We have been deeply documenting the rise of Bing, and there’s no denying it has unquestionably improved Microsoft’s position in terms of search market share.

So now the issue for website owners and Search Engine Optimizers remains – “How do I rank top in Bing and drive more visitors to my website?”

As you guys know very well that Bing is a smart search engine because if you are an SEO and optimizing a website for a keyword, example: “SEO Consultant” then if you’re optimizing your main page and let suppose your main page doesn’t contain the keyword OR text SEO Consultant then Bing will automatically find the text from your subpages.

While the jury is still out on definitive strategies for higher ranking success in Bing, there seems to be a rising chorus of support for certain tactics, which I have detailed below:

• Backlinks: While backlinks are still used in the bing algorithm, it seems not to the similar level as Google. Backlink counts for top 10 websites in Bing are much lower as compared to Google, suggesting less importance.
• Anchor Text: It seems that Bing focuses more deeply on links with relevant anchor text, so that should influence your linking strategy – get your text anchor text right.
• On-Page Optimization: One of the more contentious factors, but many SEO experts believes Bing is weighting more deeply towards On-Page Optimization, not sure this will remain the case, if in fact it is the case.

• Keywords in URLs add essential ranking benefits
• Title Tags are as important as all the time.
• Internal link anchor text seems to add major weight to content relevance

• Age and Authority: It appears that Bing places a higher weighting on site/domain age and authority as compared to Google. Once more a factor that is surely not sustainable given the importance of social media and blogs in terms of relevant results.

Below is a chart that ABC News Alerts produced based some analysis. We compared the top 2 results for the search “Latest News” in Bing and Google to determine what factors matter most for the two respective websites.

As you can see from the general consensus and ABCNewsAlerts’s research, the higher ranking factors for Google and Bing do differ.

The important thing to note is that no one of them competes, so to get higher rankings in Bing and Google won’t compromise each other. Smart site owners should be covering off the factors of each search engine to maximize their website visitors.

Posted on 29. Sep, 2009 by Trond in SEO

Now that Bing’s been out for a while, one wonders if this is the search engine that can finally topple Google. As the default search engine with the latest version of Internet Explorer coupled with a massive advertising campaign, many computer users are giving Bing a try and finding that Bing isn’t just a pretty interface with its gorgeous images and fun facts, it’s a search engine that works.

What’s so great about Bing? After all, who needs another search engine? Surprisingly, Bing introduces features that make searching for relevant content easier and more enjoyable than ever before. Coupled with the new features of Internet Explorer 8, Bing is well positioned for success. Among the more notable features are:

• A gorgeous interface. Each day, a new background image appears with small hotspots that reveal fun facts about the image when the mouse is hovered over them. Along the bottom of the image are related links should you be inspired to find out more. In contrast, Google’s home page remains white and boring. Yes, the Google logo is playfully tweaked from time to time, but for highly visual people, that pales in comparison to Bing’s imagery.

• Search results. Both search engines are good at returning relevant search results. In fact, a search on both sites for “cilantro” turned up nearly identical results. Both sites suggest related results though Bing’s related results are more easily found in a neat pane along the left side of the screen. This is easier and more intuitive than having to scroll to the bottom of the screen to see Google’s suggestions. Where Bing really shines is with its “extended preview” bar. Simply hover the mouse over a thin vertical bar to the right of the search result and see preview text snippets and other information found on the particular page.

• Bing “cashback.” Both Bing and Google offer shopping links related to search entries. For example, by clicking the Shopping link after searching for cilantro, a list of products available for purchase appear. With a Bing cashback account, users receive cashback savings from participating merchants. For example, currently, VistaPrint offers free shipping and 16% cashback to Bing cashback shoppers.

• Video preview. Ever go to a video site, click the play button and wait for the video to load only to find it’s not what you expected? Bing’s video preview solves that. Simply hover over the video thumbnail in the video search results list and the video will begin playing.

• Direct answers. Want to know how your favorite baseball team did last night? Wondering what aspartame is? Wondering if your friend’s flight is on time? Bing gives direct answers! For example, enter the name of your baseball team and see scores at the top of the list. As a “What is” question and get a direct answer from Encarta. Type “flight status” along with the flight number and get instant information about the flight.

• Local information. Bing detects a user’s IP address and delivers local information related to search entries. For example, enter the title of a movie and Bing will display local movie listings at the top of the search results.

Bing becomes even more useful when used in conjunction with Internet Explorer 8.0. When Internet Explorer is downloaded, Bing is set as the default search engine for the browser and an optional MSN toolbar can be installed. The MSN Toolbar features a Bing search field as well as numerous channels for one-click access to news, sports, videos, entertainment, lifestyle, health, financial, and automotive content.

While users can easily change the default search engine back to Google, if they give Bing a try, they may never get around to doing so. That alone may be enough to topple Google.

April 20, 2009 By: Justin Britt
Website: http://www.hawaiilife.com/

Before we begin the creative link building process, its important to understand what search engines are looking for when ranking websites. I know, youʼve heard it before, Page Rank, Page Rank, Page Rank. Well, Iʼm here to tell you, forget about Page Rank! While PR used to rule the SERPs (search engine results page) several years ago, Googleʼs algorithm changed, and today PR isnʼt even as important as on page optimization.

So what are search engines looking for?

• Affiliations and associations – “who” you do business with.
• Relevancy – “where” you do your business.

Think about it like this, if youʼre affiliated with other authority (a.k.a trusted) businesses and programs within your community, then you yourself will gain trust as an agent within that same community. This type of “good” business naturally leads to referrals and other opportunities. In the search engine world referrals = links. Getting links from authority website tells search engines that you are a trusted real estate agent in your niche market. And trusted websites tend to rank high in Google.

Now that weʼve established that ranking in search engines is really just standing out as an agent or brokerage within your community, the next and obvious question is, how do you become “the” real estate agent / brokerage known within your target market?

To answer this question, lets work through the thinking process backwards. We know, that to be a top agent / broker, we need referral business. So the more important questions here is, how do I create referral business? And this is where the creativity comes in.

Creating a company based on referrals is really just good business practice.

Who do you work with? Helping a client sell or buy a home requires more then just you, the real estate agent. The process includes a broker, home inspector,
contractor, gardener, cleaning service, moving company, agents you refer to…and the list goes on. You refer out business and these companies should be referring business back to you. Part of this referral process should be links between your websites (yes the gardening service we recommend has a very nice website).

Community service. Are you participating on the PTA of your childʼs elementary school or do you offer reduced commissions for first time home buyers graduating
from your local University (hint: .edu sites are highly trusted by search engines)? Just last week, I volunteered on a government committee for a new bike path in my neighborhood. The next day, I received an email from the committee asking if I would like to be recognized on their website and in the local newspaper.
Ummm…yes (hint: .gov and news sites have high authority as well).

Rotaries and Clubs. Are you participating in mixers at your local chamber of commerce, Lionʼs club or church? These are all highly trusted sources and great
places to create connections and earn referrals.

Non-Profits. Even if you donʼt have the money to donate to non-profit groups you can still volunteer. In my state, there is a great non-profit organization that educates 1st time homebuyers on home ownership. I have my agents volunteer at these classes doing whatever the instructor needs. Not only do my agents earn business from these 1st time homebuyers, the non-profit links back to our site.

This is just a start to the creative link building process, but these are all tactics I use, not to get links, but to make my brokerage stand out in the state of Hawaii. And by standing out as “the” real estate agent / brokerage within your own community you will be rewarded by the search engines.

Over 1 Trillion Served: The Ultimate FREE Keyword Tool | WordStream

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I’m a big fan of controlling traffic and knowing why you prefer one source of traffic over others. While advanced conversion attribution modeling can help refine traffic source preferences to an amazing degree, it’s also possible to gain insight by using a standard analytics package like the Google Analytics. Let’s looks at why traffic sources matter just as much as keywords do and why I’m hoping the evolution of the paid search landscape improves marketers’ and advertisers’ ability to control their campaigns’ paid search portions by traffic source instead of eroding it.

While a campaign management system that includes automated bidding logic is great for assuring that bids are set based on changes in conversion rate, lead quality, or average order profitability, sometimes you can use garden-variety analytics to create some ah-ha moments relating to the differences in traffic sources, even if the reasons behind those revelations aren’t immediately clear. Let’s dig into some fun stats about demographics and consumer behavior.

All clicks are not created equal. I’m not just talking about clicks from different keywords, either. I’m talking about clicks from different sources (engines), locations, ad formats, and ad types. A larger data set makes it easier to see the differences in one traffic source over the others. The following data are from D&B PowerProfiles, an online directory we work with whose very large diversity of content drives organic traffic, while a paid search campaign is used for a small set of specific keywords. Putting the data relating to conversion to leads aside and looking specifically at Google Analytics data is instructive.

Site stickiness can be a proxy for branding or engagement for a publisher. It’s a nice way to monitor whether visitors are getting deeper into your content. But what if there are significant differences in stickiness based on traffic source? For PowerProfiles, which receives hundreds of thousands of monthly visits from organic search (thus assuring a good data sample), Google organic traffic delivered 2.52 pages per visit last month. One would expect any engine, such as AOL, using a similar algorithm (or the same algorithm) to have a similar stickiness index. However, AOL visitors stayed on the site for an average of 3.53 pages per visit last month. Wonder why? So do I. Perhaps demographics explain some of the difference.

What does Quantcast say about Google and AOL visitors? Age, gender, and other demographic indicators are clearly different but probably don’t fully explain a 40 percent differential in site stickiness. Yahoo’s organic visitors are even stickier, with an average page view count of 5.48 pages per visit. This may be a combination of the different keyword and landing page types preferred by the Yahoo algorithm, or it may be a demographic factor. However, this number is now more than double the page view stickiness number from Google’s organic traffic. This knowledge can inform your paid campaign, at least out of the gate.

To illustrate the importance of keyword selection in the observed metrics, let’s look at the paid search traffic from Google. I selected keywords I thought would be very sticky and convert well for the site. Sure enough, the stickiness factor is high at 11.33 pages per visit: four and a half times the organic Google traffic stickiness factor.

Clearly, both keywords and the traffic source will impact your success, yet most marketers and agencies focus almost exclusively on the keywords.

We see similar data variations when looking at bounce rate, which is the percentage of people who leave the site after visiting only the landing page. Google organic’s bounce rate for PowerProfiles is 72.9 percent, while AOL’s is 51.8 percent and Yahoo’s is 35.8 percent. In the Google paid search campaign (which I really care about because each click is being paid for), the bounce rate is 14.3 percent. My team is looking for ways to make the organic pages stickier too, but a key point here is that one has more control over the paid search landing pages than over organic pages. Too much fussing with organic pages can kill the golden goose of good organic position.

One reason I felt compelled to reiterate the point that traffic from different search engines is different is that I want to be able to bid differently for traffic coming out of each search engine network. If I had the ability to do so within Google AdWords, for example, I would bid more for AOL clicks for many of my clients. If and when Yahoo and Bing traffic are accessible through one interface, I hope to be able to adjust bids separately.

Google Loses Search Market Share … to Yahoo?!

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Compare Google Caffeine – See For Yourself

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It’s August, and with over 100 ads posted I get only 3 or 4 responses, and from those, only 1 or 2 turn into actual showings. There must be a better way

Our Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide covers around a dozen common areas that webmasters might consider optimizing. We felt that these areas (like improving title and description meta tags, URL structure, site navigation, content creation, anchor text, and more) would apply to webmasters of all experience levels and sites of all sizes and types. Throughout the guide, we also worked in many illustrations, pitfalls to avoid, and links to other resources that help expand our explanation of the topics. We plan on updating the guide at regular intervals with new optimization suggestions and to keep the technical advice current.