Two months ago, I introduced CNZZ – China’s number 1 web analytics tool. Now it’s time to talk about Baidu Tongji, a screenshot of which is provided below. When used with Baidu’s other products, including Baidu Index, Baidu Trends, and Baidu Data Center, Baidu Tongji can add a lot of value to webmasters, SEO practitioners and managers.
Baidu Indexation Check
Though we can use the command site:www.example.com to find out the number of pages indexed by Baidu, the number is not accurate. Furthermore, the “site” command doesn’t work with sub-directories; for example when you search site:www.example.com/abc on Baidu, it provides you with the feedback “wrong command”.
But by installing Baidu Tongji, webmasters can easily find out the exact indexation numbers for the domain, sub-domains or subdirectories by clicking on the button as indicated below.
Keyword Suggestions and Search Volume
When integrated with Baidu Index, Baidu Tongji provides keyword search volumes and keyword suggestions on the same interface along with keyword search performance.
This gives webmasters and SEO’s a clear direction if there is still room for the keyword landing page to improve, and what other keywords they can create content and optimize for.
Conversion Analysis
The major advantage Baidu Tonji has over CNZZ is that it adds Conversions as a metric, and makes it much more advanced than purely a Statistics Tool, by providing webmasters with an insight beyond Traffic and Page Views.
But only one tab, ‘Conversion Path’, under the ‘Web Analysis’ section on Baidu Tongji reports conversions. This is nothing compared with Google Analytics, as GA gives Target (Conversions) the same importance as visitors, traffic sources and content, and under its Target (Conversions) section there are 7 tabs analyzing different metrics.
Understanding conversions is crucial for many sites including, in particular, eCommerce sites. Without enhanced segmented conversion metrics, I do not believe at this stage Baidu Tongji will be widely utilized eCommerce site owners. However, no doubt Baidu still has plans to continually improve on Baidu Tongji.
Some advantages of Baidu Tongji over GA for the China Market
Despite some of the shortfalls Baidu Tongji has when compared with GA, there are still many positives which do have certain advantages over GA.
For example, Baidu Tongji does provide very detailed information on the segmentation of Chinese localization and allows you to choose to segment your website’s visits by province or area within China, thereby enabling you to analyze visits coming from different regions within China.
Furthermore, Baidu Tongji offers useful databases including information on the IP base for Chinese cities and statistics based on the most used browsers or ISPs in China.
Finally, Baidu Tongji provides more information than GA on a micro scale of website visitors’ activities including information on the last 500 visitor records and detailed visitor tracks throughout your website for individual visitors which is an interesting and useful analytics feature for SEO managers dealing with the China market.