Baidu Way, How Does Your Site Rank In China?

SAN JOSE, Calif., April 5, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- CDNetworks -- If you want to boost your sales in China, one of the things to consider is how your website ranks in China SEO. Baidu is the most popular search engine in China, but Baidu SEO works a little different than Google and Bing. Here are a few tips to help improve your ranking on Baidu.

Don't get blocked
On a previous blog, I went over design tips (https://www.cdnetworks.com/blog/web-design-tips-for-faster-website-performance-in-china/) to improve web page load speeds in China and prevent resources on the site or the entire site itself from being blocked by China's censorship filters. Content related to anti-government, adult, gambling, religion, foreign social media and foreign ecommerce platforms are restricted. Baidu also actively censors its contents, so check your content as well as third party links on your page or site.

Get proper translation
Don't use translation software or a non-native speaker for translation. Get a native speaker who understands the Chinese culture and context of your product or service. You may need to use different grammar and idioms when targeting certain dialects (ie. Mandarin, Cantonese). Poor translation not only makes your site look unprofessional but it can also affect your keyword campaigns on Baidu and overall success in China.

Keep it simple
The Baidu spider is not as advanced as Googlebots, so old SEO methods such as heavy usage of meta tags are more important. Avoid using flash, images, JavaScript, or iFrame to display important content or links. The Baidu spider cannot recognize or will ignore these formats when crawling.

In 2015, mobile web users account for 90% of all web users in China, according to CNNIC. If you want to reach out to mobile users, make sure your site is both mobile friendly and Baidu mobile SEO friendly. Web page load speeds are even more important with mobile users. So page elements, such as third party ads, image size and non-minified resources will greatly affect bounce rates on your site and ranking on Baidu.

Get an ICP
ICP stands for Internet Content Provider. The Chinese government requires an ICP Bei'an license for all sites or web content hosted in Mainland China. Baidu prefers sites that are hosted in China. You need a business license in China in order to host a server in Mainland China and to get an ICP Bei'an license. If you already have a server outside of China, managing another server or data center can be cost-prohibitive. Using a CDN, such as CDNetworks China CDN, that has edge servers inside Mainland China can be more cost-effective and provide faster performance than a server hosted in China. CDNetworks can help with the ICP Bei'an licensing process (https://www.cdnetworks.com/campaign/faq-navigating-icp-and-beian-licensing-in-china/).

SOURCE CDNetworks

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