Microsoft Bing SEO vs Google SEO - How To Optimise Different Search Engines?

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Although Google maintains a majority SEO market share, Microsoft platforms account for a sizeable proportion of voice searches and non-Google requests. Both platforms measure SEO quality based on indexed crawl rates, keyword optimisations, backlinks, multimedia content, and local ranking, but they weigh these verticals differently. Additionally, both platforms measure unique verticals that the other does not. 

In this guide, I'll take a look at the main differences between Google and Microsoft Bing SEO verticals. I'll also explain why you need to optimise content for a range of platforms in order to maximise brand exposure and consumer engagement. If you're ready to take your website to the next level, let's get started.

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TL;DR version:

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Thinking Beyond Google Organic Search

There's no doubt that Google makes up the majority of the SEO market. In January 2022 alone, Google accounted for roughly 86% of the market share, leading to the highest conversion rates among all other platforms. Yet, you'd be a fool to only optimise digital content for one search engine.

In that same month, Microsoft sites, including Bing and Yahoo, made up the second and third highest percentage of search results across the Internet, adding up to around 25% of all queries. Although many of these searches originated from voice queries, there's no denying that Microsoft SEO accounts for a large share of the market.

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Failing to optimise your digital content for Microsoft SEO puts your brand at a significant disadvantage. While you might score 75% of the market from Google, your bottom line will miss out on the millions of other searches generated through Bing and Yahoo, especially in the US market.

Therefore, you need to consider how your content will read on other search engines.

Google vs Bing: Indexing

The quality of your SEO doesn't matter if Google or Bing hasn't indexed your website. Both platforms use patented indexing algorithms to scan and rank your content before indexing it into their search results page.

The Googlebot crawls through sites at a set rate that you cannot change. 

Please keep in mind that The term crawl rate means how many requests per second Googlebot makes to your site when it is crawling it: for example, 5 requests per second.

This rate doesn't affect your site's final ranking, though, so sites with a higher crawl rate are no more likely to rank higher than sites with lower crawl rates.

Nevertheless, it's crucial that you develop content that quickly attracts the Googlebot. Google has recently updated its algorithm to crawl mobile content first, pushing many brands to develop clearer mobile content that maintains consistency across the web and mobile platforms. If your site lacks a mobile platform, get to work with your web developers.

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With Microsoft Bing, you can specifically set the crawl rate to speed up the indexing process by adjusting the MWM tool. Also, unlike Google, Bing maintains a single index that doesn't discriminate between desktop and mobile content. This means you don't have to focus as heavily on mobile development.

Google vs Bing on Keyword Optimisations

Comparing the two platforms, Google is far more flexible with keyword optimisation. Rather than tracking exact keyword matches, Google's Hummingbird algorithm searches for pages based on topical content. In addition, it allows for synonyms and related search results rather than simply pinning to exact queries.

Bing, on the other hand, tracks exact keyword matches. So simply using synonyms and similar phrasing won't get you to the top of Bing's SEO rankings. Instead, you'll have to build content around straightforward SEO keywords to succeed.

Just be careful to avoid over-optimising your Bing content by following Bing's guidelines. Overdoing it on the SEO can set off red flags and cause Bing's algorithm to delist your site. Read my article about creating your content for real users, not to entice search engines to rank your content better. It explains how Google AI works on understanding your content.

Meta Keywords Tags

This one is pretty straightforward. Don't worry about optimising meta keyword tags for your Google content. The Google algorithm does not incorporate meta keyword tags into its final ranking, leaving them dead on arrival.

The same can be said for Bing. Although the lead PM of Bing's ranking team, Frédéric Dubut, stated on Twitter that they're not guaranteed to rule out meta keyword tags, Cristi Olson, the Head of Paid Search Microsoft, signalled that meta keyword tags are dead.

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In short, only worry about meta keyword tags if you're optimising content for Baidu or Yandex. These two platforms continue to rank sites using the metric, so don't overlook the Chinese and Russian markets.

Backlinks

Both Google and Microsoft's SEO algorithms approach backlinks with a similar point-of-view—a few high-quality backlinks are far more effective than dozens of low-quality links.

Google highly favours content developed with a handful of high-PageRank links, encouraging brands to avoid publishing spammy, over-linked content. Too many spammy links can even get a site delisted.

Bing sets stricter backlink requirements. Although it also favours a handful of high-quality links over many inferior links, you must be careful to include enough links. If your content isn't supported with enough quality links, Bing will remove your site from its index. On the other hand, though, Bing doesn't penalise sites that buy sponsored links.

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Social Signals

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When it comes to social signals, Bing and Google take different approaches.

Google's SEO ranking system doesn't account for possible social media presence, or at least there are no published guidelines to suggest otherwise. Ergo, no matter how well you've optimised your content for Facebook or Instagram, it won't affect your Google SEO ranking.

Social signals can improve your Bing ranking, though. Bing acknowledges the importance of social media presence and will directly share your Facebook and Twitter followers' ratings and rankings. You can even use Bing's API tool to track what's trending on social media to better develop content that reaches your market.

A strong social signal can help your item get noticed and possibly take an early lead in rankings, allowing other signals to accumulate and either support or refute the assigned rankings. That's right, just like a big hit of social exposure can help you rank, a lackluster result can leave us wondering if you should be ranking. – Microsoft Bing Blogs

Multimedia Content

Both Microsoft Bing and Google have similar ranking criteria when it comes to multimedia content. Although Google rankings still rely heavily on text-based content, both algorithms can accurately crawl through advanced media, such as videos, images, and audio.

Google's Image Search algorithm specifically ranks multimedia using the ALT tag. However, Bing does not. From there, both search engines follow the ranking system:

1. Title tag
2. Filename
3. Caption
4. The content around the image

Google has recently shared updated video SEO guidelines to help better optimise your multimedia content. Follow these guidelines to improve your site's ranking and draw in more conversions.

Local Ranking

Local SERP ranking is the position your website holds whenever someone conducts a search for a given term in your specific location. Google and Bing both rate local ranking based on:

1. Relevance
2. Distance
3. Prominence

Improve your business's ranking by verifying your location, updating business information, and responding to reviews. Adding specifics, such as your business hours, menus, and in-store products, can also help improve your ranking, making your business more visible to nearby clientele. Note: Don't forget to register your register to Bing Places For Businesses, which is equivalent to Google Business Profile.

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Final Thoughts

Let's recap again what we have discussed:

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Google might hold a majority of the market share, but Microsoft platforms, including Bing and Yahoo, account for roughly 25% of all Internet queries. Optimising your SEO content for both algorithms will bring more customers to your business and result in more conversions. Take time to carefully understand both systems, and you'll soon be making more profit.

References

• https://about.ads.microsoft.com/en-au/insights/planning-tools/microsoft-search-network-data
• https://blogs.bing.com/webmaster/2011/12/22/the-future-of-search-social
• https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2009/09/google-does-not-use-keywords-meta-tag
• https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2017/01/what-crawl-budget-means-for-googlebot
• https://developers.google.com/search/docs/advanced/guidelines/link-schemes
• https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/bing/search-apis/bing-news-search/how-to/trending-news
• https://support.google.com/business/answer/7091?hl=en#zippy=%2Crelevance%2Cdistance%2Cprominence
• https://twitter.com/CoperniX/status/1266440501688848384?s=20
• https://www.bing.com/webmasters/help/crawl-control-55a30303
• https://www.bing.com/webmasters/help/link-building-7a3f99b7
• https://www.bing.com/webmasters/help/webmasters-guidelines-30fba23a
• https://www.bing.com/webmasters/help/webmasters-guidelines-30fba23a
• https://www.deanlong.io/blog/get-google-index-page-sooner-faster
• https://www.deanlong.io/blog/google-mobile-first-indexing
• https://www.deanlong.io/blog/google-seo-best-practices-for-video
• https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-alt-text-only-a-factor-for-image-search/442865/
• https://www.searchenginejournal.com/hummingbird-update-changed-search/442115/#close
• https://www.statista.com/statistics/216573/worldwide-market-share-of-search-engines/
• https://www.statista.com/statistics/267161/market-share-of-search-engines-in-the-united-states/

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