Top 10 terms to Know for Baidu SEO

If you want to do Baidu SEO in 2026, the words have changed. Baidu rebuilt its search around AI on 2 July 2025. The old search bar is now a “Smart Box” (智能框) that reads prompts of 1,000+ characters and accepts files, images, audio and video. An AI answer called Baikan (百看) now sits above the blue links. So the classic terms still matter, but a handful of new ones decide whether the AI quotes you or skips you. Here are the 10 you need, old and new, explained in plain words.

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5 new Baidu terms you now need in 2026

Baidu still holds about 47% of search in China (Statcounter estimate), but the way it shows answers is different. These five terms are new since the July 2025 rebuild, and they decide if your brand shows up in the AI answer.

Smart Box (智能框)

The Smart Box replaced the plain search bar. People can type a full question of 1,000+ characters or upload a file, photo, audio or video. Your pages need to answer real questions, not just hold keywords, because the Smart Box reads intent, not single words.

Baikan (百看), the AI answer

Baikan is the AI-written answer that sits at the top of the results, above the links. If your site is one of the sources it pulls from, you win the spot before anyone scrolls. If not, the links below get far fewer clicks than before.

Wenxin Assistant (文心助手)

ERNIE Bot was renamed the Wenxin Assistant in October 2025. By January 2026 it had more than 200 million monthly users and 26,000+ connected tools, and it runs on ERNIE 5.0 (launched 13 November 2025). It feeds answers across Baidu, so being a trusted source matters more each month.

GEO (Generative Engine Optimization)

SEO is shifting to GEO. The goal is no longer just to rank a link, it is to be the source the AI quotes. You do that by keeping one consistent brand entity across Baidu Baike, Baijiahao and your own site, and by writing answer-first content that states the answer in the first lines. For the full picture, read our 2025 Baidu SEO guide on how the game changed.

Merchant Agents (商家智能体)

Merchant Agents are 24/7 AI sales agents inside Baidu that can answer buyers and link straight to JD, Meituan or Ctrip. For shops and service brands, this is a new way to turn a search into a sale without a human on the other end.

Here are 10 terms you can not afford not to know when you do Baidu SEO

Anchor text

Anchor text is the discipline word for hyper-linked words, which is the anchor to the link. Anchor text is critical because experts found out that in SEO Baidu using anchor text rich in keywords is helping your website rankings. When it comes to optimizing link on Baidu SEO you do not have the same problem as on Google. Since Baidu is all about quantity over quality you can over optimize your anchor text without the fear of suffering a ranking penalty.
With Baidu you have the ability to widely use anchor text.

Title tag

A title tag in your website is a tag in the .html highlighted by <title>. This represents the title of the page and can observe on the tabs in your browser or in the headline of a search result in Baidu Search Engine Result Page. With title tags both the search engines and internet users have the ability to identify what your website is all about. The best way for using these title tags is to create unique, relevant titles for each single one of your pages.

Meta description

A meta description is yet another .html tag whose purpose is to describe the page when it shows up on the Baidu Search Engine Result Page. They do not affect the ranking but increase the click through rate since it is the description of the page. Just as with the title tags your Meta description must be unique and pertinent for each pages. And don’t forget : a call-to action is a must!

301 redirect

Deleting pages or changing URLs do not simply dissipate them into the digital universe. So when your user tries to search for a URL that is no longer valid, they receive a 404 error or a not found page. In order to avoid confusion and to preserve any ranking authority from removed pages it is best to use this redirect when you design your website for Baidu. This way your users will be redirected from the old URL to another active page fitting your specifications.

In 2026, do not overuse 301 redirects.

SERP

SERP means Search Engine Results Page. A SERP is what is shown to you after writing a search query made of keywords. SERP is a SEO specific term that any SEO oriented professional will here often

Keyword

Keyword is yet another useful term to know that is used a lot in SEO Baidu. It is a set of words that describe the company, its services, or the products it put on sales. Keywords are at the centre of a good Baidu SEO strategy because they tell both users and the search engines what your pages are all about . Using the right keywords in the title tags of your Chinese website, its headlines and in your content can help giving the search engines a better idea of what your page is about. On Baidu SEO the use of keyword is strategic and has to be well-planned

In 2026, some keywords are hard to rank with your own site, so we also use a Baijiahao strategy and build content on Baidu’s own networks. That same content helps you get picked up by the AI answer.

Indexing

Indexing comes in when the search engines collects and stores data across the web in order to acquire new data and fresher content. This is even more true for Baidu that appreciates frequent updates. When they actually find a new webpage they store a copy of it into their database, this is called indexing it. After indexing they can retrieve any relevant page related to a user query.

A sitemap is still needed for Baidu in 2026.

Links

Two types of links Internal and external. First, internal links occur between pages inside of your website. For instance, a link from your homepage to your contact page is an internal link. Second, external links are links between two different websites.
Both link types are critical, although links coming to your website are considered as being more meaningful. When it comes to link building you should have an organized and simple link structure to ensure that Baidu and Chinese netizen can easily browse through your website. A simple rule to follow is : don’t make a page more than two click away from your main page otherwise you will lose your visitor.

Quality backlinks are still a must in 2026.

Trustrank

Trustrank is a ranking similar to page rank. For Baidu SEO it translates into a star ranking that grants you privileges according to your ranking. The following factors influence the star ranking : whether you are within the search engine guideline regarding advertisement policy, the quality of the submitted material and the degree of overestimation of your product efficiency (we are the leaders, 100% efficiency and so on)

Canonical URL

Canonical URLs are used when there is duplicate content. For instance you sell a tea in China that comes in several flavours, and you have a page for each of those. The search engines would not know what to index since they are very much alike. That is where canonical links are able to specify which page should take precedence over which one in Baidu search engine. Even though it is not a guarantee, it is most recommended to do so should you find yourself having webpages with similar content such as the above example.

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