Baidu Certifications: Everything you need to know

Understanding Baidu’s certification system is an important part of SEO in China. Knowing how to navigate Baidu’s various certifications can help businesses increase the effectiveness and awareness of their digital marketing activities.

Old Baidu Credit Certification System

Recently, Baidu made an overhaul to its Baidu Credit Certification system, deprecating the V Certification, their old standard based on V1, V2, and V3 badges. In its place, Baidu introduced a new standard benefiting organic traffic.

Previously, with Baidu Credit Certification’s V Certification system, websites could apply to obtain a V mark displayed by their website URL in Baidu search results. By submitting their website ICP filing address and their business details, websites would receive a credibility rating from V1 to V3, with a higher rating being better. The V1 credibility rating meant real-name authentication was passed and website could begin accumulating credibility. Each level up represented a higher level of credibility accumulated by the business online. If users encountered phishing fraud from these websites while they are logged into their Baidu account, they were eligible to receive full repayment from Baidu.

New Baidu Credit Certifications

In place of the V Certification system, Baidu has introduced

Baidu Guarantee (百度保障)

The Baidu Guarantee certification is the system that can be considered the successor to the deprecated V Certification system. With Baidu Guarantee, Baidu retains the phishing fraud insurance of the V Certification system, ensuring users that sites they enter from Baidu are not scams.

The Baidu Guarantee certification is free to obtain but requires website owners to thoroughly write about the company profile and clearly define the product and service information on the website, upload relevant legal documents, accept the system’s terms and conditions, as well as agree to the Baidu Netizen Rights Protection Plan. However, as a free service aimed at protecting internet users, Baidu Guarantee does not help with Search Result Rankings on Baidu. To apply for this badge, business owners can visit: https://baozhang.baidu.com/guarantee/bao.

Baidu Enterprise Business Card (企业名片)

The Baidu Enterprise Business Card allows businesses to clearly display their company information natively on Baidu searches and on other Baidu services. This service is offered to all enterprises, even those without a website. It displays company information in the form of a business card when people search for keywords related to the company on Baidu.

Baidu Enterprise Business Card is a tiered service:

Standard Version:

Starting at 3600RMB a year, the standard version allows businesses to appear as business cards to users in relevant Baidu searches. The business card displays the business logo, company full name, website address, phone number, address, and links to the company’s Baidu landing page with full information about the company.

To apply for this, business owners must pass real name verification and not be on China’s Supreme People’s Court’s List of Dishonest Persons.

For more information: https://trust.baidu.com/vstar/official/intro?type=mp

Intermediate Version:

At a fixed price of 13,888RMB a year, the intermediate version is only open to specific enterprises, with restrictions on industries such as finance and medical care.

The intermediate version helps businesses establish an authoritative image on Baidu services. Intermediate tier business cards occupy the top three top results in searches, can include more than one photo, and allows for a hyperlink to link the business’s location its on Baidu maps. The business card is optimized for both desktop and mobile, reaching internet users across the country. With this version, Baidu adds more trigger keywords to allow the business to reach a wider net of searches.

At this tier, a third-party forensics company does a background check on the company to provide authoritative information to internet users and includes an entry on Baidu’s Baike service, which operates as China’s Wikipedia.

To apply for this, aside from not operating within the aforementioned restricted industries and meeting the standards for the standard version, business owners must also have consistent ICP filing and pass third-party verification.

For more information: https://trust.baidu.com/vstar/official/intro?type=mpm

Advanced Version:

The annual rate for this service requires businesses to reach out to Baidu for negotiation. As with the intermediate version, the advanced version is only open to specific enterprises.

On top of the privileges afforded to the intermediate version, the advanced version gives companies a business card occupying even more screen real estate as well as a Baidu golden badge. Both the business card and the landing page display more multidimensional information, allowing for videos.

The application requirements for the advanced version are the same as the intermediate version.

For more information: https://trust.baidu.com/vstar/official/intro?type=mph

Official Website Certification (官网认证)

Baidu’s Official Website Certification system provides business websites with a blue badge denoting it is the official brand website. This certification is most useful for larger brands looking to make their website stand out amongst reseller websites. Websites with this certification will usually appear at the top of search result, but after ads.

For example, BMW has many resellers across China, often with websites containing “BMW”in their names, eg. bmwshanghai.com. However, BMW has their own official website in China, bmw.com.cn. With Official Website Certification, bmw.com.cn has the blue badge on Baidu search results, signifying that it is the official brand website.

The pricing for the standard service is 3000RMB a year, with an advanced version with further protections available at a floating price.

The application process for Baidu’s Official Website Certification includes a strict access review and quality inspection of the website, requiring businesses to submit relevant business documents.

For more information: https://trust.baidu.com/vstar/official/intro?type=gw

Trademark Information Display Service (商标信息展示服务)

After a brand registers for Baidu’s Trademark Information Display Service, Baidu displays the official logo the brand has submitted and a link of the brand’s official website when users search for the brand name along with the keyword “trademark”. In addition, a blue ® will be prominently displayed whenever the URL of the brand website appears on Baidu search results.

The price for this service is 2000RMB a year.

For more information: https://trust.baidu.com/vstar/official/intro?type=tm

Conclusion

What certification service your business should apply to depends on the scope of your operations and the industry your business operates in. As seen above, some of the certifications may not even be available to businesses operating in certain industries.

For most businesses, Baidu Enterprise Business Card would be a good starting point. While the standard option won’t help on SEO rankings, having an Enterprise Business Card in Baidu search results increases the online reputation of a business.

For businesses with branded products, the Trademark Information Display service is an important service to help take control of your logo and protect the integrity of your branding online. We would only recommend Official Website Certification for businesses that sell their branded products to resellers.

Which certificate to select? Consult QPS; we are experienced in Chinese Digital Marketing and can help you to process the Baidu certificate for your business.