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 finances. One of these areas is cooperation with China and access to its markets. On how to do this, I have already published an article here . Today I would like to start a detailed cycle of articles on what to do and what tools you need to own if you have already begun to conquer the “Celestial”.

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 begin the cycle of articles with a “hanger”, namely, with the registration of the site in Webmaster tools of the largest Chinese search engine - Baidu. What kind of beast 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 the methods of SEO-optimization, SERM, PPC, CPA and CPI campaigns and many other methods with frightening abbreviations. However, before you bring people, the site must be "put in order", checking whether it is well indexed, whether there are problems with links and other routine "joy". To solve these problems, we need a webmaster console.
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For those who are used to using Google Webmaster Tools or Yandex Webmaster, Zhangazhang Baidu (this is exactly how the tool sounds in Chinese) will not seem special, but only if several conditions are met:
1) You understand Chinese very well (since 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 even with the local mentality. It is this, and a bunch of small, Chinese tricks to boot and stand in the way of registering a site in Zhangazhang. To get around all of them, you must have patience and a number of technical tools to deal with the promotion of the site in China.

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

In order to avoid this, you have to use a very unnatural thing: start Internet Explorer, and not by itself, but under a VPN . There are quite a few services for imposing a fictitious IP address. I can give as an example HideMe , IPVanish , Hide My Ass , 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 compared to other services.

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

When you have completed all the necessary actions, entered zhangazhang.baidu.com and the VPN has completed, 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 email, password and enter a confirmation code for registration.

After entering your personal data, the system will ask you to confirm the postal address. A letter will be sent to the post containing information in the spirit of:
“Dear user, you have registered in the system at such an hour, with the indication of mail [name of mail]. 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 was 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 being cracked, he came up with a cunning loophole - the possibility of free activation for anyone who knew Russian and could guess the Russian-folk puzzle. 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 of: “indicate the pictures on which bacon is located”, but with Chinese innovation. Three of the four hieroglyphs are indicated in Chinese, and a careful person, even without knowing the language, can quickly identify them. But the fourth, written in Latin. For example, “De” or, as it fell in our case, “hui”, where there are millions of variations of hieroglyphs with such a sound (besides Russian folk), and a cart.

And here without knowledge of the language is very, very tight. If you do not know Chinese, and there is no exchange student near you (or you are just too lazy to look for him), a crutch in the form of Google Translate or Microsoft Translator for smartphones will come to the rescue. These applications support the function of translating text in real time from the camera. Download, run, direct on the hieroglyphs and get the result of this type:

I warn you right away - it may not work out the first time, and the second time, too, due to the complexity of the language, but only a few 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 your smartphone in front of the screen for a long time.

After we receive the answer, we introduce all the hieroglyphs in their places in the requested sequence. Next, press the confirm button, and we get another interesting window. You did not think that everything would end on hieroglyphs?

The system will thank you for the 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 the wall.

In this case, the magic “crutch” again hurries to the rescue. There are some, albeit very small, number of IP telephony providers that provide China's virtual numbers. To register with Baidu, we bought numbers on Hottelecom and Virtual Number . Alternatively, you can still use the services of Almostfreecalls . From the purchased number, call forwarding is placed on your mobile phone and a confirmation code arrives somewhere within a minute. We enter it, press the cherished blue “Confirm” button and only after that we can finally breathe easy. This registration process is over.

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 in Zhangazhang registration. The information is not entirely up to date, but is useful to get acquainted.
www.baiduguide.com/baidu-seo-guide/baidu-webmaster-tools - English-language guide on the Zhangazhang interface. In the near future, I plan to make a review of its latest version. Who does not want to wait, can begin to explore this resource.
megamozg.ru/post/17494 - article on virtual numbers.

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Working with China # 2: Top 5 Best VPN Clients for Working with a Chinese Network

Introduction of IT products to the Chinese market - marketing diary

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