Bing puts a spin on search engine optimization (SEO)
Posted by: Nikki Johnson, Marketing Coordinator
In light of all the hype that has been centered around the new search engine Bing, Microsoft recently released a PDF discussing search engine optimization (SEO) entitled, “Bing: New Features Relevant to Webmasters.” The first part of the document describes the difference in the way Bing organizes search results compared to Live and how this change could affect site owners. Online advertisers will also want to pay attention.
When a user searches today, he or she will notice that results six through 10 have been replaced with categorized listings. For example, a search for “vw beetle” would return normal results for listings one through five, but instead of seeing typical listings beyond that, the user is presented with relevant listings sorted by category, such as “Volkswagen beetle for sale” or “used Volkswagen beetle.” This new method requires search advertisers to be more thorough in the way they optimize their site. The categorized organization is supposed to present search advertisers with new opportunities to utilize long-tail keywords. Instead of only optimizing for brand-related or really basic keywords on a site, advertisers should also optimize for any related categories for which they want to appear. An example of applying this method would be optimizing a site about cars not only for car brands but also for car-related themes like “dealers,” “repair,” or “accessories,” as appropriate.
This new way of displaying search results is only one of several new user interface changes being implemented with Bing. Try out a few searches, and see what you think.
The downside is that when “Bing: New Features Relevant to Webmasters” was released they stated that they only put categorization in place for 20% of their listings. Not everything has that feature, and nowhere did they give any information on how it works. While it is a useful feature it isn’t there for the majority of items that I personally conduct searches for.
On top of that it still doesn’t provide us with solid and sound results. It still provides a multitude of completely irrelevant websites. Using the term “Decision Engine” to describe itself may have been a little presumptuous.
However it still is in its infancy and has a lot of room for growth. It has potential, but needs time and further development to reach that potential.