Bing SEO is a mystery for most entrepreneurs, who typically follow the discussions focused on Google SEO. Although we don’t have official statistics, it’s fair to say that at least 90% of the conversations happening online focus on how to optimize your site for 
Google. It makes sense. According to comScore’s latest search engine rankings, Google commands just over 67% of the search market while Microsoft’s Bing comes in at 19.2%.
It’s interesting to note that Google is slowly declining month over month, although just by a fraction of a percentage point each time, and Bing is increasing at the same rate. Still, one fifth of the search market is significant, when you realize that the query base for these number is 18 billion searches monthly. In addition, Bing powers the search engine results on other platforms including Facebook and Yahoo. Here’s a closer look at steps businesses can take to make the most of Bing SEO opportunities.
The Basics Still Apply
If you’ve focused primarily on Google until this point, you will have established a good baseline for optimizing for Bing. Bing’s approach to SEO is similar in many ways to Google’s. Quality content, links, good on-page SEO, responsible advertising, and a cleanly structured and fast-loading website are all important. From there, there are a few specific differences that can give you a boost on the Bing side.
Pay Extra Attention to Your Titles
While Google has invested heavily in optimizing for semantic search, Bing’s approach still relies heavily on keywords. In particular, a page’s title tags and the titles of content such as blog posts carries substantial weight. To make the most of traffic from non-Google sources, don’t abandon the fundamentals of good on-page SEO yet. Instead, build a solid foundation that’s going to help you get ahead on Bing, Yahoo, and other search engines, and probably offer some benefits in Google’s search results as well.
Social Optimization Matters
A few months ago, Google’s Matt Cutts made waves when he announced that social signals – at least from networks like Facebook and Twitter – don’t currently play a role in the search engine’s algorithm. Bing, however, has taken a different approach. Social signals do matter. In fact, Bing SEO guidelines explicitly state that the search engine uses social signals when personalizing your search results. As a website owner, it’s important that your social media accounts are tied to your site and that it’s easy for visitors to share your content across networks.
Update Your Contact Information
Have you updated your contact information and listings for your site on Bing Maps? If not, it’s time to do this. Customers searching for local businesses on Bing may actually be more likely to find you than customers searching on Google. Google prioritizes authority in local searches, and is more likely to return bigger and more established companies. But Bing’s results are proximal, so your visibility will be higher to anyone searching in your immediate area.
Use the Available Tools
Bing offers a wide variety of tools for webmasters to learn more about what works and their overall recommendations. Some places to start include their link building recommendations, general SEO guidelines, and the comprehensive Bing Webmaster Tools site.
Do you need help with SEO for your website? Contact Be Locally SEO today to learn more about how our team of digital marketing experts can help you make the most of both Google and Bing SEO to grow your business.