TripAdvisor has put moves into place to 
safgeguard its natural search traffic in the likely event of Google pulling completely out of China.
The user review site admitted in January 2010 that around a third of its search engine traffic comes from the Google’s Chinese engine.
But with Google redirecting traffic to its Hong Kong site last week as relations between it and the Chinese authorities waned, TripAdvisor has started making alternative arrangements.
TripAdvisor general manager in China, Hao Wu, says Google decision is “as expected – it has always been a matter of when, not if”.
In the intervening months since the row first emerged between Google and the Chinese authorities over an email security breach, TripAdvisor has attempted to shore up the risk posed to its existing but early growth in the country.
Wu says the company has embarked on two main areas for its contingency planning: finding a backup map provider (it currently uses Google) and collaborating with smaller search engines in the country.
He also now claims the long term effects of an exit by Google from China are minimal, expecting similar performance from other strategies put in place.
“The travel market will grow in China and we don’t see Google’s absence having any major impact on this market or our business.”
As it currently stands, TripAdvisor is picking up the existing traffic through the Google Hong Kong site.
But to safeguard the obvious positive impact of performing so well in Google it has started optimising the site for other engines, including market leader Baidu.
Wu predicts that most of the traffic will simply move from Google to these other sites when – as many predict – Google Hong Kong is shut down.
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