Five months ago, I don’t think I would have asked this question about optimizing your blog or website for Bing, then called the MSN search engine. Five months ago, I wasn’t interested in Bing because non of my websites ever ranked in its search engine. My focus was and still is on Google and it made sense because afterall MSN Search receives only about 9% of web searches compared with Google and Yahoo. But my thinking and focus somewhat changed quite recently.
What happened 5 months ago?
OK enough with the suspense. 5 months ago I launched my Micro Niche Adsense Websites and you probably have read a few of my posts providing some updates on their progress like how I crossed $100 adsense earnings in the same month. To date I now have 8 micro adsense sites and I set all of them up as static websites as opposed to wordpress blogs I had so far been using previously. I did have other reasons for doing so but never came close to any of those I would discover 6 months later.
While my micro niche adsense websites have been earning me some decent income, the most likely thing to happen to new websites that tried to rank too quick too soon on Google’s page one, did in fact happen to me too. I am referring to getting the Google Sandbox for some of my websites.
After some research on Google Sandbox I concluded that there was nothing I could do and the best option was to accept it and continue doing backlink building so that when they get out of it, they emerged stronger in search engine ranking. Having said that I did what I could to make a few of these websites “reappear” again albeit temporarily each time for a few days. I did this legitimately through getting backlinks from different sources after much testing done. How I learned to index my Angela’s backlinks specifically using Google Slingshot helped me achieved just that.
I accidentally stumbled upon a wonderful solution
Recently while those few adsense sites continued to remain banished from Google’s page one ranking, I was surprised to find traffic coming to these sites. This wasn’t supposed to be I told myself. It was indeed a nice problem to have but I soon found out the reason why. I was getting traffic not from Google but from both Yahoo and Bing, something that has never happened before.
How can you rank well in Bing?
While it’s important to always focus on Google to get most of your search engine traffic, don’t ignore whatever traffic you may get from Bing, or Yahoo for that matter. This applies to my case more because I was looking for a solution for my Google sandboxed sites and it did somewhat help during the “blackout” period. Also getting more traffic from another search engine is always welcomed, don’t you think? Trickles it may be, but for my adsense sites this traffic is pretty targeted.
Bing has a FAQ which provides some useful information on some of the on-site seo so that you can rank well in their search engine which includes:
- Target a maximum of only two keywords per page
- Use H1 tags
- Use text navigation links
- place keyword in url
According to a report from Tech Crunch it states that Bing users are more likely to click ads than Google users. If this is to be believed anyone setting up an adsense site simply cannot ignore Bing and what having a Bing search engine optimized website can do for your adsense income. I said it before that while almost all my niche sites are on page 1, not all of them are #1 positions so I don’t get much impressions for some of them. But because my CTR for these sites is good, having more impressions coming from Bing just puts the icing on the cake.
How to check if Bing is helping your website or blog:
1. Simply go to Bing’s webmaster centre and click the button for “Add a site” and provide your URL and then verify your site. To do this and quite similar to Google Webmaster, add the meta tag provided to the head section of your blog. Finally click on the site you have added and go to its summary page. Here you will find useful information like when your site was last crawled by Bing, and what backlinks your site has.
2. Here is a utility tool that you can use to check how your keyword ranks and it displays the results for both Google and Bing side by side.
Final Thoughts
While I’m not trying to make a mountain out of a molehill, and I’ll still focus on Google search engine optimization, I now see Bing and Yahoo in a different light. From my own experience but without proof this is what I think about Bing:
- Bing favors sites with keyword in the url (all my niche sites have them)
- Unlike Yahoo, Bing counts backlinks only from dofollow sites favoring anchor text keywords
- I’ve not seen many blogs in Bing so I like to think that Bing likes static websites more than blogs, possibly their bots found them easier to crawl.
- Bing shows about half of my backlinks compared with Yahoo and they favor high PR do follow websites
Did you miss any of these?:
- Are You Getting The Google Sandbox?
- My Strategy To Increase My Google Adsense Revenue
- Blog Income and Stats – October 2009
- Are You Trying To Get Your Blog De-Indexed By Google?
- Blog Income-December 2009
February 13, 2010 at 1:26 pm
Seems to me like it's the same old stuff that you do for any search engine. I really haven't done anything different myself.
February 13, 2010 at 3:40 pm
You know, you make a good point actually. We all seem to optimize for Google. Not that its not a good idea but there are more search engines out there then Google.
February 13, 2010 at 6:13 pm
I don't necessarily.
I also do things for Yahoo, which I find really likes high-PR links.
February 13, 2010 at 6:25 pm
Well you gave me plenty to think about there, we to often ignore the other search engines and miss lots of opportunitys, thanks i will be looking into this now that you have given me a route regarding keywords etc.
February 14, 2010 at 5:36 am
@Denis Bromell: It's my pleasure. Yes you said it. We often forget Yahoo and Bing. We may not want to focus too much of our time but we shouldn't ignore them altogether. Thanks for dropping by.
February 14, 2010 at 5:38 am
@Chris Pontoon: Exactly the same sentiments for me too. Any traffic is still traffic to you so you should still gain something out of it.
February 14, 2010 at 7:20 am
I do not think that bing or yahoo search engine can give us lots of traffic, my blog is top ten on some keyword on google, yahoo and bing also, but as compare to the google I do not get so much traffic, from yahoo and bing. Well I will try it.
February 14, 2010 at 7:45 am
@Allergy Free Shop: Well yes you are right, partly. But most of my keywords I ranked on Google's page 1 are nowhere to be found in Bing's so they are not quite exactly the same in terms of what are the requirements to be on Bing's page 1.
February 14, 2010 at 8:20 am
Well I am not all that up on keywords for bing,but a great source is http://www.seojunkies.com.give them a go let me know how you fair.
February 15, 2010 at 10:06 am
Thanks peter for another awesome post.
February 15, 2010 at 10:56 am
My site is ranking VERY good in Bing, but I just need a few more links to hit #1 for ALL my keywords!!
February 15, 2010 at 12:48 pm
There is always a balance to strike, when writing for the readers the Search Engines. I will keep an I on Bing. Thank you for bring this to our attention.
February 16, 2010 at 6:34 am
uhmm I don't care so much about bing but for Google, I do anything that I could.
(anyways, the video on the side is crazy funny!)
February 16, 2010 at 9:17 am
Thanks for the post. it is another useful one. One thing I wanted to know from you that what is text navigation links?
February 16, 2010 at 3:22 pm
Very insightful, Peter. I occasionally see traffic coming from Bing, but I've never looked into what keywords were bringing people to my site. Might be something to look into.
You mentioned Google Slingshot in reference to getting your profile backlinks indexed. What exactly is Google Slingshot?
Thanks, Peter!
February 17, 2010 at 1:06 am
Actually we are focusing for the Google but nice article to generate the traffic from Bing.
February 17, 2010 at 3:00 am
good tip on building on static sites – it gives you a unique “footprint” than wordpress scripts that people use.
February 17, 2010 at 6:52 am
Hi Alan,
Google Slingshot is essentially a simple method used to index your profile links very quickly so you don't have to worry about why your profile backlinks from Angela's link packets take so long to index. I am seeing it works for me although not 100 pct. I'll put it down to about 70% success rate but that's good enough for me. I'm not promoting it as it does not have any affiliate program but you are free to read more about it here or buy it if you are interested. I read it from Warrior Forum and bought it from Mark Dickenson who is the authorised seller:
http://backlinkbully.com/recommends/google-slin…
February 17, 2010 at 7:00 am
@ovi: When it comes to navigation on your blog there are many options to choose from depending on each individual blogger or website designers if bloggers leave it entirely to them. So they may use graphics, flash etc. as navigational systems on their websites. Text navigation on the other hand uses text which helps to provide more content for search engines index. For example your sitemap is also part of text navigation. Links can serve as navigation too so instead of a link to “ebooks” you could use a description such as “Books on a particular topic to help ….”. This is good not just for your visitors' experience but is also a good search engine optimization practice.
February 17, 2010 at 8:27 am
@passive income blogger:I think both wp blogs and static websites have their own advantageous but I do prefer he use of static site for my adsense sites because it is less distracting with no plugins,
February 17, 2010 at 8:35 am
@passive income blogger:I think both wp blogs and static websites have their own advantages but I do prefer the use of static ones for my adsense sites because they are less distracting with no plugins.
February 17, 2010 at 8:45 am
@Melva Pratt: I agree with you. As long as we don't ignore Bing or Yahoo, they can only benefit us if not now, perhaps a little later.
February 17, 2010 at 8:49 am
@Pre Launch MLM : You're welcome. Glad you liked it . Stick around.
February 17, 2010 at 5:29 pm
@data recovery software: Thanks for your visit.
February 19, 2010 at 3:32 am
When you find an image through the Google search, you will need to check the actual website to determine whether or not it is free to use. Google explicitly states, “Image may be scaled down and subject to copyright.
February 19, 2010 at 5:06 am
well, never tried bing, i never got any visitor from there. but i would give it a try to submit my website there on webmaster center. thank you Peter
February 20, 2010 at 5:49 pm
Ahh… thanks for the link, Peter! Looks like I'll give it a go and see how it helps.
February 21, 2010 at 11:21 pm
Yes, I fully agree that Bing hates blogspot (blogger) blogs, though I'd found out there are 2 blogs (blogspot) with the Make Money Online niche on the top.
February 22, 2010 at 3:06 am
I will defiantly use your list when I launch my next blog and hopefully Bing will give me some juice.
February 22, 2010 at 10:18 pm
Bing search engine gives almost the same search results as Google. Looks like Google will now have a tough competition when it comes to search engine technology.
February 25, 2010 at 10:54 pm
I think that such optimization usefull not only for a large sites.Most described here is common seo practics for any website.
February 26, 2010 at 11:19 pm
I tried it out and looks good. The search results are displayed cleanly and quickly. If you hover over a video, it plays a preview, Cool huh!
February 27, 2010 at 2:15 am
Peter,
I have had much more success with Yahoo and Bing also. I was successful with Google initially but I think they have changed their algorithm quite a bit over the last year or so. Now they are tougher than nails if you are not a site from years ago. They over-weigh age for sure.
March 5, 2010 at 5:17 am
If you do not optimize your website for Bing, you might be loosing.If you cannot do that, add a blog that you keep on updating regularly.
March 5, 2010 at 8:27 am
@seo for website: Yes, looks like Bing certainly making it's presence felt, although the main player is still Google. But I'll take whatever benefits that I can get from it.
March 6, 2010 at 7:03 am
I've never optimised for any other search engine then Google. I've always thought, if i'm listed in google and get good results from Google then other search engines will soon follow. I'm probably very wrong. I've yet to add my site to Bing but will do so now and will consider other optimisation techniques.
March 6, 2010 at 6:06 pm
I don't think you have to worry at the beginning, Google will do.
March 11, 2010 at 12:48 am
Thanks for creating such a wonderful site. this site was
not only knowledgeable but also very stimulating too.
however.. http://www.angelasbacklinks.com is still the best link building marketer
because they manually build the links just for you..
April 11, 2010 at 3:38 am
Yup, Angela is one of the most well known SEO today and Peter has already recommend her service to his readers. Here is the Peter's link to sign up for Angela's SEO service, its on the side bar on the right of this site.
Another great SEO competition that has been going on for few years now is 'the coolest guy on the planet'. Google for it and its show time
April 11, 2010 at 4:04 am
@ home base internet business: Thanks Wilson for such great support of Angela's backlink program. I've used it long enough and know it works that I can recommend to many others here. I just came from your blog and left a comment too.
June 1, 2010 at 12:47 am
getting ranked in BING is so much easy and its worthy as well…Get ranked in bing and have a lot of traffic
July 5, 2010 at 6:52 pm
Sweet read! Lots of insight and info! Thank you for sharing!
July 6, 2010 at 7:14 am
@Payday Loans: Thanks for your comment and visit.
July 6, 2010 at 12:14 pm
@Payday Loans: Thanks for your comment and visit.
December 12, 2011 at 2:16 am
I’m still learning from you, but I’m improving myself. I definitely enjoy reading everything that is posted on your website.Keep the information coming. I liked it