SEO around the world - search in China (Baidu)

There are approximately 773 million internet users in China, and the Google search engine was blocked in 2010. As a result, Baidu took its place and became the dominant search tool in the country.

When comparing Baidu to Google, there are several significant differences in how they operate. Let's look at the SEO features for Baidu:

• Differences in the meaning of metadata, canonical, H1 headings and title.
• Description and keywords are considered important ranking factors.
• Contextual advertising may appear among organic search results without being clearly identified as “advertising.”
• Baidu does not support hreflang tag for multilingual websites.
• Websites using JavaScript have a harder time being indexed than regular pages.
• Baidu prefers Mandarin Chinese content and simplified characters.
• Strict censorship maintained by the Great Wall of China limits access to certain sites and information.

Wait, but Google is trying to enter China again?...

Yes, despite the lockdown, the Chinese market remains attractive to large technology companies. Google is considering launching a local version of its search engine to comply with Chinese censorship. However, this causes a number of problems. Firstly, website optimization will be focused on Baidu, which creates difficulties for SEO. Secondly, this step is accompanied by ethical problems, since censorship may block sites related to human rights, freedom of speech and other sensitive topics.

Thus, Google's decision to return to China, on the one hand, represents a commercial benefit, but on the other hand, it calls into question the principles of freedom of information and transparency.

For additional advice on SEO and Internet marketing, write to the SEO COMPUTER studio at info@seo.computer.

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