Over the past year (since May of 2009), Bing has evolved into the third largest search engine on the web. However, you are about to see significant movement in search engine market share over the next few years as Bing starts to power Yahoo! Search. This increase of search engine queries traveling through the Bing engine will undoubtedly impact search engine optimization. So, with Bing competing directly with Google, let’s take a look at the SEO differences between the two sites.

Bing and Google have shown in recent SEO studies that they are relatively similar when comparing on-page optimization. This means that title tags, description tags, and body copy are evaluated and weighted in similar fashion. So, when you create a page or post you can optimize by:

  1. Selecting unique, non-duplicate, and grabbing title tags (and title for the page/post) that directly relate to the page/post you are creating
  2. Include at least 15% but not more than 20% of your body copy as keywords, and make sure that the text is readable/understandable from a human perspective…after all, they are buying your product and services
  3. Utilize detailed and informative snippets for your description tag; these do not directly relate to search engine rankings, but they will indirectly effect the number of visits as this is what the search engines pick up to preview your site on results pages

As we look further into the analysis of Bing and Google, there are significant differences in the weighting of off-page factors. This means that there is a difference in the number of links, quality of links, diversity of links, domain history, and anchor text. Here are some ways that your site may rank better in Bing:

  1. Studies have shown that older domains hold a higher weight than anchor text concentration for Bing. You don’t have as much control over this, but this also means that you do not want to change your domain name or have it redirected frequently to maximize Bing SEO.
  2. Build in-bound links through pages that directly correlate with your page. This is something that you would do with Google as well, but Google takes a little more weighted approach when it looks at the link popularity and diversity.
  3. Utilize anchor text for the in-bound links that have your specified keywords. Again, this isn’t something that is weighted as heavily as Google, but it is still a pertinent aspect of SEO on Bing.

The final aspect that recent studies have shown as a major difference are the linking-pages (which are…the pages that link to your page). This takes into account where the keywords are (title and/or body), and the average rankings of the pages that are linking to you. Here is how you can help Bing recognize your site through the linking pages:

  1. Increase the number of sites that link to you and have your keywords in the title tags
  2. Launch a link-building campaign that has your long-tail keywords in the body
  3. Gain in-bound links from higher ranking, older domain sites

Overall, all of these tips can help with all of the search engines out there, but this is where the Bing world is taking us (more linking pages that have your keywords in their title tags, older sites ranking higher, and improving the percentage and use of keywords in your copy. However, if you need help with your search engine optimization or have additions to this post please contact Impact or leave comments below.