If I would have told you five years ago to optimize your website for Bing search, you probably would have scoffed at me. (Maybe you still will.) After all, you “Google it”… You don’t “Bing it,” or “Yahoo it.” But with recent Google algorithm updates, that may be changing for a number of Internet users. According to data from StatCounter, Google lost nearly 2% of its market share in the last 12 months.
And the majority of that near-2% moved to Bing. I know what you’re thinking… 2% isn’t very much. But 2% of 8.5 billion (the approximate number of searches performed on Google everyday) is 170 million. 170 million searches moved to Bing… DAILY. In monthly stats, that’s over 5 billion searches that switched to Bing.
Now, if you’re targeting millennials or Gen Z, Bing may not be your best focus point. Bing users are generally an older audience (it’s the default search engine on PCs). So if that’s your target market, you have even more reason to consider Bing optimization.
But since it’s probably never been on your radar, how do you optimize for Bing?
Optimizing for Bing Organic Results
In all honesty, SEO optimization for Bing isn’t much different from optimization for Google. You want to have high-quality content and landing pages, and you want to sprinkle in some keywords here and there (so the crawlers know what your post is about). Here are more things to consider:
Set Up Bing Webmaster Tools
If you haven’t already, it may be time to set up an account with Bing Webmaster Tools. This is Bing’s answer to Google Search Console, and it has a number of very user-friendly tools and data points that you may find interesting and usable for your business.
Claim (or List) Your Business in Bing Places
After setting up a Google Business Profile (GBP) for our clients (or optimizing the profile they already have), we usually head straight to Bing to set up a Bing Places account. Similar to your GBP, Bing Places will show searchers some general info about your business, including your address, phone number, reviews (usually from Yelp), hours of operation, and more. If Bing users are searching for your products or services, it’s important your business shows up here.
On-Page Optimization for Bing
There’s a lot that goes into on-page optimization for Bing (and other search engines for that matter). Content is king, and you want to produce good content that your audience/customers will find useful. But on top of that, you want to make sure your content is easy for crawlers to understand. Here are some specific tips:
Exact-Match Your Titles & Headings
Bing seems to prefer exact-match keywords in titles and headings. That means if you’re targeting the keyword “how to optimize for bing,” you want that exact phrase in your page title, H1, and maybe a couple of H2s. So your title might be “How to Optimize for Bing: 10 Tips for Success in Bing Search,” and your H1 might be, “Learn How to Optimize for Bing Search Results.”
You should also include your keyword near the beginning of your first paragraph. Get it as close to the top of your page as possible while still sounding natural.
Produce Good, Helpful Content
Let’s tweak that whole “content is king,” thing.
These days, helpful content is king. (And it really should have always been that way.)
Does your audience/customer have a specific question you’re trying to answer? Answer it! And make it easy for them to find the answer. Don’t bury it at the end of your post, hoping they’ll stick around longer. Put the answer right at the top.
Make your content easy to read or skim (use headings, bullet points, infographics, etc.), and ANSWER THEIR QUESTIONS.
At some point in time, I’m sure you’ve typed a query into a search engine, clicked on one of the first few results, and then had to click back to another result because the first one didn’t give you what you were looking for. I can’t stress this enough… give people what they’re looking for.
Build Links
Since content is king, links are probably queen. And not just high-quality links from other websites (a.k.a backlinks), which can be extremely difficult to get.
You should be linking your pages internally. It’s not just good from a UX perspective (people may want to know more about something you’re discussing in your article), but it’s also good for search engine crawlers. They can follow your internal links to determine your subject knowledge and topical authority.
If you’ve written a lot of high-quality content about similar topics, you’re more likely to rank higher in Bing search results.
Invest in Social Media
Bing also considers social media when determining ranking positions. If you’re active on various social media platforms, you’re more likely to rank higher for the keywords you’re targeting.
There are a lot of social media platforms out there though, and it’s hard to be highly engaged on all of them unless you have a rather large marketing/social media team. So instead of opening an account on every platform, research where your customers are, and focus your attention on the top 1-2 platforms.
Consider Shifting Some Ad Budget to Microsoft
For a long time, we’ve suggested many of our SEM clients move some of their search ad budget to Bing/Microsoft. Why?
- Bing ads are cheaper
- You still get lots of clicks (but a bigger bang for your buck)
- If you have an older audience, Bing ads can produce great results.
One Final Thing to Note about Bing Optimization
Listen close, I’m not saying you should shift ALL of your focus to Bing (or even most of it). But I do think you should give it a look.
And if you’d like help with your SEO optimization or PPC campaigns, contact periscopeUP today. Give us a call at
(443) 475-0787 or send an email to info@periscopeup.com. We’d love to help you see continued success!
