Bing Search Guide: History, AI Features, and SEO Tips

What Is Microsoft Bing?

Bing is simply a hunt motor developed and operated by Microsoft. It offers a assortment of hunt features, including web, image, and representation searches. Along with precocious AI-driven hunt functionalities.

Beyond its halfway hunt capabilities, Bing is known for its user-friendly interface and integration with different Microsoft products and services, including Windows 11, Xbox, and Microsoft 365.

The Evolution of Bing Search

Here’s an overview of Bing’s past and its existent lasting successful the hunt motor marketplace.

The Rise of Bing successful the Search Engine Arena

At launch, Microsoft Bing hunt was touted arsenic a “Decision Engine”—a much precocious hunt work built to assistance customers marque better-informed decisions. Rather than conscionable navigating the web and uncovering information. 

As such, Bing came with respective caller features to supply users with much discourse for their hunt results. 

These included the “Best Match” diagnostic to item the astir applicable responses to idiosyncratic queries, “Deep Links” for greater penetration into each result, and “Web Groups” to signifier results into much intuitive categories.

Here’s however Bing hunt has evolved implicit the years: 

• June 2009: Microsoft launched Bing successful June 2009 during a rebrand of its earlier Live Search and MSN Search hunt engines 
• July 2009: Microsoft and Yahoo! struck a 10-year deal for Bing to powerfulness the Yahoo! hunt engine. This concern aimed to springiness some companies the indispensable standard and resources to vie successful a Google-dominated market. 
• February 2010: Microsoft partnered with Facebook to show Bing results for users searching wrong Facebook. And aboriginal that year, Bing started utilizing Facebook information to heighten the idiosyncratic relevance of its hunt results.
• July 2015: Microsoft’s 2015 motorboat of Windows 10 marked different important milestone for Bing. The hunt motor was intricately woven into the caller operating system, peculiarly done the Cortana voice-powered assistant.
• June 2017: Bing introduced ocular hunt capabilities, enabling image-based web searches. This twelvemonth besides saw Bing surpass Yahoo! arsenic the world’s second-largest hunt engine. 
• February 2023: Microsoft addedBing Chat to Bing. Later rebranded arsenic Copilot, this AI-powered chatbot lets hunt users get tailored, human-like responses to their questions with links to the archetypal sources.
• March 2023: Bing reached 100 cardinal progressive regular users for the archetypal time 

Overview of Bing's Current Market Position

Despite respective advancements since its 2009 release, Bing has struggled to importantly situation Google’s overwhelming global hunt motor marketplace share, which has lone erstwhile fallen beneath 90% successful 2014.

As of January 2024, Bing held 3.40% of the planetary hunt motor marketplace stock crossed each devices. And portion this whitethorn look humble compared to Google’s 91.54% planetary marketplace share, it inactive amounts to astir 1.3 billion unsocial monthly visits worldwide. 

The contention narrows much noticeably successful the desktop segment. Bing captured 10.51% of the planetary desktop hunt motor market, portion Google maintained an 81.94% marketplace share. This smaller spread is apt owed to Bing’s integration with Microsoft’s desktop devices.

The Bing hunt motor besides claimed 7.20% of the North American hunt market—higher than its planetary average. The U.S. marketplace played a important relation successful this performance, accounting for astir 26% of Bing’s full visits.

It’s important to enactment that Bing has precocious made large strides successful integrating AI exertion into its services. As we’ll present see, these developments could importantly boost its quality to vie against Google.

Further reading: 21 Best Search Engines successful the World

The Integration of AI successful Bing Search

Mainstream hunt engines similar Bing person agelong incorporated AI exertion and instrumentality learning techniques to amended the speed, accuracy, and convenience of their hunt services.

However, successful 2023, Microsoft launched a caller AI-powered mentation of Bing featuring an precocious integer adjunct called Copilot (previously called Bing Chat). This caller Bing ran connected OpenAI’s GPT-4 ample connection model, customized for search.

Bing’s integration of generative AI exertion marked a large measurement guardant successful AI-powered search.

You tin present person human-like conversations with Bing AI to find the accusation you need, successful summation to utilizing the accepted Bing hunt format. 

Bing’s Copilot adjunct besides allows you to execute assorted tasks, similar summarizing text, creating images, and penning code.

Bing AI Search Results Examples

The Bing homepage provides respective ways to straight prosecute with the Copilot assistant.

Click the “Chat” fastener successful the top-left corner, the Bing icon to the close of the hunt box, oregon the “Ask Bing Chat” enactment beneath the hunt box.

Once you participate a query into the hunt box, the results leafage volition often see a chat model with an AI-generated answer.

Once you interact with the chat option, Bing automatically displays the afloat Copilot window. Ask follow-up questions, with Copilot generating conversational answers featuring relevant, clickable sources from crossed the web. 

Bing has besides enhanced its hunt acquisition with the instauration of AI-generated cognition cards. These cards look connected the right-hand broadside of the results page, helping users research topics with facts, image-based timelines, and related topics.

Here’s an illustration for the query “impressionism”:

Exploring the Features of Bing Search

Beyond its unsocial AI capabilities, Bing offers respective features and functionalities that separate it from different hunt engines.

• Homepage inheritance image: Bing’s homepage features a high-quality inheritance representation that changes each day. This sets it isolated from the much minimalist homepage designs of hunt engines similar Google.
• Microsoft Rewards: Members of the Microsoft Rewards loyalty programme tin gain points conscionable by searching with Bing. Users tin past redeem these points for things similar escaped acquisition cards, games, and movies.
• Integration with the Microsoft ecosystem: Bing seamlessly integrates with respective Microsoft products and services, similar Windows OS, the Edge browser, and Office 
• Bing Maps: Bing Maps includes immoderate unsocial features similar Bird’s Eye View, providing high-resolution aerial imagery that resembles looking down from a low-flying aircraft

• Video previews: Bing’s video hunt relation plays a preview of each video erstwhile users hover implicit the thumbnail, making it easier to find applicable contented quickly

Navigating Bing's User Interface

Bing’s idiosyncratic interface strikes a hard equilibrium betwixt simplicity and functionality.

Here are immoderate cardinal elements of its layout and design:

• Navigation: Bing’s homepage contains a elemental top-level navigation barroom with links to antithetic hunt types, including chat, shopping, and Bing representation search

• Rich hunt results: Bing’s hunt results are often highly ocular and connection respective ways to preview contented earlier clicking connected immoderate results. For example, hovering implicit a video effect triggers a video preview, and Wikipedia results diagnostic a array of contents allowing users to scroll done the leafage without clicking through.

• Paid advertising: Bing displays paid listings passim its hunt results, which transportation the “Ads” label

• Related searches: Bing provides users with different searches related to their query astatine the bottommost (and sometimes astatine the side) of the results page. For example, if you hunt for “men’s slim acceptable jeans,” Bing volition amusement related searches similar “men’s slim cropped achromatic jeans.”

• Search icon: Bing lets users refine their hunt by clicking a imperishable hunt icon alternatively than scrolling backmost to the apical of the page. You’ll find this icon astatine the bottommost close country of the hunt screen.

Advanced Search Options and Tools

Like different large hunt engines, Bing offers a scope of precocious options to assistance users refine their searches and get much precise results.

Some of the main options include:

• Advanced hunt options: Bing supports assorted search options to assistance users constrictive their results. These see utilizing " " to find nonstop matches, NOT to exclude results containing a circumstantial connection oregon phrase, and OR to find pages containing either connection oregon phrase. 
• Search filters: Bing lets users refine their hunt by date, location, and language
• Image search: Bing’s representation hunt lets users filter results by size, color, benignant (photo, GIF, transparent), and licence type. Users tin besides upload an representation to find akin images connected the internet.
• Maps: Bing Maps provides elaborate maps and section information, including directions, traffic, and concern listings
• Bing Shopping: Bing’s buying diagnostic lets users hunt for products utilizing filters similar brand, terms range, and color
• SafeSearch: Bing lets users filter big contented from their results, with options including strict, moderate, and off

Bing Search Ranking Factors

As with Google, circumstantial details astir Bing’s halfway hunt algorithm aren't publically available. Keeping this accusation nether wraps helps hunt engines forestall manipulation of their hunt results.

That said, the basal tenets of improving SEO rankings use crossed each large hunt engines. 

Also, Bing is comparatively unfastened astir the high-level parameters it uses to find rankings. 

Here they are successful wide bid of importance:

• Relevance: Content should bespeak the user’s hunt intent, providing them with the accusation they seek. Bing looks for presumption that lucifer the user’s query some connected the leafage and successful links pointing to the page. It besides factors successful the beingness of presumption with the aforesaid oregon akin meaning.
• Quality and credibility: Content should beryllium valuable, trustworthy, and original. Bing determines the authorization of a website by considering what different sites nexus to it, however good it distinguishes information from opinion, and whether they mention their sources.
• User engagement: Bing takes into relationship however users prosecute with antithetic hunt results, similar whether they clicked connected a effect and, if so, whether they rapidly bounced backmost to Bing
• Freshness: Content should supply up-to-date accusation wherever possible
• Location and language: Bing considers the user’s location, the connection of the page, and the determination of different leafage visitors erstwhile ranking results
• Page speed: In galore cases, Bing assumes that slow-loading pages supply a mediocre idiosyncratic experience

As with Google, Bing prohibits the usage of deceptive practices to effort to crippled its hunt rankings. 

Attempts to summation an unfair vantage done methods similar cloaking (hiding keywords), keyword stuffing (overloading contented with keywords), oregon nexus spamming (adding aggregate irrelevant links to content) tin pb to important penalties.

Comparing Bing and Google: SEO Differences

Despite galore similarities betwixt Bing and Google, a fewer cardinal differences beryllium successful however they fertile and scale websites.

Perhaps the biggest quality is Google’s mobile-first index. Pages that aren’t optimized for mobile devices are little apt to fertile good successful Google’s results, adjacent for desktop searches. Bing, connected the different hand, maintains a desktop-first index.

Another large quality relates to the value of societal signals. Bing has antecedently mentioned that it factors successful societal signals erstwhile ranking websites. More caller enactment for this comes from the information that Bing’s Webmaster Guidelines counsel against utilizing societal media schemes to crippled its algorithm. 

Meanwhile, Google has flatly denied its ranking algorithm considers societal signals.

A 3rd quality is however some hunt engines analyse content. As we saw earlier, Bing places a important accent connected nonstop lucifer keywords erstwhile determining the relevance of a portion of contented for a peculiar query (although it besides factors successful semantic equivalents). 

Google is much focused connected knowing the intent and discourse surrounding idiosyncratic searches done different means. 

This is particularly evident successful Google’s usage of earthy connection processing algorithms similar BERT (Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers), which allows it to recognize the nuances and relationships betwixt words successful a query.

Mastering Bing SEO

Now that you're up to velocity with the fundamentals of Bing, let’s see circumstantial ways of maximizing your integrated visibility connected the hunt motor (without hurting your Google SEO).

Use Relevant Keywords

Given Bing’s accent connected nonstop lucifer keywords, guarantee your contented and different on-page SEO elements (titles, headers, meta descriptions) incorporate your people phrases. 

Of course, integrating keywords should ne'er travel astatine the disbursal of readability. They should look earthy and travel seamlessly with the surrounding content. 

Our Keyword Magic Tool makes it casual to probe full hunt markets and observe caller keyword opportunities. 

The instrumentality generates countless keyword suggestions based connected your effect word and includes utile keyword metrics similar Intent, Total Volume, and Average Difficulty.

Once you’ve chosen keywords and implemented them into your tract and content, usage the Position Tracking instrumentality to spot however your tract ranks successful Bing’s SERPs and AI-generated results.

Simply navigate to Position Tracking and acceptable Bing arsenic your hunt motor erstwhile configuring your campaign.

Once the instrumentality starts collecting data, you’ll beryllium capable to way your visibility and rankings from the reports.

Prioritize Quality Content

We’ve seen however Bing favors fresh, archetypal contented that satisfies hunt intent. In this respect, it’s nary antithetic from Google.

Your contented should beryllium well-written, logically structured, and connection the scholar arsenic overmuch worth arsenic possible. Fluff pieces and rehashed articles won’t chopped it.

Add applicable and engaging multimedia contented to your pages wherever it makes sense. Adding alt substance to your images (a abbreviated statement of the image) and captions and subtitles to your videos improves accessibility and makes it easier for Bing to construe your contented accurately.

Increasing your societal media beingness and encouraging your assemblage to prosecute with and stock your contented could amended your Bing hunt rankings.

Earn Backlinks from Reputable Sites

Building high-quality backlinks from applicable and authoritative sources is indispensable for establishing your site’s credibility.

Some effectual link-building strategies see impermanent posting, claiming breached links (asking website owners to regenerate non-working links to different sites with a applicable nexus to your site), and creating highly linkable contented featuring superior research.

Claim Your Business connected Bing Places

Listing your institution connected Bing Places for Business volition boost your visibility for section searches and guarantee your concern accusation is accurately represented successful Bing’s hunt results. 

Increase the entreaty of your listing by adding high-quality photos and elaborate descriptions astir your concern and encouraging customers to permission reviews.

Improve Technical SEO

Ensuring that method aspects of your tract are up to scratch makes it easier for Bing to crawl and scale your tract and provides visitors with a amended idiosyncratic experience.

Page load speed, mobile responsiveness, wide navigation, and schema markup (web codification that helps hunt engines categorize your content) each play a cardinal relation successful your site’s wide performance.

Leverage Bing Webmaster Tools

Bing Webmaster Tools provides tons of insights into however your tract performs successful the hunt engine.

This escaped SEO toolkit—comparable to Google Search Console—lets you recognize postulation patterns, place keywords driving postulation to your site, and diagnose method issues. 

Using Bing for Digital Marketing

In summation to SEO, Bing offers a scope of PPC advertising opportunities done Microsoft Advertising (formerly Bing Ads). The level lets businesses make and show ads successful Bing’s hunt results and different Microsoft-owned sites.

While Microsoft Advertising has overmuch successful communal with its Google counterpart, advertizing connected Bing comes with immoderate chiseled advantages. 

First, the contention isn’t arsenic fierce, which means you could perchance triumph amended advertisement placements for little money. 

But an arsenic important payment is that Microsoft Ads offers broad and unsocial targeting options, including the quality to people audiences based connected accusation pulled from LinkedIn. 

This makes Bing ads a almighty instrumentality for B2B marketers looking to scope professionals and decision-makers wrong circumstantial industries.

Improve Your Bing SEO Rankings with Semrush

While Bing whitethorn not beryllium the biggest subordinate successful the hunt motor arena, there’s nary uncertainty it offers businesses a unsocial and effectual mode to amplify their online presence.

The hunt motor has implemented respective innovations during its 15-year history, culminating with its caller AI-powered hunt offering that has yet to beryllium matched by Google connected a planetary scale.

Many businesses place Bing hunt successful their SEO and integer selling efforts. But you should presumption this arsenic a strategical advantage. 

By applying the insights mentioned supra and adopting tools similar Position Tracking, Keyword Magic, and Backlink Analytics, you tin amended your rankings connected Bing search. 

This station was updated successful 2024. Excerpts from the archetypal nonfiction by Chima Mmeje whitethorn remain.