From SEO to Operations | A Few Quick Tips

This article is written to welcome the 195th follower on my WeChat public account. I haven't posted anything in two months.

Here's the main content:

In SEO, there are two very important types of optimization: internal linking and external linking.

(Internal links are hyperlinks between pages within your own website—page to page, page to article, article to article—as long as they're all URLs on your own site that guide users to click through. For example, the "related articles" section you see at the bottom of a WeChat public account post, or links to other relevant Zhihu answers embedded within an answer on Zhihu—these all count as internal links. Some guides treat anchor text separately, but I think it's essentially the same thing: everything aims to increase the time users spend on the site. External links, on the other hand, are when someone else's website includes a link to your site, giving their visitors a chance to click over to your site. This could be swapping friendship links with another site so each puts the other's URL in their site, or posting your website URL on Zhihu, forums, or Tieba…)

After reading that explanation, does it make sense now?

The purpose of internal links is to improve user retention. For instance, after reading one article, the user sees links to other articles on the same site. Like when you're reading a WeChat public account post and see "related articles" suggested at the end—after finishing the current article, the user may click through to read those related pieces. From the system's perspective, this signals that your site (or public account) has valuable content and keeps users engaged longer. So for the algorithm, your site (and account) deserve a better ranking position (higher weight).

(The essence of business is traffic economics; the essence of traffic is attention; the core of attention is user time; and the core of user time is how long users stay on the site. In recent years' internet data, one standout metric has been user dwell time.)

That's why anyone who talks about SEO will mention many fine details—write original content, publish consistently, build internal links—and so on. But essentially there's only one core principle: increase the amount of time users spend on your site. (I suspect this is the system's primary standard for judging content quality. The other core standard is reading completion rate. WeChat public accounts likely also factor user dwell time into their fuzzy search ranking algorithm, though its weight may be lower because WeChat has paid verification and originality certification options.)

So whether it's related articles, anchor text, or optimizing site structure, SEO internal optimization all boils down to one thing: increasing how long users stay on the site. (Think of the user as a search engine crawler. If your site structure is logical and well-organized, the user reads one article and naturally flows to the next. The longer they stay, the more the system judges your content as valuable—just like when you're reading a WeChat public account post and keep clicking through to the related articles it recommends.)

Then what about external links? Those are your traffic entry points.

In the mobile internet era, every app is an isolated island, which is why app distribution platforms have thrived. Even the best content and highest product value still need an initial batch of cold-start users. Where do those users come from? Any place that provides them is a traffic entry point.

There are many ways to build external links: exchanging friendship links, forum promotion, messaging groups with outbound links, posting website URLs on Tieba—all of these aim for users to click through. It's just like clickbait titles on WeChat public accounts that trick readers into clicking. One core metric for judging whether an account is good or bad is its view count; for search engines, that equivalent metric is click volume.

So in SEO, external link optimization means finding all sorts of channels to promote your website URL and get users to click—basically, customer acquisition. SEO internal link optimization means using every available tactic to increase how long users stay on the site (Zhihu and novel websites are indexed quickly and carry high authority precisely because users tend to spend a lot of time reading there). That's retention.

Finally, here are a few quick SEO tips worth noting.

① Baidu's "Xiongzhanghao" (掌号) carries substantial ranking weight. Baidu has explicitly stated a goal of replacing domain-based results with Xiongzhanghao profiles. For high-authority content sites, you might not see this effect immediately, but for new or small sites just getting started, the trend is very clear: searching for a brand name will now prioritize the Xiongzhanghao result. (I'm not advertising for Xiongzhanghao here; I'm simply pointing out that Baidu has created a third major traffic entry point alongside its Baidu Forums and Baidu Tieba.)

② Go to the Baidu Search Resource Platform (you can also use Webmaster Tools) and actively submit your website's URLs. Even if you've set up automatic API URL submission, manually submitting once will yield better, faster indexing results.

These two tactics deliver the fastest visible results—they both expand your search entry points and drive acquisition traffic.

In short, everything comes down to the same two moves: use external links to gain traffic entry points, and use internal links to increase dwell time and boost conversions. Here's a somewhat cheeky analogy: building external links is like dating—casting a wide net by adding lots of potential partners on WeChat, using apps like Momo and Tantan, and trying every platform that helps you meet new people. That's your promotional outreach, expanding traffic channels, casting a wide net. Once you've attracted a pool of prospects, you start chatting, spending more time with them, making them feel you're interesting and valuable… until you close the deal and start dating.

Running a WeChat public account works the same way now. Posting content across Zhihu, Douban, Weibo, and elsewhere while leaving your WeChat ID is external link building—a wide-net approach to attract followers. Once they follow, if your content is high-quality and keeps them engaged, they'll stay around and look forward to your next post instead of unfollowing. That's strong retention. And finally, you monetize those engaged users through whatever means you have. After all the hard work, you don't want zero returns, right?

③ High-value long-tail traffic.

Long-tail traffic refers to any content or keyword that can continuously bring in visitors. That's what SEO is all about: when users search, your site ranks higher, attracting clicks and driving conversions. But the truly valuable traffic comes from queries that people are constantly searching for. (Think about why Zhihu ranks so high—you can search just about anything on Baidu and Zhihu results show up. Why? Because users are always searching for solutions to their problems. Lots of people search things like "how to start a WeChat public account" or "how to build a website." These are persistent queries. If your content ranks high for them, the traffic is more targeted and conversions tend to be higher.) Some people also chase trending topics. Trending topics are really just search traffic too—only the search volume is concentrated in a short window. The question is how to keep getting users to click and follow, and how to keep them on your site and engaged with your public account long-term.

The real goal should be something that pays off reliably over time. (Many people choose to publish on Zhihu precisely because answers keep getting read months or even years later, drawing readers to their public account.)

Personal account: lixuehanoffice; personal blog: http://renzhishengji.cn; another website is: http://geshishenghuo.com.

That's the ad read and the external link plug. From now on, whenever my public account gains a new follower, I'll come up with something to write to welcome the new friend ƪ(˘⌣˘)┐ ƪ(˘⌣˘)ʃ ┌(˘⌣˘)ʃ

This article was written specifically to welcome the 195th follower.