BAIDU SEO: HOW TO OPTIMIZE YOUR SITE FOR CHINA
Want to rank online in China? You’ll need to play by Baidu’s rules. As China’s leading search engine, optimizing your content for the site is critical. Here’s what you need to know about Baidu SEO.
Reaching more than 1.1 billion devices, Baidu is the king of Chinese search engines. Like Google, its name is a verb, meaning “the persistent search for the ideal”. But there are significant SEO differences between the two. And if you want to be found online, you’ll need to adapt.
Before we dive in, be aware that Baidu’s dominance has been challenged in recent years. Their market share was 87% in August 2015, but dropped to 66% by May 2019. New players Shenma and Sogou are gaining traction. Shenma is owned by e-commerce giant Alibaba. Meanwhile, Sogou powers the WeChat search function for Tencent.
Market share of Chinese search engines, 2015-2019
(Source: StatCounter)
Chinese consumers also often skip search engines and go straight to virtual marketplaces, like Tmall and JD.com. An estimated 70% of Chinese marketers are focusing their lead generation budget on social networking sites.
As the battle for Chinese clicks intensifies, it’s important to keep an eye on the changing landscape. But Baidu should still be the cornerstone of your Chinese search strategy. Ready to get started? Here’s what you need to know about Baidu SEO.
GET GOING
1. DOMAIN NAME
Baidu puts China first. It prioritizes .cn domains, servers located in China and links from Chinese websites. For this reason, an Internet Content Provider (ICP) licence is a worthwhile investment. They’re issued by the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. And they allow websites using domestic (Chinese) servers to operate. The website must belong to a company that’s legally registered in China though.
Although .cn domain names are consistently ranked higher on Baidu, it doesn’t have to be game over if you don’t have one. Your .com and .net websites will still be ranked if it’s accessible from and optimized for China.
We recommend: A China-hosted website is ideal, even if you have to get your paperwork in order first. The red tape around these licenses often puts companies off. But it’s worth it to secure top rankings on Baidu and increase web traffic. If you need a hand, seo agency china team is here to help.
2. BAIDU WEBMASTER TOOLS
Baidu Webmaster Tools is the official traffic management platform for Chinese website administrators. It provides a wide variety of tools, from dead-link detecting to speed tests. The platform also offers metrics you can only get from Baidu. And a two-way communication channel between webmasters and Baidu.
We recommend: Submit your website to Baidu Webmaster Tools. This helps the Baidu spider index your content accurately. And gives you valuable tools to monitor and optimize your site’s performance. It’s only available in Chinese, but it’s free to register as a user.
3. BAIDU TRUST SYSTEM
The Baidu Trust System signals credibility to search engine users. It displays badges next to search results, to show a numbered level of trust. Badges are available for purchase from Baidu. There’s no official confirmation that they impact Baidu SEO. However, anecdotal feedback suggests they can have a big effect.
We recommend: Invest in Baidu badges to give internet users trust in your site. They can also help reduce your bounce rates, further boosting your ranking and organic click-through rates.
Baidu Trust Badge
Baidu Trust Badges on the SERP
GET TECHNICAL
4. MOBILE OPTIMIZATION
98% of China’s internet users are mobile. And Baidu will transcode websites that aren’t mobile-optimized. What does this mean? It will automatically change your page layout based on what Baidu considers best practice. And the transcoded pages will appear on Baidu’s domain.
We recommend: Stay in control by adding “_applicable-device_” meta tags which help Baidu better identify desktop/mobile pages and avoid transcoding. And prioritize mobile-first design.
5. STRUCTURED DATA SNIPPETS
Baidu search results pages typically contain far more structured data snippets than Google. This means that structured data is incredibly valuable when optimizing for Baidu SEO. You can submit this data through Baidu Open, which allows webmasters to create their own SERP widgets.
We recommend: Submit your structured data through Baidu Open. This is particularly important if you want to rank for rich snippets. You can only apply for a very limited number of rich snippets via Baidu Webmaster Tools.
6. JAVASCRIPT CRAWLING
Google has worked hard to improve its crawling of JavaScript and AJAX content. Baidu, on the other hand, is still struggling. In fact, Baidu’s own documentation says that JavaScript content can’t be processed.
We recommend: Avoid using Javascript on pages which are of key SEO importance.
