BadaBing? A look at SEO for Google versus Bing
So the big news is Yahoo! is partnering with Microsoft. Yahoo! is going to use the Bing search engine from now on, bumping up the Microsoft/Yahoo! alliance to a formidable 30% market share. Everyone is wondering if they should revamp their business’ internet marketing strategy.
As it turns out, if your page is well optimized for Google, then it should fare well with Bing as well. However, there are a couple of little differences in the aspects of SEO that Bing sees different than Google. Here are some pointers on sifting out the hype and the confusion surrounding the Bing search engine.
Domain Name Age
It turns out that Bing puts a little more stress on Domain Name age than Google does. So if you’re looking to gain leverage on a certain market via SEO, you might diversify and center part of your Bing specific search engine marketing campaign around an older domain(s).
Does this mean you should ditch your current site and SEO plans and dump your site into an older domain name? No. First of all, Google still has the larger percentage of the search engine market share. Second, the difference is so small, it’d take you longer to totally build up SEO ranking for Bing than it would to make small adjustments that will bump your Bing SEO ranking and not hurt your Google ranking.
On Page vs Off Page SEO
It’s been said that Bing supposedly gives higher search engine ranking to pages focused on content. This means that good quality content with smart, SEO oriented copy, and search engine friendly coding is still an important part of a well optimized site.
What this supposedly means is that a site with good content, but not necessarily as many inbound links has the chance to rank highly in the Bing search engine. This can be good for the person looking for quality information but is not as optimized as a site with less relevant information.
Whereas people previously cast Bing aside as a pretty new thing with no new strides in SEO functionality, the Yahoo! partnership with Microsoft forces it into the limelight with a rough estimate of 30% search engine market share. While it might not be important for everyone, businesses that focus their SEO strategies for their livelihood now have to at least take an interest in Bing and how it differs from Google. Here’s what the Bing team had to say in their whitepaper:
“Ultimately, SEO is still SEO. Bing doesn’t change that. Bing’s new user interface design simply adds new opportunities to searchers to find what the information they want more quickly and easily, and that benefits webmasters who have taken the time to work on the quality of their content and website design.”
This means that you still need quality content and good, keyword-rich, market-specific copy, and well-performing inbound and outbound links. If you haven’t built a solid foundation in that aspect, don’t worry about Bing specifically yet, because any work you do in SEO 101 will boost your ranking in both Bing and Google.
However, if your site is dripping with SEO goodness, and you’re business is ready to sink your teeth into the upcoming Bing market share, then get ready to set up some testing sites (perhaps with an older domain name!) and get a copywriter to crank out some innovative content. Optimized as needed, and watch your site rise to the top of the SERPs on the newest search engine contender. Bada Bing!