How to do SEO for Baidu in China

SEO in Mainland China is an entirely different game than SEO on Google for other markets. If you’re looking to increase organic traffic from Chinese users, it’s essential to understand the local players, users’ search behaviours, and unique ranking factors for Chinese SEO. In this post, I will share the best practices to rank pages on Baidu, the “Chinese Google”, and address additional factors that may influence a website’s ranking. 

What is Baidu?

The Great Firewall policy regulates the websites that users in China can access. Instead of Google, you’ll need to optimize your pages for local search engines such as Baidu, Sogou, and Shenma. The most popular is Baidu, with over 676 million daily active users in 2024, and 3.3 billion daily internet queries. 

Keyword Ranking Tools for Baidu SEO

Third-party tools such as 5118, Ciku5, and Chinaz are available for Chinese keyword research. These are similar to the well-loved English SEO keyword tools such as ahrefs and SEMrush. 

Similar to Google, Baidu also has built-in digital marketing tools that you can leverage for keyword research.

• Baidu keyword planner, accessible through a Baidu PPC (Phoenix Nest manager) account, provides keywords and their search volumes, similar to Google’s keyword planner in Google Ads. 

• Baidu Index, Baidu’s Google Trend equivalent, helps you visualize keyword relevancy and popularity over time, often providing useful insights for SEO and keyword research. 

In addition, these Baidu tools will be useful for your overall SEO strategy.

• Baidu webmaster tools can be used to track indexing issues and site performance, similar to Google Search Console.

• Baidu Tongji (Analytics), similar to Google Analytics, provides data on user behavior, traffic sources, and keyword effectiveness.

• Baidu Zhidao is China’s largest Q&A forum, similar to Quora in English. As Baidu Zhidao often ranks high for search queries, it should be part of your Chinese digital marketing strategy. 

Chinese Hosting Server

Baidu is first and foremost a Chinese search engine, so it makes sense that its algorithm massively favours Chinese localization – whether it’s server location, top-level domain (.cn), business address, content language, or citations. Hosting your website locally will help Baidu index your content faster. Also, getting a domain name from a Chinese registar will increase the credibility of your pages, as seen by Baidu. 

Note that you are required to obtain an Internet Content Publishing (ICP) license before hosting your domain in China. This is a required authorization for international brands to operate a website legally in the Chinese market. Not only is it a legal requirement, but it also helps to build trust with local users.

There are some rumors that Baidu ranks sites with visible ICP licenses higher in rankings, but this has yet to be proven. Still, if you do get an ICP license, it can only be a potential benefit to display it on the footer of your site. 

Website Localization

Chinese search engines do not favor non-Chinese websites or content that is irrelevant to the local market. When localizing an English website for the Chinese market, note that Baidu is predominantly available in simplified Chinese, which is typically used in mainland China, Singapore, and Malaysia. Traditional Chinese, used in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau, is supported on Baidu, but the platform is programmed for simplified Chinese, and often converts traditional to simplified Chinese. 

Website Design

Why do Chinese websites seem so messy and cluttered compared to their Western counterparts? The homepage of 4399, a leading Chinese online gaming company, is a prime example.

Similar to the Japanese, many Chinese websites try to display as much content as possible on the homepage. This minimizes the need to type Chinese characters in a search bar, which can be more cumbersome for users than clicking around. However, more and more web developers nowadays are favoring simplistic and minimalist designs. This trend is especially growing among younger generations.

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Looking to unlock the potential of China's vast online market? As a freelancer supporting many global brands, I can help you to find the best keywords to increase organic traffic and reach your target audience on Baidu. Feel free to contact me for Chinese SEO services.