Baidu SEO Guidelines refer to a set of rules and recommendations provided by the Chinese search engine Baidu to optimize websites for better visibility and ranking on their search results page.
Some of the guidelines are the same as Google’s while others (such as the incorporation of social signals) differ.
Here are some of the key Baidu SEO guidelines and best practices:
- Keywords – Thorough keyword research using Baidu Index and other tools to identify high volume, relevant keywords and optimize pages targeting those terms.
- Original Content – Baidu rewards original, high-quality Chinese content and penalizes duplicate or scraped content. Avoid plagiarism.
- Mobile Optimization – With the growth of mobile device usage, Baidu prioritizes sites optimized for speed and user experience on mobile devices.
- Backlinks – Earn backlinks especially from quality Chinese domains to help improve rankings and site authority in Baidu.
- Site Architecture – Use a clear information architecture and optimized URLs with keyword targeting for better crawling and indexing. Avoid excessive Flash content.
- Page Speed – Faster loading pages score better so optimizing landing page speed is important. Keep page size low by compressing images etc.
- Local Presence – Registering with Baidu Places and Baidu Zhidao to highlight business information can improve local rankings.
- Social Signals – Unlike Google Search, Baidu incorporates social signals in ranking. So likes, shares, and user-generated content can positively impact organic visibility especially for ecommerce sites.
Staying up-to-date with the Baidu SEO Guidelines is crucial for sites that require access to the China market.
Good to know: All in One SEO (AIOSEO), a 5-star rated WordPress plugin, includes an integration with Baidu Webmaster Tools. This simplifies the site ownership verification required by Baidu. Site verification is a precursor to submitting a sitemap to Baidu in order to appear in the search engine’s results pages