People often ask what the differences are between the various search engines on getting their businesses to the top of the search engine result pages (SERPs). The emphasis has been on Google, but the Yahoo and Bing partnership has become a hot SEO topic, which presents new opportunities and challenges.
Bing has received nothing but positive feedback from the SEO community, and has some unique features that are not available on other search engines. One in particular, Quick Tabs, groups most of the search results into a categorical format. Because searchers usually refine their search queries, the results are categorized into multiple sets of search engine results related to the user’s query.
This new layout presents some issues. Bing SERPs that are categorized only show five results for the user’s initial query. For your business to be listed on the first page, you now need to be found within the top five positions. After that, placement is on page two. So, your business is lucky if it is on the top five!
Though it is true that most traditional ranking factors apply to Bing and Yahoo, some of these factors weigh a little more or less now than before. Bing seems to place more emphasis on the age of a domain; the older it is, the higher it most likely will rank. So if you are considering a new microsite, it would be smarter to somehow weave it into your existing domain. If you are starting a new site, it is smarter to use an existing domain that may be expiring or something along those lines.
Bing does not seem to be putting on a popularity contest like Google. Big brands are being forced to take a closer look on ensuring your website has sections supporting certain keyword queries.
Bing also it not making optimized anchor text as important as back links. It is still very important to have other websites point to you.
All of these factors are making it a little more difficult for reporting teams to determine how to report on rankings in a new format.
We’ll see in time whether different is better…
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