Broadly speaking, Baidu is to China what Google is to the rest of the world. 

And that means if you want your website to be seen by users in China, it’s time to learn search engine optimization (SEO) for Baidu, China’s largest search engine.

But is it possible to optimize your existing global website for Baidu SEO?

TL;DR Yes, you can optimize your existing global site for Baidu SEO. By focusing on site speed, localization, and Baidu-specific tactics, your website can rank well, even if hosted outside of China.

This guide will explore what Baidu is, why it matters for your China SEO strategy, and provide actionable tips on how to rank higher on Baidu’s search results, even with your current website.

What is Baidu?

Founded in 2000, Baidu is the dominant search engine in China with over 70% of the search market share and over 600 million monthly active users. Baidu is often referred to as the “China version of Google” and is modeled similarly to Google with additional features in addition to web searches, including maps, video search, news, forums, and paid advertising.

So if your business is expanding its digital presence in China, achieving a high rank on Baidu is key to attracting Chinese audiences to your site.

baidu.com

Why is Baidu SEO Important?

Baidu is the go-to search engine for users in China, which makes it the platform for businesses to build visibility and drive traffic in China.

Since Google is blocked in mainland China, Baidu is the most effective way to get your website in front of a Chinese audience. And the way to maximize your chances of being seen is through Baidu SEO, but many businesses see it as a lost cause if their site is not hosted in China or their content isn’t in Chinese.

Can I rank on Baidu if my site is hosted outside of China?

In short – absolutely.

Baidu tends to favor sites that:

Load quickly

Are mobile-first

Have fresh, high-quality and relevant content

Prioritize user experience

Are localized (including Simplified Chinese language and Chinese domain)

Have high engagement

Even though sites in Simplified Chinese are preferred, your site will still get ranked on Baidu if it is optimized for speed and functionality and is relevant to the search terms. We’ll dive into more specific actionables shortly, but first let’s understand why Baidu SEO is a different ball game to Google and western SEO.

Key differences between Baidu and Google SEO:

Some of the SEO fundamentals, like loading speed and content relevance, are just as important for both Google and Baidu, but it’s good to understand the areas that can’t be blanket-applied for both search engines:

Site speed
While both Google and Baidu value fast websites, Baidu’s focus on site speed is more pronounced due to China’s internet infrastructure. Baidu’s Lightning Algorithm rewards mobile web pages that load within two seconds on mobile devices, with penalties for those taking over three seconds. On the other hand, Google’s 2018 “Speed Update” introduced page speed as a ranking factor for mobile searches but stated that “a slow page may still rank highly if it has great, relevant content”.

Test your site speed on our Global Speed Test.

Localization
Baidu gives a preference to content in Simplified Chinese, whereas Google is more multilingual-friendly. Baidu emphasizes fully localized, Chinese-language content, even including your site’s metadata and alt text.

Backlinks
Unlike Google, which values backlinks from any reputable source, Baidu favors backlinks from trusted, Chinese-hosted sites.

Baidu Webmaster tools
Baidu Webmaster tools offer fewer advanced features than Google Search Console, such as real-time SERP ranking. Some of the ways you can use Baidu webmaster tools to help with your SEO strategy include:

Checking crawlability

Discovering search volume for keywords

Tracking backlinks.

Censorship
Baidu filters out content restricted by the Great Firewall. This means that if your website contains censored topics or violates local laws, its search ranking will likely suffer significantly.

8 China SEO tips to get your site ranking on Baidu

Despite differences between the two search engines, this shouldn’t stop you from optimizing your site for Baidu rankings. Here are eight Baidu SEO tips to help your website rank higher:

1. Improve site speed and functionality - Baidu flags slow sites as low quality, which hurts your chances of showing up in search results. Most global sites suffer web performance issues in China because of infrastructure and code incompatibilities with China’s internet ecosystem. Resolving these issues goes beyond solely hosting your site in China or using a CDN. (Chinafy can improve your website’s speed and functionality in China without requiring a full onshore hosting solution - more on this shortly.)

2. Index your URLs - you can submit your sitemaps or URLs for indexing using Baidu webmaster tools, where you’ll also be able to view SEO settings and analyze the performance of your site on Baidu. (Note: Chinafy auto-pushes your URLs to Baidu.)

Image source: https://ziyuan.baidu.com/linksubmit/url

3. Prioritize mobile optimization - Baidu is mobile-first, so if your site is fully optimized for mobile users, this will reflect in your Baidu ranking. To do this, you need to make sure your site is optimized for performance, as above, and also mobile-friendly, such as having a responsive design, optimized images for mobile loading, and minimal dynamic elements.

4. Regularly update your content - Like Google, Baidu favors fresh content, making it essential to update your website regularly with high-quality, relevant material. Whether through blogs, articles, or other types of content, maintaining a frequent publishing schedule is key to maintaining visibility on Baidu.

5. Optimize metadata and HTML - while Google disregards meta keywords for ranking purposes, Baidu still places value on them. You can add relevant Chinese keywords to your meta titles, descriptions, and header tags. Additionally, clean HTML code is preferred by Baidu’s crawlers, so avoid excessive JavaScript or Flash.

6. Consider a local backlink strategy - if you can build backlinks from authoritative, Chinese-hosted websites to improve your site's ranking. Avoid spammy link-building practices, as Baidu actively penalizes sites using black hat SEO techniques.

7. Get a .cn domain - if your site is accessible from China and optimized for speed and functionality, it should still rank on Baidu even if it doesn’t use a Chinese domain. However, you may choose to go a step further and use a .cn domain.This however, does require a Chinese business entity and other pre-requisites.

8. Localize your content - if it makes sense for your business to build a website uniquely for its Chinese audience, then localizing everything from content to metadata to URLs and tags in Simplified Chinese will contribute to higher rankings on Baidu.

As painful as it may sound, SEO is a long-term, ongoing, and ever-evolving process, which makes it challenging to encompass a perfect strategy to rank first on Baidu (or Google for that matter).

Optimize your site for China

The tips above can help your chances of ranking higher on Baidu, however it’s often speed and functionality issues that hold websites back. It can be overwhelming and costly to get your web performance in top shape for the best chance of ranking successfully on Baidu.

And that’s where Chinafy comes in.

Chinafy offers a platform that optimizes your existing website for fast, reliable performance in China, without needing you to host onshore or build a new site.

Chinafy helps with:

Accelerating website speed: Chinafy can optimize your site’s content delivery for China by resolving infrastructure and code-based issues that commonly slow down sites when they’re accessed from China.

Handling incompatible third-party resources: many external resources (like Google APIs) are blocked in China, leading to broken elements on your site. Chinafy automatically detects and replaces these resources with China-compatible alternatives.

Improving mobile performance: in the same way we accelerate your website speed, Chinafy’s rule-based optimizations also improve mobile site speed and responsiveness, which is good for both user experience and SEO rankings on Baidu.

Auto-pushing your URLs to Baidu: you don’t need to worry about how to index your site on Baidu, and instead Chinafy does this for you automatically for any of the URLs you choose to include in the Chinafy-version of your site.

Connecting you with Baidu marketing specialists: Chinafy works with partners who can help you with your China marketing strategy beyond website optimization.

Chinafy bolts on to almost any website to achieve an average of 6-8x improvement in load times, as well as enhanced functionality in China and higher rankings on Baidu without changing your global website setup.

Optimizing your website for Baidu SEO to reach users in China needs the same kind of attention that Google SEO does for reaching the rest of the world. From website performance and leveraging Baidu Webmaster Tools to indexing and backlinking, there are lots of ways to start ranking on China’s largest search engine.

Baidu SEO is just part of the picture of your business reaching users in China.

You shouldn’t let slow loading speeds and performance issues hold you back in China’s internet ecosystem.

Chinafy can make it easy for you by making your website faster and fully functional for users in China without having to overhaul your entire setup.

Get started with Chinafy today.