As mentioned before, Google and Baidu’s attitudes toward SEO reversed in recent years. Google became secretive in algorithm updates since Matt Cutts’ leaving. At the same time, Baidu released multiple algorithm updates with formal names in recent years.
And below is a list of algorithm updates that have been published officially by Baidu.
We collect these algorithms not to show any potential loopholes that could be utilized by webmasters, but to prove that although Baidu falls behind Google in some respects, it’s making great progress to offer better search experiences; therefore, websites aiming at Chinese market should avoid low techniques suggested by many Chinese SEO agencies and put more emphasis on content quality.
Baidu Scindapsus Aureus Algorithm
Release Date: Feb. 19, 2013
Opponents: Actions of buying and selling links, including websites introducing hyperlinks, selling links and buying links.
Scindapsus Aureus Algorithm affected more than 100,000 low quality websites.
Baidu Pomegranate Algorithm
Release Date: May 17, 2013
Opponents: Webpages with bad ads that obstruct reading and low-quality content.
Pomegranate Algorithm especially targets websites with pop-up ads and spam advertisements.
Scindapsus Aureus Algorithm 2.0
Release Date: Jul. 1, 2013
Opponents: External links in advertorials and websites with advertorials.
Baidu Ice Bucket Algorithm 1.0
Release Date: Aug. 30, 2014
Opponents: Landing pages that affect user experience on mobile devices.
Ice Bucket 1.0 mainly targets pages with compulsive pop-up app downloads, user login and large ads, especially those sites cannot be used normally without downloading its app.
Baidu Ice Bucket Algorithm 2.0
Release Date: Nov. 28, 2014
Opponents: Websites that force visitors to log in to get rid of large ads and view their content on mobile devices.
Baidu Ice Bucket Algorithm 3.0
Release Date: Jul. 15, 2016
Opponents: Actions that interrupt complete search path of users.
Such actions are to force visitors to click on and download the website’s app or stop viewing or using the site while such apps are not really necessary or commonly used. Baidu’s mobile search engine significantly lowers evaluation of such pages.
Baidu Skynet Algorithm
Release Date: Aug. 10, 2016
Opponents: Websites that invade visitors’ privacy.
One typical action is embedding malicious code in webpages, to steal QQ numbers and mobile numbers of visitors. Punished websites could be recovered after rectifying and being approved.
Baidu Ice Bucket Algorithm 4.0
Release Date: Sep. 19, 2016
Opponents: Mobile pages with too many disturbing ads.
SEO need to optimize ad layout on mobile pages, to protect user experience, and avoid being punished by the algorithm and having bad results in rankings and organic traffic.
Baidu Ice Bucket Algorithm 4.5
Release Date: Oct. 26, 2016
Opponents: Webpages with bad tempting ads.
Bad tempting ads refer to illegal advertisements with tempting appearances like erotic or gambling gifs, links and texts.
Baidu Blue Sky Algorithm
Release Date: Nov. 21, 2016
Opponents: News sources’ actions of selling advertorials and directories.
Websites which break rules of “Blue Sky” would be removed from the list of new sources, and its evaluation level in Baidu’s search system would be lowered.
Baidu Beacon-fire Program
Release Date: Feb. 23, 2017
Opponents: Baidu mobile search page hijacking.
Mobile search page hijacking means after visitors browse such hijacking pages and try to return to Baidu’s result page, they are hijacked to a fake Baidu result page which is actually a risky site with great hidden dangers.
Baidu Hurricane Algorithm
Release Date: Jul. 4, 2017
Opponents: Websites filled with illegally copied content.
Baidu claims that there is zero tolerance for illegal collecting of content, such pages would be thoroughly removed from its index database, and quality original content would enjoy more display opportunities.
Regular data of punishment based on Hurricane Algorithm will be released, and adjustments and iterations will be made any time as the circumstances may require.
Websites with quality original content could make a complaint at “Feedback Center” of Baidu in case of sharp decrease of index amount.
According to our observation, Hurricane Algorithm are still yet to become fully effective, as many websites with republishing content are still enjoying better rankings than websites with the original content.
Baiduspider Https Fetch Upgrade
Release Date: Aug. 30, 2017
Influences: Fetches of Https data are strengthened, and Baiduspider would seize Https data in a faster way.
Baidu also claimed that it would give higher evaluations and more impressions for Https pages.
Baidu Breeze Algorithm
Release Date: Sep. 30, 2017
Opponents: Actions of page title cheating and getting clicks via cheating visitors.
Page title cheating mainly refers to false title content (title attractors, false official sites, false download pages, false webcasting, etc.) and intentional keyword stacking in titles.
Baidu Lightning Algorithm
Release Date: Oct. 10, 2017
Influences: First view load time would affect search rankings on Baidu
Mobile pages that could be opened within 2 seconds would enjoy authority upgrading and traffic preferences, mobile pages with very slow first view load time (3 seconds and above) would suffer authority downgrading. For those websites with 2-3 seconds of first view load time, neither upgrading nor downgrading.
Page load time involves a lot of factors, including but not limited to: hosting location, bandwidth, performance, database optimization, HTML codes, image optimization, compression, number of requests, CDN, use of cache, etc.
Baidu Thunder Algorithm
Release Date: Nov. 31, 2017
Opponents: Actions of improving rankings on Baidu results by intentional repeated clicks, which are very popular among some Chinese websites in recent years. Abstract from Baidu’s official statement about Thunder:
Thunder Algorithm would produce punishment data regularly, intentional repeated clicks would be punished, and severe actions could cause long-term removal from search results.
And in order to avoid framing by competitors, Thunder would consider multiple features of websites including its quality, records and so on, instead of only checking click data.
Baidu also reminded webmasters that they could make a complaint at “Feedback Center” in case there is any traffic abnormities.