Google v/s Bing: how SEO differ for both?
Google and Bing: The Background: For many years now, Google has been the most popular search engine for people across the world. Bing is also one of the most used search engines after Google and is considered to be a prospective rival. Though the popularity of Google is so much that the noun has become synonymous with the verb ‘search’, there is still hope left for Bing. The reason behind the competition is mainly because of the way the search mechanism works for both the search engines. Since the algorithm is different, the techniques used for search engine optimization also vary for Google and Bing.
Google v/s Bing: how SEO differ for both?
Demographics
Well, the first thing we consider while differentiating between Google and Bing is demographics. Bing is not popular everywhere in the world but its user base is mainly from the USA. Also, Bing users are usually Microsoft customers that used Internet Explorer as their browser with default search engine as Bing. Many search engine experts estimate that Bing will very soon be able to bypass Google because of its better monetizing capacities.
Traffic Sources
There are different ways by which search engine get traffic to their homepage. Google, of course, is a household name and gets a lot of direct traffic that comes from simply typing the website name into the browser address bar. Bing, on the other hand, gets as much as 21% traffic from MSN. Google traffic comes from many more sources and websites compared to Bing and it does not have a dependency on any particular website for its traffic.
The Algorithms
Bing search results are influenced by the fact whether the page is linked to MSN pages or not. If not, it would not show high on Bing’s SERPs, even if it is more relevant to the search phrase. Google has worked hard to gain its image of a know-it-all website. Google users expect to find all sorts of information on this website and trust it too. They like the intelligent Google search engine and are not exactly looking for a reference to other sites while using Google.
Monetization and Site Credibility
However, if you are looking for paid ads, Bing and Yahoo do the job better. Users using these search engines are more prone to clicking on advertisements and hence if you are looking for such campaigns, Bing might suit you well. Google is more open when it comes to searches, and includes sites like forums and blogs more easily than Bing. Bing also avoids article websites or the popularly known ‘content farms’ but gives importance to some low-quality websites at the same time. Google is more intelligent and identifies the relevancy a lot better than Bing that is more concerned about the word-to-word match.
Bing also keeps an eye on pirated content and other objectionable content compared to Google. So while optimizing for Bing, don’t worry about content farms, forums or any websites that do not have content which is officially supposed to be there. Rather work on the verbatim and be friendlier to Microsoft in terms of Links.
These are few general observations about the differences between optimization for Google and Bing. However, since the search algorithms keep updating themselves every now and then, an optimization expert has to be on his toes to keep up with the changing trends and update his strategies accordingly.
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