Apify Baidu Rank Tracker

Baidu Rank Tracker: China SEO Keyword Monitoring

Turn Baidu searches into a rank tracker for the Chinese market. Run a keyword, read the organic positions, match your domain, and repeat on a schedule to build a Baidu tracking history: where you rank, where competitors rank, and how that moves over time.

When to use this skill

• The user wants Baidu tracking or Baidu monitoring for keywords, a brand, or a domain.
• They want to check where a site ranks on Baidu for a set of keywords.
• They want recurring China SEO reporting: positions per keyword over time.
• They want competitor watch on the Chinese web: who holds the top spots for their terms.

Not for: one-off Baidu SERP exports (use the apify-baidu-search-api skill), Google or Yandex rank tracking, or Baidu paid-ads reporting.

What each check returns (one dataset item per SERP page)

Each dataset item is one page of results. The ranking signal lives in the nested organic_results array: every row has position, title, and link, with displayed_link, rich_snippet, and sitelinks on rows where Baidu shows them. Match your domain against link (often a Baidu redirect URL) and displayed_link when present. The item also carries related_searches (query, link) and people_also_search_for (text, link) for keyword expansion, top_searches trending data, and run metadata: query, device, localization, page, search_timestamp (the tracking timestamp), total_results_found, pages_processed, and pagination_info.

Prerequisites

• Apify account (sign up at https://apify.com?fpr=9n7kx3&fp_sid=skillrepo).
• Authentication via apify login, or an APIFY_TOKEN environment variable (Apify Console, Settings, Integrations).

The Actor

• Store page: https://apify.com/johnvc/Baidu-Search-Scraper?fpr=9n7kx3&fp_sid=skillrepo
• Actor ID: johnvc/Baidu-Search-Scraper
• Pricing: a small per-run start fee plus a per-page fee (see references/gotchas.md).

Run it with the Apify CLI

One rank check, top 10 only (one page):

apify actors call "johnvc/Baidu-Search-Scraper" -i '{"query":"项目管理软件","localization":2,"max_pagination":1}' \
  --json \
  --user-agent apify-awesome-skills/apify-baidu-rank-tracker \
  2>/dev/null

A deeper check across the top 30 (three pages):

apify actors call "johnvc/Baidu-Search-Scraper" -i '{"query":"crm 软件","localization":2,"num_results":10,"max_pagination":3}' \
  --json \
  --user-agent apify-awesome-skills/apify-baidu-rank-tracker \
  2>/dev/null

Read a finished run's items later, for example from a scheduled run:

apify datasets get-items <DATASET_ID> --format json --user-agent apify-awesome-skills/apify-baidu-rank-tracker 2>/dev/null

Every call carries the three flags this repo expects: --json (or --format json), --user-agent apify-awesome-skills/apify-baidu-rank-tracker, and 2>/dev/null.

Run it from Claude or another AI agent (MCP)

The Actor is MCP-ready. Add the hosted server URL:

https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=actors,docs,johnvc/Baidu-Search-Scraper

Then ask, for example: "Check where example.cn ranks on Baidu for 项目管理软件 and list the top 10 with positions." MCP setup docs: https://docs.apify.com/platform/integrations/mcp

Workflow

1. Define the tracking set. One keyword per Actor call: the brand term, product names, and the competitor terms that matter. Chinese-language keywords track the market your users actually search in.
2. Fix the SERP variant. Set localization (2 for Simplified Chinese, 3 for Traditional) and device (desktop or mobile) once and keep them constant across checks, so position changes reflect the market and not the settings.
3. Bound the depth. max_pagination 1 tracks the top 10; 3 tracks roughly the top 30. Depth is the cost driver, so track only as deep as the report needs.
4. Estimate cost per check and per month, then confirm with the user. See references/gotchas.md.
5. Run the checks and score them. For each keyword, scan organic_results for rows whose link or displayed_link matches the tracked domain, and record position with the item's search_timestamp. No match across all pages means not ranked in the tracked depth: record it as such.
6. Persist and repeat. Append each check to your store (sheet, database, or JSON file) keyed by keyword, domain, and date. For recurring tracking, wrap the same input in an Apify Schedule or a cron job, and alert when a position drops below a threshold.

Inputs

• query (string, required): the keyword to track
• device (enum: desktop, mobile, tablet; default desktop): keep constant across checks
• localization (integer: 1 all languages, 2 Simplified Chinese, 3 Traditional Chinese; default 1)
• num_results (integer, default 10, max 50): rows per page
• max_pagination (integer, default 3): tracked depth in pages, the cost driver
• page (integer, default 1): starting page
• time_period (string): stf=START_UNIX,END_UNIX|stftype=1 date window, rarely needed for tracking

Cost

Billing is a small one-time start fee per run plus a per-page fee, pre-charged from max_pagination. A one-page rank check costs a few cents; a daily one-page check on 10 keywords lands in the ballpark of $10 per month. Estimate with the live prices in references/gotchas.md before scheduling.

Honest limits

• Positions reflect the SERP at crawl time; Baidu results fluctuate run to run, so trends across checks matter more than any single reading.
• Organic link values are often Baidu redirect URLs; when displayed_link is absent, match on your domain name inside title and resolve redirects client-side for certainty.
• This skill reads and scores the SERP per run; the position history lives in your store, not in the Actor.
• Tracking depth is bounded by max_pagination; a site outside that depth reads as unranked.

Troubleshooting

• Domain never matches: check whether link is a Baidu redirect URL; resolve it or match on displayed_link and title instead.
• Positions jump between checks: keep device and localization constant, and compare same-time-of-day checks.
• Empty organic_results: the keyword has no results on Baidu; verify the query manually and try a Chinese phrasing.
• Run exits early with a budget warning: raise the run's budget limit or lower max_pagination.

See references/gotchas.md for cost guardrails and error recovery, and references/actor-index.md for the Actor routing table.

Related international rank-tracking Actors

• Yandex Search Scraper (Russia and the CIS): https://apify.com/johnvc/Scrape-Yandex?fpr=9n7kx3&fp_sid=skillrepo
• Naver Search API (Korea): https://apify.com/johnvc/naver-search-api?fpr=9n7kx3&fp_sid=skillrepo
• DuckDuckGo Scraper (privacy-focused Western markets): https://apify.com/johnvc/DuckDuckGo-Scraper-for-serp-rankings?fpr=9n7kx3&fp_sid=skillrepo