When you think about search engine optimization (SEO), Google often comes to mind. After all, it is one of the most popular search engines in the world. That said, there are alternatives – many offer a better and/or comprable search experience.
Bing, for example, is a search engine that is operated and controlled by Microsoft. With a market share of nearly 4%, it is the second-largest search engine in the world. Also, over 1.29 billion searches were recorded on Bing in January 2019 alone. The numbers reflect the fact that your website can also benefit from its search traffic once you get your website indexed and ranked on Bing.
If you’re familiar with building an SEO strategy for Google or even Baidu, the dominant Chinese search engine, then you won’t be surprised that to rank on the first page of Bing, you’ll need an SEO strategy. Take a look at the following Bing SEO tips to leverage your rank and increasing traffic.
1. Get your website indexed by Bing
Make sure all the essential pages of your website are indexed on Bing. To find out whether a specific page is indexed or not, type the URL of a page on your website in the Bing search box. If you aren’t shown a result, then you need to have it indexed manually.
Any website owner can submit a website on Bing for free. Sign up for the Bing Webmaster Tool and add the pages you want to show on this search engine.
All websites are indexed eventually. However, this tool will help to optimize your content. You can also increase the crawl rate using this tool. It is advisable for website owners who have a large site with frequent changes.
2. Keep your sitemap clean
XML sitemaps are crucial and underrated. They are primarily digital maps to help search engines discover relevant pages on your site and how often they are updated.
First, check to see if your website has a Bing sitemap by viewing “Sitemaps” in the Bing Webmaster Tool. If not, it’s time to create one. If so, your XML sitemap may need an update. For WordPress powered websites, use a highly-rated WordPress plugin to create a sitemap. If you need to build one manually, use one of the widely available, free third-party XML sitemap tools online.
Bing has always preferred an organized and clean sitemap. If your sitemap has too many redirects or 404 errors, your ranking will take a hit. Submit a sitemap with working URLs. Bing’s crawl rate is not as often as Google’s. Therefore, when changes are made, resubmit your sitemap.
3. Use a traditional keyword strategy
Bing is old-school. For example, if we take a look at what Google requires these days, high-quality content is top of mind. While content is also a crucial factor for Bing, focus on traditional ranking factors like meta tags, meta description, meta title, and even anchor texts. Use primary keywords efficiently in your content, including the title tags. However, don’t stuff your pages with keywords as that’ll negatively impact your Google ranking.
4. Develop high-quality backlinks
Every SEO strategy requires strong backlinks to your website. Quality is always more valuable than quantity. Similar to Google, aspiring Bing SEO experts should focus on generating high-quality backlinks.
Quality backlinks have two things in common: a high domain authority (DA) and a low spam score (SS). “Domain authority is a search engine ranking score that predicts a website’s ability to rank on search engine results pages or SERPs. Domain authority ranges from a score of 1 to 100. The higher your score, the better your website will rank.” A spam score is just what it sounds like, the percentage of spammy “untrustworthy” backlinks to your site.
Unlike Google, Bing still values anchor text. That means you can still boost your ranking by receiving quality backlinks on anchor texts.
5. Multimedia content is always a winner
According to the Bing algorithm, publish various types of content on your website. Multimedia content like static images, animated gifs, dynamic charts, and videos are useful tools to increase site traffic. Bing loves content that enhances the user experience (UX). Therefore, ensure text-based content includes multimedia content.
Improve your SEO for Bing
SEO for Bing is an intricate process. However, with the right strategy, your site can rank on the second largest search engine and benefit from enhanced traffic. Also, these SEO techniques will help you improve your rank on Google and Baidu.
These SEO tips have been shared by the senior copywriter and content specialist at TradeKey.com –– your key to global trade.
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