Submitting your website to search engines is the first step to getting natural traffic -- only when search engines like Baidu and Bing "recognize" your website and include your pages can users find you through search. Baidu and Bing are the most commonly used search engines by Chinese users (Baidu dominates the domestic market, and Bing covers international users and Edge browsers). Registering for their webmaster platforms allows you to proactively submit information about your website, monitor its inclusion status, and get traffic data. This section will teach you to complete the registration and verification of the two platforms, the whole process is free, novice can easily operate.
I. Why is it necessary to register for both platforms?
Search engines do not automatically "discover" all websites, especially new ones. Through the webmaster platform, you can:
- Unsolicited website submissions: Let search engines find and index your pages quickly (can take 1-4 weeks for new sites, shorter after submission).
- Monitor Inclusion Status: See which pages have been included and which have not (unincluded pages cannot be displayed via search).
- Access to data analysis: Find out what keywords users use to find your site, how many visits it gets, how fast it loads on the page, and more.
- Receive exception alerts: The platform will notify you in a timely manner if your website is hacked, has dead links or offending content.
For new websites, this is the basic operation of "zero-cost traffic attraction" -- no payment, just spend 20 minutes to complete the registration, you can make search engines more "important" to your website.
Step 1: Register for Baidu Resource Platform (for domestic users)
Baidu Resource Platform (formerly Baidu Webmaster Platform) is a management tool for Baidu's search engine. Domestic websites must be registered, otherwise it is difficult for them to be included by Baidu.
Stage 1: Register and Login to Baidu Account
- Open the official website of Baidu Resource Platform:https://ziyuan.baidu.com
- Click "Login" in the upper right corner and log in with your Baidu account (if you don't have an account, click "Register" and use your cell phone number to quickly register).Tip: It is recommended to register with your usual cell phone number to receive verification codes and notifications.
Stage 2: Add and validate your website
After logging in, you need to tell Baidu that "you are the owner of this website", i.e. to complete the website verification.
Step 1: Add a website
- Click the "Add Site" button on the homepage, and fill in your website domain name in the input box (in the format of
https://example.comThe address must be an HTTPS address, refer to Enabling SSL）。 - Click "Next" to go to the verification page.
Step 2: Select validation method (newbies recommend "HTML Tag Validation")
Baidu provides 4 kinds of validation methods, we recommend newbies to use "HTML tag validation" (no need to modify the server file, the operation is the simplest):
- On the validation page, select "HTML Tags" and you'll see a piece of code that looks like this:
<meta name="baidu-site-verification" content="xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" /> - Copy this code, open the WordPress backend, go to "Appearance → Theme File Editor" (if file editing is disabled, see Disable file editing section is temporarily turned on, or operated with an FTP utility).
- Find and click on "header.php" in the list of files on the right hand side.
<head>Paste the code you just copied inside the tag (make sure that the code in the<head>and</head>(between).Tip: Check carefully after pasting, don't delete or modify the original code, otherwise it may lead to the site misplaced. - Click "Update File" to save the changes.
- Go back to Baidu Resource Platform and click "Complete Verification". If "Verification Successful" is displayed, the website is added.
Stage 3: Familiarize yourself with the core functions of Baidu's resource platform (a must for newbies)
After successful authentication, enter the site administration interface and focus on the following features:
- Site Information: Check the basic information of the website (e.g. domain name, verification time) and confirm that the "Website Status" is "Normal".
- Link submission: Used to submit a sitemap, so that Baidu can quickly include all the pages (will be explained in detail later).
- index volume: Shows the number of pages indexed by Baidu (may be 0 at the beginning of a new site, and will increase gradually after 1-4 weeks).
- Mobile Adaptation: Check how well a website shows up in Baidu mobile search (with the Mobile check echo）。
III. Step 2: Registration for the Bing Webmaster Platform (covering international/international users)
Bing is Microsoft's search engine, which has a high share of the international market (especially in Europe and the United States), and Edge browser uses Bing search by default. If your website has overseas users or you want to expand your traffic sources, it is recommended to register.
Stage 1: Register and log in to your Microsoft account
- Open the official website of Bing Webmaster Platform:https://www.bing.com/webmasters
- Click "Sign in" in the upper right corner and sign in with your Microsoft account (if you don't have an account, click "Create one" to register, which supports cell phone number or email address).
Stage 2: Add and validate your website
Step 1: Add a website
- After logging in, click "Add a site" and enter the domain name of your website (in the same format as above, for example).
https://example.com）。 - Click "Add" to go to the verification page.
Step 2: Validate the website (recommended "HTML meta tags", similar to Baidu)
- Select "HTML meta tag" and copy the provided validation code (similar to the
<meta name="msvalidate.01" content="XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX" />）。 - Paste the same into the "header.php" file of your WordPress theme.
<head>Inside the tag (side by side with the Baidu validation code, without affecting each other). - After saving the file, go back to Bing platform and click "Verify", it will show "Verified" which means success.
Phase 3: Bing Webmaster Platform Core Functions (Focus)
- Site Explorer: View the number of pages indexed by Bing, indexing status, and comparison with Baidu indexing.
- Sitemaps: Submit a sitemap (as with Baidu, it's the key to fast inclusion).
- Analytics: View traffic data (keywords, visits, user regions, etc.) from Bing Search.
- URL Submission: Manual submission of individual page URLs, suitable for quick notification of Bing's inclusion after publishing a new article.
IV. Common problems and solutions for novices
1. Authentication failed? It could be one of these 3 reasons
- Code location error: Make sure the validation code is pasted in the
<head>Inside the tag (not<body>miles) and no characters are missing. - Cache causes no updates: Before submitting the validation, press
Ctrl+F5Force refresh the website page to make sure the new code has taken effect. - HTTPS Issues: If the site has HTTPS enabled (consultation), must be submitted
https://The domain name at the beginning, it doesn't workhttp://。
cure: Re-check the code location, remove the error and re-paste and verify again.
2. Can't see data after validation?
- New site data need time to accumulate, usually 1-2 weeks before the index volume and traffic data will be displayed, no need to rush.
- You can complete the "Submit Sitemap" first to speed up the data update.
3. Do I have to register on both platforms?
- If the site is primarily intended for domestic users.Baidu is a mustBing can be supplemented.
- If the site has overseas users (e.g. foreign trade, international blogs), theRegister for both platforms, to avoid missing out on Bing traffic.
V. Reminders for follow-up operations
After completing the registration and verification, do not close the platform page, the next step is to "submit a site map" (sitemap) - this is a key operation to allow search engines to quickly include all the pages. Sitemap is equivalent to the "site directory", tell the search engine what pages of your site, how often you update, we will explain in detail in the subsequent section of the submission method.
Remember: registering for the webmaster platform is just the beginning, and then you need to log in regularly to check the data (recommended once a week), and deal with the problems prompted by the platform in a timely manner (e.g., dead links, inclusion of abnormalities), so that search engines always "trust" your website.
wrap-up
Registering for Baidu Resource Platform and Bing Webmaster Platform is a basic step to get search traffic to your website, the core is to prove to search engines that "you are the legal manager of the website" by "verifying the ownership of the website". The operation is not complicated, and newbies are recommended to use "HTML Tag Validation", which can be done by copying a piece of code to the website header.
After completing this step, your website has officially entered the search engine's "field of vision", and then by submitting a site map, you can further accelerate the inclusion speed.
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