When it comes to SEO, it's not just Google. Bing is also a search engine that you should focus your optimization efforts on. Here's the strategy to adopt to strengthen your Bing SEO and increase the overall visibility of your website.


For most marketing specialists, Google is the first thing that comes to mind when talking about SEO. It's generally believed that once you've pleased the search giant, other search engines will follow and send you traffic. Many people are unaware that the second most popular search engine in the world can also be a highly profitable channel.


Indeed, while Google continued to dominate the global web search market in 2022 with an 83.84% share, challenger search engines like Microsoft's Bing have gained ground in recent years.
In this article, we will explore how to optimize your Bing SEO in 2023 to generate more traffic to your website and boost your sales.


Why is Bing SEO important ?

Over the past three years, Bing's market share has grown from 3.99% to 8.88%.

It's worth noting that there is currently an intense competition between the giants of web search, especially with the recent advent of the latest revolution in artificial intelligence: ChatGPT.

To keep up with OpenAI, the American company behind ChatGPT, Google unveiled its alternative to ChatGPT in early February 2023, called "Bard." This AI is tasked with taking Google's search engine to a whole new level. Meanwhile, Microsoft, one day after Google's announcement, introduced its new Bing, which conveniently integrates ChatGPT technology.

Like Google, Bing (or "Microsoft Bing") offers a wide range of search services, including web search, video search, image search, and mapping services.


Although it lives in the shadow of Google, Microsoft's search engine has gained ground in recent years. Google maintains an 83.84% share of the global market, which is a decrease from its 89.95% market share three years ago. During the same period, Bing's market share has grown from 3.99% to 8.88%.
Together, Bing and Google currently hold nearly 93% of the global search engine market share. Yahoo (now powered by Bing) follows with 2.55%, followed by Yandex and Baidu (the most widely used search engines in Russia and China, respectively).


It's mainly due to the intense rivalry between Bing and Google that divergences have emerged between the two search engines, driven by the need to differentiate themselves and increase their market share.
In summary, even though Google is the dominant search engine, it's wise not to rely solely on one search engine. By being indexed on Bing in addition to Google, you can increase your online visibility and attract a different audience.

Bing vs Google: Differences in Ranking Factors

Meta descriptions play a much more significant role in evaluating a website by Bing than in Google's evaluation.


There are many similarities in the SEO ranking factors considered by Google and Bing. However, it's also clear that there are significant differences in the weighting applied to certain ranking factors when comparing Bing and Google results.
Many differences between Bing and Google's ranking processes lie at the intersection of technical and content aspects of SEO. For example, the treatment of metadata and other signals on a web page differs considerably between the two search engines, largely due to their different approaches to understanding websites on the web.


In particular, meta descriptions play a much more significant role in evaluating a website by Bing than in Google's evaluation. Similarly, Bing places more emphasis on the presence of target keywords in anchor text, while Google does not focus as much on this element.
It's worth noting that Bing relies more on conventional data to understand a website's content, including keywords, page titles, and metadata. Google, on the other hand, places less importance on these factors due to its better context-based language interpretation (especially since the advent of RankBrain and BERT updates). Overall, this makes Google SEO more challenging than Bing SEO.
To delve deeper, feel free to read our article (mentioned on the SemRush blog) on the SEO differences between Bing and Google SEO: Bing SEO vs. Google SEO, What are the Differences?

What SEO strategy to adopt for effective Bing SEO ?

Here are the main actions you can take to optimize your SEO on the Bing search engine in 2023 and beyond.

1.    Get your website indexed by Bing

Since Bing now powers Yahoo as well, you'll need to submit your website to Bing's Webmaster Tools for both search engines. The first step is to create a Bing account if you don't have one already. Then, you can visit the Bing Webmaster page and fill out the forms to submit your site. You'll also need your website's XML sitemap URL.
Once that's done, the next step is to verify ownership of your site by copying and pasting a certain code in the right place on your website. After completing all these steps, your website should be indexed within minutes, and you'll start to see organic traffic coming in over time.



2.    Always write excellent content

You've probably heard the famous cliché that "content is king" on the internet. Indeed, to rank well on Bing, you need high-quality content that meets the search engine's strict requirements.
To maximize your chances of ranking well on Bing in 2023, you should focus on writing high-quality content that is well-researched, with plenty of good images as well.
You'll simply undermine your ranking chances on Bing if the quality of your content falls below this standard.

3.    User engagement is crucial

User engagement, or Pogosticking, is one of the most important ranking factors for Bing, and you can't ignore it. Pogosticking occurs when someone performs a search, clicks on a link, realizes it's not what they're looking for, and immediately hits the back button to return to the original search result. This event is also accurately measured in Google Analytics in the "bounce rate" section.
So, if visitors come to your website from search results (SERPs) and click the "back" button, it's a clear sign of a poor user experience for Bing.
However, if visitors come to your website and don't return to the SERPs to continue their search, it's a strong signal, and Bing will reward you with a higher ranking.

4.    Use keywords effectively

The use of keywords has proven to be an essential ranking factor in search engines, and Bing is no exception. While factors like internal links are more critical for Google than for Bing, relevant and contextual keywords are of utmost importance for Bing. This is why blogs are still one of the most popular forms of content marketing today.
You need to ensure that every page on your site is well optimized with relevant keywords and other related terms that provide descriptive information around your target keywords.
Similar to Google, Bing's algorithms take into account 5 to 7 related words for each keyword and its density in the content. You can't simply stuff your content with keywords to rank well on Bing. You need to be creative and natural in using your keywords to have a real impact.


5.    Social signals matter

Make sure that social signals (likes, shares on Facebook, retweets, etc.) are part of your overall SEO tactics, as they affect your ranking in both Google and Bing. However, Bing relies more on social signals than Google.
Therefore, leverage the power of social media, and you'll benefit more from both search engines in terms of ranking.

6.    Anchor text is also important

Bing places more importance on using anchor text (the clickable text of a link) than Google. So, if you want to rank for "hiking equipment," you need links that use "hiking equipment" as anchor text. Additionally, Bing is not as good as Google at matching keywords. While Google excels at understanding the context around a keyword and synonyms, Bing needs more explicit signals.
However, be careful not to over-optimize your anchor text, as it could trigger the Google Penguin filter and penalize your site.

7.    Site structure and code are crucial

Bing provides excellent guidance on website coding and structure. First, it suggests that high-quality content should be kept close to the surface. In other words, none of your content should be more than three clicks away from your website's homepage.
Additionally, using a precise breadcrumb trail is advisable. For example, you can choose something like:
Home => Shoes => Children's Shoes
With this structure, you'll align with one of Bing's key ranking factors.

8.    Page authority matters too

When comparing Bing and Google results, you'll notice that Bing doesn't give as much weight to backlinks. However, Microsoft's search engine places a significant emphasis on site authority.
In other words, it's easier to rank a new domain in Google than in Bing. Having an older domain will give you an additional boost in your Bing SEO.

9.    Overall page optimization is critical on Bing

Page optimization is just as important for Bing SEO as it is for Google. You need to make good use of:
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Meta titles Keywords Meta descriptions
Bing places a lot of importance on title tags. Just like with Google, it's advisable to have an H1 tag for each page to establish the main topic. Then, you can use H2 and H3 tags for subtopics.

10.    Ensure your site has good loading speed

The loading time of your website also directly impacts how Bing ranks your pages. To improve your site's speed, some quick actions include:
cssCopy code
Optimizing images Reducing CSS, JavaScript, and HTML Updating hosting Reducing redirects Minimizing HTTP requests Using a Content Delivery Network (CDN) Implementing Google AMP Prioritizing lazy loading

In conclusion...

While they can't compare to Google in terms of generating traffic, the combination of Bing and Yahoo remains a strong search option used by internet users worldwide. This makes it an important source of traffic for your website.
Furthermore, competition is tougher on Google, and they use many filters to make their work easier and our work harder. Bing SEO, on the other hand, is easier, less competitive, and few people make efforts to rank on this search engine. It's a real opportunity for you!


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