Search engine optimization with Bing SEO

As a website operator, you want your site to be easily found. You often think of Google, but not of the search engine Bing, right? For many website operators, search engine optimization is an abstract topic, and Bing SEO often gets pushed into the background. This is probably because Germany is a Google country. According to Statcounter, Google had a market share of 94.5% in Germany in 2019, while Bing only had 3%.

[caption id="attachment_25213" align="aligncenter" width="1024"]

Fig. 1 Statcounter statistics on search engine usage in Germany in 2019[/caption]

What features does Bing offer?

With Bing's previously unheard-of preview function in search engines, users receive useful information about content and internal links even before they enter the website. Here, the displayed content is actually drawn from the page content and not, as with a snippet, from a meta-description.

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Fig. 1: Statcounter statistics on search engine usage in Germany in 2019[/caption]

Still, you shouldn't ignore the Bing search engine. Users who come via Bing often have better user behavior than those from Google. They typically view more pages, stay longer on the domain, and have a higher conversion rate. It may therefore be worthwhile for you as a provider to engage this audience. Also, the results of Apple’s Siri service and Amazon’s Alexa are based on Bing.

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Fig. 2: Comparison of user behavior on Bing with Google[/caption]

Commonalities between Bing and Google

In principle, you are already optimizing your website for Bing if you carry out search engine optimization according to Google guidelines. This is partly because Bing uses similar criteria. It is also because some SEO standards from Bing, Google, and other search engines were created in alliance together. An example of this is the structured data from schema.org.

Further aids for Bing search engine optimization

A look at Bing's search results page is also very helpful. Bing specifies much more precisely where the data comes from. In addition to pure search engine optimization, revising other profiles on the Internet such as Xing, Wikipedia, etc., can also lead to better visibility on Bing. The optimization of multimedia elements on the website can also show better effects than on Google. This is visible with Bing image search or video results. By strategically using structured data and consistent use of alt titles, you can position images and videos very well in the search engine.

Furthermore, Bing search offers some options that are not available in Google. For example, individual elements in images can be selected for search. Videos are supplemented in the results with a lot of information, such as whether it is a trailer. Also, videos can already be watched in preview, and Bing considers the search query history to display the most suitable results.

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Fig. 3: Identification of elements in Bing image search[/caption]

What to pay attention to

Microsoft offers various guidelines and tools for its search engine to support users in achieving the best possible search engine optimization. The following three are the most relevant from our perspective:

Bing Webmaster Tools

• Submit sitemap.xml

• Block URLs

• Monitor reports

• Control crawls

• Test mobile-friendliness

We warmly recommend using the Bing Webmaster Tools to gain better control options. Of course, the domain can also rank in the Bing search engine even if it has not been registered there. Nonetheless, it is interesting to see how Bing assesses the website compared to Google.

Bing Webmaster Guidelines

Bing offers the very informative Bing Webmaster Guidelines on its websites. These provide users with initial help on the topic of search engine optimization. The instructions are thematically subdivided and clearly presented. They are helpful for both experienced users and newcomers to the topic of Bing SEO who want to know what the search engine operator values.

Markup Validator

If you use structured data on your website, you can check the correct implementation with the Bing Markup Validator. Supported formats are:

• HTML Microdata

• Microformats

• RDFa

• schema.org

• OpenGraph from Facebook

Please note, however, that you must register to use the tool with the Bing Webmaster Tools. This also applies to the SEO Analyzer and the keyword research tool.

Peculiarities of the Bing search engine

We generally want to give you three tips that will help you with Bing SEO:

1. Exact Match URLs:

Bing places much more emphasis on the correct name in the domain than Google does. Therefore, if you own a domain that includes your brand name, it will automatically rank better on Bing.

2. JavaScript

Currently, Bing is not as advanced as Google in accounting for JavaScript on websites (as of 10.2019). This means that while your site may rank well on Google, it might be placed lower on Bing. Sites that dynamically load content through JavaScript are particularly affected. However, if your site uses minimal JavaScript or does not load content dynamically, you can overlook this point.

3. Google Adjustments

Google frequently makes adjustments to its SEO guidelines, suddenly weighting certain features more or less. The last known adjustment was the removal of "noindex" from the robots.txt file. It's important to note with these changes that they apply only to Google and not automatically to Bing. So don't be alarmed by them.

Conclusion

The Bing search engine offers many unique features to differentiate itself from its bigger rival, Google. At the same time, its users exhibit consistently better behavior on websites, regardless of the industry. To rank well here, you only need to make a few specific adjustments, but you can use Bing's excellent tools to closely monitor your developments.

How can we support you?

Do you want to increase your conversions and revenue through organic search? Are you already ranking well on Google and now want to kick off with Bing? We support you in Bing SEO and thus achieve higher rankings in the Bing search engine.

Contact us here, we look forward to your inquiry!