The underlying distribution logic of Xiaohongshu's recommendation stream, search stream, and live stream

This article deeply analyzes the algorithm logic of Xiaohongshu's three major traffic acquisition channels: search traffic, referral traffic, and live broadcast traffic. If you want to use Xiaohongshu's traffic for brand marketing, I recommend you read this article.

I listened to someone from Xiaohongshu speaking before, and there was a very sharp point: every time you open the app, it’s the beginning of planting seeds, and every time you leave the app, it’s the beginning of a deal.

Xiaohongshu’s “shopping guide” attribute and decentralized recommendation mechanism determine that the usage path of most Xiaohongshu users is: search keywords → browse recommendation pages → complete transactions.

Here are the three most important actions for users on Xiaohongshu: search - recommended browsing - transaction.

Today, let’s talk about the underlying logic of Xiaohongshu’s search traffic, recommended traffic, and live streaming traffic.

1. Search traffic algorithm

Based on Xiaohongshu's platform positioning, more than 65% of its traffic comes from search, so the search traffic algorithm is more sophisticated. Here we will focus on the logic of the search traffic algorithm.

Publish notes - review - collection - tag classification - first round of recommendation testing - greater exposure. This is the algorithmic process that a note will go through from being published to being exposed.

Based on this algorithm logic, as long as your notes pass the review and gain exposure, no matter how many small eyes you have, they are considered to be recommended by the algorithm.

First, the user searches, and then the system performs algorithmic matching based on the search terms and displays all the results. If the keyword is a relatively large term in the relevant category, then you can see some special label terms in the upper half of the interface that provide classification and filtering functions. This method will provide a better experience for users who search aimlessly. At the same time, the most popular notes are ranked first. The purpose of this display format of search results and filtering conditions is to narrow the selection range and help users make quick choices.

The matching between search results and needs is mainly the matching degree between core keywords and queries. The specific content displayed in the search results is obtained by analyzing user needs and finding the information that best meets user needs.

The keywords in a note title are of utmost importance, and the official also clearly reminds you: "You will get more likes if you fill in the title."

It can be seen that the title is an important option used by Xiaohongshu to identify content attributes. If you want your notes to get more exposure, the most basic work is to optimize the title.

We should make good use of search keywords, hot word recommendations, etc. to help us find the core words of the notes so that the system can recognize and recommend them to the corresponding users.

1. Find core words from recommended content

Recommended content includes several aspects, grayed-out keywords in the search box, historical searches displayed on the page, and hot search terms.

(1) Default prompt words

Before you click on the search and enter the search term, the platform will recommend default prompt words based on the user's tags. The default prompt words will contain a certain amount of search traffic.

(2) Search discovery (hot searches)

Hot searches display the words that have been searched the most recently, to guide users to view some recent popular content and recommendations for topics with high user search volume, which are related to the user's search volume and recent hot topics.

(3) Supplement associative keywords

Supplementing associative keywords means that the user inputs part of the content, and then the system associates the complete content based on the content, automatically completes the keywords, and increases the user's choices by instantly matching keywords and displaying them. I searched for "slimming", and the platform recommended several keywords related to "slimming" to me.

Considering that the ranking of hot words is the result of comprehensive display, in addition to the number of notes, the ranking of the popularity of "hot words" may also involve two factors: the frequency of active searches by users and the popularity of the notes themselves recommended by the system.

After searching, the system performs algorithm matching based on the search terms and displays all the results. If the keyword is a relatively large term in the relevant category, you can see some special label words in the upper half of the interface that provide classification and filtering functions. This method will provide a better experience for users who search aimlessly. At the same time, the most popular notes are ranked first. The purpose of this display format of search results and filtering conditions is to narrow the selection range and help users make quick choices.

02. There are a few points worth noting about the selection of keywords:

(1) Xiaohongshu’s hot search recommendations are indicators of the platform’s short-term traffic content; search prompt keywords and popular screening are where long-term traffic is, and are derived from Xiaohongshu’s real user data analysis and summary.

(2) Be sure to give priority to keywords that have low competition, high traffic, and are relatively accurate, and avoid choosing broad keywords.

(3) Learn to reverse engineer keywords. After determining the topic and keywords of your note, you need to reverse engineer what keywords you hope users will use to search for your note. Consider what common keywords you would use if you were to search for this type of note.

(4) Reasonable placement of keywords in the title, text, topic, and comments of the note will help the note be included and accurately recommended. Avoid keyword stacking, which will be judged as advertising by the system. If you do this for a long time, your account will be downgraded by the system.

If we can consume all brand-related search traffic on Xiaohongshu, that would be the optimal solution for integrating brand and effect.

2. Recommended traffic algorithm

Having search is not enough. If you want your notes to get more recommendations, you also need to match the note content with the content algorithm.

After a note on Xiaohongshu is published, it will first be tagged with a series of labels by the system, and then recommended to fans who are interested in these labels. For example, if you usually like to read skin care articles, the platform will recommend more skin care articles to you.

After the note is pushed to the fans, it will be given an internal score based on the fans’ interactive behaviors to decide whether to continue pushing it to other fans. This is the old-fashioned CES algorithm (community engagement score).

01. CES = 1 point for like + 1 point for favorite + 4 points for forward + 4 points for comment + 8 points for follow

This algorithm has actually been used in Xiaohongshu since 2017. Today, the algorithm's judgment indicators are richer and more diversified than before. Based on the practical experience of advertising in Xiaohongshu, we found that the platform now focuses more on the following items:

02. Click-through rate, interaction rate, completion rate, and interaction value

But no matter how the data indicators change, the core of the content algorithm is still to examine the fan interaction behavior brought about by the notes.

The interactive behavior of fans indirectly reflects the content quality of the notes. Even for experts with only a small number of fans, if the scores are high, their notes will be recommended to more fans by the system, forming a "step-by-step" algorithm recommendation.

Notes with high scores will be further supported by traffic from searches within Xiaohongshu and Baidu searches. This type of traffic is highly sustainable, and notes have a strong long-tail effect, allowing the number of likes and comments to continue to grow even after being posted for several years.

03. Of course, in addition to the content itself, account weight is also important

When your account has a certain number of followers, the notes will be recommended to your fans. If your fans like them, they will be further seen by their friends, forming a fission-like growth.

Xiaohongshu itself is an e-commerce platform. Many users come to Xiaohongshu with a similar mood to "shopping", which is fundamentally different from pan-entertainment platforms such as Douyin. Although it is difficult for the traffic to have an "overnight explosion" growth, the long-tail effect is significant, the exposure cycle is long, and the probability of fans being inspired is very high.

As long as the content is high-quality and the keywords are matched accurately, it can continuously generate user recommendations and attract social fission.

3. Live Traffic Algorithm

Match the user's search needs, attract user attention through content, and finally reach the step of promoting user conversion.

Xiaohongshu’s e-commerce algorithm is similar to that of Douyin, and it allocates information based on weight and traffic.

01. Weight determines the amount of streaming

What is weight? Simply put, weight is the evaluation made by the system on each account, and this evaluation is measured through comprehensive data. The higher the platform's rating of you, the higher the weight, and the more traffic you get.

In Xiaohongshu e-commerce, "weight" is mainly divided into: basic weight and real-time ranking weight.

(1) Basic weight

As mentioned above, the basic weight is different for each account. The system will determine the weight level based on the comprehensive performance of the account within a certain period, and it is not fixed. If you don’t make progress, you will regress, and the fittest will survive.

But do you think you can sit back and sell goods without any worries just because your basic weight is high?

Don't forget, there is another weight measurement mechanism.

(2) Real-time ranking weight

Every account has a basic weight, and the amount of traffic after the broadcast is determined by the weight level. However, the live broadcast room is like a reservoir. If there is no new traffic coming in, the live broadcast room will soon be empty. What is the distribution mechanism for subsequent traffic?

Xiaohongshu adopts a real-time horse racing mechanism, which means that after you start broadcasting and get a wave of traffic, if you still want traffic in the future, you need to compete with your competitors at the same level.

The system is ranking all the time, 5min, 30min, 60min, and the Douyin live broadcast traffic is constantly running a horse racing mechanism to screen out high-quality live broadcast rooms and allocate more traffic to them.

First, the initial push flow:

The initial traffic level is the basic weight we mentioned above. The higher the weight, the higher the initial traffic flow. At the same time, word-of-mouth points will also affect our traffic flow.

Enter data evaluation:

The system uses data to evaluate the performance of your live broadcast room every 5 minutes, 30 minutes, and 60 minutes, mainly based on interactive data and e-commerce data (specific key indicators are discussed separately below).

Performance on the sales list:

Then the system will sort and compete with each other at the same level. If you are higher than the previous one, you will enter the next level of traffic pool and get a new wave of push traffic. Then, the data evaluation will be repeated. If you are lower than the next one, the push traffic will be reduced, or stopped, or even returned to the initial traffic level.

According to this mechanism, real-time ranking is constantly carried out, and the fittest survive. Therefore, only by planning and executing every detail of the live broadcast well can you beat your competitors and get more free traffic.

But traffic is not the goal, conversion is. The premise for pursuing conversion is traffic accuracy.

So, how does the system match us with precise groups of people?

02. Tags determine the quality of streaming

The tags here can actually be understood together with the content algorithm above.

Within the e-commerce channel, the platform will also classify users according to different categories and population tags, match them with the content tags of the live broadcast room, first tentatively recommend them to interested users, and then further refine the live broadcast room tags based on data indicators such as effective viewing, retention, comments, likes, and conversions of interested users, for more accurate traffic delivery.

In addition, corresponding to the weights above, labels are divided into labels under basic weights and real-time labels.

(1) Basic weight label

Above we said that the basic weight determines the amount of traffic pushed by the system, so what is the relationship between the basic weight and the label?

The basic weight is formed by interest tags and e-commerce tags. To add interest tags to the live broadcast room, you only need to design the people and goods venue in the live broadcast room, as well as plan the script, to attract target users to watch the broadcast, stay, interact, and become fans to add the tag.

E-commerce tags require the accumulation of historical e-commerce orders in order to label the account with precise e-commerce tags. By achieving high-density transactions over a period of time at the beginning, the account can be labeled with a basic e-commerce population tag.

(2) Real-time labeling

This is easy to understand. Real-time traffic forms real-time tags. In every live broadcast, we must use precise product planning and paid traffic to continuously deepen account tags. The platform will explore the interactive and transaction groups in real time, and the traffic push model will become more and more accurate.

4. Summary

The above is the underlying logic of Xiaohongshu’s search traffic, recommended traffic and live broadcast traffic. I believe that after reading it carefully, you will have a new understanding and knowledge of Xiaohongshu. If you still don’t understand and need to communicate, you are welcome to join my subscription communication group. My subscription communication group has been reopened.

Author: VIC's Marketing Thinking

Source: WeChat official account: VIC’s marketing thinking