Viktor_D October 19, 2015 at 10:23

Working with China # 1: How to Register with Baidu Webmaster tools

The crisis situation is pushing us all to look for new ways to develop and diversify our finances. One of these areas is cooperation with China and access to its markets. On how to do this, I already published an article here . Today I would like to begin a detailed series of articles on what to do and what tools you need to own if you have already begun to conquer the Celestial Empire.

Since the material in Russian and English in finished form is extremely small, I decided to systematize and cover the maximum number of relevant nuances, even in those areas that look “like everyone else” but work, of course, far from it. We will begin a series of articles with a “hanger”, namely, with registering a site in Webmaster tools of the largest Chinese search engine - Baidu. What kind of animal it is and how it was created can be read here .

We are all used to the fact that modern work with clients begins with the possibility of bringing them to a specific web-resource, where there is a detailed description of our services. To do this, use SEO optimization methods, SERM, PPC, CPA and CPI campaigns and many other methods with frightening abbreviations. However, before bringing people in, the site needs to be “tidied up” by checking whether it is indexed well, whether there are problems with links and other routine “joys”. To solve these problems, we need the Webmaster Console.

For those who are used to using Google Webmaster Tools or Yandex Webmaster, Zhangazhang Baidu (and this is how the tool sounds in Chinese) does not seem special, but only if several conditions are met:
1) You perfectly understand the Chinese language (because English and Russian localization is not provided).
2) You live in China, understand the cultural characteristics and can confirm that you are “local”.

With an understanding of the Chinese language, the average specialist has certain difficulties, and with the local mentality - even more so. This, and a bunch of small, Chinese tricks in addition, also stands in the way of registering a site in Zhangazhang. To get around them all, you need to have patience and some technical tools to deal with website promotion in China.

First you need to consider that a firewall works in China. Many heard about him, but not everyone saw it, because the “friend / foe” system works with a number of exceptions and not for all sites. So, in Hong Kong, office workers are absolutely calmly using Facebook, while residents of central and western provinces can only dream about it. Unfortunately, the Baidu Webmaster Console is an exception and falls under the firewall throughout China, so it’s so easy not to get into it. When you try to enter the address zhangazhang.baidu.com, the browser will give you a familiarly sad robot, with a message that the page is not available.

In order to avoid this, you will have to use a very unnatural thing: run Internet Explorer, and not by itself, but under a VPN. There are a lot of services for imposing a fictitious IP address. I can use HideMe , IPVanish , Hide My Ass as examples , and this is absolutely not an exhaustive list. For my purposes, I use Tunnel Bear , because from my subjective point of view, when working with Chinese resources, it is more stable than other services.

As an alternative, sometimes I also use a combination of Google Chrome with the Hola VPN extension installed.. But in this case, if, when choosing the country of “location”, China, the system does not immediately hide you (and this happens quite often), then for the next few hours you can put your tasks aside and go have a drink of coffee. Unlike American or European local resources, the Chinese system does not forgive such an error.

When you have completed all the necessary steps, entered zhangazhang.baidu.com and the VPN has worked, the long-awaited Console home page will appear in the browser window. In the lower right corner, select the registration point.

To begin with, everything will look standard: you need to specify your mail, password and enter a confirmation code to register.

After entering personal data, the system will ask you to confirm the mailing address. A letter will arrive in the mail containing information in the spirit of:
“Dear user, you have registered in the system at such an hour, indicating the mail [mail name]. To confirm it, follow the link below. " Everything is pretty standard ... for now.

As soon as you follow the link, the plot begins worse than in the movie "Mind Games". Remember a video player like Light Alloy? At one time, he actively promoted in foreign markets and was paid. Since this is a Russian development and the owner was well aware of how quickly the products were hacked, he came up with a tricky loophole - the possibility of free activation for everyone who knew the Russian language and could guess a Russian-folk riddle. Guess what I'm getting at? :) The Chinese have perfectly adopted this method in order to weed out all uninvited guests. Now he has undergone a change - instead of a riddle, they began to demand the introduction of four hieroglyphs. An excellent analogue of the European CAPTCHA in the spirit: “indicate the pictures on which the bacon is located”, but with a Chinese innovation. Three of the four characters are in Chinese, and an attentive person, even without knowing the language, can quickly identify them. And the fourth one is written in Latin. For example, "De" or,

And here, without knowing the language, it’s already very, very tight. If you don’t know Chinese, and there isn’t any exchange student on hand (or you’re just too lazy to run around looking for him), a crutch in the form of Google Translate or Microsoft Translator for smartphones will come to our aid . These applications support real-time translation of text from the camera. Download, run, point to hieroglyphs and get the result of this kind: I

warn you right away - it may not work the first time, and the second too, due to the complexity of the language, but only a few units reach the tenth attempt. So, focus on 3-5 attempts and tired hands before you get the desired result. In order to have the most accurate translation, expect that you have to keep the smartphone in front of the screen for a long time.

After we receive the answer, we enter all the hieroglyphs into their places in the requested sequence. Next, click the confirm button, and we get another interesting window. You didn’t think that everything would end on hieroglyphs?

The system will thank you for confirmation and ask you to indicate the phone number to which the verification code will come. It must be entered in the appropriate field. The trick is that you need the phone number of China. And here, as they say, without options - enter the number or kill against the wall.

In this case, again, a magical “crutch” hurries to help. There is some, albeit very small, number of IP telephony providers that provide virtual numbers in China. To register with Baidu, we bought numbers on Hottelecom and Virtual Number. Alternatively, you can still use the services of Almostfreecalls . A call is forwarded to your mobile number from the purchased number and a confirmation code arrives somewhere within a minute. We enter it, press the treasured blue button "Confirm" and only after that, we can finally breathe calmly. This completes the registration process.

What else to read on this topic:

img.webnots.com/2014/05/Baidu-Webmaster-Tools-Guide-in-English.pdf - I found an old English guide for registering in Zhangazhang. The information is not quite up to date, but is useful for familiarization.
www.baiduguide.com/baidu-seo-guide/baidu-webmaster-tools - English-language guide on the Zhangazhang interface. In the near future, I plan to review its latest version. Who does not want to wait, can begin to study this resource.
megamozg.ru/post/17494 - article on virtual numbers.