The word on the street is that Microsoft’s new and rebranded search engine, Bing, wants to be a decision engine that serves up websites based more on quality content and information that people can use.
Right off, the first benefit of Bing that I see is that it can be used as a verb. It’s easier to “Bing” a question than “live” or “MSN” a question. This may make it easier to say, but I doubt Bing will ride a wave of popularity based on its name the way Google has.
Some SEO folks are expecting a shake-up of sorts, and perhaps there will be some over time. Bing is making a valiant effort to help people organize search results into categories rather than bouncing in and out of random search results in Google. Other search engines may follow suit, although Google Universal Search already categorizes local businesses, images, and videos and has been doing this for some time now.
Personally, I think nothing has really changed in the world of web development. As a web design company, we are still focused on one thing and one thing only. Your bottom line! We strive to build websites that answer your visitor’s questions and provoke them to buy something or contact you for more information.
Search engine rankings make a huge impact on your bottom line. But it’s not like MSN controls a huge portion of the search space now, and I doubt people will readily break their Google habit anytime soon. Google is still where it is at. If changes are to come in SEO, they will be slow.
My SEO recommendations haven’t changed for Bing. Focus on quality content writing and don’t bother trying to game the system to rank higher. Of course there are complicated rules that all search engines want you to follow. All search engines have the same goal, retrieve quality content for people looking for answers.
If you have questions, we can help you better understand these search engine rules, and help you write compelling content that pleases your website visitors as well as improve your search engines.