Baidu Works Mainly the Same Way Google Does

(NOTE: You will need to be on a VPN to fully view this page from inside China, as I've got three Youtube videos embedded in it.)

One caveat is that although Baidu works based on the same general priniciples that Google does, it gives more authority to Chinese websites. And by "Chinese websites" I'm not necessarily referring to Chinese language websites (although that ends up being the case mainly), I am referring to websites within the China ecosphere. The "lagoon" that is the Chinese web. It is somewhat cut off, and Baidu actively favors sites that are known among Chinese web surfers, not the rest of the world.

Baidu also gives preference to sites that are "registered" with it. And also sites that give it data. You embed Baidu's custom javascript into your page and allow Baidu to collect information regarding what users are actually doing on your site.

Also, I discuss the critical issue of "dwell time" in the first video below. As I discuss on my page regarding Google SEO, dwell time means whether a visitor, after clicking on a search result, stays on your page a sufficient amount of time before coming back to the search results and choosing/clicking on one of the other results. If a visitor only spend five to ten seconds on your site and turns right around and goes back to the search results page, it means your site was not relevant to the terms they typed into the Baidu search box. Your page is then downgraded for future search results. This is a fundamental priniciple of any search engine's algorithm. Baidu wants its searchers/users to get what they're after. They want to provide a good and valuable user experience so that people keep coming back. This is axiomatic. The lesson to be learned: build a site and provide information that is genuinely useful, informative and relevant.


Please note that before you attempt to follow the steps in the video below, you need to have a Chinese phone number and an email address with what Baidu considers to be a "mainstream" email provider. This does NOT include Google's Gmail! Yes, you heard that right: Baidu will not allow you to register with a Gmail account. You also need to be able to read Chinese to successfully complete this process, however, I believe you can get something out of it even if you don't speak Chinese because I narrate most of it in English (there is Chinese mixed in also for Chinese viewers). And in my description of the process you can get a sense of how much time this might take you or your team, and may spot some issues that should be considered at the outset. Sorry for the audio quality in the video below, most of my videos don't have this problem: