Tian Ji's Horse Racing Strategy: The Core Mindset of Winning Big with Less
Chapter 1: Awareness · Question 10
What is "Tian Ji's horse racing" in traffic operations?
The essence of Tian Ji's horse racing is not "your horse is faster than others," butwhich track you choose to race on。
Applied to organic traffic:Don't go head-to-head with the giants on the mainKeywordtrack; find the battles you can win.
I've used this approach from 2007 to now, and it's worked across three industries. Here are three real cases.
Case Study 1: Diamond Industry — Avoid the Head Term, Dominate the Second Tier
Time: 2007
Background: Operating a traffic site, with the goal of monetizing in the diamond industry.
At the time, competition for the head term "diamond" was extremely fierce. The top rankings were all dominated by official sites of giants like Chow Tai Fook and De Beers, plusBaidu Baike. A frontal assault? Impossible.
The Tian Ji's horse racing approach：
I abandoned the term "diamond" and went all-in on second-tier keywords:
- “wedding diamond ring”
- “diamond wedding band”
- “diamond couple rings”
Individually, these terms have lower search volume than "diamond," but:
- Purchase intent is clearer— people searching "wedding diamond ring" are clearly preparing to buy
- Competition is far lower— the giants spend their SEO budgets on head terms
- Conversion rate is higher— precise match with user needs
Result: All these second-tier terms were optimized to the #1 spot, and monetization far exceeded expectations.
Case Study 2: Auto Channel — Using Standalone Sections to Capture Niche Traffic
Scenario: Traffic optimization for vertical automotive websites.
Strategy breakdown
| Traffic types | Optimization strategy | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Auto ranking traffic | Targeted optimization of standalone sections | Clear structure, concentrated ranking breakthroughs |
| Model library traffic | Second-level channel support | Cover long-tail keywords for all models |
| Model alias traffic | Specially deploy alias content | Capture overlooked traffic |
The last point is especially critical —“Bumblebee" is the colloquial name for the Chevrolet Camaro, many users search for "Bumblebee sports car" rather than "Camaro ”." The model libraries of mainstream automotive websites are all built using official names, so they don't cover these alias terms at all. We created separate alias content and easily captured this traffic.
This is the Tian Ji horse racing strategy —The battlefield others didn't think of is the battlefield where you can win.
Case study three: Real estate website — subdomains beat section structure
Scenario: The battle over city site architecture for national real estate websites.
At the time, competitors created city sites using a "section" approach (e.g., fang.com/beijing/), while we adopted asubdomain strategy(e.g., beijing.fang.com).
Why is this the Tian Ji horse racing strategy?
- In the eyes of search engines, a subdomain is roughly equivalent to an independent site, making it easier to earn independent rankings
- Each city site can accumulate independent authority andbacklinks
- Search engines impose a limit on the number of rankings for the same domain (site diversity), so section structures crowd each other out
Result: Our city sites systematically beat competitors using section structures in local search.
The Tian Ji horse racing strategy in the AI era of 2026
Times change, but the underlying logic of the strategy remains the same. The new battlefield in 2026:
New horse racing approach one: Avoid head terms dominated by AI summaries
Baidu AI Summaries already cover a large number of "what is" “ "how to" type questions. Even if these terms rank first, the click-through rate drops significantly.
Tian Ji's horse racing approach: Avoid these generic Q&A terms that have their traffic intercepted by AI “, and pivot to:
- in-depth reviews, comparison-typelong-tail keyword(where AI dares not draw conclusions)
- terms with personal experience needs (“XX product real six-month usage experience”)
- localized, scenario-based combination terms (“Beijing Chaoyang family weekend getaways 2026”)
New horse racing approach #2: Target conversational queries that AI answers incompletely
Users' questions in Kimi and Doubao are getting longer and more specific, such as "how to allocate a 50,000 budget for renovating a 60-square-meter rental apartment”. AI gives generic advice, but users need specific cases, regional quotes, and lessons learned from pitfalls.
Your opportunity: Produce this highly specific content, become a source cited by AI, or intercept in search those users who "asked AI, weren't satisfied, and came back to search."
Practical recommendations
- **When doing keyword analysis, always first ask "who can I beat”** rather than "which term has the most traffic." The terms with the most traffic are often the giants' home turf—you'll just be cannon fodder if you go there.
- Look for "cognitive gaps": The gap between users' actual search habits and the industry's standard naming (e.g., "Bumblebee" vs. "Camaro") is your Tian Ji horse racing opportunity.
- Review the competitive landscape once a quarter: The AI era changes fast—a track you could win last quarter may already be covered by AI summaries this quarter—stay agile and keep looking for new "inferior horse against superior horse" opportunities.
