The Ultimate Bing SEO Guide

3 basic steps to start Bing SEO

1. The first and most obvious (but ignored) step is to add and verify your website in Bing Webmaster Tools.

2. Give the Bing Webmaster Guidelines a read. Don't worry — they aren't as long as Google's, but they matter. They spell out what Bing wants from site owners in order to rank them higher. When Bing says "content is what Bing actually seeks", it means it. Consistently publish fresh, up-to-date content that helps and educates readers, and Bing will reward you.

3. Submit your website and its sitemap inside Bing Webmaster Tools. Keep the sitemap updated so Bing stays aware of structural changes — it helps the crawler index your URLs correctly.

5 on-site issues to resolve for Bing SEO

The top fixes that improve on-site quality and help you perform better on Bing:

1. If you want to rank a page for "white flowers," include "white flowers" in the URL. Your URL shouldn't be random numbers or gibberish — that's bad user experience, and Bing watches signals like bounce rate and how visitors behave on your site.

2. Use your main keyword once or twice in the first paragraph so search engines know what the page is about — but don't force it more than about three times overall. Stuffing looks unnatural and can get you penalised. The keyword should read naturally to both people and search engines.

3. The meta description is a short summary — really a call to action — that appears in the SERP. Make it tight, include your main keyword naturally, and treat it as the core of your sales pitch: it's the reason a searcher clicks your link instead of someone else's.

4. Use one primary keyword per page plus a few related secondary keywords. And always do a thorough keyword-intent analysis so you understand what the audience is actually looking for.

5. Category pages should never be empty — give them real content describing your products. You have to educate visitors throughout the buying process, and studies show category pages with content outperform those without.

Bonus. Tidy up on-site issues and strengthen internal linking. Redirect "page not found" and other error URLs to a relevant page (or remove them), and when you link internally, point to pages that are already indexed, already earning traffic, and have higher page authority.

What backlinks should you get for higher Bing rankings?

Unlike Google, Bing still responds well to keyword-focused backlinks. Where too many exact-match anchors can get you penalised on Google, Bing is more forgiving — you could say Google is the more intelligent of the two here.

So how do you do well on both without tripping either? Earn keyword-focused links mostly from sites with high Domain Authority, and keep your anchors generic (broad, branded text) when the linking site's authority is lower.

Bing rewards your social-media strength

Bing places real weight on a site being promoted by its followers and fans. It reads that activity positively and rewards it with higher SERP positions, so put your social channels to work to get the most out of Bing.

Bing loves more than text

Use great images, infographics, videos and podcasts to get your message across. Your audience will love it — and Bing handles non-text content better than Google does. Above all, Bing favours content that is original, unique, relevant, and genuinely loved by viewers.

Finally

SEO on Bing is similar to Google, but it needs a few tweaks. To enjoy higher rankings on both, be yourself and be creative. Create content for people — they're the ones who'll buy from you, not the search engines.

Talk to your customers through your content, educate them, and guide them through the buyer's journey. Thank them well, because happy customers bring you more leads and future buyers. Happy customers are your happiest promoters.