Baidu announced the drop of its separate news source database due to “technology upgrade on timeliness content identification”.
The best source websites in the original news source library will be invited to join the Webmasters VIP Club, who have the opportunity to be given priority listing in the time-sensitive search results. Those not in VIP Club still have chances to be shown in the timeliness results.
Those not in VIP Club still have chances to be shown in the timeliness results. Baidu’s Webmasters VIP Club is now limited to news sites and will roll out invitations to other categories of websites in the future.
Benefits of Baidu Webmasters VIP Club
After the recent upgrade to its VIP Club for Webmasters, Baidu no longer limits the access to the large websites. Vertical websites with quality and original content will gradually have opportunities to apply for access. The VIP Club provides:
- Priority request management
- Notifications on website problems
- Opportunities to make changes before being penalized
- Access to new tools
- Offline events
Currently, webmasters can register and get access to Baidu Webmasters, a platform similar to Google Webmasters that users and add websites, submit sitemaps, diagnose indexing problems, and etc.
This VIP Club looks like a stepped up efforts for quality content from Baidu and premium search console with additional benefits for webmasters and offline training.
Also read: A Quick Guide for Baidu Mobile SEO
