Baidu recognises three kinds of dead link, and asks that all three be submitted through the dead-link tool. Doing so improves the site’s accessibility and value in Baidu’s assessment — this is a rating matter, not only housekeeping.
1. Protocol dead links
An HTTP status code stating the page has no reading value. Baidu is unambiguous about which one: 404 first, and please do not use other status codes to signify a dead link.
2. Content dead links
The page opens normally with no redirect, but its content has no value for crawler or user: a deleted post, moved content, a closed space, expired information, a completed transaction. Baidu asks for clear text in a prominent position saying so — “page does not exist”, “content has moved”, “post deleted”, “domain expired or for sale”, “information expired”, “transaction closed”.
The practice Baidu explicitly discourages
The “personalised” dead page: content expires, the server still returns 200, and the site shows an amusing illustration to convey that nothing is there. Baidu does not treat that as a content dead link and advises against it. A designed 404 illustration is fine with the correct status and explicit text; it is not a substitute for either.
3. Redirect dead links
Valueless pages redirected en masse to one destination — the parent directory or the home page — where the content before and after is unrelated and there is no genuine replacement. Baidu asks that these be submitted as dead links too, which is a direct instruction against the blanket-redirect habit.
Why submission matters commercially
Baidu states that when a site applies to end closed-site protection, it checks both protocol dead links and the proportion and number of content dead links. And even without using that feature, submitting content dead links is encouraged to keep the site’s rating stable. This connects directly to the quality framework, where a large share of expired pages damages the whole site’s grade.
The working practice
Return 404 for genuinely absent pages, say plainly what happened on pages whose content has expired, avoid mass redirects to the home page, and submit all three categories through the tool as part of routine maintenance rather than as a cleanup project.
How we apply this
The three-category model is more demanding than most engines and it is the reason we treat archive hygiene as ongoing work on Chinese-facing sites: expired listings need explicit status text, not just a tidy page. The personalised-404 warning is worth repeating to designers — a beautiful illustration with a 200 status is exactly what Baidu says not to do.
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