*Bonus points if you found this page using Google.* 

Optimize Your Business on Bing

SEO for Bing may sound like optimizing your vending machine for Mr. Pibb, but Bing has more users than you might expect.
According to Search Engine Journal, Bing (and Yahoo!) houses as much as 33% of desktop searches in some industries (see below). 
Reminder: Since 2010, Yahoo! has been powered by Bing. Optimizing for one optimizes for both. Traffic from Bing also has a higher conversion rate than Google’s.
While you don’t want to optimize exclusively for Bing, since Google still controls most of the market, catering to Bing rankings helps gain traffic, plain and (sorta) simple.

Who Uses Bing?

According to SE Ranking, Bing users tend to be between 35 and 54 years old, educated, with an income of over $75,000. The most popular industries are: 

JLB – Local SEO – Nashville, Brentwood and Franklin, TN.

• Retail
• Finance
• Technology
• Travel
• Education
• Health
• Auto
• Telecom

So… SEO for Bing? Here are six tips.

1. Content is King

Content is King – JLB – Local SEO

Just like with Google, quality content is the #1 driver of all things SEO on Bing. According to Quick Sprout, “Each blog post you create for your website needs to be approximately 1,600 words of quality content to maximize your chances on Bing and Yahoo. 
Every piece of content on your site must be well-researched, well-sourced, well-cited, and it needs to include lots of great images.”
DON’TS: Promote “thin” content on your site.

2. Meta Keywords

Meta Keywords (sometimes called “Meta Description”) are words visible only in the website code that tells a search engine what a website’s page is intended to do. Think of Meta’s as “directions,” that are given to search engines to help it discover and navigate the page’s purpose to consumers. 
While not a key ranking factor for Google, meta descriptions have a significant impact on Bing.
DON’TS: Keyword Stuffing.

3. Social Media

Image of a smartphone with social media apps

Social media activity (shares, likes, etc.) matters to Bing rankings.  Simply put, a page will rank higher on Bing if it’s been shared more on Twitter and Facebook, for example. In fact, Bing has openly confirmed this on their Webmaster Guidelines which gives recommendations for how to do SEO on their search engine. 
They said, “Social media plays a role in today’s effort to rank well in search results,” and that in the long run, social media signal impact ranking on Bing.
Video also plays a pivotal role both in content creation and social media interaction.

4. Get Your Website Listed on Bing Places for Business

JLB – Local SEO – Website Listing Management

Similar to Google My Business, your business should be claimed on Bing Places for Business. A Digital Marketing Strategy can help list your business on Bing Places in addition to dozens of other well-utilized listing databases. 
If you’re a current client, we’ll update your Bing and local listings for free. This is a must-have tool for local SEO in Brentwood and Nashville, TN.

5. Use Exact Keywords

While Google focuses more on user intent, Bing still uses exact keywords.
According to the Search Engine Journal, “You’ll find you rank better in Bing SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) if you use exact keywords wherever you can, including your domain, your meta descriptions, and your H1 and H2 title tags.”
Decisive explanation of meta descriptions, H1’s, and H2’s is outside the scope of this post, but rest easy knowing that they are well taken care of for your website’s SEO by our team at JLB.

6. Backlinks

Backlinks are important on both Google and Bing, but Bing puts slightly more emphasis on quantity, whereas Google is shifting to a quality rating of backlinks. 
Also, Bing values links from .gov, .edu, and .org sites and sites with older, well-established domains. Like with Google, however, seek quality over quantity when it comes to these types of sites.

Final Tips for Bing SEO

JLB – Bing & SEO – Nashville, Brentwood and Franklin, TN local SEO

• Bing is better than Google at understanding pictures and videos as well as Flash websites.
• You can submit your site to Bing and tell it to crawl your site more often. This will help your pages get indexed.
• According to SE Ranking, you should use keywords in the meta description and title of your page.
• Don’t use black-hat tactics.
• If you need more information about SEO, Bing it.

If you want more traffic online from both Google and Bing, we can help. JLB is the #1 Web Design and SEO company in the Nashville/Brentwood TN area.
We have years of experience running SEO for our clients. Want to know if SEO is right for you? Request a FREE SEO Site Analysis.