Make Way for Bing

February 17, 2010

Over the last couple of years, businesses have put a lot of energy (and money) into optimizing their website so that it ranks well in a Google search. Recently, there is a new player in town, Bing, and with that comes new rules to the optimization game (just when you thought you had it figured out!).

For those of who have been hiding under a rock for the last few months (or since last May when it was officially released), Bing is a search engine powered by Microsoft, and it has differentiated itself the “decision engine” boasting to be a more sophisticated web tool than its rival, Google. The Microsoft name is a powerhouse in itself, but it is going to be that much more likely to compete with (and perhaps jump ahead of) Google as Bing just signed at 10 year, $275 million agreement with Yahoo, the runner up in the world of search.

I always root for the underdog, even when the underdog, in this case, is richer than I can possibly fathom. Go Bing!

For small businesses that want to get ahead of the curve and start optimizing their website to rank well on Bing, Entreprenuer.com offers tips in the recent post, “5 Ways to Optimize Your Website for Bing.”

1. Older domains take precedence in the world of Bing. If you are a newer/small business it may be wise to purchase an older domain in order to get a hire ranking.
2. Use your strongest keywords in the every title tag on every page of your site. Google doesnt care much about this – Bing does.
3. Pages that have more than 300 words will get higher Bing rankings. For those of you who are verbose, you are in luck!
4. Outbound links will not hurt your ranking on Bing like they would on Google’s engine, in fact, it will help.
5. Bing boosts the rankings of those sites that use backlinks, or links to your site on other websites.

Any of the expansion stage companies that OpenView invests in could benefit from becoming more familiar with Microsoft’s search policies. OpenView Labs, the strategic consulting services arm of the VC, is very focused on providing our portfolio companies with sales and marketing supporting including strengthening content marketing strategy as well as inbound marketing strategy.

I’m quite confident that Bing will show tremendous growth in 2010. That being said, I don’t foresee Google’s business crumbling in the upcoming year by any means. At the end of the day, there are now two big players in town that require equal attention from businesses that are looking to increase visibility and traction online.

http://www.entrepreneur.com/goforward/embracingtechnology/go203532.html