An SEO strategy that works on Google doesn’t necessarily translate directly to success on Baidu, China’s dominant search engine.
As businesses look to enter the massive Chinese market, understanding the nuances of Baidu SEO becomes essential.
In this article, we examine the key similarities and differences between Baidu and Google SEO practices in 2024, providing valuable insights for effectively navigating both search environments.
Key Similarities Between Baidu and Google
Relevant content is key
Like Google, Baidu values content relevance: their white paper on web page quality states that satisfying user needs is a key ranking factor.
- High-quality, purposeful content is more likely to rank highly on both platforms.
Baidu evaluates the quality of a page based on content completeness, aesthetics, user-friendliness, and source reliability. These factors directly affect rankings, with high-quality pages being given priority and low-quality pages being suppressed.
Baidu's focus on content quality is nothing new: the company has released several updates over the years, including a recent guide explaining what good content is and how to create it.
Mobile-First Indexing is Non-Negotiable
With mobile penetration in China exceeding 99%, Baidu has fully embraced mobile-first indexing.
The Baidu Mobile Search Landing Page Experience White Paper 4.0 outlines the key elements of successful mobile SEO: The main priorities for mobile devices are:
- speed.
- Loading time.
- Image optimization.
- Dynamic elements.
It's important to ensure that your standalone mobile site contains high-quality, valuable content that is available on the desktop version – this includes crawlable and indexable text, videos, and images.
Like Google, Baidu's mobile-first indexing does not guarantee identical rankings between desktop and mobile: device-specific ranking factors and penalties (such as intrusive interstitial penalties) can cause differences in search results.
Site Speed and Performance: A Double-Edged Sword
Both search engines prioritize fast and stable websites that provide a better user experience.
But China's “Great Firewall” adds an additional layer of complexity.
This unique situation makes site speed and performance even more important for Baidu SEO, giving domestically hosted websites a distinct advantage over international sites.
Baidu's Lightning algorithm, introduced in October 2017, prioritizes mobile web pages that load within two seconds on the first screen during a mobile search.
Pages that take longer than 3 seconds to load will be throttled.
Backlinks are still powerful
Baidu’s official SEO guide 2.0 highlights the importance of backlinks in improving page rankings.
Like Google, Baidu considers the quality, diversity, and contextual relevance of inbound links when determining a site's ranking.
High-quality backlinks from reputable Chinese websites, especially those hosted within mainland China, can significantly increase your site’s visibility in search results.
However, it is important to focus on natural link growth and avoid spammy tactics.
User Experience: The Heart of SEO
Baidu, like Google, places a strong emphasis on user experience as a ranking factor, so sites that offer a smooth, engaging, and user-friendly experience are more likely to rank highly.
The main aspects to focus on are:
- Page speed.
- Intuitive layout.
- Mobile first design.
- High-quality, relevant content.
Machine Learning: Shaping the Future of Search
Both Baidu and Google have adopted machine learning to improve their search capabilities. These algorithms have greatly improved Baidu's ability to understand intent, analyze content, and deliver a personalized search experience.
Baidu uses machine learning in many aspects of search, including its ranking algorithms, content understanding, multimedia analysis, voice search processing, and spam protection.
This shift highlights the need for high-quality, user-centric content that matches search intent.
Local SEO: Primary Focus
Baidu dominates China’s search market, making local SEO essential for businesses operating in the country.
Baidu has integrated its products such as Baidu News, Baidu Maps, Baidu Pictures into search results. These platforms are essential for local search and increasing brand awareness in the Chinese market.
Baidu also offers location tags to help your site rank higher in local searches.
<head>
<meta name="location" content="province=北京;city=北; coord=116.306522891,40.0555055968">
……
</head>Learn more: Multinational SEO vs Multilingual SEO: What's the difference?
Voice search optimization: A hot topic
As the use of smart devices and voice assistants increases, optimizing for voice search is becoming increasingly important on both platforms. Unlike text search, voice queries often use complete sentences and natural language.
To optimize for voice search on Baidu, focus on long-tail keywords and question-and-answer content that addresses users' voice search queries. Keep in mind that Baidu is mobile-first, so make sure your site is responsive and provides a great user experience on mobile devices.
Rich snippets: Enhancing search results
Baidu doesn’t use schema markup like Google, but they do offer their own rich snippets feature.
These enhanced search results surface elements such as images, ratings, prices, and other details within the search results, significantly improving CTR and brand visibility.
However, the feature is not yet fully available to all sites: Baidu is selective about which sites have access to it, often limiting it to larger, more established sites.
Black Hat SEO: What NOT to Do
Although Baidu is not as progressive as Google, both search engines severely punish black hat SEO techniques. Baidu's search advertising policy prohibits any content that violates the law, social order, or good customs, including advertising activities that use unethical SEO techniques.
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Key Differences Between Baidu and Google
Advantages of Chinese content
As China’s leading search engine, Baidu’s algorithms and products are primarily focused on localized Chinese content.
When implementing SEO best practices, it's important to prioritize Chinese language content and understand Chinese user behavior, preferences, local policies, and cultural nuances.
Learn more: 15 Do's and Don'ts of SEO Localization: Dealing with Cultural Sensitivity
Index updates are slow
Baidu's index data updates frequency varies from once a day to once a week, and update schedules vary from site to site.
New sites typically undergo a three-month evaluation period during which the index may not change.
Meta keyword emphasis
Unlike Google, Baidu still places great importance on meta keywords.
While it’s important to focus on quality content and user experience, don’t ignore meta keywords in your Baidu SEO strategy.
Preferred hosting in mainland China
Baidu prioritizes sites with fast loading speeds and stable connections, and it gives preference to local sites with ICP records and .cn top-level domains.
Hosting your site in mainland China can significantly improve your SEO performance and visibility.
Content Censorship
Baidu implements strict content censorship that focuses on the authenticity, legality, and user experience of promoted content.
Conduct industry, account, content and technical audits to ensure compliance.
Site Map Handling
Baidu's sitemap handling is very different from Google's approach: they don't support sitemap index files and instead require you to set up a sitemap submission.
This means that Baidu and Google require different sitemap structures.
Keyword Matching
Although not officially confirmed, there are indications that Baidu places more importance on exact match keywords compared to Google.
However, your content will still rank highly as long as your keywords cover all the characters in the user's search query.
Consider domain age
Baidu seems to have a stronger preference for older, more established domains.
Additionally, domains associated with sites with high reputations can carry over their positive reputation scores to new sites.
Webmaster Tools
Both Baidu Webmaster Tools and Google Search Console (GSC) offer features to help webmasters monitor and manage their sites, although Baidu’s features are less sophisticated.
It lacks some of the more advanced features found in GSC, such as real-time rankings and suggestions to improve CTR.
Algorithm refinement
Despite significant advances in language processing and content understanding, Baidu’s overall algorithmic sophistication is still not on par with Google’s level.
However, Baidu continues to evolve for the better, implementing algorithms such as Hurricane and Gale to address low-quality content and improve user experience.
Baidu SEO: Tailoring your strategy for Chinese search
While Baidu and Google share many SEO best practices, the nuances of the Chinese market and Baidu's unique features require a customized, local approach.
Successful SEO on Baidu requires a deep understanding of the Chinese language, culture, user behavior, and technical considerations like hosting and site speed optimization.
Understanding these similarities and differences can help marketers develop effective strategies that will resonate with Chinese users and excel in this vast and growing market.
Learn more: International SEO: How to avoid common translation and localization pitfalls
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