Important Differences Between Baidu SEO and Google SEO

It’s easy to say that Baidu is China’s Google, but it’s also dismissive and completely ignorant. Launched in 2000, Baidu has soared continuously to become China’s biggest and most popular internet search engine—and it’s a completely different kettle of fish compared to Google.

A Different Kettle of Fish

China-exclusive, Baidu is fast becoming a major threat to Google’s popularity, being one of the most popular search engines in the world. While the services that Baidu and Google offer are similar in many aspects, there are major differences in Google and Baidu SEOs.

If you’ve been doing SEO for Baidu the same way that you do it for Google, and have turned up with sorry results, it’s because the SEO criteria for both these search engine giants differs drastically.

What works on Google might not—and often does not—work on Baidu. A lot of things together are to account for this: from the content to the backlinks, and from the indexed time to the depth of homepages. There’s a lot that goes into Baidu SEOs that is poles apart from Google, and here are some of the major differences:

Content is King on Baidu

While content is king in almost all places where SEO is concerned, Google will catch on websites faster if it has a number of credible backlinks. On Baidu, it is the content that must stand out and stand scrutiny before it can be included on the engine. The requirement therefore for high quality content is truly high on Baidu.

What Goes into the Content

While both search engines heavily emphasize on high quality content in order to make it big on them, their approaches to what is quality content differs a bit. For Google, technical content that is well researched and original works best.

For Baidu, the focus is on entertainment and games in addition to being well researched and original. Backlinks and PR matter equally for both search engines.

Rankings

It takes time for any website to be ranked high on both Google and Baidu, but compared to Baidu, Google is a harder on websites when it comes to rankings. On Baidu, once Baidu includes your website, it is far easier to see it soaring to high ranks; given that your website has proper Baidu SEO work backing it.

Weight

On Google, the weight of the website is determined based on its backlinks: their number and their credibility. On Baidu, the relevance of these backlinks and the variety of their usage, in addition to their number, becomes a factor for weight.

For your website to rank higher on Baidu, use a wide variety of backlinks that are relevant to the content. Additionally, links in the media and industries are a plus and add weight to your website.

Localization

Since Baidu is based in China it emphasizes on the localization of content and backlinks – provided they are credible – in addition to hosting. You’d be wise to host your website in China for it to be ranked higher on Baidu.

Keywords

On Google, if the same keyword appears in both your website’s homepage and your first page, your website has a higher chance of being ranked higher. On Baidu, the requirement is for the homepage itself to have more depth.

Internal links matter more on Baidu. If you have observed that the homepages of Chinese websites are brimming with high quality content, it’s because of Baidu’s SEO requirement.

Speed

As has been aforementioned, a website that is hosted locally is likelier to have better speed and attract more viewers as compared to a website that is hosted outside the country. For your website to bring home the best experiences on Baidu, your website should be hosted locally.

To find out more about localization in China and how to make it work for Baidu SEO, call +86-13-7616-98467 to get in touch with Limpid Translations, a Chinese SEO company that specializes in localization and online solutions.