Last Updated on January 7, 2025
As the largest search engine in China, Baidu is a platform you can’t skip when conducting SEO. Beyond its massive user base, this marketing channel operates with more sophisticated algorithms and technologies than other search-based platforms in the local market.
With the right strategy, marketers can seize the opportunity to improve their web content ranking within Baidu’s search results and generate organic traffic from a highly relevant audience segment.
To help you achieve this outcome, we’ll guide you through the most effective Baidu SEO practices and offer expert insights on today’s China search market trends.
What is Baidu used for?
Baidu is a multinational technology company that offers Internet-related services and products. However, it is best known as the provider of China’s most-used search engine.
With Google-related apps restricted and heavily censored in the country, the domestic platform primarily caters to the online search needs of the Chinese market. Following China’s stringent digital content laws, this search engine mainly prioritizes websites in the local language.
Compared to other search engines in China, Baidu has a more extensive user base of over 676 million monthly active users. Right now, the platform covers 79.48% of the overall local market share.
Given its expansive reach and market dominance, conducting search engine optimization efforts for the platform has become the norm among domestic and foreign businesses, especially for new brands trying to break into the Chinese market.
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Beyond being a widely known Chinese search engine, users can access other services on Baidu’s ecosystem, from social communications to knowledge-sharing and entertainment. The created content within these landscapes is usually favored by the platform’s algorithm, making them a critical aspect of SEO.
Here are some of the content marketing features foreign brands can utilize when conducting SEO in China:
● Baidu Zhidao
This local Q&A forum is famous for its high community engagement. It’s where Baidu users can post questions or provide answers based on expert knowledge and recommendations.
Building a presence using this service allows foreign brands to increase visibility in Baidu SERP, as these search queries and answers are recognized as credible user-generated content.
In addition, these forum discussions answer important queries about your business or industry, which could prompt a highly targeted audience to visit your brand’s Chinese web pages.
Example of a question posted on Baidu Zhidao for our client Merck
● Baidu Baike
Instead of Wikipedia, the platform offers Baidu Baike. It’s a popular information source that Chinese internet users rely on for finding unbiased and trustworthy data about specific topics and keywords. Compared to its Western alternative, this paid service serves a commercial purpose.
Businesses can post brand-related articles on Baike, creating an opportunity to execute Baidu search engine optimization strategies. Not only can the content appear on top of Baidu SERPs, but it can also build a positive reputation around your brand.
And while this service allows companies to post content, remember that the articles will still undergo rigorous verification processes.
● Baidu Tieba
With over 300 million monthly users, this forum service accounts for more than 10% of overall traffic on Baidu. It has an uncanny similarity with Reddit, where people can discuss and follow specific topics.
The platform thrives in user-generated content, allowing brands to engage with their targeted Chinese audience. Marketers can also create a bar for their brand and include details like social media accounts and websites. Doing this can also help your content appear on search engine results when users search for terms related to your business.
Example of an article posted on Baidu Tieba for our client Merck
How does Baidu SEO work in China?
Much like Google SEO, the primary goal of Baidu SEO in China is to deliver the most relevant and high-quality content to its target audience. To achieve this, brands must consider various on-site and off-site factors such as keyword relevance, content quality, website structure, and backlink profile.
The only problem is that Baidu SEO is bound to unique nuances and user behaviors that significantly differ from the Google search console. Like other Chinese search engines, Baidu’s ranking factors do not favor non-Chinese websites or content that doesn’t resonate with the local market.
Keeping these things in mind, it’s crucial for a brand aiming to enter the Chinese market to tailor its SEO strategy to meet Baidu’s specific requirements. We recommend localizing your website, not only through content translations but also by obtaining ICP licenses, optimizing domestic keywords, adapting mobile-first configurations, and many more.
10 Best Baidu SEO Practices Foreign Brands Should Know
1. Localize Website With Simplified Chinese Characters
As we already mentioned in the article, the Baidu index does not give priority to non-Chinese language sites as the local search engine is programmed to interpret Chinese text.
When localizing a website, brands should note that Baidu is predominantly available in simplified Chinese. Although the platform does support traditional Chinese characters, it often converts queries to simplified ones.
Example of the global website of our client Rioja Wine and its Chinese version
Inaccurate translations can undoubtedly affect your site’s ranking on Baidu. So, if you want better results, you can consider working with a Chinese company with industry experience in translation and content creation. These experts will be familiar with the search terms that are the most appropriate translations of the brand’s original content.
2. Get a Chinese Website Domain Name
If you want to rank high in Baidu’s search engine results, foreign brands must ensure that their Chinese websites do not mix with their English web pages. The best way to resolve this dilemma is to host your website in Mainland China and get an Internet Content Publishing license.
If you intend to use a website for commercial or sales purposes within the Chinese digital landscape, getting a business-level ICP license is legally required. The easiest way to go about this process is to work with a Baidu SEO agency or partner with a Chinese company to represent the business locally on your behalf.
Example of our client Rioja Wine’s Chinese website with Chinese domain name, Chinese hosting and ICP number
If neither of those things is possible, then it’s still possible to register a .cn domain and get hosting in Hong Kong or Korea for fast speeds, but this allows for less scope when it comes to the business operations said website may perform.
Getting a .cn domain also improves the chances of your web content and landing pages ranking on Baidu search results.
3. Conduct Keyword Research & Define Meta Descriptions/Tags
A massive part of Baidu search engine optimization is adding relevant keywords to your content to reach the right audience.
Marketers must conduct thorough keyword research based on popular terms on Baidu SERP. They also should conduct a market study to see how their industry competitors rank on Baidu and their strategies to achieve better results.
Unlike Google, Baidu SEO favors precise keywords, so your priority should be adding relevant title tags and image descriptions for your content. You can also utilize built-in back-end tools from the platform, like Baidu Index and Baidu Keyword Planner.
Example of Baidu Keywords Planner, with prices, monthly search volumes and competitiveness
While Google SEO now focuses on content quality and relevance, the Baidu search engine still highly values metadata. So, you must take extra caution and research when adding Meta Description, Meta keyword tags, Title Tags, H1/H2 Tags, and Alt Tags.
Baidu’s servers are actively crawling these elements, so we highly suggest you keep them written in simplified Chinese. It should also improve your website’s ranking on Baidu search results.
4. Create and Optimize Relevant Content for Chinese Users
A guide to Baidu SEO wouldn’t be complete without us emphasizing the importance of relevant content. No matter how many keywords you integrate into your content, the reality is this Chinese search engine prioritizes original and high-quality posts.
Like Western search engines, trends within the local digital landscape come and go fast. Because of this, marketers must always be on guard for the latest updates and topics within their industry.
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The frequency of your website posts also determines the ranking of your website on Baidu. An active site with new content is more likely to get better positioning in local search results than inconsistently updated ones.
However, you should be wary of duplicate posting since it could decrease the content rating and quality.
Besides publishing frequency and content quality, not abiding by censorship regulations can also affect your Baidu rankings. Including anti-government speech or exaggerated advertising terms will not only remove the content from organic search results but can also lead to being blacklisted.
If you want to avoid such consequences, you can entrust the development and execution of your Baidu SEO strategy to professional digital agencies in China.
5. Build Quality Internal & External Links
Another trick not all marketers know about Baidu SEO is that the platform often puts websites with many relevant backlinks on top of organic search results. Links from and to high-authority Chinese websites are always best.
Typically, the content Baidu prioritizes in its search engine results page includes backlinks from official sources like newspapers or Chinese government websites.
Examples of Backlinks articles for our client Merck
When it comes to this Baidu SEO strategy, remember that quantity matters. While inbound links from authoritative sites are excellent ranking factors, getting backlinks from less reputable websites is equally important.
On top of that, don’t forget to anchor internal links that can lead your audience to another related web page within the website. This structure helps the Baidu spider to web your content together and increases your odds of climbing the rankings.
6. Use HTTPS instead of HTTP
Algorithms for Baidu SEO highly value the HTTPS protocol mainly because of its security. It requires you to purchase an SSL certificate from within China. After it’s purchased and applied, submit a new sitemap.xml to the Baidu search console. A good marketing agency can help smooth out this sometimes-puzzling process.
Using HTTPS, data is transmitted securely through SSL, a factor highly regarded by search engines. While SSL prioritizes the safety of data transfer, HTTPS focuses on the integrity of the data’s presentation.
This dual benefit makes HTTPS an ideal choice for websites. It enhances the user experience while maintaining protection during data transmissions across various interactions. Together, HTTPS and SSL collaborate to establish a secure online environment.
7. Prioritize Mobile Optimization
China is a “Mobile-First” country, with over one billion users accessing the digital landscape through their phones. Around 78% of this user base utilizes mobile search daily for different queries and purposes.
Given its high penetration rate among Chinese internet users, mobile optimization has become a ranking factor in Baidu. Mobile-friendly websites will be ranked much higher on desktop and mobile searches.
Baidu will likely transcode your website if you do not optimize for mobile. It means taking the data onto their servers and automatically making it ‘mobile search friendly.’ Suffice it to say that their automatic conversion might align with a different definition of ‘mobile-friendly’ from the one you follow.
In Google SERPs, mobile and desktop searches are combined using the same URL. Meanwhile, the Baidu search engine transcribes mobile queries through m.baidu.com.
Although Baidu has automatic conversions for non-mobile-friendly websites, you must remember that this process can cause interruptions in user experiences and interfaces.
8. Conduct Backend Maintenance
Submitting sitemaps is vital because it’s the only way search engines can index your website. If you skip this step, you’ll have difficulty ranking on Baidu SERPs. You can proceed with site submissions in their open-source platform.
Example of sitemap submission in Baidu
Ensure the sitemap you generate has a “.xml” extension before submitting it. Also, keep an eye on robots.txt to make sure that Baidu crawls through every section you want it to. Verify your website by adding a verified file on the root directory of your server.
9. Avoid JavaScript, iframes or Flash Content
Unlike other search engine options from the West, Baidu’s algorithm does not recognize any interactive JavaScript apps or Flash content.
Flash is out of the window now anyway, but keeping an eye on using JavaScript is a necessary task. If it’s used to facilitate a part of the website that doesn’t serve an SEO purpose, then it’s not a huge problem. But wherever SEO is directed, JavaScript must take leave.
For the most part, sticking to straightforward HTML is your best bet if you want to improve your search engine positioning.
10. Utilize Baidu Webmaster Tools
Your Baidu SEO strategy should not end after the content has been posted. If you want to continue ranking high in this search engine, you can monitor analytics and performance using Baidu Webmaster Tools and Baidu Tongji.
The latter is like Google Analytics, allowing you to analyze the standard flow of traffic and usage data, sources, and conversions. With some customization, data points for visitor analysis can include geographic location, device, educational level, age, vocation and interests.
Baidu Tongji provides visual representations like site heatmaps to understand better and represent user behaviour.
Example of Baidu Analytics account for our client Merck, with all data for traffic, top keywords, top landing pages, etc.
Meanwhile, Baidu Webmaster tools take it a step further by providing reports on your website’s organic position and performance metrics to help you identify issues that may affect content ranking.
On top of that, the Baidu Webmaster Tools also includes features that are handy for site testing.
From submitting content for indexing to conducting security tests and adjusting crawling frequency, the tools can help marketers handle all technical SEO aspects affecting your web visibility in China’s search engine landscape.
These elements make search engine optimization easier for website owners and serve as a two-way communication between you and the platform.
Top China Search Market Trends in 2025
Mobile-Centric Search Behavior
The sheer scale of mobile internet usage in China, where 99.6% of internet users access content via mobile devices, has cemented mobile-first search as a dominant trend.
Search engines are optimizing their platforms to cater to these users, prioritizing region-specific results, from local businesses to hyperlocal news. They are also increasingly blending search functionality with e-commerce, entertainment, and even navigation tools to provide a one-stop solution to Chinese consumers.
AI and Voice Search Experiences
The rapid development of AI and machine learning allows algorithms in Chinese search engines to deliver more personalized search results tailored to individual user preferences and behaviors.
Meanwhile, voice search adoption in China is also soaring, with an impressive user base of 480 million. These platforms also integrate voice-enabled features to cater to a tech-savvy audience seeking hands-free convenience.
This shift is particularly pronounced among younger users and in regions where smart home devices are prevalent.
Top Baidu SEO Mistakes You Should Avoid
There are many ways to improve your Baidu SEO strategy, but you should also be wary of common mistakes that could jeopardize your optimization efforts. Here are some reminders foreign brands you must remember to avoid any repercussions from the platform:
● Adding Links from Banned Sites
As part of the local digital ecosystem, the Chinese search market also imposes strict censorship on Western social media websites like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. So, if you ask us, it’s best not to include these links on your website’s social widgets.
We suggest sticking to top Chinese social media platforms like WeChat, Weibo, Douyin, or Kuaishou.
● Scale Your Geo-Targeting Down
Remember that your Baidu SEO strategy can be adjusted based on your brand’s target audience. While it’s not uncommon for marketers to focus on consumers in first-tier cities, you should know that these targeting options are saturated.
If you want a broader reach, shifting your geo-targeting techniques to second and third-tier cities is not a bad idea. These places comprise millions of internet users untapped by most foreign brands.
● Setting Bad Title Keyword Tags
As previously stated, these tags are a huge part of how Baidu ranks your content. It embodies what your web page is about, so tagging incorrect keywords for your posts can significantly affect your website’s ranking.
Page titles also attract your target audience to click on the website’s content. If you’re unsure what keywords to explore for your posts and landing pages, you can try observing your competitors or working with a Chinese digital marketing agency to streamline your content creation needs.
Your Baidu SEO Partner in the Chinese Market!
Being well-versed in the best Baidu SEO practices gives foreign brands an advantage over their competitors in terms of local visibility, user engagement, and conversion within the Chinese market.
However, marketers should note that it’s a long-term strategy that relies on the fast-changing technicalities and stringent regulations of local search engines.
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Don’t let the complexities of the search engine market hold you back! Our experienced team is here to guide you through every twist and turn, unlocking your brand’s full potential and ensuring resounding success in Baidu’s dynamic landscape.
We offer comprehensive services to empower your SEO & SEM strategies in China. From crafting compelling marketing campaigns to harnessing the power of SEO and social media, we provide the digital solutions you need to thrive. Contact us today to learn more!
References:
Baidu SEO – Your Baidu Search Engine Optimization Guide
How to Do Baidu SEO (Baidu Search Engine Optimization) Ultimate Guide 2023