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BING SEO- Your Ultimate Guide for Bing Search Engine
SEOWhat is the first thing that comes to our minds when we think of search engines? Most of you agree that it is Google we think of. When we talk about SEO services in Australia, most of the time, we mean Google optimization. It is an obvious thing as Google has a broader reach, and it has the market share of 80% of the desktop search market share in the US alone. Digital marketers across the globe focus on Google optimization, and it is understandable.
The sad part is that most digital marketers don’t want to think of the remaining 20% part of the search engine market. Who holds the remaining 20% part of the search engine market? It is Bing and Yahoo search engines. Well, don’t you think that 20% is a good number to go after? Or you want to ignore it? It is something that you cannot just write off.
Bing powers Yahoo, and together, they make up 15% of the desktop search engine market. What does it mean? Every fifth user who is searching for something uses Yahoo or Bing and not Google.
Well, there are some other benefits of designing a Bing SEO strategy for your business. Let’s explore.
Lower competition than Google
One of the most happening reasons to go for Bing optimization is that the competition is lower than Google. As most of your competitors are optimizing for Google, the primary market shareholder, a few are vying for Bing.
When there are few competitors in the race, your chances to get a higher spot would increase. You will be at the top of the search results. A Bing-optimized website would bring genuine web traffic to your website with lesser efforts.
Bing Traffic Converts better than Google’s
Another benefit of going for Bing search engine optimization is that it has a better conversion rate than what you get from Google. Researches also back this claim. So, you will get more genuine leads from Bing compared to Google with an improved conversion rate.
SEO for Bing is Much Easier than you’re used to
Yes, the most crucial benefit is that Bing SEO is much easier than Google SEO. Bing is open about its ranking factors and is an SEO-friendly search engine compared to Google. Just go through the Bing SEO guidelines, and you will come to know what I am claiming.
Now that you understand Bing optimization’s worth, we would go ahead and discuss Bing ranking factors and how to do Bing SEO guidelines.
Indexation & Technical SEO
First, let’s see what Bing says about Indexation:
“Being indexed is the first step to developing traffic from Bing.”
It is also a common thing to do whether you are doing Google optimization or Bing SEO. If you want your website to rank in Bing or Google search results, you need to ensure that your website’s all-important pages are indexed in Bing and Google.
To do that, you need to check out a search for site: yoursite.com in Bing. It will instantly show pages that are indexed in Bing.
Page Indexation
Most of the search engines correlate when it comes to indexing pages. For example, if you have indexed your website pages for Google, there is a high probability of Bing knowing all your indexed pages. However, Bing might take some time to find and crawl your web pages for a new site. Use the Bing Webmaster tool to speed things up.
Crawling Rate
Go to Bing Webmaster tools and go to Crawl Control. Here, Bing allows you to fix the crawl rate and the exact time you want Bing to crawl your website. Here, you need to play a smart way. The standard crawl rate is usually low. However, if you have a large website or update your website more often, you need to go for “Full Volume.”
Sitemap
Submitting your sitemap is also an important thing to do. However, it does not mean you need to submit any sitemap. Bing’s Duane Forrester clearly states that-
“Your sitemaps need to be clean. We have a 1% allowance for dirt in a sitemap. Examples of dirt are if we click on a URL and see a redirect, a 404, or a 500 code. If we see more than a 1% level of dirt, we begin losing trust in the sitemap”.
What does it suggest? It merely means that you need to have a sitemap that is clean and fresh. Most of the Bing marketers recommend submitting a sitemap directly to Bing through your Webmaster Tools account.
To do that, you need to follow the procedure as mentioned below:
- Go to the Sitemaps section.
- Click on “Submit a Sitemap”
- Enter the location of your Sitemap file
Also, you can submit a sitemap by merely including the path to it in your robots.txt.
Straight Forward Keywords
All digital marketing experts who optimize websites for Google must know the importance of semantic search and user intent. The hummingbird Search algorithm launched in 2012 by Google has first introduced these changes. Semantic search and user intent are two critical factors that every content writer thinks of while writing website content.
However, Bing SEO does not give much importance to the semantic game. Numerous researches show that straightforward keyword targeting works well when it comes to Bing.
So, you don’t have to worry about latent semantic index and all broad-matching queries when you are going for Bing optimization.
If you have hired content writers who write for Google optimization, you need to take a training session about writing for Bing search engine optimization.
Bing does not work like Google. You can’t just sit back and let Google deciphering your pages’ meanings and figuring out keywords. The working methodology of Bing is different.
It also shows that keyword research would be one of the most important ranking factors for Bing SEO or Bing local SEO.
On-page SEO
Bing is way more straightforward compared to Google. As we have discussed above, keyword targeting and how Bing differentiates from Google also implies On-page SEO.
On-page SEO is way more straightforward with Bing than Google, and digital marketers don’t have to make any extra efforts to do it.
Optimize your Titles and Descriptions
When it comes to Bing search engine optimization, it puts a lot of emphasis on the title tag. Most of the time, the search engine will choose titles on its own for search results rather than pulling them out directly from the HTML tag. What Bing has to suggest about the title tag? Let’s find out:
Marketers must make the HTML title as per the possible search queries that would be used to search your website. Also, don’t be long and repetitive in it.
- Don’t use generic titles such as HOME or the ABOUT US.
- Embedded OpenGraph must be consistent with the title with all exact, correct details in the fields.
- Websites that are listed in big, famous online directories ensure that the entry is correct.
- Some marketers block Bingbot crawler. It will serve no purpose. Go through crawler control instructions and learn how to control the crawler. Blocking Bingbot will not index your content.
Using Meta Keywords
Meta keywords are significant whether you are doing general SEO or Bing local SEO. You might have heard that Meta keywords are irrelevant and don’t work now. However, no evidence shows that Meta keywords work.
Include keywords in headings and content
It works similarly to Google. When you use well-written keywords in your content, it matters a lot for Bing SEO. Try to add keywords in H1 and H2. Using your primary keywords in the first paragraph of your content is better than using them in the middle of the content.
However, avoid keyword stuffing as it is as bad as not using keywords at all. When you add keywords in the important HTML tags, use close variations instead of the same search keyword. Keep in mind your target audience when you are writing content and using keywords rather than technicalities.
Optimise your images
Image optimisation is also an important thing that you need to remember. Bing’s image search helps people search for relevant images as per their search queries, and as of now, it has become a remarkable way to search for relevant results. Adding unique visuals to your content is the need of the hour.
Ensure that the images you use are of high-quality, high-resolution, and in a web-friendly format.
Under the image, you need to describe what the image is all about. This description will bring more organic traffic from image search results. Hire a good graphics designer who can develop original, stunning, and creative images that lure visitors.
When you are doing Bing local SEO, you can add high-quality images of the business to make an everlasting impact.
Click-through rate
Unlike Google, Bing is very open about user signals. User signals play a huge part in ranking a website on Bing. How a particular user behaves when he visits a website is measured using SERP click-through rates and Pogo Sticking.
Pogo Sticking is how quickly a user comes back to the SERP after clicking on a result. It is crucial to know whether the user clicks on a #1 result and returns or spends a significant amount of time. If he comes back to the SERP, does he clicks on a #2 or not? If he does, what is his action with #2?
You need to know your click-through rate. When a user clicks on your search result, he must spend time on your website. When the number of searchers who does not bounce back immediately after clicking on your page result, the better.
Backlinks
Whether it is Google SEO or Bing search engine optimization, backlinks are significant ranking factors. However, you need to understand here that the backlinks story is different for both-Google and Bing optimization.
Let’s discuss Google first.
Many researches show that there is a declining correlation between link count and search rankings. For example, you might notice that a website with fewer links might rank higher than websites with an excellent extensive link profile. Google, generally, give more importance to PageRank. If you have a few high-authority backlinks, your website might rank higher than a website with hundreds of links sites with a low PageRank score.
However, the Bing SEO story is different than Google. The correlation of the number of backlinks and rankings is much higher compared to Google.
It is also noticed that almost 52% of the backlinks of sites ranked in the top 30 results have keywords in their anchor text.
So, when you are going for Bing search engine optimisation, improving your link profile will help you massively. You don’t even need to focus on getting high-authority backlinks, but you are not advised to ignore it completely. Ensure that you avoid spam and practice white-hat SEO to bring quality and genuine backlinks.
When it comes to Anchors, you have to play carefully. If you over-optimise them, it might help you with your Bing SEO, but it might hurt your Google rankings. It totally depends on your business’s niche and the types of keywords you want to target. So take the help of experts and optimise anchors accordingly.
Social signals
Do social signals affect the search rankings of your website? When you ask it to Google, experts are not so sure about it. However, Bing is very much open about it and does not shy to admit that it does.
What do Bing SEO guidelines say about it? Here is the quote:
“Social media plays a role in today’s effort to rank well in search results. The most prominent part it plays is via influence. If you are influential socially, this leads to your followers sharing your information widely, which results in Bing seeing these positive signals. These positive signals can have an impact on how you rank organically in the long run.”
Being active on different social media platforms is one of the crucial things to do even if you are doing Bing local SEO. Try to interact with followers who engage with your content. Conduct a competitive analysis to know what your competitors are doing on social media marketing platforms and design a unique social media marketing strategy to drive genuine users from social media platforms to your website.
Conclusion
Going for Bing SEO might prove to be a game-changing decision for your business. You don’t have anything to lose there. On the other hand, it might bring genuine customers to your website. You can ask your digital marketers to go through Bing SEO guidelines and start designing your Bing SEO strategy.
I hope this Bing SEO guide is helpful to design a Bing strategy for your business. You can comment with your feedback and share this post on your social media platforms if you find it informative, relevant, and worth sharing.
