they expect that your website is optimized for mobile visualization. If your website is not mobile-friendly, your audience reach will be smaller than you can imagine. Even the Baidu search engine favors mobile-friendly websites, no matter if you are a B2B or B2C company.  

4 more insider features for your Chinese website

1. Typography, font size
To ensure that users will be able to see the characters, the font size should be at least 12px. Chinese character strokes can vary between 1 and 60, so you can easily imagine what would look like if the font size it’s too small.  
2. Internal links and menu
While it may seem like a mess for Westerners to have so many internal links and so many voices on their website menu, for the Chinese, instead, it is the simplest thing to navigate within a web page. They built Chinese websites for clicking instead of searching, even if nowadays they’re trying to minimize it.

3. Complex layout
The same comes when we talk about the structure of a website. No free space is left on the web page. Chinese users do not see white space on your web pages negatively but can give the impression that you don’t have so much to show. You can take, as an example, a major brand website, like Sephora, or the huge e-commerce platform, JD.com. 

A live chat to speak to your sales or customer support team, or contact information (such as your WeChat account) must be at the user’s hand, visible, and ready to use. The website for Chinese is just one step toward authenticating your business. They prefer to contact your team directly and discuss your products or services.

If you are interested in building your website for your audience in China, don’t hesitate to contact us. Our team of experienced developers will support you and find the perfect solution for your business.