A recent market research report on SEO showed statistics which suggest that the Bing & Yahoo combination has resulted in significant market share growth, with Bing accounting for 30.5% in the US, which is almost half the market share of Google.
Additionally, the deal between Bing and Baidu- a popular Chinese search engine- meant to boost its SERPs for English queries, makes it absolutely crucial for SEO professionals and anybody with a website to take into account the effect of Bing on online business.
But how do you optimize your website for Bing, to make sure you’re not missing out on the significant market shift? Bing is expected to grow as Microsoft partners with Yahoo and it would help to stay ahead of the game, and this means taking measures to ensure your website gets picked up when relevant search queries are entered.
10 tips to rank high on Bing search engine
Basic SEO principles are consistent, and will work on Google as well, but in order to stand out in Bing, you may need to conduct a few more specific tweaks. Here are ten tips for high ranking in Microsoft Bing:
Use plenty of page content
Google considers relevancy on keywords when displaying search results but Bing pays special attention to text, placing higher value on pages that contain 300 words or more of text, so sit down and start cranking out the blogs.
Use page titles
Title tags are very important to Bing but try not to duplicate page titles on the site. Instead, concentrate on placing top keywords in the title tags.
Older domain names still mean more to Bing
It might be a challenge trying to work out an older, mature domain but if you could manage that, it will place you ahead of the newer sites. One simple way to do this would be to purchase an existing domain name, as opposed to creating one.
Backlinks are great for Bing
Google does appreciate a decent amount of back-links (and webmasters drool over back-links from high-ranking sites) but too many of them could cause problems for you. Bing on the other hand seems to favor heaps of back-links, provided they originate from relevant sources. You might need to find the right balance here, so you don’t jeopardize your ranking on Google.
Readable URLs
You probably know that search engines favor readable URLs, and this includes Bing. If your website describes how to build a spaceship using a microwave oven and a toaster, then you might consider naming it ‘how-to-rank-high-on-bing-search-engine.html.’ Hyphens work better than underscores.
Use Webmaster Center
As a smart individual you might have your own reservations about using ‘free‘ online tools, and with good reason; but Bing’s Webmaster Center is loaded with useful data, handy stats and of course the option to customize your site’s indexing on Bing.
Be more social
This will help boost your rating on any search engine but more so on Bing, because Bing algorithms actually refer to data from Facebook and Twitter when assessing how popular your site is.
Careful with those out-bound links
Google doesn’t like too many outbound links on any given page, and could spam you if you don’t use them moderately. Bing on the other hand appears to take a much softer approach on the same, as long as they are relevant to the context. Find a way to balance it all out so that it works for both search engines.
Work on your site structure
A simple, easy to navigate user experience is what you’re looking for here, plus of course the smart use of SEO friendly content. Use friendly and specific keywords on the URL and make sure to work on your CMS in order to avoid duplication issues. Session IDs and such-like variables are not good for your URL, so avoid them.
Never use black-hat techniques
It is a bit tempting to try to use black-hat tricks as a way to manipulate a search engine but the problem with that is the fact that you’ll probably get caught, and your website and business may never recover from the penalties that will follow.
You have better chances of making it to the first page if you keep it simple and follow these rules. Obviously you may need additional help from an expert in order to actually stay on the first page, but the good news is both Google and Bing have always favored a simple approach.
