There’s no denying that Google is the behemoth in the search engine world. Still, it’s not the only search engine people are using.
Google controls over 86 percent of the world’s market share. Bing follows in number two position with 7 percent of the market share. That may not sound like much, but it equates to millions of users.
Satisfying Google for SEO placement is mandatory if you want to grow your online presence. But why not dig a little deeper and ensure you’re gathering all the business you can from Bing too?
Digging Deeper Into Bing
Bing was launched in 2009 by Microsoft Corporation. While most of the SEO strategies that work for Google will work for Bing too, a few unique opportunities will get you better results in Bing. And with millions of people preferring it over Google, why not give yourself every advantage of showing up in the search results? That’s a lot of potential customers that your competition may be ignoring.
Bing’s biggest role is with desktop platforms. Most Android devices use Google as their default search engine, and Google pays Apple to ensure it’s the default browser on the iPhone’s search engine, Safari. If you’re specifically trying to reach people in the office, working from larger platforms, Bing may be ripe with opportunity.
Bing may also be a little more open with how they rank. According to their own webmaster tools, Bing ranks content based on:
- Relevance: Bing notes how closely the content on the landing page matches the searcher’s intent.
- Quality and credibility: This is based on the clarity of purpose of the site, its overall usability, and its presentation. It’s also based on reputation and connection with high-quality links.
- User engagement: Bing considers how users act with the search results they click on.
- Freshness: Bing wants content that is updated on a regular basis.
- Location: Bing considers where the user is located, where the page is hosted, the language of the page, and the location of other users on the page.
- Page load time: Slow pages are going to move down in ranking.
How to Rank Higher on Bing
Ranking higher on Bing for your key terms won’t take that much more work than you’re already putting in for your overall SEO strategy. Tweak what you already have in place. Using these Bing SEO tips, you’ll ensure you’re better placed in results on Bing’s search engine. And all of your work will only increase your strategy on Google as well.
Focus on content creation
If you search through our blog posts here on our site, you’ll find a lot of our posts focus on creating the best content you can. Content is king. Always has been, and always will be.
Google believes in content. Bing does too. It’s all about giving the user exactly what they want. And that means content created exclusively with them in mind. (If you’re still using black hat methods for page ranking only, you’re going to lose.)
In Bing’s webmaster tools, they specifically state that relevance trumps everything when it comes to ranking. “Bing presumes a user is seeking high-quality, authoritative content unless the user very clearly indicates an intent to find low-authority content.”
In other words, in most cases, they will provide search results with the highest-quality content possible. People want answers to their questions. They want information that solves their issues as quickly as possible. And you can’t do that if you’re having to click back and forth looking for material to suit your needs.
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Ensure user engagement
Right behind high-quality content comes user engagement. If you create what people want, they’re more likely to connect with you.
That concept should top any good marketing strategy. And with Bing, it’s a critical factor.
Online, engagement is often measured by the bounce rate. This equates to the number of visitors who come to your site or page and quickly click away. The presumption is they didn’t find what they were looking for.
Bing not only wants to rank content with a quality click, but they want users to keep looking once they get there. That’s a win/win for you too.
Don’t ignore social media
You already know that social media plays a big part in ranking and is a great way to bring in more traffic to your online presence. Bing will reward you for that. They officially state that a social media presence will increase your ranking in their search results. If your content is shared, that adds to relevance in Bing’s eyes, and you’ll move up in ranking.
But that doesn’t mean you should look to grow your social relevance as fast as you can. Buying fake followers or impressions will never win the game. Algorithms and technology are far too sophisticated today to try and fake your way into anything.
Bing stretches a bit further than Google into what social media they will recommend. The big social sites like Facebook and Instagram will be there, but you can also find Pinterest boards being ranked. This can be good news if you’re a highly visual company.
Small Businesses May Have an Edge
Where Google tends to sway in favor of ranking well-established larger sites, Bing often gives preference to more credible results. That means if you really focus on your keywords and pay attention to the message you’re creating, you might come up higher in Bing’s rankings. For local businesses, that can be a competitive edge.
While Google has Google My Business, Bing has BingPlaces. It’s a great way to provide more information for Bing’s database, which may just give you an added boost. Bing also likes when websites put location details on their sites, so this may be another bonus when you provide them with more information. At the very least, you might entice a new visitor into your shop.
Will You Make Bing Happy This year?
While adding Bing SEO strategies to your marketing plans doesn’t take that much time or energy, just a few tweaks might make a big difference.
