SEO for MSN BING – Optimizing your website

SEO for MSN BING – Starting with MSN BING, as rankings are generally faster to reach on this engine. It’s a good place to start, especially if you have a new site that’s likely still in the Google sandbox or is just in the early stages of link building.

Like all significant search engines, MSN BING builds its index of sites using spiders to crawl the web, finding new and updated information. The MSN BING servers then process this information using complex algorithms to determine which sites are most relevant to the search query entered.

This may seem like an extraordinarily complex process, and it is; however, the resulting environment is simple: all search engine algorithms are mathematical, and thus, there is a fixed set of rules and factors that, if addressed correctly, will result in a high ranking. In short, because it’s math, we have the benefit of knowing that if we take actions x and y, we will get specific results.

The Rules For MSN BING

Assuming that you are following the proper rules, the results you can achieve on MSN BING can be fast and solid. MSN BING does not apply the same types of aging delays that the other two engines do.

Thus, when you change your content, the change in results can be realized as quickly as they reindex your site and as soon as your incoming links are picked up. This differs significantly from Google and Yahoo! in that these engines age both domains and links, requiring a more extended period before the full effects of your efforts are realized.

As an additional note on MSN BING, according to a comScore Media report, users of MSN BING are 48% more likely to purchase a product or service online than the average Internet user.

So, what are the rules for MSN BING that can help us get top rankings? Like all major engines, two fundamental areas need to be addressed to achieve top rankings. The first are onsite factors, and the second are offsite factors. Because they are fundamentally different, we will address them separately.

Onsite SEO Factors

The problem with writing an article about onsite factors is that by the time you read this, some of the weight these factors hold and the optimal levels noted may already be outdated. Thus, rather than listing overly specific and likely to change factors, we will focus on how to identify the factors, how to get a handle on what needs to be adjusted and by how much, and how to predict what is coming down the road. And so we’ll begin:

How To Know What The Factors Are:

Unfortunately, there’s no one at MSN BING Search calling us up weekly to let us know the specifics of their algorithm. We have to figure it out for ourselves through research, reading, and testing on test sites. From all of this, there is only one conclusion that an SEO can make: the details matter. When we’re discussing onsite factors, this includes:

* the content of the page, including keyword density
* the internal linking structure of the site (how the pages of your site are linked together)
* the number of pages in your site and the relevancy of those pages to your main topic and phrases
* the use of titles, heading tags, and special formats

Several lower-weight factors exist; however, addressing the ones noted above will have a very significant impact on your rankings, provided the offsite factors stated below are also addressed.

Page Content:

The content of your page must be perfect. What I mean is that the content must appeal to both search engines and their algorithms. To write correctly for your visitors, you must be able to write clearly in a language that is both appealing and understandable to your target market.

While there is much debate about whether keyword density on your page is essential, I am certainly one who believes it is. It only makes sense that a part of the algorithm takes into account the use of the keywords on your page.

Unfortunately, the optimal keyword density changes slightly with each algorithm update and also by site type and field. For this reason, it would be virtually impossible for me to give you a density that will work today and in the future. For this reason, you will need a keyword density analysis tool that you can run on your site and the top 10 sites to assess the optimal density at this time.

You may notice a variation in the densities of the top 10.

This is due to other factors, including off-site, which can give extra weight to even a poorly optimized site. I recommend getting your site’s keyword density close to the higher end of the top 10, but not excessive. Traditionally, this percentage falls somewhere between 3.5% and 4% for MSN BING.

Internal Linking Structure:

The way your pages link together tells search engines what the page is about and also allows them to easily (or not-so-easily) navigate to your internal pages. If your site has image—or script-based navigation, it’s also important to use text links, either in your content, in the footer, or both.

The text links are easy for a spider to follow. Perhaps more importantly, the text links allow you to tell the spiders what a specific page is about through the anchor text. In the case of footers, this will enable you to add more instances of the targeted phrases outside of your general content area.

The Number Of Pages & Their Relevancy:

MSN BING wants to please its visitors.

For this reason, they want to ensure that the highest likelihood of a searcher finding what they need occurs once they arrive at your site. For this reason, a larger site with unified content will typically rank higher than a smaller site or one with varying content topics. (Note: this assumes that all else is equal regarding the other ranking factors.)

When optimizing your site for MSN Bing, take the time to create quality content. Please doo a search on your major competitors to see how large their sites are, over time you will want to build yours to the same range through general content creation or the addition of a blog or forum to your site.

Titles, Heading Tags & Special Formats:

Titles are the most critical piece of code on your entire web page for two reasons.

The first is that it carries a very high level in the algorithm. The second reason is that it is your window to the world. When someone runs a search, the results will generally show your page title in the search results. This means that a human visitor has to be drawn to click on your title or rankings; your site is a futile effort (this isn’t about bragging rights, it’s about return on investment).

Heading tags specify significant portions of content. The most commonly used is the H1 tag, though there are obviously others (or they wouldn’t bother numbering them, would they?). The H1 tag is given significant weight in the algorithm, provided it is not abused through overuse (it should be used only once per page).

Try to keep your headings short and sweet. They’re there to tell your visitor what the page is about, not your whole site.

For this article, special formats refer to text formatting that distinguishes a set of characters or words from others.

This includes features such as anchor text, bold, italic, and different font colors, among others. When you set content apart using special formats, MSN BING will read this as part of your content that you want to draw attention to and that you obviously want your visitors to see. This will increase the weight of that content.

Now, don’t make all your keywords old or outdated; use special formats correctly. Inline text links (links in the body content of your page) are a great way to increase the weight of specific text while actually helping your visitor by providing easy paths to pages they may be interested in.

Offsite SEO Factors

With MSN Bing, the off-site factors are much simpler to deal with than those of Google or Yahoo! MSN Bing will give you full credit for a link the day it is indexed, so link building, while time-consuming, is rewarded much quicker on MSN Bing. When dealing with MSN BING and offsite SEO, there are two main factors we must consider when finding links:

* Relevancy. The site must be relevant to yours to hold any real weight.
* Quality is better than quantity. Because PageRank is Google-specific, we can’t use it as a grading tool for MSN BING.

However, upon visiting a website, it’s generally fairly straightforward to determine whether we’re on a good site or not.

Spending extra time finding quality is well rewarded. Also, finding one-way links rather than reciprocal links is becoming increasingly important. I recommend utilizing both in your link-building strategies.

You will have to begin your off-site optimization by running link checks on your competitors to see what you’re up against. This is also a good place to start for potential link partners. However, those of you using tools like Total Optimizer Pro or PR Prowler will find it far faster and more effective to use these tools.

Conclusion

This entire article may seem pretty simplistic, and there’s a reason for that. What we’ve noted above is a list of the more critical areas; however, to save you frustration and me from receiving hundreds of emails a few months from now, noting that the keyword densities don’t work, etc., I’ve tried to keep it general. Below, you’ll find a list of recommended resources. These are tools and SEO resources to help keep you up to date and on top of the rankings.

Posted Excerpts by Dave Davies