Most people think that if you rank well at Google, you must do well at Bing and Yahoo, but this is not the case.
Unfortunately, I found that most blog posts on this topic tend to use one search engine over another. However, I think it is important to optimize all three of them-without the right optimization for each search engine, you may miss some important business opportunities.
Before we start, I would like to mention that Yahoo and Bing have an alliance, so that you can worry less about a search engine. Why? Because Yahoo and Bing will have the same search results.
My goal is to provide you with facts so that you can really understand the differences and similarities between these search engines and search ranking factors, and why it is important to optimize for everyone. First, let’s start with the similarities.
Similarities between Bing / Yahoo and Google SEO
Links – The quality of the backlink profile is important in both Google and Bing, so having a high quality website link is very important.
Local search results-Page content and optimization should include geo-based keywords to succeed in local results.
Paid Search-Both are the same, but remember, this is just rented space for your site
Differences between Bing / Yahoo and Google SEO
Bing / Yahoo and Google have subtle and significant differences in evaluating websites. Here is an overview of each (facts from Google and Bing respectively):
1. Match keywords
Google: Google’s algorithm identifies synonyms and context for keywords. This allows a little freedom and creativity in your content
Bing: The exact keywords are best here
2. Double meaning search query
Google: If there is a keyword with two meanings, then the most popular website is often ranked first
Bing: Double meaning search in Bing first provides local results
3. Domain age / page permissions
Google: The age of a domain name is not as important as the quality of the backlinks to the domain name. Also, Google does prefer .edu and .gov because they tend to have good links and good content
Bing: Focus on domain age when assigning rankings, and sponsoring .edu and .gov websites
4. Flash content
Google: Google cannot crawl and understand Flash sites
Bing: Understanding and crawling Flash websites well, sometimes trusting websites that use it
As you can see, Bing, Yahoo, and Google all play very important roles in SEO, so optimizing for everyone is very important. Just because you rank well in one search engine doesn’t mean you rank well in others.
5. Mobile optimization
More than a year ago, in November, Google launched a mobile-friendly label for mobile search results. This label is a gray word below the link and tells users if the site works on their mobile device. Starting April 21, 2015, Google announced that they will add a ranking factor to help mobile-friendly websites rank higher in mobile search, so it ’s important for website owners to prepare for this change.
Although Yahoo has not adopted any of these features, Bing has quietly added mobile-friendly tags to its mobile search results, just like Google. It’s unclear whether Bing will introduce this ranking factor to their algorithm. In November, Bing did reveal some mobile-friendly technologies that they may or may not use in the future. From what I see, it seems that there will be more coming from Bing around mobile SEO.
How to optimize search on Bing / Yahoo
According to Search Engine Magazine, Google controls 67% of the search market, but Bing and Yahoo account for 29% of the US search market, so they are still influential and will give you more ways to discover online.
Keep in mind that 2015 may be the year when other search engines like Bing / Yahoo start to take more market share. Why? Firefox has pushed Google to the side of the road, and Yahoo will now be the default search engine. In addition, Google’s deal with Safari has almost begun, and some people are talking about Bing and Yahoo trying to secure a place.
Now, how do you optimize for Bing / Yahoo? So, check out the following 9 ways to optimize your website for Bing / Yahoo. Some of these strategies may be resolved if you have properly optimized them for Google, but some of them will be different.
1. To be indexed in Bing, you should submit your website to Bing
According to Bing, “To be indexed is the first step in developing traffic from Bing.” You simply submit your website to Bing Webmaster Tools and wait for it to be crawled. Bing doesn’t update their index like Google does, so you might have to wait for a while to be patient.
2. Need technical requirements
Bing focuses on these technologies when ranking your site
Factors:
Page load speed-Your website page should be fast
Robots.txt-this will tell the Bing robot what to crawl and what not to crawl
Sitemap-keep the sitemap clean and up-to-date (remove any unnecessary URLs)
Redirection – Bing prefers 301 redirects for moving content between websites
Canonical Tags-This is a new feature of Bing, they now recognize rel = canonical tags, which helps Bing determine which page is the original page and which pages are duplicate
Title tags are very important
According to search engine magazines, Bing seems to value title tags more than Google, so make sure to use relevant keywords in the title tags of each page to rank well in Bing, but don’t use too many keywords or you might Get punished by Google.
4. Use obvious keywords
IngBing is not applicable to broad match keywords, so make sure to use exact keywords to rank accurately in Bing’s search results when optimizing. Wordstream has a great tool to help you choose the perfect words and phrases for Bing optimization.
5. Create Backlinks
Backlinks are important for all search engine rankings, but it seems they are especially important for Bing rankings. According to Searchmetrics, “On average, 52-53% of the top 30 websites in Bing have backlinks containing keywords in anchor text (about 10% more than Google).” As always, When creating backlinks, make sure they come from a legitimate website.
6. Content is important
This should not be a surprise. Both Google and Bing look for high-quality, relevant content for ranking purposes. Bing said that they are looking for a clear and easy way to find content, which can better index the index, not just well-optimized content.
7. Social
Inside Google, their position on social signals is not completely clear, but Bing made it clear that social media plays an extremely important role in its ranking factor.
8. Local action
IngBing likes sites that have optimized local listings, so make sure you declare your listing on www.bingplaces.com as the champion.
In addition to these requirements, you must use the same ethics and standards as Google and avoid the following:
camouflage
Frustrating backlink strategy (i.e. payment link)
Dark social media strategy (i.e. increasing followers)
Too many keywords in content
Optimizing Bing, Yahoo, and Google is becoming more and more important, especially since major browsers have undergone major changes, so please cover all the basics to ensure your SEO strategy includes optimizing all top search engines.
