The past decade has seen a massive improvement in the way people search for information online. Search engines have indeed come a long way.
Until a few years ago, Google was leading the pack. The big G was a search engine that nobody could or wanted to mess with – not until Bing happened. Microsoft had tried flexing its muscles in the search area with its MSN search, but it couldn’t stand up to the evident monopoly. However, when they launched Bing, things changed and many people actually started looking beyond Google.
Today, Bing is rapidly growing and is winning hearts along with a share in the search market. What does this mean to you as an online marketer? An opportunity to grow your traffic by making Bing happy.
If your website isn’t optimized for Bing, you’re leaving some serious traffic on the table for your competitors to munch on. The following article talks about 4 SEO tips to help you get higher rankings in Bing.
1. Aim for a Better Click-through Rate
Bing is a search engine that is evolving intelligently, and is moving in the right direction. It’s obvious that the people working behind the curtains on this search engine want users to have the most relevant results. This is one of the reasons why Bing focuses on the interaction of people with the search results. Therefore, CTR or click-through rate plays a strong role in the Bing SEO game; its one of the factors that will help you gain an edge over the competition.
2. Create Worthy Content
If your website contains thin content, you’ll have to ramp it up. Bing, like every other search engine out there, lays strong emphasis on quality content. Effective SEO here is not about getting instant results, but it’s more about achieving long term growth and getting more stable with time. And that can only be done by producing top notch content and giving visitors a great user experience. The good thing is, when you put in the effort to provide value through your content, you not only get ranked better in Bing, but also in the other major search engines.
3. Use Schema.org
What’s Schema.org? It’s a protocol that is supported by Bing and the other two major players – Yahoo! and Google. Webmasters and bloggers can use this protocol to create special tags right in the HTML code. Using these tags, search engines are able to understand or comprehend the nature of your content better. By marking up your content this way, it becomes easier for you to show how different elements on your site semantically relate. Even though Schema.org isn’t proven to boost your rankings, it is fast gaining importance.
4. Get the Most Out of Bing’s Webmaster Center
Bing is clearly going out of its way to help webmasters achieve the best results. The Bing ‘Webmaster Center’ allows you to get hold on vital statistics about your site. You’ll be able to analyze and manage many different factors that ultimately contribute to your overall rankings. It’s a robust tool that not only helps you improve your SEO campaign but also shows you your mistakes.
