Translation11 min readFacts checked on November 1, 2026

Should your website in Chinese be a subfolder, a subdomain or a separate site?

Your hosting plan decides this, far more than anything Baidu is said to prefer.

Hugo Debrabandere, Founder, Index in Chinachecked against 32 sources

Translation

Where should a first Chinese version live? Subfolder

The short answer

Use a subfolder if you're testing China and keeping your current hosting. Use a subdomain if the Chinese version needs its own server, such as Hong Kong. Use a separate domain if you plan mainland hosting with an ICP. The Baidu pages we read say nothing on language versions, so let hosting and cost decide.

Baidu's guide of December 12, 2014 says to use a directory until a section has enough content to stand alone.
Azure's ICP FAQ, updated December 31, 2024, says filing isn't possible with a main site abroad and a subdomain in the mainland.
Baidu said on November 24, 2019 that moving a directory to a subdomain affects rankings and indexing.
In a 2023 study of 10,000 keywords, 2.3% of top-ranking pages had a Chinese marker such as cn. or /cn/ in the URL.
None of the Baidu pages we read on November 1, 2026 mention language versions or hreflang.

Summarize with

ChatGPT

Claude

Perplexity

Most advice on this question is an argument about what Baidu likes. Baidu has written very little on it, and none of the pages we read mention languages.

What really limits you is where your Chinese pages must be served. This guide is part of translating and localizing a website for China.

Which structure should you choose?

Start with your hosting plan. It rules options out, while the SEO arguments mostly rest on old or unsupported claims.

Your plan	Use	Why
Testing China, hosting stays as it is	Subfolder, `example.com/zh/`	Least work, and it fits Baidu’s written default ¹
Chinese pages need their own server or platform	Subdomain, `zh.example.com`	It can point elsewhere without moving your main site ¹³
Mainland hosting with a Chinese entity is planned	Separate domain, `example.cn` or similar	Per Azure, a subdomain alone can’t go there ¹⁰
A separate brand or team runs China	Separate domain	Different site, owner and content

Fig. 1Choosing the structure

Mainland hosting planned?
Yes: separate domain.
No: does the Chinese version need another server or platform?
Yes: subdomain. No: subfolder.

Verdict

With no mainland plan and no need for a second server, use a subfolder. It’s the choice with the fewest moving parts.

A separate domain doesn’t have to be a .cn. Our guide to whether you need a .cn domain covers that choice.

How do the three options compare?

The real difference is the server. Google’s table of URL structures is the clearest official summary, though it says nothing about China.¹³ Its third option is a country domain such as example.de, so read our last column with that in mind.

	Subfolder	Subdomain	Separate domain
Server	Same as your main site ¹³	Can differ ¹³	Can differ ¹³
Setup	Easy, low maintenance ¹³	Easy ¹³	More infrastructure ¹³
Separating the sites	Harder ¹³	Easy ¹³	Easy ¹³
Baidu verification	Under your existing host	Verify it too ⁸	Verify it too ⁸
Authority	Part of your site	Inherits part of the main site’s weight ¹	Assume it starts alone

The last cell is our inference. Baidu’s guide covers subsites of a main site, and it says nothing about a separate domain.¹

What has Baidu actually said?

Baidu’s written default is a directory first, with subdomains for very different content. Its texts are old, and they cover site sections, not languages. They remain online, but nothing confirms they still describe current behavior.

Baidu text	What it says
Guide, 2014 ¹	Use a directory until a section has enough content to stand as a site
Guide, 2014 ¹	Use a subsite for content that differs widely and has little relevance to the rest
Guide, 2014 ¹	The main site usually carries the most weight, and a subsite inherits part of it
Guide, 2014 ¹	Many subdomains without rich content can be treated as spam
Guide, 2014 ³	The domain suffix has no effect on Baidu web search
Guide, 2014 ²	No discrimination against overseas sites, if they load normally in China
White paper, 2019 ⁴	Put different content in separate directories or subdomains
Server tips, 2017 ⁹, and white paper, 2019 ⁴	Overseas servers aren’t recommended for Chinese-language sites

A translation covers the same subject as your main site. So on our reading it isn’t “very different content,” and Baidu’s default points to a directory.

That’s an interpretation, because Baidu doesn’t address languages in these chapters.¹²

What do SEO guides claim?

Several guides state strong preferences, and none we read shows a test. Compare them with Baidu’s own words before you pay for a rebuild.

Claim	Source	What backs it
“Baidu generally dislikes subdomains”	Sampi, 2025 ¹⁷	Nothing cited
Baidu prefers languages on separate domains	Sampi, 2025 ¹⁷	Nothing cited
A blog on a subdomain gets penalized	Semrush, 2018 ¹⁸	Nothing cited. Baidu’s text targets abuse without content ¹
“Choose a subdomain or ccTLD for clarity”	Chinafy, 2024 ¹⁶	No Baidu source, and Chinafy sells China performance services
Baidu strongly favors .cn over .com	Semrush, 2018 ¹⁸	A chart of domain shares, in which .com is the majority. Baidu’s guide says the suffix has no effect ³

The best data we found is indirect. Marcus Pentzek’s 2023 study covered the top 20 results for 10,000 Chinese keywords.¹⁵

Fig. 2Addresses of the top-ranked pages

.com excluding Baidu subdomains72.59%
.cn14.06%
.com.cn6.55%
Chinese marker in the URL, such as cn. or /cn/2.3%

Pentzek study 2023

Only 2.3% of top pages had a marker such as cn. or /cn/.¹⁵ That doesn’t count against a folder, since most of these sites are probably Chinese and have no reason to label a language.

The study gives no comparison of subdomains with root domains.¹⁵ So it can’t settle this question, and we found no test that does.

How hosting limits your choice

This is where the options truly part ways. A subfolder shares its address with your main site, so it shares that site’s route into China.

Chinese pages served from	Subfolder	Subdomain	Separate domain
Same place as your main site	Yes	Yes	Yes
Hong Kong, main site elsewhere	Hard, needs routing by path	Yes	Yes
Mainland, main site abroad	No published route	No, per Azure ¹⁰	Yes, with an ICP

Azure’s FAQ asks how to file when the main site is abroad and a subdomain is in the mainland. Its answer is that the authority won’t allow a filing.¹⁰

The likely reason is structural, though Azure doesn’t draw the link itself. It says filing is judged on the top-level domain.¹⁰ Cloudflare says sites on one apex domain can share a number.¹²

Alibaba Cloud adds that you can’t file a subdomain separately on a non-government domain.¹¹

Filing your whole main domain is a different plan. Cloudflare says ICP requirements also cover sites delivered in China through a CDN.¹² At Alibaba Cloud, the domain’s holder must match the filing entity.³²

So that route ties your global domain to a Chinese entity. Take it to a local adviser. Our ICP filing guide covers the basics.

Staying out of the mainland is simpler. Alibaba Cloud says a domain resolving outside the mainland needs no MIIT filing.¹¹ See Hong Kong or mainland hosting?

Hong Kong has a gray area of its own. Baidu’s advice against overseas servers doesn’t define “overseas.”⁴⁹ Our guide to hosting in China weighs those options.

Don’t use a new address to get past a block

A 2024 study describes the Great Firewall’s HTTPS filter as detecting censored domains in the TLS SNI field.²¹ That field carries the hostname, not the path, so a subfolder shares the fate of its domain.

If your main site is blocked or very slow, test it from China and find the cause first. Structure isn’t a fix for that, and we don’t advise using it as one.

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.

What large companies do

Both patterns exist among large foreign companies. We read six Chinese homepages on November 1, 2026, chosen by hand, from outside China.

Company	Chinese address	Structure	ICP number in the text we read
Microsoft	microsoft.com/zh-cn/ ²⁶	Subfolder	Yes
Salesforce	salesforce.com/cn/ ²⁷	Subfolder	None seen
Atlassian	atlassian.com/zh ²⁸	Subfolder	Text cut off, not seen
Apple	apple.com.cn ²⁹	Separate domain	Yes
SAP	sap.cn ³⁰	Separate domain	Yes
IKEA	ikea.cn/cn/zh/ ³¹	Separate domain	Yes

This proves nothing about rankings. Six hand-picked giants aren’t a sample, and we can’t see how each one delivers pages inside China.

It does show that no single structure is required. The three with a separate domain all display an ICP number, and so does Microsoft’s folder.

China Briefing makes a broader case for separate domains, based mainly on network security, data rules and restructuring, not SEO.¹⁹

It draws on an IT infrastructure provider and a consultancy. That case matters for a multinational, and much less for a firm testing demand.

What moving later costs

Moving is possible, but it isn’t free. Baidu treats a directory-to-subdomain change as a URL change that affects rankings and indexing.⁵

Here Baidu’s own texts pull in different directions. Its 2014 guide says to convert a section to a subdomain once it has grown.¹ Its 2019 page says such a move affects rankings and indexing.⁵

So “start in a folder, move later” is a real plan with a real cost. If you’re already sure about the mainland, a separate domain from day one avoids that move.

At Alibaba Cloud, the domain’s holder must match the filing entity,³² so settle who owns it before you buy. Our .cn guide explains why.

If you do have to move, Baidu’s guidance gives the order below. We couldn’t confirm that every account has the revision tool, so check yours first.

Verify both sites. Baidu’s revision tool requires it for the old and the new site.⁷
Redirect page to page. Use 301s to the matching new page, and don’t send everything to one homepage.⁵
Submit the rule. For www.a.com/c to c.a.com, Baidu points to its rule-based revision option.⁶
Expect validation. It usually takes about a week.⁷
Keep the redirects. Baidu says at least three months, until traffic on the new site is stable.⁵

Baidu says the replacement period for old and new links in results is uncertain.⁶ So don’t plan a launch around a recovery date.

What to set up, whichever you choose

These points matter more than the structure itself, and they’re the ones that go wrong quietly.

One page, one URL. Baidu asks for a single URL per page, with other forms sent by 301 to it.¹
Keep languages apart. Content reachable across subdomains can be deduplicated, and the URL Baidu keeps may not be the right one.¹
Add a language link, not a forced redirect. Google warns that automatic redirects can stop users and crawlers seeing all your versions.¹³
Keep the Chinese text in the page. Don’t count on a script to insert it. See does Baidu read JavaScript?
Add hreflang for Google. Use zh-Hans, reciprocal links and a self-reference.¹⁴ Separate domains are allowed.¹⁴
Verify each hostname on Baidu. Its normal indexing tool refuses unverified sites, even on the same main domain.⁸ See how to submit your site to Baidu.
Track the section on its own. Check indexed pages for the Chinese URLs, not the whole site.

Keep the first version small, whichever you choose. Our guide to which pages to translate first helps you pick them, and a thin section fits a folder well.

Planning Traditional Chinese too? Read Simplified or Traditional Chinese and our guide to Hong Kong and Taiwan first.

The bottom line

Decide by where your pages must be served. With no mainland plan, use a subfolder. If you need another server, use a subdomain. If mainland hosting is coming, use a separate domain from the start.

Don’t choose on claims about Baidu’s taste. Its written guidance is old and thin, and changing your mind later has a documented cost.

How Index in China can help

We translate your site into Simplified Chinese with a human reviewer, submit it to Chinese search engines and send a monthly report on Chinese traffic.

An ICP isn’t part of the offer we list, and we’ll tell you if your case needs a local adviser. See what we do.

Book a 30-minute call

Common questions

Will a separate Chinese site compete with my main site?

Not in any way we can document. Google says localized pages only count as duplicates if the main content stays untranslated.¹⁴ Baidu's duplicate warning concerns the same content reachable on several subdomains, not translations.¹ We found no Baidu statement on translated versions, so keep each language on its own URLs and link between them.

Should the folder be /cn/, /zh/ or /zh-cn/?

Any short, consistent label works, and we found no evidence that one ranks better. Google notes that users may not read a country or language from the URL alone.¹³ W3C uses zh-Hans and zh-Hant for script,²⁴ so a /zh-hans/ folder leaves room for Traditional Chinese later. Don't rename it afterward, because that's a URL change.

Do I need separate sites for Hong Kong and Taiwan?

Not usually, and a separate site for them wouldn't serve Baidu. StatCounter's October 2026 data shows Google at 89.59% in Hong Kong and 80.02% in Taiwan, with Baidu at 0.43% in Hong Kong.²²²³ A Traditional Chinese folder or subdomain, tagged for Google, is a reasonable way to serve them on the same domain. Our guide to Hong Kong and Taiwan tests one version against two.

Should I use Chinese characters in my URLs?

No. Baidu's 2019 white paper advises against Chinese or special encoding in directory names.⁴ In Marcus Pentzek's 2023 study, Chinese characters appeared in 0.8% of ranking URLs and 0.0035% of domain names.¹⁵ Latin slugs are also easier for you to read when you check your pages.

Can my CMS or store do this?

Usually, but check before you commit. Shopify's developer docs say a market's site can use a different domain, a subdomain or a subfolder.²⁵ They say nothing about China in the part we read. Test what your platform really does: each language needs its own URL, and the translated text must appear in the page source. See WordPress, Shopify and Webflow in China.