Although Baidu continues to claim that more and more of its mobile search results in China are coming from Bear Paw accounts, many webmasters are still confused with this “domain of the mobile era”.
Many of the Chinese webmasters are attracted by Baidu’s great efforts in promoting Bear Paw accounts and are trying to get one such account, but some of them never get approved. This is probably because they don’t really create original and useful content, and obviously, Baidu is trying to boost original content via manual review in the application process of Bear Paw account, apart from its algorithm updates that might don’t work in some circumstances. In its official statement on Bear Paw account, Baidu said, “The launch of Bear Paw accounts marks that the Spring of whitehat SEO comes.”
Some other webmasters are fortunately approved as a Bear Paw account owner, but many are still confused with how to use it, or what its features are.
According to my use of Baidu, people could see some results marked with “Bear Paw Account” beside their domains when they make a mobile search, but when they click on such results, they enter an URL under that domain of the website. So, it seems that Bear Paw accounts are integrated with the original websites in a seamless way.
But does being approved as a Bear Paw account means your website is certified as a high-quality or original-content website? No! In order to enjoy the “Originality Protection” mechanism embedded in Bear Paw account, you still have to apply for this feature separately even when you become a Bear Paw account. And you will have to write at least 10 original posts for your website in the past 30 days, in order to be qualified for applying for such a feature.
So, what’s the use of Bear Paw account itself? I have to say I’m also trying to figure it out. To me, it seems that the only advantage is that my content could have a badge of “Bear Paw Account” on mobile devices now.
In a QQ group on “Bear Paw Account” I joined, a webmaster complained painfully, “Baidu would take my original articles on my own sites as plagiarism, if I published them on my websites after doing that on my Baijia account.”
Baijia account is a Baidu content product launched before Bear Paw account and is more like WeChat Subscription account. I’m not sure if this webmaster had got a Bear Paw account or not, or if this new product could solve his troubles. When I concluded in the group that Baijia account is not for webmasters, another member said, “WeChat Subscription Account isn’t either.”
I don’t want to get into a debate as I’m still a new member, but the fact is WeChat Subscription Account is another new world outside websites or SEO, and many webmasters gave up their sites for WeChat Subscription Account, but I cannot imagine any reason why one webmaster would give up his site for Baijia account.
And as for Bear Paw account, it’s more like an auxiliary product of the website. And it still has a lot of work to do.