Optimize for Bing: Four Key Tips
Published on October 3, 2011
Although Google remains the search engine of choice for most customers, you can't ignore the importance of optimizing for Bing—which currently powers nearly a third of all stateside searches. And at the Bing Community's Webmaster Center blog, Duane Forrester provides insight into Bing's SEO preferences.
"[There] are a few items we love to see websites doing," he says. "While none on their own will vault you to the top of the rankings, they remain best practices you should look to engage in."
Here are four key ways to optimize for Bing:
Get your RSS feeds up and running. With clean RSS feeds, Bing can see your content more quickly—meaning it will be indexed, ranked and displayed in SERPs more quickly. "Want to really impress Bing? Get into your Bing Webmaster account and insert your RSS feed URL into the sitemap submission flow," Forrester advises.
Mark up your content. Help Bing to understand your content by marking it up according to the http://schema.org protocol. "[T]he better we understand it," he notes, "the more likely we are to be able to return you for matches to queries."
Recognize the importance of user experience. Using the example of page load time, Forrester explains that most human visitors won't notice if your page loads in .5 or .25 seconds—and Bing won't be impressed if you sacrifice content or functionality for the fractional improvement of something appreciated only by machines.
Manage social media with care. "Build your presence so that followers see you as an authority and a resource," he suggests. This requires a consistent stream of valuable content that your customers will want to share.
The Po!nt: Spread your appeal. Consider Bing's insider advice to optimize for those who don't use Google.
Source: Webmaster Center.
You know I need relating, not solitude.
Do you find that you shop in the same stores repeatedly? 
Same Restaurant?
Same barber? Why do you think that is?
One of my colleagues calls it the KLT factor: know, like, trust.
Do your prospects/clients feel the same about you and your services?
In Social Media, regardless of whether it is in Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc., it's very important to develop a relationship with your friends/followers/those who like you.
If the only contact between you and your friends/followers/those who like you is your attempt to sell or promote then you are greatly limiting if not completely eliminating potential possibilities.
Give them a reason to stay with you.
The focus must be on them: provide information they need and not information YOU want them to have. Give them reason to keep listening and coming back where they are safe from pushy sales copy. Instead benefit from having connected with you.
Remain top-of-mind because you consistently show them that you are thinking of them and that they are important. Develop their expectation of you to be one based on the KLT factor. As such, when they are ready to purchase, you're the one they think of with a positive, successful feeling inside. Best of all, they will call YOU!
You know I need relating, not solitude.
Lotta Love by Nicolette Larson
Twitter Limitations
With the Twitter 140 character limitation, one of the most important things to keep in mind is that your Twitter ID/Account should be shorter so it won't take up too many characters when people ReTweet your tweets.
Social Media –> An Ah-Ha Moment…
Whether your business uses Social Media or not is not really all that important.Consider “yesterday’s” priorities. Before Social Media, how were you creating, developing the public’s understanding of YOUR BUSINESS’ identity? Its values? Its link(s) to the community?
How did you let people know what your company colours were? Which charity you supported? When and where you were holding this season’s events?
Today’s communication avenue is through Social Media. Don’t just collect friends, followers, LIKEs, etc. Ensure your posts/comments are about your audience, prospects, clients and their interests and needs. Talking about your business is only engaging conversation for YOU. If your readership consistently sees that you are not selling but relating and engaging them in topics of interest, they’d be more likely visit your page again and mention/recommend you to others.
As you develop the trust factor, automatically there is a relationship between you and your audience. Take care of your relationship. Don’t abuse or assume but nurture. Listen to your audience. Where better than a casual location to sit and share issues, and sources of pain… Provide what your audience considers to be valuable content. Feed them what they have indicated they need. And build your business’ identity, its BRAND in the process.
Who would you ask for assistance or buy from: someone you like, respect, and trust, someone who repeatedly provides helpful information or some guy you just found in the phone book.
Social Media enables businesses to connect with diverse people. It provides an open line for communication and only strengthening this relationship. It enables you to become your clients’, prospects’ BRAND of choice.
Facebook Page Views
Did you know that as of March, 2011...
Facebook’s site accounts for one out of
every four page views in the United States.
(10% of all Internet visits)
Facebook now has more than 250 million users
engaging with its external products, including
Connect, the Like button and other
“social plugins.”
Be sure your business is on Facebook! Why?
While more than 250 million active daily users
are looking around through Facebook,
where should your business be?
Your business should be on Facebook of course!
Engage millions of people during those 700 billion minutes per month they spend surfing through Facebook.
