SEO/SEM必备之“百度统计”/ Improved SEO/SEM in China with Baidu Analytics integration

See English version below.

背景

跟大多数国家一样，中国的很多网站主要或专门针对国内/本地市场(中国大陆或大中华区)，语言是简体中文(大中华区增加繁体中文)。
根据网站目标人群观察，百度是中国使用最广泛的搜索引擎(参考文件：2013年第一季度百度占据80.6%的搜索市场份额，谷歌在中国的搜索市场份额下跌到3%)，使得百度成为网络营销人员从事网站流量优化/跟踪工作的首选搜索引擎。

百度开发的数据跟踪服务工具叫做百度统计，相当于谷歌的谷歌分析， 常用于中文网站。

安装百度统计只需将一段JavaScript 代码插入到被跟踪页面中（见示例）。百度统计也提供了JavaScript API，支持网页与平台交互追踪其他信息。

实现

我们在Drupal协同贡献聚会上和中国的Drupal开发者们进行了一番讨论，发现可以将Drupal和百度统计作进一步的整合，开发一个新的模块——百度统计，根据后台设置处理所有JavaScript 页面问题。

考虑到百度统计和谷歌分析在API、功能、跟踪代码等方面都十分相似，我们将已经十分成熟的谷歌分析Drupal模块作为百度统计模块开发的起点。

由于有许多交叉功能，新发布的百度统计模块大大简化了跟踪代码的设置，而且提供了很多更高级的跟踪功能，给网络市场人员使用百度统计 JavaScript API 和Drupal API，如：

• 链接跟踪（站外链接、邮件、下载）或状态信息（error、status、warning）
• 用户登录或登出
• 由于角色或页面可见性设置产生的跟踪代码限制
• 跟踪库代码缓存

完整的功能列表在project 页面的 "Features" 段落中有详述。关于具体的实现、与谷歌分析的差别，请看"Implementation"一段。

拥有了如此多的功能且与Drupal框架紧密整合后，百度统计模块有可能是针对网络营销人员的最全面完整的开源解决方案，可用于基于百度的流量优化。

和百度统计官方建站工具安装指南中所列出的其他内容管理系统和建站工具相比，Drupal提供了更多可与百度统计进行深度整合的功能特性（比较指南中设置图示即可知）。

为了给社区提供便利，此模块project页面上专门补充了图示截屏、实施细节、安装指南、有用的资源和基础英文文档（待完善，如截图），指出一些高级的实用信息如缓存、JavaScript代码和更多整合内容（例如针对Drupal Commerce、Ubercart模块等的跟踪）。

推进：需要帮手和支持！

第一个稳定版本才发布，需要各种反馈、测试、报告、审查、问题和建议。模块代码、功能特性和文档都还在“逐步完善中”，需要社区帮助测试，具体来说，希望各位能够在project issue tracker中用中文或英文发布 issue、评论和建议。

首要的问题即是翻译和文档。
第一个重要任务，project页面和所有文档已经开始翻译，记录在#2084347: Add Chinese description on project这个issue里。

还有百度统计模块本地化也是需要社区支持的。

至于新功能或者代码修改，初步的Roadmap已在模块页Future developments下提出，当然也欢迎各位参与贡献。
其中，百度推广、基于Drupal Commerce或Ubercart（Ubercart谷歌分析接口）的电商网站流量跟踪，同样可考虑开发成插件或模块。

请自由发表各种想法、建议和讨论，可针对模块的新功能、改进或扩展，这将进一步拉大Drupal和竞争对手的区别。

最后，为了第一时间得到来自社区的反馈，我们在即将到来的上海Drupal协同贡献聚会 - 2013年9月14日上安排了一次聚会演示（15:30开始），到时将现场演示安装过程和功能。另外还有百度网络营销速成课，从网络营销的角度看各种功能：Logo/图片设置、点击热点、重要信息、信息过滤、关键字、搜索优化、电子商务网站的目标和渠道等。

我们希望这个模块可以帮助Drupal在中国推广和发展，吸引更多本地社区的用户、建站者、开发者；也希望得到网络营销、SEO/SEM从业人员的关注，不论他们的经验水平如何或者偏好是什么，不论他们从事简单、方便的工作或者高级的灵活自定义跟踪。

希望可以看到你们的百度统计Code Snippets、听到你们的反馈，一起为未来Drupal成为中国开发者建站重要考量而努力。

再次感谢参与！

Background

Like in many other countries, a large amount of websites in China are produced to mainly or specifically aim at the interior/local market (Mainland China or Greater China), mostly with a single language: Chinese Simplified (Chinese Traditional to be included for Greater China).
Depending on the audience targeted by a website, it would appear that the Baidu Search Engine would still be the most popular search engine in China (a few references: Baidu Dominates Search Engine Market by 80.6% in Q1 2013, Google's Search Market Share in China Falls to Just 3%), bringing it at the top of priorities for Online Marketers or anyone who would like to optimize/track the traffic of a website for the leading Chinese search engine.

Baidu has been providing for many years already a statistics/tracking service called Baidu Analytics (along the lines of what Google Analytics does), which is extensively used and a rather common requirement for websites built to target a Chinese audience.

In short, to install Baidu Analytics on a website, a specific piece of JavaScript code has to be to be inserted in each web page to be tracked (see screenshot for an example of the Javascript code). Additionally, Baidu Analytics provides a JavaScript API allowing a web page to interact with the platform to track additional information.

Implementation

After several rounds of discussions with Chinese Drupal developers at previous Drupal Workshops, it appeared an improved integration between Drupal and Baidu Analytics could be achieved by implementing a new contributed module called Baidu Analytics, which would handle all JavaScript page inclusion aspects depending on back-end configuration settings.

Given the similarities between Baidu Analytics and Google Analytics, in terms of API, features or tracking code, the very popular and mature Google Analytics Drupal module appeared to be an excellent starting point for the development of the Baidu Analytics module.
Since most of its features could cross-over nicely, the newly released Baidu Analytics module not only greatly simplifies the configuration of the tracking code, but also provides many advanced tracking features for online marketers by leveraging Baidu Analytics' JavaScript API and Drupal's flexible API, among which:

• Tracking of Links (outbound, email and downloads) or Status Messages (error, status, warning)
• Users' option to opt-in or out from account settings
• Tracking code restriction based on roles or page visibility settings
• Tracking library code caching

A more complete list of features could be found on project's page, under the paragraph "Features" and for more information on module's implementation or the differences with Google Analytics, please check the paragraph "Implementation".

With such a comprehensive set of features and close integration with Drupal's objects and framework, the Baidu Analytics module might now have become the most complete Open Source solution for Online Marketers to work on traffic optimization for the Baidu search engine.
It is not without a certain satisfaction that we would allow ourselves to take a bit more pride in using Drupal, by comparing with other CMSes and site building tools suggested in Baidu Analytics' official Site Building Tools Installation documentation page, to find out what Drupal could now offer would go far beyond what any other CMS system commonly used in China could provide to integrate with Baidu Analytics (We surely invite you to compare screenshots of the configuration settings forms).

For a wider support and adoption by the community, an important effort was made on the documentation of the project page with screenshots, implementation details, installation guidelines, useful resources and an initial basic English documentation (which would still need more work to be completed, especially screenshots), detailing more advanced usage information such as caching, JavaScript code snippets or further integration with the module (for example, specific tracking for Drupal Commerce or Ubercart modules, more below).

Moving forward: module needs help!

Since the first stable version was only recently released, any feedback, testing, reporting, reviews, questions, suggestions or concerns would certainly be greatly appreciated. Overall, module's code, features and documentation are all "works in progress" and would clearly need more help from the community for testing, reviewing, and more concretely by posting issues, comments and feedbacks in project's issue tracker in Chinese or English.

In the first place and continuity of this initial development cycle, most efforts will probably remain focused on Translation, Documentation and Support to try to give some momentum to the module with current features.
As an immediate task, Translation of the project page and all documentation to Chinese Simplified has already started and will definitely take some time and work, currently tracked at #2084347: Add Chinese description on project.

More work would also be needed to localize Baidu Analytics to Chinese Simplified and any strings localized/translated would surely be very helpful and greatly appreciated.

For new features or code changes, a basic initial roadmap has already been suggested on module's page, under the paragraph Future developments, for which contributions would also be warmly welcomed.
Among some of the potential future enhancements: support for Baidu Tuiguang (百度推广) or advanced tracking for Drupal E-Commerce websites based on Drupal Commerce or Ubercart (see Ubercart's Integration with Google Analytics for an example), could also be considered to be contributed as extensions or part of the module.

Feel free to post any new ideas, suggestions, questions or discussions for the addition of new features to the module, improvements or extensions, it would certainly help further increasing Drupal's distance with its competing alternatives.

Lastly, in order to get an initial feedback from the local community, a Meetup presentation is scheduled at upcoming Drupal Workshop SH - September 14th, 2013 (from 15:30, more details on event's page) with a demonstration of what could be achieved with the module, its features and configuration settings. Followed by a short Baidu Online Marketing crash course, with an approach from an Online Marketer's perspective and an overview of the features provided by the platform: small logo/image configuration, Click Heatmap, important reports and indicators, filtering of reports, keywords and search queries optimization, leveraging Goals and Funnels for E-Commerce, and much more.

We sincerely wish this new module will be an additional strength for Drupal to gain more adhesion in China and attract more new users, site builders or developers, from other local communities, or through the bias of the Online Marketing, SEO/SEM fields, no matter what the level of experience or optimization required could be, ranging from very simple (default usage: very convenient) to advanced (custom tracking: very flexible, for specialized online marketers for example).

We are all very much looking forward to seeing your Baidu Analytics Code Snippets, hearing more feedbacks, comments, concerns, questions or issues for this new module which we hope will add up its weight to the balance and perhaps make a difference when Drupal is considered in the Chinese community among serious choices to develop a web project.

Thanks very much to all in advance for your comments, testing/reporting, support, interest and involvement in the community.
Cheers!