SEO basics for Baidu
Posted: Sun Apr 20, 2025 8:25 am
Although the major search engines generally work in a similar way—they crawl the web, find content, and also rank it based on links that point to it—there are still differences once you get used to SEO for Google.
Technical aspects of on-page optimization for Baidu
Below we point out differences, but also list the most basic cross-search engine aspects that are not specific to Baidu:
Hosting within China is preferred to make the website load faster in China (not because hosting in China is a Baidu ranking factor, because it isn't – it's purely about website accessibility and speed)
However, since hosting in China requires a branch in China and an ICP license (Internet Content Provider license), the next best option is to choose a server that is at least locally located in Hong Kong, Singapore, or South Korea in order to at least eliminate distance as an inhibiting factor.
It is better to host jquery (or other frameworks used), fonts, CSS, etc. yourself or load them from Chinese servers to prevent them from loading too slowly or not being able to load in China.
Avoid using Facebook or other modules blocked in China (this slows down kazakhstan phone number data loading times, causes websites to break because these services are blocked in China, or leads to a poor user experience if the modules do load because users cannot access the underlying services)
URLs should be written in Latin characters rather than Chinese characters, as these are UTF-8 encoded in other services (forums, blogs, editors, Word documents, etc.) and then no longer look as intended. Pinyin (the Latin transcription of Chinese – without accents) or English is common instead.
The title should be optimized for SERPs, users, and CTR, and be descriptive (preferably with a keyword). For Baidu, a keyword in the title also appears to be a strong on-page ranking factor.
Headings should structure the document sensibly, be meaningful and contain appropriate terminology.
Text content is important because search engines still primarily evaluate based on it.
Images belong on a website built for people and should be optimized accordingly and meaningfully described with alternative text for visually impaired people.
Other (textual) content formats correlate with better rankings (images, tables, unsorted lists, sorted lists, etc.)
It should be a no-brainer not to use resources that are demonstrably not accessible in China (e.g. Facebook, Twitter or Instagram modules).
But resources available in China that are loaded outside of China (JQuery, Fontawesome, Google Fonts, etc.) can also cause the page to load more slowly overall in China.
Baidu only began crawling HTTPS pages and officially listing HTTPS as a ranking factor in 2017. Therefore, securing a website with an SSL certificate can be worthwhile to gain Baidu's trust. However, Baidu itself doesn't always set the best example and sometimes still delivers its own search results using the old HTTP protocol.
A persistent rumor claims that Baidu doesn't crawl JavaScript and can't read content added with JavaScript after the page loads. This isn't true! Baidu crawls JavaScript just like Google, only with a slight delay after the initial text-based crawl. Just as with Google's SEO, we recommend having all truly important content initially in the page's source code and only allowing JavaScript to manipulate less important aspects.
Technical aspects of on-page optimization for Baidu
Below we point out differences, but also list the most basic cross-search engine aspects that are not specific to Baidu:
Hosting within China is preferred to make the website load faster in China (not because hosting in China is a Baidu ranking factor, because it isn't – it's purely about website accessibility and speed)
However, since hosting in China requires a branch in China and an ICP license (Internet Content Provider license), the next best option is to choose a server that is at least locally located in Hong Kong, Singapore, or South Korea in order to at least eliminate distance as an inhibiting factor.
It is better to host jquery (or other frameworks used), fonts, CSS, etc. yourself or load them from Chinese servers to prevent them from loading too slowly or not being able to load in China.
Avoid using Facebook or other modules blocked in China (this slows down kazakhstan phone number data loading times, causes websites to break because these services are blocked in China, or leads to a poor user experience if the modules do load because users cannot access the underlying services)
URLs should be written in Latin characters rather than Chinese characters, as these are UTF-8 encoded in other services (forums, blogs, editors, Word documents, etc.) and then no longer look as intended. Pinyin (the Latin transcription of Chinese – without accents) or English is common instead.
The title should be optimized for SERPs, users, and CTR, and be descriptive (preferably with a keyword). For Baidu, a keyword in the title also appears to be a strong on-page ranking factor.
Headings should structure the document sensibly, be meaningful and contain appropriate terminology.
Text content is important because search engines still primarily evaluate based on it.
Images belong on a website built for people and should be optimized accordingly and meaningfully described with alternative text for visually impaired people.
Other (textual) content formats correlate with better rankings (images, tables, unsorted lists, sorted lists, etc.)
It should be a no-brainer not to use resources that are demonstrably not accessible in China (e.g. Facebook, Twitter or Instagram modules).
But resources available in China that are loaded outside of China (JQuery, Fontawesome, Google Fonts, etc.) can also cause the page to load more slowly overall in China.
Baidu only began crawling HTTPS pages and officially listing HTTPS as a ranking factor in 2017. Therefore, securing a website with an SSL certificate can be worthwhile to gain Baidu's trust. However, Baidu itself doesn't always set the best example and sometimes still delivers its own search results using the old HTTP protocol.
A persistent rumor claims that Baidu doesn't crawl JavaScript and can't read content added with JavaScript after the page loads. This isn't true! Baidu crawls JavaScript just like Google, only with a slight delay after the initial text-based crawl. Just as with Google's SEO, we recommend having all truly important content initially in the page's source code and only allowing JavaScript to manipulate less important aspects.