Starting my internship in Guangzhou
We had a few days to acclimate to Chinese life, but on Monday, March 7th it's time to start the internship!
We had a few days to acclimate to Chinese life, but on Monday, March 7th it's time to start the internship!
In search of the lost office
The offices of Jin Long Limited are apparently located about twenty minutes by bus from our apartment, and it's crucial not to make a mistake given the plethora of bus lines that exist...
We manage to locate ours (having the stop written in Chine certainly helps...), so off we go to Baogang Dadao! The building housing the offices isn't as easy to locate, but after asking several passersby we finally find it. First observation: it's impressive, clearly. To infinity and beyond...
The offices are located on the 33rd floor, which will subject us to a good 5 minutes of elevator waiting each morning. Always good to know... We finally meet the two partners who were impressed by our CVs. The welcome is warm and we're invited to address them informally from the start, just like the rest of the team composed mainly of Chinese employees.
Our internship supervisor briefly outlines the policy of Jinlong Worldwide Limited, namely helping and supporting French companies wishing to establish themselves in Chine. Alongside these sourcing services, it has recently been developing its own websites for e-commerce, social networks and B2B-B2C portals. And that's where we come in, since as stipulated in our internship agreement, we will work on:
Content writing
Audit and implementation of SEO actions
Monitoring and corrective measures
Partnership creation
Management of Adwords/Adsense campaigns
Community management
Missions that fit perfectly within our training framework focused on SEO.
Canton Fair
After a lengthy briefing on the objectives to be achieved, he entrusts us with the first website to optimize. It's the Canton Fair website, the world's largest import-export trade show held twice a year in Guangzhou (in May and October).
The www.foire-de-canton.fr website aims to offer support services for this trade show, from airport pickup to hotel or vehicle reservations, and to provide practical information about the Canton Fair. It currently generates few visits since it's located on the 20th page for the search query "Foire de Canton", so it will be our responsibility to help it progress by optimizing the code, content and link building so it meets the ranking criteria of various search engines.
Charlène and I are accustomed to working together following numerous projects entrusted to us in the past, and we will put this chemistry to good use for this work. We begin with a detailed audit of the website to determine blocking factors, after which we will proceed with the actual optimizations.
Circumventing censorship in Chine
It's important to know that many sites deemed "subversive" by the Chinese government are blocked in Chine. This applies for example to social networks (such as Facebook, Twitter or YouTube) as well as to blogs. Fortunately, this censorship can be circumvented if you go about it the right way, and especially if you have the right software. What software are they? They're called VPNs (for Virtual Private Network). To put it simply, the VPN creates a secure connection between your computer and a remote server, so that your data is encrypted. The advantage of a VPN in our case is that our connection will be considered as coming from another country, allowing us to bypass censorship and access the aforementioned sites. Having heard about this Chinese censorship before departure, we took care to download a free VPN: Hotspotshield. The downside is that it's of course limited given its free nature. So when it's not cutting out every 2 minutes, it slows the connection down so much that it becomes urgent to turn it off. The blessing came from our two bosses who provided access to a paid VPN: OpenVPN, and it must be said that browsing is much more pleasant.
We're ready for these missions which will last several months, stay tuned... To view our photos of Guangzhou, don't hesitate to visit the gallery.
Frequently asked questions
In Chine, many websites are blocked by the Great Firewall (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc.). The most effective solution is to use a VPN (Virtual Private Network), which encrypts your connection and routes it through a server located abroad. Among free VPNs, Hotspotshield is accessible but limited in speed. Paid VPNs like ExpressVPN or NordVPN offer better performance. Remember to download your VPN BEFORE arriving in Chine, as VPN websites are also blocked once you're there.
The Canton Fair (Canton Fair) is the world's largest import-export trade show, held twice a year in Guangzhou, in May and October. It brings together thousands of exhibitors and international buyers in various sectors (electronics, textiles, food, etc.). To participate, you can register via the official website or use specialized support services that can handle your airport transfer, accommodation and logistics on site.
An SEO internship in Chine can cover many tasks: writing optimized content, SEO audits of existing websites, implementing link-building actions, managing Google Ads campaigns (Adwords/Adsense), community management on social networks, and creating B2B partnerships. These tasks allow you to gain international experience while developing concrete skills in natural and paid search engine optimization in a multicultural context.
For an internship in Guangzhou, it's advisable to choose an apartment well-served by public transportation, particularly buses and metro, to easily reach the business district. The Tianhe neighborhood, dynamic and modern, is popular with expatriates and foreign interns. Check the proximity to your internship location and the available bus lines to avoid excessively long daily commutes.
