When it comes to doing SEO for Google then we get loads of articles, blog posts and other content on how we can optimize the website and get better rankings and traffic. But when it comes to optimizing the website for Bing then we have very less information from people on internet or World Wide Web (WWW).
Recently, Duane Forrester Senior Product Manager of Bing’s Webmaster Program organized a webinar on crawling basics. In this webinar he described factors Bing considers important before ranking any website for a particular search term.
Here is the summary of Bing crawling basics webinar describing important ranking factors for Bing:
- Content is King: A lot of fresh and unique content is important for crawlers of Bing.
- XML Sitemaps and RSS Feeds: Bing insists on using error free sitemap.xml. XML sitemap should not have URLs leading to 404 pages; Bingbot might ignore whole sitemap if it finds even one URL leading to 404 errors. RSS feeds are more important for Bing, by RSS feeds Bingbot will get update about latest content coming on website.
- Robots.txt: In a survey conducted by Bing they found that most of the websites which Bingbot cannot crawl don’t have correct robots.txt file. They found that these websites have blocked crawlers from indexing the websites. So, check your robots.txt before doing SEO for the website.
- Bounce Rate: Bing also considers bounce rate as a major ranking factor. If they find that most of the visitors are leaving a page before spending certain amount of time on that page, then they may rank down the website. So, keep a check on your bounce rate also. Make your website engaging enough for the visitors.
- Bing Webmaster Tools: Finally, if you want to rank well on Bing then you should start using Bing webmaster tool. Benefits of using Bing Webmaster Tool are that you can have a better control on your website when it comes to indexing in Bing. Besides using an array of SEO tools like keyword research, back-link analysis etc. you can submit sitemaps, control robots.txt, URL parameters etc.
Besides all this, social media plays an important role in SEO for Bing. Hope this will help you in getting better ranks on Bing.