With more than two-thirds of all Chinese web traffic originating on Baidu, it is crucial for brands to ensure they have an effective PPC and SEO strategy on the country’s leading search engine. And while Baidu has a significant number of similarities with Google, it is important to know what the differences and nuances are between the two platforms, in order to deploy the right resources and optimize.
- Language – All website content, keywords and meta tags must be written in simplified Chinese. In order to ensure that content is perceived by audiences as having been written by a native speaker, brands need to employ someone for whom Chinese is a first language. The subtleties of the language are vital for organizations to master if they want their content to resonate with their audiences.
- Content – Just like Google, Baidu’s search crawlers like high quality content. Every page on a website should have a minimum of 300 words and the content must be unique.
- Blogs – Content-rich websites win the Baidu ranking lottery more often than not. Organizations must ensure that their posts have a significant amount of information and are updated regularly.
- Meta Descriptions – Baidu uses meta descriptions as a ranking factor. The meta description should contain at least one or two keywords as well as a branded term. The length of meta descriptions on Baidu is 78 simplified Chinese characters.
- Image Alt Description – Baidu ranks images based on their alt descriptions. Since it is the most important ranking factor for images, it is best to use it for all pictures on a brand’s website.
- Title Tag – Just as is the case with Google, a page’s title tag is an important feature in order for a web page to rank highly on Baidu. The tag should be written the same way as it is written for Google, though the character limit is 35 simplified Chinese characters.
- Heading tag – Despite there being no difference between Baidu and Google heading tags, it should be noted that every page on an organization’s website should have one H1 tag that describes the web page and must contain relevant keywords to drive SEO.
- Content penalty – Baidu (just like Google) will penalize any website for duplicate content, so copywriters need to ensure each piece of content is unique.
- Code – Web developers take note: Baidu cannot crawl iFrames, JavaScript or Flash, so it’s important to provide alternative HTML versions.
- Website loading speed – A website’s load time is one of the most important ranking factors for Baidu. In other words, websites that load slowly will not rank competitively.