SEO FAQ

What is SEO and why is it important?

SEO is the practice of improving your website's organic ranking in search results. By following search engine rules, you can achieve a leading position in your industry and increase brand value.

SEO best practices

1. Configure your SEO title, keywords, and meta description. For more information, see Page SEO.

   Important

   Frequently changing your SEO title, keywords, or meta description can lower your website authority.

2. Add alt text to images to help search engines understand their content, as search engines cannot interpret images directly. To set the alt text for an image, follow these steps:

   1. Add an image widget. Click Content > Image and then click anywhere on the page to add the widget.

   2. Set the alt text. Select the image, click Edit, and enter your text in the image title field.

      Note

      This text serves as the image's alt text, which acts as a keyword for SEO. For best results, ensure the text is relevant to the image and the page topic. Irrelevant text provides no SEO benefit.

3. Add backlinks. A backlink is an incoming link from another site, often created through a reciprocal agreement where you also link back to them. This is typically done by placing the other site's logo or name on your site and creating a hyperlink to their URL. To add a text-based backlink, follow these steps:

   1. Add a text widget. Click Content > Text and then click anywhere on the page to add the widget.

   2. Set the hyperlink. Select the text widget, click Edit, highlight the text you want to link, and click the Hyperlink icon. In the Hyperlink Information section, select the correct protocol and enter the other website's link in the URL field.

      Note

      Ensure you select the correct protocol (HTTP or HTTPS) for the destination website. An incorrect protocol will cause the link to fail.

   3. Choose how the hyperlink opens. In the Hyperlink dialog box, click the Target tab. Select an option from the Target Window drop-down list, such as New Window (_blank), Topmost Window (_top), Same Window (_self), or Parent Window (_parent).

      Note

      • Before adding a backlink, check the total number of pages on the other site and how many of them are indexed by Baidu. If very few pages are indexed, we recommend not linking to that site.

      • Focus on quality over quantity. Do not add too many backlinks. A site with a high PageRank may provide little benefit if it has a large number of outbound links (for example, more than 50).

      • Do not exchange links with sites that violate search engine guidelines, especially those that have received a penalty from Baidu or Google. A large discrepancy between the total number of pages and the number of indexed pages can be a sign of such a site.

      • Check the Baidu cache date for the backlink's homepage. A very old cache date may indicate that the site has received a penalty from Baidu. Linking to a penalized site can negatively affect your own site's ranking.

4. Set up a sitemap. For instructions, see Sitemap.

5. Verify your site. Site verification proves you own the domain and can help speed up the indexing process. For instructions, see Site Verification.

6. Submit your sitemap file. After site verification is complete, you can log in to webmaster tools to submit your sitemap file to help search engines index your site faster. For instructions, see How do I submit a sitemap in Baidu Webmaster Tools?

SEO title changes not appearing in preview

Page SEO settings only take effect on your live site when accessed through your root domain. After making changes, click Publish and then visit your live site to see the updates.

Sites not indexed by Baidu

• Pages with duplicate content that already exists on the internet.

• Pages with very little main content.

• Pages that use technologies that Baidu's crawler cannot parse, such as JavaScript or AJAX.

• Pages that contain only images or videos, as search engines primarily crawl text.

• Pages that use deceptive practices, such as redirecting multiple subdomains to the same website. If discovered, this can negatively affect your site's indexing and ranking.

Factors influencing Baidu ranking

1. Relevance: This measures how well your page content matches a user's search query. Factors include keyword frequency, position, and the anchor text of incoming links. After defining your keywords, incorporate them naturally into your content.

2. Authority: Users prefer content from authoritative websites, and search engines like Baidu also place more trust in high-quality, authoritative sources.

3. Freshness: Newer, more interesting content that meets user needs can increase site traffic and improve ranking.

4. Importance: This is determined by your site's popularity for a given search query. The more users click on your site after searching for similar keywords across different devices, the higher your ranking is likely to be.

Can backlinks improve indexing speed and ranking?

Yes. While a backlink is any link from another site to yours, it is often acquired through collaboration, such as a reciprocal linking agreement. This helps users discover new sites and is a fundamental website promotion technique. Although the Baidu search engine has reduced its reliance on hyperlinks, it still uses strict standards to distinguish between high-quality, normal, spam, and deceptive links. Deceptive links can result in a penalty for the benefiting site. Conversely, Baidu welcomes high-quality links, and hyperlinks remain one of the most important ways for search engines to discover and index content.

Three ways to improve search engine ranking

1. Use a dedicated IP. If your website has a dedicated IP, search engines view it as an independent site, which can help improve its indexing, website authority, and search ranking.

2. Build backlinks and share your site frequently. A significant part of Google's and Baidu's ranking algorithms is based on external links and traffic. The more high-quality sites that link to yours, the higher your ranking will be. Share your website on blogs, forums, and social media, and consider submitting your URL to web directories. You can also add a link to your website in your social media profiles.

3. Set an effective SEO title and meta description. For more information, see Page SEO.

How to check if your site is indexed

To check if Baidu has indexed your site, open Baidu and enter site:your_root_domain into the search box, then click Baidu Search. The results will show if your site has been indexed and how many pages are included. You can use a similar method for other search engines.

What is Baidu cache?

Why does the cache date go backward?