An ICP(Internet Content Provider) license is issued by the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. It allows you to host your site in China. For the purpose of creating a Baidu advertising account for a Chinese company, an ICP license is mandatory. But if all we need is to improve SEO performance on Baidu, is it still a must? Let’s find out in this article.
Surprisingly, it is not a must for online marketing activities or business development in China.It’s only necessary if you want to host your site on Chinese servers. If you have one, the loading speed might be faster.
DoI need an ICP license for Baidu SEO?
An ICP license is not a must for Baidu SEO. We’ve successflully indexed websites on Baidu and enhanced keyword rankings even these sites are hosted outside mainland China.
If I Want One, How to apply for an ICP license?
The easiest way is to submit necessary documents through your host service provider. At present, only Chinese business entities could apply for it.
Additionally, the official way to apply is through the National ICP Management System. Sign up, follow the procedure and submit all necessary materials and wait for review. Materials include business license, id card of person in charge, contact number, contact email, etc. Moreover, materials might alter according to different businesses.
Do I have to register a .cn domain?
In terms of the domain name, it doesn’t matter whether it ends with .cn or .com. Honestly, most of the clients we work with are using .com domains. See the below screenshot which is a typical example of the ICP license for a .com domain.
Is there any risk for not having one?
If you don’t have an ICP license, you won’t be able to host on Chinese servers. As a result, your site may load slow in China. Nevertheless, an easy solution is to host your site in Hong Kong or Singapore servers if you want to avoid having one.
As it takes a Chinese company to apply for the ICP license, we understand it’s a big commitement to the Chinese market. However, you don’t need to worry about it as many of our clients don’t have one. Baidu SEO is now working quite well for them as we speak. Why don’t you contact our team to find out more about it?