This memo outlines a strategic approach to content creation and optimization based on Baidu’s Content Quality Guidelines. The goal is to improve search rankings and enhance brand influence by focusing on creating genuinely high-quality content. This is not just an SEO tactic; it’s a fundamental investment in our brand’s authority and user loyalty.

1. The Strategic Imperative: Why Content Quality Is Our Core Competitive Advantage

In today’s highly competitive digital landscape, elevating content quality to a strategic level is the key to building a long-term competitive advantage. It’s a foundational investment in our brand’s authority and user loyalty. Aligning with Baidu’s content quality standards ensures that every content optimization effort receives positive feedback from the search engine, leading to sustainable traffic, user trust, and market influence.

To achieve this, we must understand the value of high-quality content from three strategic perspectives:

From Baidu’s Perspective: Baidu’s algorithms are designed to filter and present the most valuable information to users. The algorithm uses a multi-dimensional scoring system to evaluate content quality. High-quality content earns a higher score, which leads to better search rankings. This means any small improvement in content quality will be recognized by the algorithm and rewarded with a direct, positive incentive, translating into higher ranking potential.

From Our Business Perspective: High-quality content is the engine that drives long-term business growth. It significantly boosts user satisfaction and retention, converting one-time visitors into loyal users and, eventually, brand assets. A platform known for its excellent content will be the preferred choice for users seeking solutions, creating a virtuous cycle of high-quality content → user growth → increased brand influence.

From the User’s Perspective: In an age of information overload, users increasingly value sources that provide reliable, professional, and clear content. By consistently producing high-quality content, we not only meet users’ immediate needs but also build and solidify their trust in our platform. This trust is the cornerstone of user engagement and word-of-mouth marketing.

In short, our content strategy must be built around Baidu’s framework for high-quality content. The following section details the five core pillars of this framework.

2. The Five Pillars of a High-Quality Content Strategy

To stand out on Baidu, we must internalize Baidu’s definition of “quality” and make it a core principle of our content creation. The following five pillars form the strategic roadmap for creating exceptional content and consistently outperforming competitors.

Pillar 1: Deeply Satisfy User Needs

The foundation of all high-quality content is a precise understanding and comprehensive fulfillment of user search intent. Our core principle must be: every piece of content should prioritize solving the specific, underlying problem behind a user’s search query. Before we write a single word, we need to clearly identify the user’s primary need and, based on that, provide a detailed and comprehensive solution that fully addresses it.

Pillar 2: Establish a Professional and Trustworthy Source

User trust isn’t built out of thin air; it’s earned through professionalism and authority. Baidu’s algorithm also favors content from trustworthy sources. To build our professional image, we must focus on three key areas:

• Domain Focus: We must strategically focus on the professional fields we excel in. Baidu prioritizes content sources that demonstrate depth and expertise in a specific niche, rather than platforms with broad, shallow content. By concentrating our resources, we can consistently produce high-quality, professional content. For platform-based websites, different content categories must be clearly separated in the site’s structure to help both users and search engines recognize our organization and expertise.
• Authoritative Credentials: We need to clearly demonstrate our professional qualifications to users. Whether through official professional certifications (e.g., business licenses) or through a reputation built from consistently producing high-quality content in a niche over the long term, these verifiable proofs of expertise are a direct signal for building user trust and are used by the algorithm as a key metric for evaluating content quality.
• Industry Reputation: Our long-term goal is to gradually build and enhance our influence and visibility within the industry by consistently producing valuable content. We want to become an authoritative voice recognized by both users and search engines.

Pillar 3: Deliver Outstanding Content Presentation

Meeting user needs is the baseline, but outstanding presentation is what makes content stand out. This isn’t just about writing skill; it’s about a holistic approach to content delivery.

• Clarity, Depth, and Practicality: Content must be logically structured, easy to read, and well-written. More importantly, it should provide practical, actionable solutions. It needs to tell users not just “what it is,” but also “why,” providing a genuine sense of value and insight.
• Professional Rigor and Comprehensiveness: Content should demonstrate a deep understanding of the industry, use professional terms appropriately, and provide a comprehensive, in-depth analysis of the topic from multiple angles. Professional rigor also means choosing the best format for the information. If text can’t convey the message clearly, we must use richer formats like charts, videos, or interactive tools, as this is directly related to how well we satisfy user needs.
• Aesthetic Design and a Pleasant Experience: Visual elements like fonts, layout, paragraphs, headings, and high-quality images or videos are critical for improving readability and user experience. Thoughtful design can earn higher quality scores for otherwise similar content. Visual excellence also includes ensuring our design language and visual assets are modern and aesthetically pleasing.

User Interaction: Positive user engagement data, such as likes and comments, is an important signal of a content’s popularity and relevance. Search engines consider this a reflection of the content’s overall “buzz” and reward it accordingly.

Pillar 4: Ensure a Smooth and Comfortable Experience

Even if a user finds excellent content, a poor page experience can cause them to leave quickly. We must ensure a smooth and comfortable experience as users browse our content, free from any obstacles.

• Rational Page Layout: The page layout should be clear and logical. Absolutely forbid any design that hinders a smooth user experience, especially designs that require an extra click to “expand” or view the full content.
• Minimized Access Barriers: Unless absolutely necessary for copyright protection, we should have a clear policy to maximize open access and avoid requiring users to log in to view full content.
• Eliminate Content Pagination: A single article or standalone piece of content must be presented completely on one page. Forcing users to click “next page” is a major detriment to user experience and must be eliminated. The core content must also be visible from the top of the page, without requiring users to scroll past large amounts of irrelevant information.
• Unobscured Main Content: Implement strict rules to prevent any ads or irrelevant modules from blocking the main content. All pages must be optimized for both PC and mobile devices to ensure core information is clearly visible.

Pillar 5: Provide Rich Supplementary Information

In addition to the core content itself, providing rich context and supplementary information can help users better understand the content and make decisions. This information includes, but is not limited to: software version and size, the number of chapters and update frequency for a novel, publication date, and authentic user reviews or view counts. These seemingly small details collectively form a crucial part of the content’s completeness and value.

These five pillars together form our content quality strategy. The following section clarifies some key implementation guidelines to ensure the strategy is effectively put into action.

3. Key Strategic Clarifications and Implementation Guidelines

To execute this strategy efficiently, we must have a shared understanding and establish clear internal action guidelines for some common issues.

On Authority vs. Quality: Our core focus must always be the quality of the content itself. While an authoritative source is a plus, Baidu has clearly stated that user-oriented, high-quality, and comprehensive content is the ultimate decisive factor. Excellent content from a non-authoritative source can and will outperform low-quality content from an authoritative one.

On Content Format: We should not blindly chase video content. Strategically, we must be clear: there is no inherent preference for any specific content format (such as video). The best format depends on which medium can most effectively and intuitively meet a specific user’s needs. Text, images, and video should be chosen based on the specific context.

On Ad Placements: To protect the user experience, we must establish an uncompromising ad policy: absolutely forbid any form of advertising within the main body of an article or core content. All ad modules can only be displayed after the main content has concluded.

On New Websites: For any new website or digital asset, two prerequisites must be met before launch: first, ensure that all website filing information is complete and compliant; and second, the site must be populated with a sufficient quantity of rich, high-quality content.

On Originality vs. Ranking: We must recognize that originality is only one of many ranking factors. Search rankings are determined by a combination of signals, including user favorability and overall site quality. Therefore, our goal should not just be “originality,” but creating high-value content that is genuinely popular with users and meets all quality dimensions.

4. Conclusion and Next Steps

The core message of this memo is: we must make a strategic shift, centering all our work on creating deep user value and delivering exceptional content quality. This is not just a tactical requirement for improving Baidu search rankings; it is the fundamental strategy for achieving user growth, solidifying brand assets, and building a long-term competitive moat.

To ensure this strategy is effectively executed, I recommend taking the following actions immediately:

• Distribute this memo to all relevant content, product, and marketing teams to ensure strategic alignment across the company.
• Organize a cross-departmental workshop to translate the five pillars outlined in this memo into a unified, actionable internal standard for content production and review.
• Create a content checklist that turns the core principles of this memo into an operational checklist for our daily workflow, ensuring every piece of content we publish meets our high-quality standards.