International SEO Buidu Search Engine Guide [Infographic]

With 65% market share, Baidu  is the most used search engine in China. Behind Baidu, there are two other engines “Haosou” with 16% market share and Sogou with 11% market share. Google is relegated to the fifth position in the list of most popular search engines in China, with less than 2% of market share.Baidu ranks 5th among the most visited websites in the world behind Google, Facebook, Youtube and Yahoo. The Chinese engine now has more than 800 million in its index web pages, with growth estimated at over 100 000 additional pages per day.

Baidu Search Engine infographic

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China search engine market share
To address SEO on Baidu, I chose to accompany me the agency SEARCH-Factory and more particularly by one of its consultants: Guanghui Li .

SEARCH-Factory is a digital marketing agency specializing in providing skills and expertise in analytics, paid search, SEO and ab-testing.

His job is to maximize customer acquisition and leads for its advertisers . It was founded in 2011 by Achille Catel , previously international director for SEA NetBooster.

It supports its European and Chinese clients in their strategic developments with values in the range of teaching and engagement.

SEARCH-Factory presents besides its site including Chinese version: www.search-factory.cn

SEARCH-Factory: digital marketing agency
The story of the search engine Baidu

Baidu, whose name comes from a Chinese poem exists since 2000. The Chinese multinational was founded by Li Yanhong ( 李彦宏) and Eric Xu ( 徐勇) .

His Mandarin research allowed the engine to quickly establish itself as the leading search engine in China and Asia .

To compete with the US giant, the two creators of the Chinese motor opted for an anti-Google slogan: “Baidu knows China better.”

In 2005, Baidu company was floated on Nasdaq in New York. Its launch had also panicked the finance market, with a share going very quickly from 27 to over 122 dollars.

Like the other search engines, Baidu offers a wide range of services: web search, images, music, videos and even a service questions / answers.

The Chinese search engine also known for his controversial relationship with the Chinese government. All questions / answers are indeed moderated by the Ministry of Public Security. Surprisingly however: Baidu has long closed its eyes to illegal downloads and spam.

Prior to 2009, Baidu offered to sites to buy positions in the search results, without the sites concerned are not marked as advertisements.

For lack of vigilance of the engine, illegal drug distributors eventually pollute the natural search results , causing a national scandal and media. The Chinese firm has had to make his mea culpa from its users. It also took drastic measures by making paid and natural search very difficult in the medical sector .

Optimizing SEO on Baidu

Like SEO on Google, SEO of a site on Baidu goes through several stages. Some optimizations alike in all respects to what is done on Google, but others are specific to the Chinese motor. The notions of trust and reputation are essential for companies wishing to enter the Chinese market.

Choose a site in China to host

First step to improve its SEO: opt for a local host. Unlike Google, the engine Baidu favors sites that are hosted intramural and penalizes sites hosted abroad. However, getting a Chinese accommodation is not easy.

You must, of course, accept the conditions of the Chinese government to offer you accommodation in this country, and you get a number ICP (mandatory certificate for any site hosted in mainland China).

Obtaining an ICP number is complex: you must have a physical and legal representation on site. Note that a Website can also be subjected to a second number ICP shopping even more difficult to obtain.

The request for an ICP number is usually done through the host and can take up to a month after the city where you are in China.

These steps are tedious but necessary to improve your SEO. Getting an accommodation in China and a number ICP are, in fact, a sign of confidence towards the Chinese engine .

Good to know: The sites hosted in China are much faster to load than sites hosted in Europe or America because of Firewall giant raging within China.

Also, be aware that a foreign site has hosted more likely to be censored by Chinese authorities . For example, in the case of shared, you must be extremely careful not to end up at sites of sides associated with one of the many Chinese taboos: politics, pornography, gambling …

Opting for a Chinese domain name

Fairly standard provided it is always good to remember: to be well referenced in China, you should opt for a Chinese domain name with an extension “.cn” or “.com.cn” . This type of extension improves your confidence index (TrustRank) against Baidu.

It is also preferable to use a domain name written in pinyin instead of English or foreign language even if the engine supports.

Note that booking a Chinese domain name is for citizens of countries that have a proof of address in mainland China (Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan does not belong, for example).

URL with the HTTPS protocol

So far HTTPs was not part of the criteria of SEO Baidu.

However, the Chinese engine has announced that he would soon bear the HTTPs URLs . Besides, he already starts indexing some secure sites by this protocol.

The recommendation is available online on the official blog webmasters Baidu .

The V label

It is possible to check its website on Baidu . A small blue icon V1, V2, V3 can then be directly displayed in the SERPs. Obviously, you have to pay for it. The V1 certification costs 60 € when V2 rises to around € 800. The level V3 can not be bought.

Level 1 validation is fairly simple to obtain because it is done online. Version 2 is more complex since a physical check will be performed by service Baidu to check the accuracy of information provided upstream on the web.

After buying the first two licenses, Baidu teams can further check the information and services of your company to give you possibly the Level 3 certification .

Tag Keyword

Contrary to popular belief, the Keyword tag has no more interest in the Chinese motor . Long used, this tag between more in Baidu SEO criteria for 2 years now.

Previously, it was enough to fill three to five keywords per page to hope to improve SEO.

Optimizing SEO tags

Optimizing SEO tags (title, h1, meta description, alt attribute) is extremely important in Baidu.

You must have unique tags , which meet the needs of users .

For example, the meta description tag should describe the attractive way to encourage the page click in the search results. The <h1> and <title> as for them to be slightly different and optimized appropriately.

SEO Image is also working on Baidu since they appear directly next to search results. The alt tag should be optimized as usual on Google.

Quantity and quality of content in China

Spammers have long plagued the Chinese engine. At the time, you had more pages (content) and you were likely to be well positioned on Baidu.

Today, the Chinese motor copy the Google algorithm for content. To perform you need to focus on the quality of your content to their quantity .

However, the copy of the algorithm performed by Baidu is far from operational and many sites still slip through the net.

Freshness and indexing

Baidu loves the sites updated regularly . The freshness of content is a criterion to watch closely.

The ranking of your site so through the addition of new pages and regular updating of your old content.

Since the weekend of November 14, 2015, Baidu ad index more quickly sites using JS tag Tongji Baidu (the Chinese Google Analytics). Baidu therefore pushing very clearly webmasters to use its own traffic analysis tool.

Banish the JS and Flash

The Chinese engine resents the JS and Flash languages . Submit, as possible, a site fast and simple HTML .

The majority of Chinese use mobile to browse the web: 80% market share . Think about it !

Internal mesh

Baidu gives much importance to the home page of a website . The pages at a click on this page are more likely to be better positioned in natural on Baidu.

Develop its popularity: the china netlinking

The netlinking is also important to Baidu than Google. Previously, you had more external links pointing to your website was better your ranking in the search results.

Since 2013, Baidu has changed its algorithm and released Baidu Lvluo (meaning Lvluo: Scindapsus). This update is the equivalent of Google Penguin: it seeks to penalize sites that use artificial techniques to get the link.

For two years, Baidu has made several updates to Lvluo, and in July 2015, a major upgrade was performed. Baidu has deleted the feature “disallow external links” in “Baidu webmaster tools.” He also announced that he was fully capable of detecting incoming links from poor quality and does not take into account the links from spam action . Chinese SEOs some reservations about this statement of Baidu.

The netlinking on Baidu looks like on Google. Your goal is to get trusted links in popular media . Exchanging links is one of the most common and the most effective techniques on Baidu.

Good to know: The “Quality raters’ team Baidu is much greater than Google, allowing them to check more effectively the sites making use of non-natural netlinking techniques like link buying.

Baidu services SEO services

Baidu is the search engine that has certainly most associated services . Among the best known are:

Baidu Tuiguang (Google AdWords equivalent)
Baidu tongji (Google Analytics).
All products possessed by Google have similar or very close version Baidu.

“The Chinese are the kings of the copy. “- Li Guanghui

Baidu Zhidao

There are also Baidu products widely used by Chinese netizens as Baidu Zhidao (also known as Baidu Ask).

It is a platform of questions / answers which operates with a point system. A person who wishes to add a question needs to a virtual sum of money to ask and the right answer is selected rewarded.

Get a link on this type of platform you will acquire a substantial traffic. The link will also impact on your SEO.

There was a time when many SEOs used this platform to improve their ranking. Today, questions / answers with ULRs are controlled and often moderate. For your answers to be validated you must have an account with Baidu Zhidao a high level with a maximum of stars.

In addition, Baidu announced to give less weight to links that come from this platform. Still, Baidu Zhidao still a great way to generate traffic and awareness .

Baidu Baike

Baidu Baike (Wiki Baidu) is a Chinese Wikipedia . Launched in 2006, this product has really gained momentum from 2010.

Baidu gives weight to links from this platform . It is therefore recommended for your SEO you create a business listing .

Warning: The verification of records is very strict by the Chinese engine.

Baidu Tieba

Baidu Tieba is a forum owned by Baidu . This is a community space with thousands of discussion groups, which are created every day.

There is also a group of “SEO” where we publish all information about the Baidu SEO, with feature articles and the latest news.

The links on the platform are nofollow. Nevertheless, a link on Baidu Tieba is very interesting in terms of traffic .

Baidu Jingyan

Baidu Jingyan ( “Baidu experience”) is the fourth platform of Baidu. It aims to publish experiences of users .

This platform might look like the French platform “How it works”, with one difference: the author must specify each stage of the proposed solution .

Get links from Baidu Jingyan is strategically right to develop SEO of his website . Moderation is, again, very high.

You will understand, Baidu gives much weight to its products from an SEO perspective so that they are more used. He advises especially webmasters to use its own analytics solution, and integrated social sharing system: Baidu Fenxiang.

The Chinese engine also has another service called Baidu Koubei (equivalent to “Verified Reviews”) where users can rate the quality of websites. The stars left can then be displayed in the Baidu search results. This is an effective way to increase brand awareness among Internet users .

The social aspect in Baidu

The networks we know in France have a similar version in China.

In China, Facebook was replaced by far the Xiaonei platform but it is almost dead today. A rumor announces a return of Facebook in China . Stay tuned…

Sina Weibo (equivalent of Twitter) peaked two years ago. The content from this service were also indexed by Baidu. Sina Weibo therefore had a particular interest in SEO. Apparently, the network would be in decline .

Instagram exists in China but remains largely unknown. The platform is also often blocked. Other applications of the same type exist in China, but have little success. The Chinese are more followers of networks where exchanges are numerous .

QQ is Tencent IM belonging to group (2 nd biggest IT company in China) which exists for 16 years. This is the most commonly used in China messaging .

WeChat has been the big surprise of Tencent. With over 647 million users worldwide, is WeChat messaging service a hit in China . For information, this is the social network that earns more money per user: about $ 9 per user.

Your SEO strategy in China is to be supplemented by a presence on social networks , which largely participate in strengthening the image of your business to your target. It is essential for foreign brands to adapt to trends and local culture . Your success in China will therefore necessarily by setting up a comprehensive digital mark

Baidu  ranks 5th among the most visited websites in the world behind Google, Facebook, Youtube and Yahoo. The Chinese engine now has more than 800 million in its index web pages, with growth estimated at over 100 000 additional pages per day.

s3

 

 

The story of the search engine Baidu

Baidu, whose name comes from a Chinese poem exists since 2000. The Chinese multinational was founded by Li Yanhong ( 李彦宏) and Eric Xu ( 徐勇) .

His Mandarin research allowed the engine to quickly establish itself as the leading search engine in China and Asia .

To compete with the US giant, the two creators of the Chinese motor opted for an anti Google slogan: “Baidu knows China better.”

In 2005, Baidu company was floated on Nasdaq in New York. Its launch had also panicked the finance market, with a share going very quickly from 27 to over 122 dollars.

Like the other search engines, Baidu offers a wide range of services:  web search, images, music, videos and even a service questions / answers.

The  Chinese search engine also known for his controversial relationship  with the Chinese government. All questions / answers are indeed moderated by the Ministry of Public Security. Surprisingly however: Baidu has long closed its eyes to illegal downloads and spam.

Prior to 2009,  Baidu offered to sites to buy positions in the search results,  without the sites concerned are not marked as advertisements.

For lack of vigilance of the engine, illegal drug distributors eventually pollute the natural search results , causing a national scandal and media. The Chinese firm has had to make his mea culpa from its users. It also took drastic measures by making paid and natural search very difficult in the medical sector .

Optimizing SEO on Baidu

Like SEO on Google, SEO of a site on Baidu goes through several stages. Some optimizations alike in all respects to what is done on Google, but others are specific to the Chinese motor. The notions of trust and reputation are essential for companies wishing to enter the Chinese market.

Choose a site in China to host

First step to improve its SEO: opt for a local host. Unlike Google, the engine Baidu favors sites that are hosted intramural and penalizes sites hosted abroad. However, getting a Chinese accommodation is not easy.

You must, of course, accept the conditions of the Chinese government to offer you accommodation in this country, and you get a number ICP (mandatory certificate for any site hosted in mainland China).

Obtaining an ICP number is complex: you must have a physical and legal representation on site. Note that a Website can also be subjected to a second number ICP shopping even more difficult to obtain.

The request for an ICP number is usually done through the host and can take up to a month after the city where you are in China.

These steps are tedious but necessary to improve your SEO. Getting an accommodation in China and a number ICP are, in fact, a sign of confidence towards the Chinese engine .

Good to know: The sites hosted in China are much faster to load than sites hosted in Europe or America because of Firewall giant raging within China.

Also, be aware that a foreign site has hosted more likely to be censored by Chinese authorities . For example, in the case of shared, you must be extremely careful not to end up at sites of sides associated with one of the many Chinese taboos: politics, pornography, gambling …

Opting for a Chinese domain name

Fairly standard provided it is always good to remember: to be well referenced in China, you should opt for a Chinese domain name with an extension “.cn” or “.com.cn” . This type of extension improves your confidence index (TrustRank) against Baidu.

It is also preferable to use a domain name written in pinyin instead of English or foreign language even if the engine supports.

Note that booking a Chinese domain name is for citizens of countries that have a proof of address in mainland China (Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan does not belong, for example).

URL with the HTTPS protocol

So far HTTPs was not part of the criteria of SEO Baidu.

However, the Chinese engine has announced that he would soon bear the HTTPs URLs . Besides, he already starts indexing some secure sites by this protocol.

The recommendation is available online on the official blog webmasters Baidu .

The V label

It is possible to check its website on Baidu . A small blue icon V1, V2, V3 can then be directly displayed in the SERPs. Obviously you have to pay for it. The V1 certification costs 60 € when V2 rises to around € 800. The level V3 can not be bought.

Level 1 validation is fairly simple to obtain because it is done online. Version 2 is more complex since a physical check will be performed by service Baidu to check the accuracy of information provided upstream on the web.

After buying the first two licenses, Baidu teams can further check the information and services of your company to give you possibly the Level 3 certification .

Tag Keyword

Contrary to popular belief, the Keyword tag has no more interest in the Chinese motor . Long used, this tag between more in Baidu SEO criteria for 2 years now.

Previously, it was enough to fill three to five keywords per page to hope to improve SEO.

Optimizing SEO tags

Optimizing SEO tags (title, h1, meta description, alt attribute) is extremely important in Baidu.

You must have unique tags , which meet the needs of users .

For example, the meta description tag should describe the attractive way to encourage the page click in the search results. The <h1> and <title> as for them to be slightly different and optimized appropriately.

SEO Image is also working on Baidu since they appear directly next to search results. The alt tag should be optimized as usual on Google.

Quantity and quality of content in China

Spammers have long plagued the Chinese engine. At the time, you had more pages (content) and you were likely to be well positioned on Baidu.

Today, the Chinese motor copy the Google algorithm for content. To perform you need to focus on quality of your content to their quantity .

However, the copy of the algorithm performed by Baidu is far from operational and many sites still slip through the net.

Freshness and indexing

Baidu loves the sites updated regularly . The freshness of content is a criterion to watch closely.

The ranking of your site so through the addition of new pages and regular updating of your old content.

Since the weekend of November 14, 2015, Baidu ad index more quickly sites using JS tag Tongji Baidu (the Chinese Google Analytics). Baidu therefore pushing very clearly webmasters to use its own traffic analysis tool.

Banish the JS and Flash

The Chinese engine resents the JS and Flash languages . Submit, as possible, a site fast and simple HTML .

The majority of Chinese use mobile to browse the web: 80% market share . Think about it !

internal mesh

Baidu gives much importance to the home page of a website . The pages at a click on this page are more likely to be better positioned in natural on Baidu.

Develop its popularity: the china netlinking

The netlinking is also important to Baidu than Google. Previously, you had more external links pointing to your website was better your ranking in the search results.

Since 2013, Baidu has changed its algorithm and released Baidu Lvluo (meaning Lvluo: Scindapsus). This update is the equivalent of Google Penguin: it seeks to penalize sites that use artificial techniques to get the link.

For two years, Baidu has made several updates to Lvluo, and in July 2015, a major upgrade was performed. Baidu has deleted the feature “disallow external links” in “Baidu webmaster tools.” He also announced that he was fully capable of detecting incoming links from poor quality and does not take into account the links from spam action . Chinese SEOs some reservations about this statement of Baidu.

The netlinking on Baidu looks like on Google. Your goal is to get trusted links in popular media . Exchanging links is one of the most common and the most effective techniques on Baidu.

Good to know: The “Quality raters’ team Baidu is much greater than Google, allowing them to check more effectively the sites making use of non-natural netlinking techniques like link buying.

Baidu services SEO services

Baidu is the search engine that has certainly most associated services . Among the best known are:

  • Baidu Tuiguang (Google AdWords equivalent)
  • Baidu tongji (Google Analytics).

All products possessed by Google have similar or very close version Baidu.

“The Chinese are the kings of the copy. “- Li Guanghui

Baidu Zhidao

There are also Baidu products widely used by Chinese netizens as Baidu Zhidao (also known as Baidu Ask).

It is a platform of questions / answers which operates with a point system. A person who wishes to add a question needs to a virtual sum of money to ask and the right answer is selected rewarded.

Get a link on this type of platform you will acquire a substantial traffic. The link will also impact on your SEO.

There was a time when many SEOs used this platform to improve their ranking. Today, questions / answers with ULRs are controlled and often moderate. For your answers to be validated you must have an account with Baidu Zhidao a high level with a maximum of stars.

In addition, Baidu announced to give less weight to links that come from this platform. Still, Baidu Zhidao still a great way to generate traffic and awareness .

Baidu Baike

Baidu Baike (Wiki Baidu) is a Chinese Wikipedia . Launched in 2006, this product has really gained momentum from 2010.

Baidu gives weight to links from this platform . It is therefore recommended for your SEO you create a business listing .

Warning: The verification of records is very strict by the Chinese engine.

Baidu Tieba

Baidu Tieba  is a forum owned by Baidu . This is a community space with thousands of discussion groups, which are created every day.

There is also a group of “SEO” where we publish all information about the Baidu SEO, with feature articles and the latest news.

The links on the platform are nofollow. Nevertheless, a link on Baidu Tieba is very interesting in terms of traffic .

Baidu Jingyan

Baidu Jingyan ( “Baidu experience”) is the fourth platform of Baidu. It aims to publish experiences of users .

This platform might look like the French platform “How it works”, with one difference: the author must specify each stage of the proposed solution .

Get links from Baidu Jingyan is strategically right to develop SEO of his website . Moderation is, again, very high.

You will understand, Baidu gives much weight to its products from an SEO perspective so that they are more used. He advises especially webmasters to use its own analytics solution, and integrated social sharing system: Baidu Fenxiang.

The Chinese engine also has another service called Baidu Koubei (equivalent to “Verified Reviews”) where users can rate the quality of websites.The stars left can then be displayed in the Baidu search results. This is an effective way to increase brand awareness among Internet users .

The social aspect in Baidu

The networks we know in France have a similar version in China.

In China, Facebook was replaced by far the Xiaonei platform but it is almost dead today. A rumor announces a return of Facebook in China. Stay tuned…

Sina Weibo (equivalent of Twitter) peaked two years ago. The content from this service were also indexed by Baidu. Sina Weibo therefore had a particular interest in SEO. Apparently, the network would be in decline .

Instagram exists in China but remains largely unknown. The platform is also often blocked. Other applications of the same type exist in China, but have little success. The Chinese are more followers of networks where exchanges are numerous .

QQ is Tencent IM belonging to group (2 nd biggest IT company in China) which exists for 16 years. This is the most commonly used in China messaging .

WeChat has been the big surprise of Tencent. With over 647 million users worldwide, is WeChat messaging service a hit in China . For information, this is the social network that earns more money per user: about $ 9 per user.

Your SEO strategy in China is to be supplemented by a presence on social networks , which largely participate in strengthening the image of your business to your target. It is essential for foreign brands to adapt to trends and local culture . Your success in China will therefore necessarily by setting up a comprehensive digital marketing strategy and quality.

 

So, ready to attack the Chinese market?

Some aspects of SEO in China are quite similar to those we know in France or the United States.

However, legal and political constraints will complicate your desire to reference sites in the Chinese market .

You will also need to deal systematically with Baidu tools for a successful SEO in China . For example, the use of Baidu tongji (analytics tool) has become an essential in any SEO strategy.

But it is especially the culture of the country you will need to master before you start to attack the Chinese market. Local habits and expectations of Internet users in this country are completely different from what we know in France.

Be accompanied by Baidu SEO professionals with local market knowledge is strongly recommended.

Baidu computer graphics

Baidu computer graphics: a reference site in China

So, ready to attack the Chinese market?

Some aspects of SEO in China are quite similar to those we know in France or the United States.

However, legal and political constraints will complicate your desire to reference sites in the Chinese market .

You will also need to deal systematically with Baidu tools for a successful SEO in China . For example, the use of Baidu tongji (analytics tool) has become an essential in any SEO strategy.

But it is especially the culture of the country you will need to master before you start to attack the Chinese market. Local habits and expectations of Internet users in this country are completely different from what we know in France.

Be accompanied by Baidu SEO professionals with local market knowledge is strongly recommended.

 


Additional  International SEO Resources

  • In Japan, on the other hand, the most popular social networking service is Mixi with 27.1 million visits. Also, Yahoo! Japan has the biggest share of the search market in the country while Google has only slightly more than half of Yahoo’s share.
  • Yandex is the biggest search engine in Russia with 61.9 percent of the market share, and Russians use Vkontakte as their main social networking site of choice.

And these are just a few examples.

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In other words, working in international SEO will force you to optimize your site for new search engine requirements and understand a completely different search and social ecosystem.

 

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3 thoughts on “International SEO Buidu Search Engine Guide [Infographic]

  • Great article, the fact that Google is not the most popular all over the globe is often missed. Also good to have mention of cultural differences too, always good to get advice from those on the ground who understand the culture and the audience

  • Thank you for this. You always have some great posts. I shared this on Facebook and my followers loved it.
    Keep the the good work!

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