How do you set up Baidu Webmaster Tools from outside China?

Most guides to this tool walk through a login screen and a verification code. They were written for a platform that has since changed, and they rarely cover the two steps that stop a foreign company.

This guide follows the setup in order and says where the evidence runs out. It’s part of our wider guide to Baidu SEO.

We read Baidu’s own pages logged out, and we haven’t yet tested this registration ourselves.

What do you need before you start?

You need a Baidu account, access to your site’s code or files, and someone who can read Chinese. No guide we read makes hosting in China a condition for the tool.

You need	Why	Watch for
A Baidu account	Everything sits behind it 7	The phone number, see step 1
Access to your site	To add a tag or a file 6	Agencies and CMS limits
A Chinese reader	Third-party guides say the interface is Chinese only 1927	Browser translation can mislead 19
A site worth submitting	Submission doesn’t guarantee indexing 15	English-only sites, see below

An ICP isn’t listed as a condition in the guides we read. A 2021 update capped sites without an ICP at one sitemap a day, so those sites had access then.¹⁷ We can’t say that cap still applies.

Hosting is a separate question for indexing. In 2017 Baidu warned that Chinese-language sites on foreign servers would have display problems, without giving details.²⁹ We found no later update to that notice.

More on that in our ICP guide. If your site is English only, read whether Baidu indexes English sites first.

Step 1: get a Baidu account

This is the real obstacle. Baidu’s help contradicts itself. One page says mainland numbers only, and another allows foreign numbers through 4 product lines, with no EU numbers.¹² A mainland China number is the route it describes without reservation.

Third-party reports run from “no longer accepted” to “selected countries”, and none gives you a list of accepted countries.^19202128

If you have a mainland entity or staff, the plain route is a number your company really controls. Our guide to the phone number problem compares the sources and goes through the options.

Step 2: complete real-name verification

Do this as soon as the account exists. Baidu’s path is in the Baidu App: 我的, then 设置, 账号管理, 身份认证.³

Two notices from September 2023 explain why it matters. Accounts without it can lose site verification and sitemap submission, and Baidu also adjusted daily API quotas without giving figures.³⁴

The second notice says rights would return gradually for compliant sites.⁴ A site that lost verification can fix its issues and verify again, with a feedback channel if that fails.³

Competing guides we read don’t mention this step. Many were written before 2023.

Step 3: add your site

Sign in at ziyuan.baidu.com and add the address people really reach. Baidu’s manual recommends the main site, in its www or non-www form as appropriate.⁶

1. Fill in your details. Complete 联系方式 in the user center.⁷
2. Open the site list. Go to 用户中心, then 站点管理.⁸
3. Enter the URL. Pick HTTP or HTTPS, then click 下一步.²²²³
4. Choose categories. The Egg reported a limit of 3 in 2021, and said the domain can change only once every 30 days after verification.²⁵

The manual says a verified main site lets you add subdomains without verifying each one.⁶ A June 2020 update retired a batch-add feature, though, so check what your account offers.¹⁷ Submission is stricter: since 2021, each hostname you submit must be verified.³⁰

Step 4: verify ownership

Use the HTML tag if you can edit your templates, and the file if you can’t. Those are the two methods left.⁵⁶

Method	How it works	Status in Baidu’s text
HTML tag	Put the tag in the homepage <head> 6	Available
File	Upload the file to the domain root 6	Available
CNAME	DNS record	Paused since January 2023 for new verifications 5
Baidu Tongji import	Via Baidu’s analytics	Offline 6

Then click 完成验证.²² On WordPress, you don’t need to edit the theme:

• Yoast: Settings, Site connections, Baidu Webmaster Tools field.²²
• Rank Math: General Settings, Webmaster Tools, Baidu Verification ID.²³
• All in One SEO: General Settings, Webmaster Tools, Baidu Verification Code.²⁴

Leave the tag or file in place. Baidu says it rechecks verification regularly.⁶ A redesign or a new theme can quietly remove the tag, so add it to your launch checklist.

Why does verification fail on a foreign site?

Most errors in Baidu’s list are about reaching your page. Baidu has to fetch your homepage, so anything that filters traffic can get in the way.

Baidu’s error (from the manual 6)	Meaning	First check
无法解析您网站的域名	Domain can’t be resolved	Your DNS records
无法连接到您网站的服务器	Server can’t be reached	Firewall, geo-blocking
您网站跳转次数过多	Too many redirects	Language or HTTPS redirects
您的网站跳转到另一个域名下	Redirect to another domain	Redirects by visitor location
找不到验证的html标签…	Tag missing or wrong	Cached or JavaScript-injected tag

The last column is our reading of likely causes, not Baidu’s text. Baidu does confirm the general point: firewalls and DoS protection can block its spider, and your host may need to check.⁹

If the site loads slowly or fails from China in general, see how to test your site’s access from China.

Free check

Is your website visible on Baidu?

Enter your website. We check Baidu, access from China and how your site is set up, then email you the report.

Your websiteCheck my site

What older guides still get wrong

Much of what ranks for this topic predates these changes. Check the date of any guide you follow, including its screenshots.

Older advice	What Baidu’s later text says
Verify with a CNAME 1925	Paused in January 2023 5
Add your site through Baidu Tongji 26	That import is offline 6
Track backlinks in the tool 26	Link analysis retired in June 2020 17

Retired submission tools, such as auto-push and fast indexing, are covered in how to submit your site to Baidu.

Step 5: link an entity, if you can

This step is after verification, and it may not be open to you. Linking only supports entities already registered on Baijiahao, Baidu’s publishing platform.⁸

Baidu says linking doesn’t affect current rankings or traffic. The same page calls it a necessary step for mobile resources to enter search.⁸

That manual dates from 2020, and we can’t say how it applies today.

What should you check first after verifying?

Start with whether Baidu can read your pages, before you submit anything. Then look at what it reports.

Tool	What it tells you	Limits
抓取诊断 (crawl diagnosis)	What Baiduspider really receives	70 uses a week, first 200 KB shown 9
抓取异常 (crawl errors)	DNS, timeouts, 403, 404, 5XX 10	Many failures can hurt crawling, indexing and traffic 10
索引量 (index volume)	Indexed page count	Updates daily to weekly 12
流量与关键词 (traffic and keywords)	Impressions and clicks by keyword	30 days, about 5 hours’ delay for today 11

These limits come from a manual last updated in August 2020, so check them in your own account.

Start with crawl diagnosis. Baidu’s own example is a price output by JavaScript, which is hard to use in search.⁹ See does Baidu read JavaScript.

Then move to submission. Baidu’s 2020 manual limits each sitemap file to 50,000 URLs and 10 MB, and refuses index-type sitemaps,¹⁶ but sitemap access itself is now in doubt. See how to submit your site to Baidu.

Baidu doesn’t guarantee it will index what you send.¹⁵

For the full menu, see using the tool in English. To measure results, see how to check indexed pages.

What if you can’t get an account?

Your site may still be found. Baidu’s 2023 notice says removing verification limits platform permissions and doesn’t change natural discovery, display or ranking.³

That notice concerns sites that lost verification, so applying it to sites never verified is our inference. See whether Baidu indexes foreign sites.

What you lose is visibility:

• No crawl diagnosis or crawl error reports.
• No official index count, since Baidu calls site: only an estimate.¹²
• No keyword data from Baidu itself.
• No way to submit URLs through the platform, which is limited to verified sites.¹⁷

The bottom line

The technical setup takes a tag or a file. The uncertain part is the account, then real-name verification, and neither has a reliable published answer for foreign companies.

Test those two first. If they work for you, verify your site, confirm Baiduspider can read it, and only then start submitting.

How Index in China can help

We translate your site into Simplified Chinese with a human reviewer, handle its submission to Chinese search engines where the account allows it and send a monthly report on Chinese traffic.

If your case needs a local adviser, we’ll say so. See what we do or book a 30-minute call.

Book a 30-minute call

Monthly report BaiduIndexed Bing ChinaIndexed SogouIndexed