Optimizing for both Google and Bing can help you attract wider audiences, leverage different ranking factors and drive growth.
A solid online presence is necessary for business success in nearly every market today. Consumers expect to find information and solutions online, and search engines are the primary way they find products and services.
Google holds over 91 per cent of the search engine market share worldwide, while Bing has less than four per cent. Why should you consider how to rank on Bing? The key is to recognize the sheer volume of internet searches conducted in a day. Even with its lower market share, Bing still hosts nearly 900 million searches per day.
If you’re looking to increase your visibility and grow revenue, it makes sense to open all avenues to welcome new customers. To do so effectively, you’ll need to optimize your website for both Google and Bing.
Why are search engines critical to your business?
Search engines are the primary source of website traffic for many businesses. They significantly increase your company’s visibility and reach, as they are the primary way consumers discover new businesses, products and services.
A strong presence in search results can drive substantial organic traffic, which is often more valuable and cost-effective than paid advertising. The ability to rank well with both search engines can provide a long-term source of new customers.
Search engines also offer valuable insights and analytics. They provide data on consumer behaviour, preferences and trends, which can inform and refine your marketing strategies. Google Analytics and Bing Webmaster offer detailed insights into how users interact with your website, helping you optimize performance and improve user experience.
Comparing Bing and Google
Google was founded in 1998 in California by Sergey Brin and Larry Page, who hoped to create a way to organize the world’s information to make it valuable and accessible to all. Bing, established in 2009 in Washington by Microsoft, got its name from “the sound of found.”
Google and Bing provide similar functions by connecting consumers with products and services via search queries. They use complex algorithms to identify, evaluate and eventually match searchers with relevant website pages or search results. They also offer pay-per-click (PPC) advertising platforms to help you reach wider audiences.
In many cases, they will send you search traffic based on user queries in similar ways. Both offer text, image, video and local search capabilities, using ranking factors to provide the best match for each search query. They both provide related searches and featured snippets to assist users in finding what they are looking for.
However, their algorithms do seem to prioritize different ranking factors or aspects of a website page that make it appealing to search engines.
Examples of how Google and Bing prioritize different ranking factors
Google uses mobile-first indexing, meaning it primarily uses the mobile version of a website’s content to index and rank in search results. Bing, on the other hand, does not. This highlights the need for businesses to ensure their websites are responsive and mobile friendly.
Bing uses social signals (metrics related to social media activity) as important ranking factors, while Google doesn’t. Social signals can include interactions such as likes, comments, shares and pins that all help search engines recognize content that is appealing, high quality and trusted by other users.
Instead of social signals, Google gives additional weight to backlinks from established and trusted websites or sites with high authority rankings. Having a reputable site link to yours can help Google flag your site content as trustworthy and valuable to searchers.
Benefits of optimizing for both Bing and Google
Optimizing for both Bing and Google has benefits that can significantly enhance your business’s online presence. By ensuring your business appears on both search engines, you increase the likelihood of being discovered by a larger audience.
Each search engine has its user base, and by optimizing for both, you tap into these distinct user groups, broadening your reach and attracting diverse demographics. This dual optimization can drive higher levels of engagement and conversions as you cater to the preferences and behaviours of users on both platforms.
Optimizing for both Bing and Google helps you mitigate risks associated with algorithm changes. Search engines regularly update their algorithms, which can sometimes result in significant fluctuations in search rankings.
By diversifying your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts across both platforms, you reduce the impact of these changes on your overall visibility and traffic, ensuring a more stable and resilient online presence.
Implementing SEO strategies for Google and Bing
Remember, there’s no guaranteed formula for swaying search engine results, but there are strategies and best practices that can help.
The best approach is to learn what each search engine uses to evaluate web pages and work to implement SEO strategies for both throughout your website.
Best SEO practices for Google:
- Conduct keyword research using built-in tools like Google Keyword Planner to find relevant keywords.
- Implement on-page SEO and optimize titles, meta descriptions, and headers.
- Take care of technical SEO by ensuring site speed, mobile compatibility and clean code.
- Optimize Google My Business profile and encourage local reviews to leverage local SEO.
- Improve quality based on providing helpful and relevant information to human users, with an emphasis on experience, expertise, authority and trust (E-E-A-T).
- Review Google’s demographics when running paid ads to see if the user base aligns with your target audience.
Best SEO practices for Bing:
- Use Bing’s Keyword Research tool for insights into valuable keywords.
- Focus on improving on-page SEO with straightforward, well-structured content.
- Prioritize technical SEO aspects such as site speed, sitemaps and structured data.
- Use Bing Places for Business to enhance local search visibility.
- Create high-quality content for human readers and ensure your pages work in the Microsoft Edge browser to rank.
- Consider Bing users’ demographics and how they compare to your desired audience when running paid ads.
Practical tips for dual optimization
Optimizing for both Bing and Google involves strategic practices catering to each platform’s unique ranking factors. Balancing keyword strategies ensures you capture relevant search traffic from both search engines.
(Pro tip: compare the cost per click (CPC) for keywords on both ad platforms before running ad campaigns. You may find that some of your keywords cost less to target through Bing.)
Crafting content that appeals to Bing’s emphasis on social signals and Google’s focus on quality backlinks and mobile optimization maximizes your visibility and engagement across both platforms.
Ensuring your website meets the technical SEO requirements of both Bing and Google plays an essential role in dual optimization. This includes optimizing site speed, implementing structured data and maintaining mobile responsiveness.
Monitoring performance with Google Analytics and Bing Webmaster tools provides insights to refine your strategies and improve overall search engine visibility and user experience.
Understanding and leveraging search engines is crucial for your business to increase its visibility, attract more customers and drive sustainable growth. By optimizing for both search engines, you can ensure your business is found by as many people as possible at the right time. You’ll also be able to stay competitive and make informed decisions about your business based on valuable consumer insights.
Ready to learn more? Download our SEM Guide for more.
