If the objective is to target Chinese users and rank on Baidu, then I would not recommend the use of hreflang because Baidu does not consider hreflang to be a strong signal for targeting the international market like Google. For the purpose of international SEO, more emphasis would be given to structural and localization signals. So, I would recommend creating a Chinese version of the website with fully localized content in Simplified Chinese, and the best practice would be to host the Chinese content on a .cn domain or Chinese subdomain because Baidu considers the structure of the domain and server location to be important factors for determining the relevance of the website for the target country or region. Moreover, the website would be accessible in China, for example, through local hosting or CDN with an ICP license, which would be important factors for Baidu.
Baidu not honoring hreflang is a known problem and the workaround is simpler than most people think. Separate domains. A .cn domain for China, a .co.kr for South Korea. Not subfolders, not subdomains. Separate properties. Baidu treats subdirectories as the same site and often ignores language signals. We learned this the hard way when our Chinese content was getting indexed but showing the English meta descriptions. The cost of maintaining separate domains is higher. You need local hosting, local registrars, and sometimes local business entities. But trying to make one domain work across markets that use fundamentally different search infrastructure is more expensive in wasted effort.
Since Baidu doesn't understand hreflang the same way Google does, your strategy needs to shift to focus on stronger regional signals. One way is to separate Chinese-language pages or a China-focused domain or subdomain, along with good hosting and fast load times for people in mainland China. Additionally, focus on fully localized content, not just translations. Backlinks from "real" Chinese websites also help. To be honest, you have to treat "Chinese" SEO as a standalone SEO project, not just another language or country in your overall SEO/website mix.
Once you start optimizing for Baidu, it's time to completely forget about hreflang signals as there is no way for Baidu to register the signals provided by the other search engines. You will have to heavily rely on your URL structure and on the direct configuration provided in Baidu's Webmaster Tools. Unfortunately, many teams spend several months trying to build complex tag hierarchies to optimize their content on Baidu and the reality is that they are wasting their time. The most effective way around this is to hard-code your international targeting into your URL structure - via the use of subdirectories or dedicated subdomains - and then to register those paths within the Baidu platform. This is an infrastructure-first solution. If you do not provide Baidu with detailed information on where the content is to be served to users, Baidu will not use any of its crawl budget on that content. You are not tricking Baidu's algorithm; you are simply using the language that Baidu understands. Finding loopholes to enhance technical SEO when working with various global search engines is rare, and instead, it is wise to align your technical SEO practices with the local search engine's requirements in order to achieve optimum results. Adhering to the architectural requirements of the local search leader will yield far greater results than trying to fit the global standards into another market where it will not work.
There isn't an easy solution for this unfortunately. Baidu has invested a lot to try to keep this from happening, so the best way around it is to try and host the site as close to mainland China as you can, if that is a possibility. Regional hosting, native dialect, etc. will go a long way, and you'll also need to build citation/backlink/EEAT authority from related Chinese sites as well. While the search engine is different, the lengths they take to ensure proper practice is similar, and they'll go quite far to ensure you're playing by the Baidu rulebook.
You can think of hreflang for Baidu as not having the same level of importance as it does for Google; thus, if you're working on your China SEO efforts then you shouldn't rely on hreflang. Instead, you'll want to create an independent Chinese touchpoint that includes dedicated URLs, Simplified Chinese content, robust localization, self-referencing canonicals, and a website experience that is fast and user-friendly to users in China. In effect, you'll want to continue to use hreflang for Google but also establish more substantial signals for Baidu by constructing your site, localizing performance within China, using Baidu Webmaster Tools, submitting XML sitemaps to Baidu, and developing authority signals of relevance to China by way of local backlinks. The principal point is that you should view China as a unique SEO market, rather than just another language version of your site translated into Chinese.
Hreflang is a Google construct — Baidu doesn't recognize it, so trying to "work around" it is the wrong frame entirely. The right move is to stop thinking of Baidu as a Google equivalent and build a completely separate technical foundation for Chinese search. Baidu ranks pages based on signals that have nothing to do with hreflang. Hosting matters enormously — pages hosted on servers inside mainland China load faster and get crawled more reliably than pages sitting on foreign infrastructure. A .cn ccTLD or a cn. subdomain sends a hard geographic signal that Baidu trusts. Pair that with an ICP license (required for commercial websites hosted in China) and you've already done more for Baidu rankings than any hreflang tag ever could. Content has to be in Simplified Chinese — not translated, actually localized. Baidu's algorithm weights on-page text heavily, and machine-translated content reads as thin. Beyond that, Baidu has its own XML sitemap protocol and its own webmaster platform, Baidu Ziyuan (Bai Du Zi Yuan Ping Tai ). Submitting your sitemap there directly tells Baidu which pages exist and how they're structured, similar to how Google Search Console works, but with different prioritization rules. The mistake most SEOs make is treating international SEO as a single discipline where one technical setup covers all engines. In our work with clients targeting Chinese audiences, the brands that perform well on Baidu run what amounts to a parallel SEO program — separate hosting, separate content workflow, separate analytics through Baidu Tongji, and active submission through Baidu's own tools. Think of it less as a workaround and more as building a second house on a different plot of land with different zoning rules.
Hreflang tags didn't work for Baidu, so I moved to a mainland-hosted subdomain with simplified Chinese. Once I plugged everything into Baidu Webmaster Tools, our rankings finally jumped. It felt strange ignoring the Google playbook, but it paid off. Honestly, getting hosting inside China and following their specific rules were the only things that actually moved the needle for us. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to my personal email
Hello International Search News team, Google's usually my main focus, so I don't have tons of experience with Baidu. That said, in the few times I've worked on international targeting for Baidu, I've noticed that it doesn't treat Hreflang tags the way Google does. Instead, Baidu values things like local domains (for example, .cn), content that speaks to the local culture, and backlinks from regional websites. When dealing with Baidu, I suggest making your content match what's relevant locally, in terms of language and culture. I also find that using local hosting, region-specific directories, and getting backlinks from local sources really helps out since Baidu puts more weight on those factors over Hreflang codes. Sasha Berson Co-Founder and Chief Growth Executive at Grow Law 501 E Las Olas Blvd, Suite 300, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301 About expert: https://growlaw.co/sasha-berson Website: https://growlaw.co/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aleksanderberson Headshot: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OqLe3z_NEwnUVViCaSozIOGGHdZUVbnq/view?usp=sharing
As soon as you stop treating China like a hreflang variant and start treating it like its own search market, the strategy gets clearer. For Baidu, I would build a dedicated Simplified Chinese experience on distinct URLs, keep the content and metadata genuinely local, avoid relying on locale-adaptive pages, and strengthen the technical signals Baidu does use, like clean crawlable pages, fast delivery in China, and direct URL submission through Baidu Search Resource Platform. If mainland hosting is part of the plan, sort out ICP filing early, because the workaround for Baidu is not a tag trick, it is building a China-specific search presence that stands on its own.
Since Baidu ignores hreflang, you really need a standalone site for China. We switched to a .cn domain with Mandarin content hosted locally and our rankings actually went up. Just using tags didn't do much. Baidu cares about local domains, ICP licenses, and local servers. You have to localize the infrastructure, not just the language. Treat Baidu like a separate project and build specifically for it. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to my personal email
Here's the thing about Baidu: they ignore hreflang tags. At Flamingo, that meant our standard international SEO approach was dead in the water. We found a workaround. We hosted our Chinese content on a .cn subfolder, made sure it was all in Mandarin, and submitted the sitemap right to Baidu. Forget Google's methods, you have to do it their way to get any traction. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to my personal email
Baidu doesn't handle international targeting like Google. You really have to go local. We launched a .cn site hosted in China for a healthcare client and skipped the hreflang tags. Their rankings and engagement jumped. If you are expanding into China, get a local domain and server. It makes a much bigger difference than international tags. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to my personal email
Baidu ignores Hreflang tags completely, so we stopped bothering with them. We focus on what actually works, like using Simplified Chinese and sticking to a .cn domain. When we tested hosting on servers inside China, the rankings jumped. Everyone on the team saw the same results. A local domain and server location beat any metadata hacks every time. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to my personal email
Baidu doesn't care much about hreflang. We stopped using it and just built separate .cn domains with local content. At SearchGAP, this actually worked better because we used unique URLs instead of just toggles. It's not a guaranteed fix, but Baidu clearly prefers local stuff. If you want to rank in China, forget the Google-style tags and just get a local domain with accurate Chinese text. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to my personal email
International SEO is one of those areas where experience really does matter, particularly when Baidu is in the picture. My background in multi-location and B2B digital strategy has shown me time and again that treating Baidu like Google with a different logo is where brands lose ground quickly. Baidu doesn't honor hreflang in any meaningful way, so the framework most agencies use for Google's international targeting needs to be rebuilt from scratch. The foundation starts with ICP licensing and hosting your Chinese-targeted site on a server within mainland China. This is non-negotiable if you want Baidu's algorithm to trust your site. The ICP license is a legal requirement, but it also functions as a strong trust signal to the search engine itself. Content strategy shifts as well. Direct translation won't cut it; Baidu rewards content written by and for Chinese speakers, with cultural nuance baked in. We look at keyword research through Baidu's own tools, not Google Keyword Planner, because search behavior and phrasing differ significantly. From a strategic lens, the brands that win on Baidu are those that commit to treating China as a separate market with its own playbook, not a Google market with a Chinese flag on it. It takes more upfront investment, but the payoff for brands serious about that region is substantial. That kind of custom, market-specific approach is exactly what produces measurable ROI.
Baidu ignores hreflang, which is a pain if you are used to Google. I have found you really need a .cn domain and local meta tags to get anywhere. We tried this for a US client recently and the specific .cn version plus Baidu XML sitemaps actually helped. If you want visibility over there, do not skip the local domain or the regional server setup. Just make sure you submit detailed sitemaps or you will be invisible. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to my personal email
I used to work on Google Search and now run a SaaS startup, so I learned the hard way that Baidu plays by different rules. You can't just copy your Google strategy. Ditch the hreflang and focus on actual localization, a China-based domain, and fast local hosting. We ran these tests repeatedly and the local setup always won. It turns out Baidu just cares more about speed and local presence than technical SEO tricks. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to my personal email
Baidu seems to care way more about local hosting and content than hreflang tags. We built specific landing pages with local offers and made sure our ICP filings and metadata were correct. If Google-style targeting doesn't work there, I'd just localize everything for Baidu. Partnering with local platforms helps you actually get noticed. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to my personal email
Baidu ignores hreflang most of the time, so targeting China was a headache for us at Elementor. We fixed it by creating dedicated Chinese pages with simple /cn/ URLs and adding Chinese meta tags. Update your XML sitemap and use Baidu Webmaster Tools to submit those pages. That step alone really boosted our indexing rate in mainland China. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to my personal email