The Smartest Ways to Optimize Your Website for Bing

When asked to optimize a website, what webmasters think all the time is making the site look good to the eyes of Google. However, there are other search engines besides Google, which are becoming more popular. A lot of webmasters have nearly forgotten Bing, while there’s a fat chance of Bing getting more popularity in the months to come. It has to be noted that Yahoo search is powered by Bing and so the two combined have 25% of the organic searches done. It’s not a small number to ignore. Therefore, it’s time you optimize your website for Bing. Moreover, Bing is becoming smarter every day and so it’s becoming necessary for webmasters to optimize their site to rank well in Bing.

Though the number of Bing users is comparatively small now, there is a big chance of Bing getting increasingly popular in the near future. Already, some of the users love Bing for its intuitive search which is absent in Google. Another reason why optimizing websites for Bing is being ignored is there’s lack of effective strategies. It’s because Google has been the giant dominating the field all these years that Bing has almost been hidden behind Google’s popularity. Therefore, not many have ventured out to test how their website ranks in Bing. I’m here with a bunch of tried and tested strategies for you to apply on your website so that it ranks well in Bing.

Link, Link more and Link some more:

It is essential to add a lot of links to add more value to your website. As always, you must link to quality external content. While it is important to monitor the quality of the content on your website, you must also look at the quality of the content you are linking to. In this concept of valuing links, Google and Bing work almost alike and so this tells us that we have to view links the same way as we would do for Google, i.e., link to quality sites. However, it is also important not to overdo this as this will only make you end up with a bunch of links and a poor ranking from Bing and also Google because your site will be rated by Google, too.

Meta Tags:

Feel like you haven’t heard this word for ages? Many of the webmasters have ditched meta tags because Google doesn’t value these anymore. However, it’s not to be forgotten that you must still have them for Bing. Though you have meta tags for your pages, Google doesn’t underestimate the value of your site. Therefore, if you have removed them, it’s time to welcome them back to your code and if you’ve never had them, you had better insert them. It’s best to have them for each page as Bing values your site more if you have them on each page.

Keywords and Anchor Text:

You may have mastered the technique of using the right keywords. However, you must also think of where to use them and how to use them. If you have a main header on a page, use your keywords there once and somewhere in the content also. If you are going to link your text to an internal page, do it with the keywords, i.e., use keywords as your anchor text to link to internal content. This link should take the visitors to another page on your own website. Also, take care that the two linked pages have similar content.

Length of the Posts:

If you’re maintaining a blog, you must take care of the length of the posts. While ‘short is sweet’ for Google, Bing wants it to be the other way. The length of your content determines its quality with Bing. However, you can’t go ahead and increase the length of all your posts blindly. It’s because you will rank poorly in Google if you do it and Google must be your prime focus for optimization. Therefore, see to it that you have posts not less than 300 words. The optimal length of posts is 500 words and you can also exceed this length if need be.

Do not Optimize Too Much:

As said earlier, your website will be ranked by Google also. Therefore, do not optimize your website too much for Bing. Your primary focus should be on Google optimization and optimizing your website for Bing is only a preparation for what is yet to come. Therefore, do not overuse these strategies so that your website ranks well in both search engines.

Bing doesn’t have sophisticated filters and tools like Google’s and therefore, it is easy to increase the PageRank of your website in Bing. However, Bing is also getting smarter at identifying spam and so spamming doesn’t work for either search engines. Change your strategies from time to time and keep what works best for you.

Kathryn Smith is a tech and entertainment blogger who works for a reputed online publication. She also identifies various distance learning programs in order to help the younger generation fulfill their career goals and dreams.