Learn About the Search Engines
Search engines used to be a novel way to find the different information available online. When the Internet started becoming a household commodity, it was still pretty small in comparison to how it has grown. But even at the time, consumers could hardly scratch the surface of the available web pages. In order to make locating information easier, search engines popped up. Yahoo was one of the early innovators, and it quickly became the favorite among users. But as the Internet grew, so did the number of businesses that wanted to get in on the profits, and search engines popped up everywhere.
Nowadays, there are three major search engines in use in the United States: Google, Bing and Yahoo. Once an industry leader, Yahoo could no longer remain in the lead and has fallen in market share and in popularity. Google now reigns supreme in the United States, receiving the most search queries. But Bing and Yahoo are still relevant, and it may because they offer users something a little different than Google.
So when it comes to Internet marketing, and companies start talking about search engine optimization (SEO), they are usually referring to optimizing content for Google. But you shouldn’t count out Bing or Yahoo. Search engine users tend to have a favorite, and if you count out one of the search engines, you may be missing out on doing business with the people who use those search engines primarily.
Bing
Bing may be a runner-up to Google, but it has its own unique system for ranking web pages, and many people prefer the priorities of Bing than Google. For example, Bing is capable of indexing Flash and images, something that Google cannot do (Google relies on text, video descriptions and photo captions to decipher video, images and graphics). If you have a website that features a lot of Flash components, then you may want to consider optimizing for Bing as those elements are ignored by Google’s crawling robots.
Bing also favors specific keywords in its rankings. This can make is easier for humans to perform search queries, but it also makes it easier to keyword spam your website. Bing prefers sites that use certain keywords in content on web pages, meta tags and backlinks (both internal and external).
If your company wants to get on Bing’s good side, then consider getting on the good side of your social media followers and customers. Bing rates a website well based on its usage of social media, so finally all of those Tweets, Facebook posts, Pins and even Google+ “+1s” can boost your rankings. In comparison to Google, these posts and tweets would only help you rank if they linked back to your site and included content that is optimized with keywords.
For anyone who is familiar with the way print journalism uses the inverted pyramid, you may better understand the way Bing places importance on content. For newsworthy articles, all of the most important information is written near the top of the article. That way, if the article needs to be trimmed, editors can trim from the bottom of the piece while still including all of the relevant information. Due to Bing’s algorithm not being quite as advanced as Google (Bing, overall, is a relatively new search engine), it only takes into consideration the top portions of a web page. So you want to make sure your web designs keep it simple and professional up-top with all the important content included “above the fold” (above the point where users will have to scroll down).
Another major difference between Bing and Google is that Bing doesn’t index every page of a website. In order for the search engine algorithm to index a page, it has to consider the page an authority and deem it worthwhile. If you have some lackluster pages on your website, you can bet that Bing is skipping over them in favor of other pages.
Yahoo
Although Yahoo still holds its own in the search engine market share, it sadly does not power its own search engine. In 2011, Yahoo completed the transition with Bing, so that Yahoo’s search engine is now powered by Bing’s algorithm. What does this mean for your website? If you optimize for Bing, you can expect slower results with Yahoo. The reason is pretty simple -- Yahoo is no longer backing its search engine, and Bing will always focus on its own search engine first. While Yahoo will get algorithm updates, it’s expected at a slower rate. This may change in the future, but for now, it’s best to keep tricks and easy grabs at bay and trust in tried-and-true SEO methods to be ranked on Yahoo.
If you’ve researched SEO online at all, you’re likely already well-versed on Google’s search algorithms. Many SEO marketing companies don’t make a distinction between one search engine or another in their services, and if that’s the case with a company you’ve researched, then they are probably optimizing for Google. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing since Google is the most-used search engine in the United States and the world.
Google puts a lot of importance on quality content written for humans. That means spamming keywords isn’t going to trick its algorithms, and if you happen to slip by, you won’t be in the top rankings for long. Google updates its algorithms a couple hundreds times a year. Some of these updates are so small that no one notices a difference. Other larger updates have caused reputable sites to plummet due to poor content, paid-for backlinking or other SEO tactics that Google doesn’t like.
To rank at the top of Google’s search engine results, you should focus on producing quality content, building a credible backlinking network, provide informative content for consumers, and regular update and maintain your website.
Working Together
The best way to meet the demands of all the top U.S. search engines is to provide well-written, quality content that is both relevant and informative. All of the top search engines penalize poorly written content, often called “thin” content, and this includes publishing duplicate content on the site.
While all search engines take a look at your backlinks, they also all penalize “spammy” backlinks that are often associated with paid-for link schemes. Only use backlinks that are natural and relevant -- never pay to become a party of a backlinking network. Always trust the site you are linking to, and when you ask other sites to link to your web pages, make sure they are credible and trustworthy as well.
