| Search Engine Optimisation - Bing Top 5 Tips and Tricks
This week I want to talk to you about Bing. Im not sure how popular this engine really is. There are talks about “impressive growth” but Bing is still miles behind Google. The reason for this is that although some people use it for the fun factor as its new and something different, for real search results, when you need to search for something specific everyone turns to Google. Probably even Bingers!
Bing is currently third place – behind Yahoo and Google (these are the top 3 key players at present). But since Bing and Yahoo have signed a 10 year deal to merge – there will be just 2 engines. Google and Bing.
However, optimising your site for 2 REALLY different engines like Google and Bing can be a bit tricky. So here’s what I’ve discovered during my not so scientific tests on real search results.
The top 5 things that bing likes:
1) Geolocation in your url.
This is not so great if you have a url that doesnt specify your location, as Bing prioritises those that do. So if your site was called www.mysite.org and there was a competitor site called www.mysite.co.uk, Bing would prioritise UK searches to the second url and demote yours.
2) Keywords in your url (and subsequent page names and folders)
Again, this isnt so great if you have a brandname in your url or its a url youve had for ages. Unfortunately BIng will prioritise those sites that have keywords in their url. Just search for something like "landscape gardener" and see - every site on page 1 has the words landscape gardener actually in the web address!
3) keywords on the page - in the H1 tag (and there should be only one of these), in the paragraphs, and in the links to other pages on the site. DO NOT over use keywords though are you will be demoted if you are suspected of keyword stuffing. Keywords should flow naturally within the paragraphs and page content as well as contained in every heading!
4) OUTGOING LINKS! Rather than Googles approach of backlinking (where if a lot of sites link to you, you must be a reputable site) BING does the exact opposite and looks at who you link to. They dont use backlinks as a factor to determine ranking at all - which is why this is missing from the Bing webmaster tools. So link up to some high ranking reputable sites which are similar to your market sector!
5) Validate your site - this is really important as Bing is heavily promoting good practice in webdesign.
So that's it - your top 5 tips and tricks for Bing. Please see my other article on the top 5 things that Bing doesn’t like!
SEO, SEO |