Bingtong (冰桶) is Baidu’s mobile landing-page experience algorithm, and it is the one with the most published detail behind it: the Mobile Landing Page Experience White Paper defines what it measures, and the algorithm enforces it.
What it targets
- Intrusive advertising — full-screen interstitials, overlays covering the main content, advertising that occupies too much of the first screen.
- Forced interactions — app-download prompts, registration or login demanded before the content can be read.
- Deceptive placement — advertising resembling the page’s own content or navigation, download buttons that are really adverts.
The distinctive thing about it
Baidu publishes the standard rather than describing the offence in general terms. The white paper specifies how much of the first screen advertising may occupy, which formats are prohibited outright, and how the main content must be reachable. That makes compliance measurable in a way most quality guidelines are not — and it means a site can be assessed against it before the algorithm arrives.
The three-question test
Open a page on a phone from a search result and ask: can I see the main content on the first screen; can I read it without dismissing anything; and is every element that looks like content actually content? A page failing any of these is a candidate regardless of how it performs on desktop.
Why this matters more in China
Mobile is not a segment of Baidu traffic, it is the traffic. An advertising layout that is merely irritating on desktop is disqualifying on a phone — and the revenue argument for it is weakest exactly where the algorithm is strictest, because an interstitial that costs a fraction of visitors their patience also costs the behavioural signal.
The remedy
Read the white paper as a specification, measure the first screen against it, and treat advertising density as a search parameter rather than a commercial one. This is a layout decision, not a technical fix, so it belongs with whoever controls the page template and the ad stack together.
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We audit mobile ad density against the white paper before anything else on Baidu-facing sites, because it is the one quality standard with published numbers attached — arguments about whether an interstitial is “too much” end when there is a specification. The pattern we see most is an ad unit styled to look like the article’s own next section, which fails the deceptive-placement test squarely.
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