Let’s contrast Google and Microsoft Bing, the two most popular search engines.
Google is a common focus for SEO experts when it comes to website improvement. In the end, it is the search engine that is most widely used worldwide.
But what about Microsoft Bing, though? Does it make sense to optimise your site for it as well?
Market share of Microsoft Bing versus Google
With Google processing more than 90% of all search queries, it is clear that it is the market leader for search engines globally.
The internet behemoth handled an incredible 92% of all searches as of August 2022 across all search engine providers. In other words, Google is used by more than 90% of internet users who conduct informational searches online.
Its primary rival, Microsoft’s Bing, barely manages a small percentage of Google’s volume. Currently, Bing has a 3.33% market share.
The Usability of Bing and Google
Although the two search engines have similar search functionality, Google has more essential features.
Images-
It’s easy to see the differences between the Images pages on Google and Bing. Even though both search results have similar photo presentations, when you simply click on them without entering any search terms, the pages that appear are different. The Google search page retains the same straightforward design as its main search page, with the addition of the phrase “Images” under Google.
Social Search-
If social search is the future of search, the issue that needs to be asked is whether Bing has established a solid base from which to compete with Google.
When you look at the numbers, there is no doubt that Google is the uncontested market leader among search engines. However, if recent measures by Google and Bing, both of which incorporated social indicators to their search engines, are any indication, social search may be a thing of the past.
Google, the first of the major search engines, first presented the idea of social search in October 2009, and it was upgraded once again in February 2011. However, as of right now, Twitter has been the leading source of information for Google’s search results, with data from other sources like personal blogging sites coming in second. Facebook has been the essential element that has been missing, though.
In case you weren’t aware, Google and Facebook are infamously at odds, with Facebook reportedly hiring a PR firm in the most recent dispute to harm Google’s reputation.
Now that Facebook is keeping a careful eye on the massive amounts of social data it collects, it is crystal clear that Google will probably be the last company on earth to get access to it.
What needs to be determined is whether you think social search holds the key to the future and represents the elusive peak of trustworthy search results. If this is the case, Bing might have an edge over Google given its 600 million or more passionate “likes” who are constantly interacting—something Google is unlikely to encounter very soon.
After all, Microsoft no longer incenses the public as much as it once did. Adding Twitter data seems like it wouldn’t be too difficult for Microsoft. Additionally, keep in mind that Twitter is NOT a social network.
Ads-
Bing’s search engine offers the top 20 most popular picture searches right now for you to view with just one click, despite not being as visually appealing as its main page.
Google and Bing both offer search ads. The ones from Google and Bing are represented by AdWords and Bing Ads, respectively. Both work in fairly similar ways, but Google’s is unquestionably more advanced and user-friendly—even if sometimes even that gets confusing.
Bing Ads for Australian businesses were just recently localised. Prior to it, it was not possible to pinpoint a particular Australian city or region. By localising Bing Ads, Microsoft is attempting to increase its market share in this nation, albeit it will probably be a few more months before any concrete results of this initiative are announced.
Maps-
Both Google and Bing aim for very similar characteristics in their mapping services. The only significant difference in this instance is how much superior Google Maps is. This is not surprising considering the time and effort Google has put into its Maps service over the years, including frequent area mapping, traffic statistics, promoting and paying businesses to appear on Maps, offering Street View, and other features.
Because Google Maps is so advanced, it is simple to utilise it as a GPS, especially on Android smartphones.
Comparing Bing Maps to Google Maps reveals a glaring lack of data and business listings. Despite integrating Bing Maps, which is a way for Bing to increase the size of its company database, Facebook is still far behind Google in this regard.
Including map listings and local listings on search engine results pages (SERPs).
Ensure that you claim all of your listings on Google and Microsoft Bing and that your profile is optimised with business details, images, relevant categories, and links.
It’s important to have an accurate name, address, and phone number (NAP) information.
The size of the index and crawling differences between Google and Bing
Using structured data is essential, as even Google is unable to crawl the entire web. As a result, you can qualify for rich results, get more clicks and impressions, and help Google understand your content better.
The size of the Google Search index, which is far over 100,000,000 terabytes, represents hundreds of billions of web pages.
Microsoft Bing has not made any similar data public. The Microsoft Bing index, on the other hand, includes between 8 and 14 billion online pages, according to a website that calculates search engine index volumes.
At Microsoft it was said:
“Bingbot uses an algorithm to determine which sites to crawl, how often, and how many pages to fetch from each site. The goal is to minimize bingbot crawl footprint on your web sites while ensuring that the freshest content is available.”
John Mueller from Google said the following at about the same time as the aforementioned statement:
“I think the hard part here is that we don’t crawl URLs with the same frequency all the time. So some URLs we will crawl daily. Some URLs may be weekly. Other URLs every couple of months, maybe even every once half year or so. So this is something that we try to find the right balance for so that we don’t overload your server.”
Although Microsoft Bing has a different philosophy and does not intend to apply such a policy, Google has a mobile-first index.
It is crucial to ensure that your website is user-friendly, loads quickly, and provides users with the information they require as a consequence. In contrast, Microsoft Bing provides a single index that works well on both desktop and mobile devices.
With the inclusion of services like Gmail, Maps, Chrome OS, Android OS, YouTube, and others, Google has expanded beyond its original role as a search engine.
In addition to email through Outlook, Microsoft Bing also provides other services like OneDrive and Office Online.
It does not, however, use a proprietary operating system like Google does. Instead, it uses iOS on Apple mobile devices or Windows Phone 8.
Reporting
Another tool I consider to be superior to Google is the fact that Microsoft Bing provides SEO Reports.
According to Bing, these reports contain typical page-level recommendations based on SEO best practises to help you move up the results and are automatically prepared every two weeks. These include suggestions for areas that could use improvement or additional research.
Choosing between Google and Bing search optimization
The three variables that worry Google the most are expertise, authority, and trust (E.A.T.).
Computer-driven algorithms fuel Google searches, which generate results based on users’ locations and previous search histories.
Google will make it much easier to find a certain item than Microsoft Bing since Google has a more complete grasp of a user before they enter any information into the browser.
Google has always been a link-focused search engine, meaning that quality still matters more than the quantity of links. Links on Microsoft Bing don’t carry as much weight.
I think on-page SEO has always been given top priority by Microsoft Bing. It awards articles with strong optimization or with essential on-page elements like titles, descriptions, URLs, and content extra points.
Microsoft Bing asserts in its webmaster guidelines that its algorithm considers social signals, in contrast to Google. In addition to focusing on Twitter and Facebook, you should also create high-quality content for your website and social media networks if you want to rank highly in Microsoft Bing.
How Often Do They Update Their Search Algorithms?
The algorithm for Bing is not updated as frequently as the one for Google. Google is always changing its variables to stay one step ahead of the knowledgeable SEO marketers that use them.
Bing, on the other hand, enables competent SEO specialists to reap the rewards of their labour for a longer period of time.
When using Bing, you don’t have to be afraid of your well-earned ranking slipping as a result of an algorithm change. When dealing with a business the scale of Google, it is just assumed.
Google-
One important distinction may stand out if you’re concerned about your rating for a new site that we have created. It takes time for a new website to rank on Google. They must first find it, which can be hastened by including a sitemap, building links to it, and utilising other marketing techniques. But they still need to audit it after they locate it. Depending on what they find there and how you’re extending it, your website may stay in the auditing “sandbox” process’ for a few weeks or even months.
Bing-
In contrast, Bing doesn’t perform as much auditing, overviewing, or “sandboxing”. On Bing, a new website can be indexed and ranked far more quicker than it can on Google. So, you will notice that it ranks on Bing far quicker than it would on Google. You might have a decent rank on Google once they audit your site and remove it from the sandbox because ranking well on Bing and Google is comparable, though not exactly the same.
The importance of content is shared by both search engines. Always place a focus on excellent content that satisfies the user’s informational requirements. Users will inherently love and link to content that is useful and relevant.
Both engines must support mobile devices and have a quick network. But Microsoft Bing prioritises the use of anchor text more. Bing has a history of rewarding websites that share an anchor text with the page title, something that Google long ago discounted.
Search for videos on Google and Microsoft Bing
A grid view of substantial thumbnails is included on the Microsoft Bing video search results page, which is significantly more visually appealing.
The video results from Google are more conventional, with a vertical list of tiny thumbnails.
Additionally, Microsoft Bing offers a preview of some videos, which are neat because clicking on them keeps you on Bing. In my opinion, it also offers a lot more details on video results.
They contain ratings and reviews, as well as the cast and even where you can see the movie.
The importance of both search engines’ map listings for local SEO
Similar map features are available on both engines, including map listings and local listings on search engine results pages (SERPs).
Ensure that you claim all of your listings on Google and Microsoft Bing and that your profile is optimised with business details, images, relevant categories, and links.
It’s important to have an accurate name, address, and phone number (NAP) information.
And the winner is…..?
Google is the winner. But the rate at which the Bing search engine is evolving and developing is of no doubt a concern to Google. The fact that Google can conduct in-depth searches and turn out highly detailed information is the only reason it is favoured by the majority of people, and this is what has caused them to be the top-ranking search engine. Bing is making an attempt, especially considering that it is still relatively new in the market.
So, if you are looking for help with your SEO, look no further than One2One Digital. We are specialists in Seo, digital marketing, content marketing, PPC, Web Design and Email Marketing.