By Sam H Mah, 10+ Years SEO & Website Design Experience
Last updated: Jan 27, 2024
This comprehensive guide from Baidu aims to assist you in growing your brand online with Chinese netizens.
It will teach you how to get more traffic and leads for your business.
By the end of the article, you will be able to achieve a page one ranking on Baidu.
Table of Content
Baidu is the most popular search engine among Chinese Internet users. It is the first place they go when searching for information.
Baidu does not index or search the content available on popular platforms such as WeChat or Xiaohongshu.
If you want to gain more insight into traffic, register these Webmaster accounts.
Stay away from touchy topics. This is a prerequisite for crawling.
Baidu and other search engines work with the Chinese government.
So please avoid sensitive topics, like Marriott listed Taiwan as a country in the survey form. The hotel site was down for a week.
Is your site blocking in China? Enter your URL at Comparitech.com to find out.
Baidu may not index a page if:
According to Gravity Global's John Yoon, stated, your page should contain 3,000 Chinese characters to rank well.
This seems reasonable. Add more content to your page so that it isn't considered thin content and has a better chance of ranking.
Speed is one of the factors that determine the ranking of your website.
It is important to have a fast-loading website to improve its ranking. This can also greatly influence users' first reactions to your website.
The ideal loading time for a Chinese website is 1.5 seconds.
For websites hosted outside of China:
It's crucial for your website to clear the Great Firewall's scrutiny.
However, it's important to keep in mind that this process can cause some delays.
So, it's vital to be patient and allow ample time to ensure that your website meets all the necessary requirements.
How fast is your website speed performance in China? Try free with Mlytics.
By optimizing your website's speed, you can create a positive user experience that can lead to improved Baidu rankings.
Dedicated hosting is a Baidu search ranking factor - EGG agency
Avoid shared hosting solutions; if the Chinese government targeted a website on the shared server, your website would likely be impacted.
According to Search Metrics, websites with .com extension do rank in Baidu.
The .cn domain demonstrates commitment and loyalty to providing Chinese users.
www.Mǎihóngjiǔ.cn
The domain is in pinyin and is well-optimized, contains keywords (Mǎi hóngjiǔ means "buy red wine") and has the ".cn" extension.
It is only advisable to incorporate keywords into your domain name if it sounds natural and matches your brand name.
Old domains is still active and has attract traffic over time. These domains also gain trust and authority as they age.
Whereas new websites need to earn more authority to rank well.Some business owners make a mistake.
They think that buying an old domain will get them many backlinks and authority. In truth, they don't always work like that.
When translating English to Simplified Chinese, don't go word for word from the original document.
By contrast, you should adapt to cultural differences, preferences, and contextual nuances.
After completing your translation content, it is important to add the hreflang tag to your website. You can find helpful tips on how to do this in the On-Page section.
Give Chinese users a familiar web environment by adding these items to your site:
You need a China Internet Content Provider license (ICP) to run a website on a Chinese server. It's required by law for individuals and companies.
To get a Chinese ICP certificate, you need a physical presence in China.
Although an ICP License offers many benefits, this is completely optional.
Baidu has said in the past, they will index oversea Chinese sites.
Many Chinese SEO experts like Ryan Chooai don't believe ICP is a ranking factor.
Chinese users utilize search engines to browse the internet, purchase goods and services, and visit their favorite websites for a variety of reasons.
Each search is prompted by a specific objective.
If you are able to identify the goal, then create content that will help you capture leads.
In the following tips, I will explain what Chinese searchers think and what possible keywords they use in Chinese search engines.
When I type 粤菜 - Cantonese Cuisine into Baidu Search, related search terms are displayed.
But wait, there’s more….
Like Google Autocomplete, Baidu gives me more long-tail search queries related to my keywords.
The following autocomplete feature gives me insights into popular Chinese search terms.
Get your Excel ready. You can discover your potential keywords with these platforms:
Baidu also highlights 粤菜 Related search terms on the bottom of the page:
Believe it or not.
The Autocomplete from Sogou and Qihoo 360 produce two different results, but Sogou provides more relevant terms.
I entered 网站设计师 (Website Designer) in the search bar:
These Chinese search engines not only help you with long-tail keywords. You can use them as possible topic ideas for your blog post.
You sell beauty and retail products. You should try the Autocomplete on these Chinese websites.
Most Chinese marketers never discuss the idea. You can type Chinese keywords on Soolve. This tool generates many keywords from western social media.
I typed in “学中文” to stick with my example. I found results 10 keyword suggestions from Google and 14 from YouTube and 8 from Bing.
Chinese consumers, like Western audiences, use synonym keywords to discover your products beyond primary keywords.
To rank on Baidu, include Chinese synonyms of your target keywords.
For example, if your focus keyword is "健康饮食" (healthy diet), your Chinese synonyms include
The location keyword is a local search intent.
Localized content that caters to specific geographic areas often influences Baidu's search results.
To rank higher locally on Baidu, create localized content that caters to your target audience's region.
Chinese people often do product comparisons. When they do, they visit Baidu and other search engines to seek comparing results.
You must integrate product keywords into your site to rank well in these searches.
Question keywords typically begin with How, Where, When, What, or Who.
These questions that Chinese searchers enter into Baidu when searching for specific answers.
The majority of people mentioned negative questions about your product. They are researching with these search terms:
These are your potential keywords. So, write a blog post with your unique solution to solve their daily problem.
Your Chinese readers will enjoy them. This can help convert these visitors into customers.
The information in the Title tag is the first thing Chinese searchers see. It should be less than 32 characters long.
Don't follow what the majority does: This is not a brilliant idea. Think about how the searchers see and get their attention. I would suggest these:
Baidu ranks sites with meta descriptions higher than those without them. In HTML, your 75 characters long Description will often show up in Baidu search results.
‹head›
‹meta name="description" content="Example of description" /›
‹/head›
Ensure every web page on your site has a unique meta description . Don’t use the same description on other pages.
Baidu shows keywords in red if they match the search. Google shows them in bold.
As a result, having keywords in your Meta description will make it eye-catching. This will encourage people to click to the page.
Baidu ignores Meta Keyword tag, confirmed by an engineer in August 2012.
Meta Keyword tag isn't relevant anymore, but it won't hurt to include one primary and secondary keyword in it.
Although some Chinese marketing experts suggested the opposite, I agree with the China SEO in the mainland.
According to Alibaba Cloud, in 2017, Baidu began to support the Canonical tag. With this label, you tell Baiduspider that this is your preferred URL for a web page.
‹head›
‹link rel="canonical" name="baidu-seo"›
‹/head›
Veronique Duong, a Chinese SEO expert, recommends using the rel="index" attribute in the ‹link› tag if Baidu ignores the canonical tag.
Bing and Baidu do not support the Hreflang tag.
But, using the Encoding and (Meta) Content-Language attribute is vital for Baidu.
With this tag, you tell Baidu to target people in the particular region.:
Mainland China - simplified Chinese |
Hong Kong - traditional Chinese |
Macao - traditional Chinese |
Taiwan - traditional Chinese |
‹meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=gb18030" /› ‹meta http-equiv="content-language" content="h-Hans" /› |
‹meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=big5" /› ‹meta http-equiv="content-language" content="zh-Hant-HK" /› |
‹meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=big5" /› ‹meta http-equiv="content-language" content="zh-Hant-TW" / |
‹meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=big5" /› ‹meta http-equiv="content-language" content="zh-mo" /› |
For Google search engine only:
Mainland China - simplified Chinese |
Hong Kong - traditional Chinese |
Macao - traditional Chinese |
Taiwan - traditional Chinese |
‹html lang="zh-Hans" /› ‹link rel="alternate" href="https://example.com/cn" hreflang=“zh-Hans" /› |
‹html lang="zh-Hant"› ‹link rel=alternate " href="https://example.com/cn" hreflang="zh-Hant-HK" /› |
‹html lang="zh-Hant"› href="https://example.com/cn" hreflang="zh-mo" /› |
‹html langt="zh-Hant" /› ‹link rel=alternate " href="https://example.com/cn" hreflang="zh-Hant-TW" /› |
Grab the above code and paste it inside your Chinese website's the ‹head› tag.
Also put this canonical tag together to prevent duplication:
‹link rel="canonical" href="https://www.example.com/cn "/›
Your website must be responsive so it's flexible in the mobile device. The China Statistical Report August 2017say that China has 751 million online.
Over 95% use mobile devices to access the Internet.
According to the Baidu Mobile Search Optimization Guide 2.0, it lists these tips to help your mobile version:
Shanghai Construction company asked me to fix the website's errors. They built it with XHTML. This XHTML version is no longer popular.
HTML 5 is the current standard.
If you are uncertain about the version of your HTML, you can use W3C's validation tool to check your website.
For example, Chinese Wikipedia uses a font of 15 px, Yahoo News uses a font of 18 px, and Sina News uses a font of 18 px.
If the font is too small, it makes reading unpleasant and drives users towards competitors.
Use 16 px at least for your site. This brings us to our next tip.
A Baymard Institutes study say the optimal line length for body text is 50–75 characters.
Why is this important?
By improving your content readability, you strengthen users' behavior.
For example, the user's total time will stay longer. This tells search engines that Chinese people find your content relevant.
The Baidu algorithm sees that color and photos greatly affect how long users spend on the page.
I know people in China have different expectations. The Baidu algorithm sees color and photos as key to how long users spend on the page.
Start by localizing your website with simplified Chinese characters to cater to the Chinese audience's language preference and cultural nuances.
Audience-Centric Design: Choose website design elements that resonate with Chinese audiences, such as appealing color schemes, proper use of white space, and culturally relevant visuals.
User-Friendly Navigation: Prioritize user-friendly navigation by ensuring a clear structure and labels for your website. Follow best practices for website navigation to enhance the overall user experience.
SEO Optimization: Implement SEO best practices for the Chinese market, considering the guidelines provided by search engines like Baidu. Optimize your website content for effective search engine visibility in China.
Mobile Optimization: Given the widespread use of mobile devices in China, ensure your navigation is optimized for mobile users. Responsive design and mobile-friendly features contribute to a better user experience.
Use Javascript With Caution
Baiduspider bot struggles with Javascript, so avoid using it for text content and links.
Hit by Baidu Update?
Anchor text is clickable text in a hyperlink. Baidu places much weight on keyword usage in the internal anchor text link.
Diversifying anchor text is the key to your website's success.
Both laws must:
The Personal Information Protection Law is like the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). It is similar in size and scope.
Make some points on how to protect user data on your Privacy page. If you do not have it, create a Privacy page for your website.
Like Google SEO, Baidu prefers file and folder names to be short and descriptive. You can use Pinyin instead of English.
ex. www.example.com/zhong-wen
Add this code to your page if you have a business in Beijing.
‹meta name=“location” content=“province=北京; city=北京; coord=116.306522891,40.0555055968”/›
Replace 北京 with your city and longitude and latitude.
Bad URL Structure example:
http://tieba.baidu.com/f?ct=&tn=&rn=&ln=&cn=0&kw
Baidu prefers short, but descriptive word in the following URL.
Best URL Structure example:
http://data.sports.sohu.com/nba-schedule.html
Like Google image recognition. Baidu still relies more on ALT tags, image names, and descriptions.
If your business is near a tourist area, posting images of the monument or famous park can help increase your local SEO.
Here are my favorite ALT tips:
When visitors click on a link to a deleted page, they'll see your 404 error.
The default 404 page is generally ugly and unbranded. As such, this is not helpful to your audience. It drags down their experience.
Creating a custom 404 page with helpful links will
This is the above example of 404 from Ctrip.
An about us page lets Chinese prospects get to know you.
It humanizes your brand, making their experience more personal and confident in you.
Add these relevant details:
Add these relevant details:
Baidu prioritizes the homepage of a website more than its other web pages when trying to rank for relevant keywords.
Contact Us page is a goldmine for Baidu SEO if done correctly.
Add these relevant details:
Breadcrumb trail is a secondary navigation scheme.
Your Chinese audience likes breadcrumb navigation, so does Baidu too.
You can add keyword anchor text on the breadcrumb navigation, bringing more visitors to another page.
Unlike Google, you must use Baidu's structured markup. Baidu's Webmaster Tools & Open Platform allow you to create their rich snippets.
To generate Rich Snippets to display a company logo in the search results, in January 2016, Baidu explained that you could create a snippet from the Baidu Webmaster Tool site (Zhan Zhang)
Here's the hard truth:
China blocks Twitter, Facebook, and Google. So, your China SEO strategy must replace them with Chinese social media platforms:
If you fail to do so, Chinese users may see slower site loading. They'll have a bad experience. Remove it if possible.
By having sharing buttons like Weibo on the site, you send a relevancy signal to Baidu. Get the code from http://share.baidu.com/code.
Here are five performance tips I have for
CDNetworks says that Chinese visitors will wait about 33.1 seconds for a Western website. They will wait 4.8 seconds for those in China.
CDNs are a collection of servers. Your website is held by them as they are spread across the globe.
When someone from China visits your site, it chooses a server closest to the user to load it. This way, he does not wait too long to see your site.
Referring to Ziyuan, Baidu prioritizes page load speed as a ranking factor. You can test your website speed with these free tools:
• Webkaka
• Site 24X7
Notice the "HTTPS" at the beginning of my URL above? This HTTPS is how Baidu identifies secure websites from non-secure ones.
In 2015, Baidu stated that it gives a ranking boost to HTTPS sites.
Whether you are on Mobile or Desktop, original files are large and make your website loading very slow.
Here's what you should do:
In additions, apply a lazy loading technique to each image, which loads a picture when needed, and this makes the HTML pages a small file size and thus load incredibly faster.
Remove blocked western Apis and plugins, and this can make your website appear broken and slow in China.
Baidu officially endorses the usage of eTag for websites.
The advantage of ETag having it enabled is that It lets caches be more efficient and save bandwidth.
Here and why…
If you used third-party resources, add this tag to your website. It speeds up page load when using resources from different domains.
‹link rel="dns-prefetch" href="//awp-assets.meituan.net" /›
‹link rel="dns-preconnect" href="//fourier.alibaba.com" crossorigin" /›
Just change{domain name}to the domain you are replacing for.
Western versions of jQuery/Bootstrap may perform poorly in China. Use Chinese versions to improve performance.
Baidu penalizes websites with "country"; folders containing non-Chinese content.
Uses this Robots.txt method to block BaiduSpider from crawling the other folders.
Here's the code from Baidu Help Center:
User-agent:Baiduspider
Disallow: /fr/
The above example tells Baidu not to crawl the "fr" folder.
Sometimes, Baiduspider doesn't strictly follow this rule. You should also set up similar rules in the .htaccess file.
Alternatively, you should build, serve, and host them elsewhere. In your Chinese rankings, this will prevent penalties.
A sitemap collects URLs on a site. It includes metadata about its modified date, frequency, and priority.
How do I submit my sitemap to Baidu?
Newsletters can tell readers about upcoming products. They can also highlight employees, share successes, and announce events or sales.
The basic premise is to offer a gift in exchange for the visitor’s email address when they come to your site.
Here are 3 popular ways to place your email subscription:
Baidu sees the returning users as a good indicator of relevancy.
Google relies heavily on domain authority and link equity for trust signals. Baidu uses a V-badge icon on a site in its search results snippet.
Rating | Meaning | |
---|---|---|
V1 | Trust score of 0 – 40 (a site where we can browse without problems) | Around $100 US a year. |
V2 | Trust score of 41 – 90 (a site where we can browse, chat and make purchase without problems) | Around $860 US a year |
V3 | Trust score of 91+ ( an ultra-secure site that we can trust | This label is not for sales, but you have to earn it. |
This icon boosts the site's click rate. It stands out from the dedicated group.
This trustRank icon must be paid and can be purchased at Baidu's Webmaster Tools. .
Baidu launched Mobile Instant Pages (MIP) in 2016. Baidu launched Mobile Instant Pages (MIP) in 2016. The MIP was to improve the loading speed in the mobile device.
Baidu discarded theirs and now officially supports Google AMP.
Auto Push is one of the most convenient methods of Baidu submission.
Baidu is strict about content duplication. Be aware of bots and scrapers. They take your content and reuse it on Chinese websites.
You must be the original author to get the most value out of it. Use the Auto Push.
Insert this piece of JavaScript code on every page of your site.
‹script “
(function(){var bp=document.createElement('script'); var curProtocol=window.location.protocol.split(':')[0]; if (curProtocol==='https'){bp.src='https://zz.bdstatic.com/linksubmit/push.js';}else{bp.src='http://push.zhanzhang.baidu.com/push.js';}var s=document.getElementsByTagName("script")[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(bp, s);})();
”/›
To avoid becoming a victim of Spammy and negative SEO tactics, here are 8 things you should avoid:
High abandonment rate?
I highly recommend Crazy Egg or Hotjar. They are Heatmaps that provide a visual clue about how Chinese users see your website.
Hotjar has a free plan. If you see a problem, fix it so you can deliver a pleasant experience to people in China.
Need to know how successful your website is? Check the dwell time metric.
Dwell time refers to the amount of time a visitor spends on your page after clicking a search result.
A visitor only spends five to ten seconds on your site. They turn right around and go back to the search results page. This means your site was irrelevant to the terms they typed into the Baidu search box.
Your page ranking is then downgraded for future search results.
This is a fundamental principle of any search engine's algorithm. Baidu wants its searchers to get what they're after every time
You help Baidu and the searcher succeed. You do this by building a site. You provide truly useful, informative, and relevant information.
In my ten years of website design experience, I can tell you that each browser is standalone. It renders a website differently.
Chinese people use many browsers. Test them!
China Mobile Web Browser Market - 2020
China Desktop Web Browser Market - 2020
Source: China Internet Watch
Baidu's 2015 link algorithm update ranked pages based on high-authority links.
You must know this
Brand mention is one type of the backlinks. It's when someone mentions your company online, and it is worth having.
According to Ryan Chooai of SEO Shifu, a brand mention is as effective as a high-quality backlink.
You can apply this Chinese SEO trick on any Chinese social platform.
If you want to list your business, you need to call Baidu Maps, sign a contract with them, and pay a fee. It’s 2,500 Yuan per year to list one business.
Event sponsorship can improve relationships and SEO in China. It offers link-building benefits without hosting an event.
Local news and social media may mention you, providing positive exposure.
In this case, workshops, conferences, lectures, or clubs could be used.
Once you have made a list of online venues for these events, you need to find out where they are likely to be held.
Depending on the event, local events may be hosted on local sites, but national events can usually be found on sites like:
You can use these Google searches for each of the hosting sites:
Link Roundups are blog posts that “round up” links to awesome content. This is usually done daily weekly or monthly and often includes a short write up.
Use Google to do the following searches…
In-depth industry research and infographics are rare. Chinese workers and journalists will cite your case study.
They will do so if they find it useful or insightful. It will be natural for them to do so.
You can publish it on Huxiu.com, Sina Blog, Wechat, Douban, Xiaohongshu, etc.
Baidu Tieba is the most popular Chinese social media platform in China. More than 300 million monthly active users. It has 22.6 million "bars" or communities.
Do mention your company name on Tieba posts. This mention is considered a sort of backlink relevancy. See Baidu SEO #72 😀
I recommend this article for Dragon Social - What is Baidu Tieba?
Baidu Qiye Baike is the western version of Wikipedia.
Your company can have its page for a yearly fee. It will introduce potential new customers to your brand and help to promote it.
Baidu Wenku is a free platform that allows users to share all types of documents and files.
Submit relevant reports, white papers, and other valuable resources here.
Don't do it for the sake of link building; help and educate people first.
Baidu Zhidao (百度知道) is the world‘s most extensive Interactive Q & A platform in China.
If you find questions with several answers, be genuine and feel free to provide your insight. It is also a handy tool for discovering content ideas and trends.
How to register a Baidu account? You must have a China mobile number to complete the 注册 (Registration).
Zhihu (知乎) is another popular high quality Q&A platform. t is like LinkedIn. It allows expert users to connect and post often. To learn more about Zhihu, please read this article.
In North America, people know Weixin (微信) as WeChat. It has 800+ million users in China.
You can publish posts and do more here.
Critical features of Weixin:
You can do organic marketing by uploading videos. You can also advertise your content and products.
Learn on how to setup the account here:
Users can record an eight-second video clip. They can then upload and share it weekly with their followers.
Bilibili is like YouTube. In my experience, you have to help other brands on the platforms before they help you back.
Also, get your friends to leave a comment and subscribe to your channel.
Weibo is Chinese Twitter.
Promote your industry topics and link them to your blog article.
Baidu Chinese search engines index Weibo and Xiaohongshu posts.
How to open a Weibo account? Visit this Weibo page for more info.
Alternative to Sina Weibo in China:
Tencent Weibo 腾讯微博
Forum and bulletin board systems are popular in China.
So you want more brand mentions and links? Build up with your audience base from these forums:
Podcasting is growing in China, says CGTN, a Chinese government website.
Podcasts can unite communities. They can provoke thoughtful conversations and teach individuals. They are looking to learn about your topic.
Benefits:
3 Podcast Platforms Luxury Should Keep Tabs On
Ximalaya
Launched in 2013, Shanghai-based Ximalaya is the country’s largest audio-streaming platform. It has an extensive content offering that includes audiobooks, music, comic performances, and, of course, podcasts.
Vistopia
Launched in 2015, Beijing-based Vistopia has been producing digital programs with a focus on culture — art, culture, history, literature, and sociology.
Networking platforms for businesses on the rise in China.
Each profile provides a link opportunity.
Picture sharing is viral in China. When you share a company event photo, add a watermark logo to your images with 5-10 lines of Chinese text.
With that said, this can help you reach more exposure.
Baijahao is a platform for independent writers, bloggers, and journalists.
You can develop content with a Chinese journalist, blogger, or writer.
They can submit your online articles. Once submitted, the content will distribute through Baidu platforms.
According to David Meerman Scott, Newsjacking is adding your thoughts to breaking news.
It's piggybacking on trending news topics to get yourself noticed in your industry.
You can share your professional views on Sina Weibo, etc. If you use the Newsjacking method correctly, you will attract many followers and backlinks.
Little Red Book (小红书 XiaohongShu ), China’s most trusted social shopping platform!
Ninety percent of female users review products. They do this to get recommendations before they buy.
Parklu is China's top KOL analytics platform. They say you can use the above SEO tactics for your 小红书 posts and profile.
Chinese search engines index many social media posts. This greatly affects how findable brands are if posts are well-optimized.
AI-based news aggregator gives you recommendations on the homepage from various media sources.
Both individuals and businesses can sign up and start posting newsworthy content.
To sign up, you'll require a Chinese phone number and a Chinese company.
Before downloading the content, you can ask Chinese users to share this page article. That's another link.
According to Emarkter, in 2021, 85.6 million people in China will listen to podcasts. This will rank the country second only to the US.
When Ximalay Lizhi and Dragonfly introduce you on their website & announces it in the air, you get not just an extremely high-quality outbound link but also brand promotion in return.
Write positive feedback to your Chinese distributor on how happy you are with it.
The distributors have a high chance of publishing it. They will probably give you a shoutout, hashtag, or links to your social account.
Either way, it's nice to help out.
Shanghai University has accepted the scholarship. They will publish your company information and links to your Chinese website. Wouldn't that be a win for you?
Conclusion
The above article explains how to do White Hat SEO in China. Using Baidu SEO is a long-term strategy.
It increases organic search traffic, inquiries, and sales. I have a written a Google SEO handbook. Click here to read this SEO Optimization guide.
Sam Mah is a Digital Marketer with seven years of experience in Web Design and Search Engine Optimization. He blogs about Google SEO and SEO in China during his free time. Follow him on Twitter.