3 things to know about technical SEO on Baidu

This blog post was updated on 27 October 2022.

If you are targeting the Chinese market, then you need to focus your search marketing efforts on the country’s most popular search engine: Baidu.

However, it is important to note that technical SEO on Baidu is different from technical SEO on Google, which can be intimidating and confusing if you have never worked in Baidu Webmaster Tools before.

Here are three things about technical SEO on Baidu you need to be aware of if you want to succeed on the search engine.

1. Website verification

Baidu Webmaster Tools supports integrated accounts between Webmaster Tools and Analytics, so if you have an account on Analytics, your website can be integrated without having to submit your website for verification through Webmaster Tools. If your website does not have a Baidu Analytics account, then you can verify it in three different ways: file verification, HTML tag verification, or CNAME record.

2. Crawling

With Baidu Webmaster Tools, you can see crawl errors, test for potential crawl issues with Baiduspider, and even adjust crawl frequency according to your website’s update history and server capabilities. You can also test how Baidu crawls and renders a URL on your website, and diagnose any potential SEO issues with the crawl diagnosis tool in Baidu Webmaster Tools (similar to “fetch as Google” in Google Search Console). This tool can be used 70 times a week per website.

3. Content indexing

Baidu favours websites that frequently update their content. Therefore, you need to make sure your content gets indexed by Baidu in a timely manner, to avoid content scraping issues. It is strongly advised that you submit content URLs immediately after publishing. You can submit your content in the following four ways: manual submission, sitemap submission, Auto Push (JavaScript code which you can put in the page source) and Active Push (this method requires developing your own tools to communicate with Baidu’s server).

Want to learn more?

I hope this has given you a useful introduction to technical SEO on Baidu. For more in-depth information, read the full-length guide here. The guide covers:

• website submission and verification on Baidu
• indexation on Baidu
• crawling on Baidu
• robots.txt on Baidu
• sitemaps on Baidu
• response status codes on Baidu
• hreflang annotations on Baidu
• canonical tags on Baidu
• URL structure on Baidu
• implementing HTTPS on Baidu
• structured data on Baidu
• optimising website speed in China
• JavaScript on Baidu
• optimising your website for mobile devices on Baidu

The following two tabs change content below.

• Bio
• Latest Posts

Selina Kim

SEO Executive at Webcertain

Selina graduated from Dankook University, South Korea, in 2013, in cinematography and marketing. She has four years’ worth of experience developing online marketing strategies on Naver, Daum, Google, Facebook and Instagram for the e-commerce industry, as well as working as a content writer and web content administrator. At Webcertain, she is in charge of backlink profile monitoring, backlink profile analysis, link building processes, and internal linking audits, specialising in South Korea and Naver. Selina likes to keep up with trends in the international digital industry, and she thrives on strategy development and process improvement. She is originally from South Korea, and now lives in the UK.

Latest posts by Selina Kim (see all)

• 4 tips for universities targeting South Korean students - November 19, 2018
• 3 things to know about technical SEO on Baidu - March 8, 2018