Owain Lyold-Willaims rejoins the SEO Rant Podcast as we dive into Baidu and take a survey of what the search engine has to offer:
How Baidu controls the user's journey in a far more aggressive way than Google
How the Baidu SERP differs visually from Google
How Baidu handles ads and local searches
Surveying How Baidu Results Differ From Google's SERP
The Baidu SERP may be a foreign concept to many SEOs but it is a fascinating comparison to Google. For example, Baidu's ads are far more integrated into the organic results. The ads on Baidu are relegated to specific areas of the SERP. Rather, they are interspersed within the organic results themselves (so keep that in mind the next time you feel frustrated with how Google serves ads).
Another stark difference between Baidu and Google is Baidu's map - which for me was very slow to load and "clunky" in its user experience. Another big difference, at least when I was using it with Owain was the level of depth the map offered outside of China. Whereas Google offers a deep set of all sorts of local establishments when you zoom into an area on the map, this was not the case for Baidu once we left China. Within China, the Baidu map results were very detailed and specific. However, when we explored areas outside of China the Baidu map was not very detailed at all. One funny thing, when I was exploring a map of Tel Aviv the biggest landmark on the Baidu map was the Chinese Embassy in Tel Aviv - which is just comical. On top of that, a few of the addresses I looked up on the Baidu map were just wrong. While the general vicinity of these locations was correct the exact address wasn't.
Simply put, the Baidu SERP and user experience is stark in its comparison to Google and other "Western" search engines.
Resources:
For more of the SEO Rant Podcast check out our previous episode on: Getting Clients Started with SEO-Focused Content