Bing SEO, and the trend to Content Optimization

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is constantly evolving, and the key to long-term success is taking a proactive approach based on assessing the impact of changing technolgy trends, such as Microsoft's new Bing.com search engine.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is constantly evolving along with the internet and the tools that are used to access the web. Typically SEO is a reactive process that is catching up with changes, such as:

• The introduction of a new browser like Chrome
• New information about an existing search engine, such as changes in the Google algorithm
• New tools that crunch data and present information differently from the current crop, like search engine Wolfram Alpha

These changes are usually incremental, and the impact on SEO tends to be a step change, rather than a sea change. In fact you could follow the SEO best practices of five years ago, and still achieve a decent ranking: good content and quality links go not just a long way, but 95% of the way.

Despite the incremental nature of change it is well worth considering what new technologies can tell us about the likely trends in SEO as the internet evolves. This will enable you to make proactive tweaks to your online presence that will create competitive advantages that accelerate with change.

Let’s look at some examples:

Chrome’s Ominbox merged the address bar and search bar into a single space, which has a number of SEO implications, from reduction in the value of targeting typo traffic, to increase in the value of the #1 organic ranking, which appears in the Omnibox.

Of course, Chrome has limited market share, and it will take time before Explorer and Firefox are seriously impacted by this new challenger. However, the changes in Chrome are a sign of what other browsers may introduce. SEO expert Aaron Wall assessed the possible impact of Chrome in detail shortly after release.

Wolfram Alpha is a “Computational Knowledge Engine” that answers questions rather than listing results. You enter a question, it crunches its data bank, and then presents the information as an answer without listing any web sites as references. So even if you do attract Wolfram’s attention you will not benefit from a link, which renders it pointless to optimize a site for.

Wolfram Alpha does, however, illustrate a possible trend in the way information will be searched for and presented. At this time Wolfram is set up to handle mainly technical and academic questions, but it’s worth considering the direction the model might be taken in, and whether it may pose a threat to existing information sites that are set up to attract visitors.

A further example of new technology impacting SEO is Bing.com – Microsoft’s search engine launched on 3 June 2009 to replace its poorly performing Live.com. Like Wolfram, Bing aims to deliver answers rather than web pages, but it does so with traditional web site listings. The way Bing works is to group results under a number of headings, and show the three most relevant results for each heading. For example, a search for “Palm Springs” has three results each for weather, maps, restaurants, and real estate. This is a killer blow for the sites that previously had search ranking positions 6 to 10 on the first page of Live.com, but benefits sites optimized for targeted traffic.

The Future is Clear
Changes in the way we search and the way search results are presented will of course influence SEO. But rather than reacting to changes it is worth keeping in touch with technology trends, and taking a view on the direction things are going in. As the three examples in this article illustrate, technology is moving to provide more accurate answers of higher quality, and as it advances SEO will increasingly focus on creating that quality content, rather than trying to meet algorithmic criteria.

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In its article “Is Bing Going To Revolutionize Search?” Burn SEO looks the initial indications on how Bing will choose to rank and index sites, how easy it will be to obtain front page rankings, and what criteria it is using. These are all important factors to consider when optimizing a web page for the Bing search engine.

One of the most interesting thing about the article is the way it looks at the philosophical difference between a decision engine like Bing, and a search engine like Google.

In terms of practical differences Burn identifies:

• Bing may be a bit quicker to index brand new websites than Google
• Bing does not rely on the DMOZ crutch (Google does)
• Bing seems to give more weight to the title tag of web pages than Google
• Bing puts even more importance on domain age than Google does
• Backlinks appear to have a greater weight with Bing than with Google

In the table below www.seowizz.net takes a look at what SEO techniques are going to get a site exposure on Bing that won’t necessarily do the same for it on Google. Using the keyword “seo services” the table looks at the reasons why http://www.whitehatmedia.com/ ranks #1 for the term on Bing, whilst http://www.smart-traffic.co.uk/ ranks #1 for the term on Google.

The conclusion of the study is that aged domains rank higher on Bing, and Bing gives a greater weight to links from pages with the ranking site’s keywords in the title tag. Of course as Bing and Google update their algorithms all this could, and probably will, change.

The early indications are that Bing.com may be a real rival to Google. comScore reported that Microsoft’s average daily penetration amongst US searchers increased from 13.8% (May 26-30, 2009) to 15.5% (June 2-6, 2009). Over this same period Microsoft’s share of US search engine results pages increased from 9.1% to 11.1%. If this trend continues we can expect more and more assessments of SEO for Bing.

Mashable covers the emerging rivalry between Bing and Google, noting that “while Google may not be gripped by fear, we’d think it only prudent for the search leader to consider what threat, if any, Bing poses to its dominant market position. Google is not ignorant of new search competitors: in fact, one of its most recent products, Google Squared, is in part a response to the computational capabilities of Wolfram Alpha.”