What You Need to Know About Different Search Engines
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a marketing practice that focuses on building the organic ranking of a website. SEO uses both technical and creative elements to improve rankings, drive traffic, and increase awareness in search engines.
Rather than go into the details of SEO ranking practices, we’re going to talk about the differences between ranking on Google versus Bing. The two search engines have unique identifiers that they look for when ranking a website on their results pages.
With 71.35% of the global market share, SEO experts target their optimization efforts to match Google’s requirements. Because Google has such a large user base, it makes more sense for marketers to focus on ranking for Google rather than any other search engine.
The requirements to rank on Google have changed dramatically in recent years. The search engine powerhouse relies on the quality and quantity of the website’s content, as well as backlinks, to determine where it will rank. Google also uses keyword integration to rank a website, although those keywords need to be naturally integrated throughout the content.
Another system used by Google, and other major search engines, is Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI). This is an algorithm that determines what a page is about by spotting patterns of related words. It can return relevant results that don’t have the keywords at all, but those pages with the related words.
As we mentioned, the quality of a website’s content is integral to it’s ranking on Google. This means the content needs to be laid out in a way that both users and search engines can understand. There also needs to be enough content that Google can properly identify the value of the website. SEO experts recommend at least 2000 words of value-filled content on the homepage for improved ranking on Google.
While Google is constantly evolving their ranking algorithm, Bing has made little advancements to their requirements. With 12.37% of the market share, Bing is a distant second to Google. Marketers interested in SEO ranking don’t necessarily target their efforts for Bing, but ranking on the search engine can still be useful for clients.
Bing uses the ranking tactics that Google used to employ for listing websites on their search results pages. This includes a heavy emphasis on keywords, whether they’re integrated organically or not. Even domain titles that use the exact keywords for their names are ranked higher on Bing.
Ranking on Google is the target of every SEO professional. With the recent changes to their algorithm, marketers need to focus on the website’s content and links, rather than stuffing keywords into the pages. It’s a more advanced system that benefits both users and clients.
As ranking guidelines continue to evolve, it’s important that the digital marketing industry is aware of any changes that affect their ability to rank their client’s websites. For any changes to SEO algorithms, make sure to stay connected with our blog and follow us on Twitter and Facebook.