How to Do SEO for Bing

We can’t help but agree that the competition on the Google SERP pages is brutal. If you found yourself having difficulty ranking your website on page one of Google, then ranking on Bing could be the alternative trick you’re looking for. Yes, Google is by far the most dominant search engine, but we are witnessing how its landscape is evolving over the years with the introduction of AI. We all refer to web searching as Googling, as it’s the most popular search engine, but people still use other ones like Bing, although we don’t say Binging.

Yes, Microsoft’s very own Bing is the second most popular search engine in the US, Canada, the UK, and Australia. So, if you miss out on getting traffic through Google, you could try your luck on Bing. In this complete guide, I’ve mentioned the top tricks in this guide to help you understand more about SEO for Bing.

Understanding Bing’s Algorithm

Search engines like Bing and Google play a crucial role in determining the online visibility of a website. Bing may not command the same market share as Google, but it’s got a unique audience, demographics, and search technology that makes it a vital platform for businesses looking for online visibility. Yes, as of 2025, Bing processes billions of searches monthly, but its distinct ranking factors offer challenges and opportunities for SEO professionals. Understanding how search engines work is vital for optimizing a website for search engines.

Bing’s search algorithm differs from Google’s in several key ways:

Emphasis on Exact-Match Keywords: Bing relies more on precise keyword matching than Google, which favors semantic search and AI-driven interpretations. This means that using exact keywords in your titles, headers, and meta descriptions is more effective for Bing SEO.

Here, Bing defines this as: when ranking content, it lists results that are relevant to the searcher’s query, and it looks for how closely the content on the landing page matches the intent behind the search query. So, Bing determines this “relevance” primarily based on whether a web page contains keywords that exactly match those the searcher has used.

Traditional SEO Factors: Bing places significant weight on classic SEO elements such as backlinks, metadata, and website structure, rather than constantly shifting AI-based updates.

Social Signals: Unlike Google, Bing considers social engagement—likes, shares, and comments—as a ranking factor. Socially shareable content can directly boost your Bing rankings. Bing also takes user engagement metrics into account when ranking pages, such as the time spent on the pages visited and CTR (Click-through rate).

Local Search Priority: Bing’s algorithm heavily favors local intent, making geo-targeted keywords and Bing Places for Business listings essential for local businesses.

Bing also analyzes what the searcher does immediately after returning to the SERPs, like whether they refined their search query before performing another search, to give the searcher what they are looking for. This makes Bing’s search algorithms seem less complicated than Google’s, pointing to the idea that Bing SEO is simpler compared to its Google counterpart.

Bing Crawling

Bing utilizes various crawlers to ensure comprehensive web coverage. Bing has four main crawlers:

Bingbot: This is the standard Bing crawler. It handles daily crawling operations. It has different user agent strings to indicate its identity as a desktop or mobile variant.

AdIdxBot: This crawler is specifically designed for Bing Ads. AdIdxBot crawls all advertisements and associated websites for quality control. Like Bingbot, this also has desktop and mobile variants.

BingPreview: It generates page snapshots for Bing and gives users a preview of the webpage in search results. This crawler also has desktop and mobile variants.

MicrosoftPreview: Similar to BingPreview, this generates page snapshots for Microsoft products.

Usually, website owners have two options to manage how Bing crawlers interact with their site. First, you can use robots.txt files to specify how Bing crawlers should interact with your website. Second, use the Crawl Control tool to manage the exact crawl rates by hour.

Rank Well on Bing with These Guidelines

Bing Webmaster Tools is a comprehensive platform that serves as a control center for Yahoo! and Bing. Bing also published guidelines to help website owners better understand how to optimise their content and website for higher rankings on its SERPs. Most of these guidelines are pretty similar to how you optimise your web pages for Google, so I will just mention a few of the key on-page SEO tips in this section. If you’re new to optimising, you can check out Bing Webmaster Guidelines to understand better.

Core Principles of Bing Webmaster Guidelines

Bing’s guidelines focus on creating a high-quality, user-friendly, and technically sound website. The main areas Bing emphasizes are:

• Website structure and crawlability
• Content quality and relevance
• Mobile-friendliness
• User experience
• Technical SEO and structured data
• Ethical SEO practices (avoiding manipulative tactics)

Website Structure and Crawlability

• Submit an XML sitemap via Bing Webmaster Tools to help Bing efficiently discover and index your pages. Update your sitemap regularly as you add or change content.
• Use a robots.txt file to control which parts of your site Bingbot can access. Ensure it’s not blocking your important pages.
• Implement IndexNow to instantly notify Bing of new, updated, or deleted content for faster indexing.
• Maintain a logical and clear internal linking structure so Bing can easily crawl and understand your site hierarchy.
• Avoid orphaned pages and ensure all important pages are linked from other parts of your site.

Content Quality and Relevance

• You need to create original, well-written, and comprehensive content that addresses user intent. Bing favors in-depth articles and blog posts with higher word counts.
• Here, you need to focus on using exact-match keywords in titles, URLs, meta descriptions, and throughout your content. Bing rewards precise keyword targeting more than Google.
• Do not publish duplicate or thin content. Use canonical tags where necessary.
• You need to regularly update your content to keep it relevant. Bing prefers fresh content over old and outdated information. 
• There are no rules related to word count, but Bing looks for the content’s relevance to the search query. 

On-Page SEO Optimization

• You need to write descriptive, specific, and accurate HTML tags that include unique title tags
• Write concise, keyword-rich meta titles and descriptions that accurately reflect the page’s content and entice clicks.
• Structure content with clear H1, H2, and H3 tags to improve readability and help Bing understand your content’s hierarchy.
• Use descriptive alt text for images and provide detailed descriptions for videos. High-quality multimedia can boost engagement and ranking.
• You can implement Schema.org markup for FAQs, products, breadcrumbs, and articles to help Bing interpret your content and enhance your listings with rich snippets.

Mobile-Friendliness and Site Speed

• Ensure your website is mobile-friendly. Bing prioritizes sites that offer a seamless experience across all devices.
• Optimize your site for speed by compressing images, minifying code, and using efficient hosting. Slow sites may be penalized in Bing rankings.

Ethical SEO Practices: What to Avoid

Bing explicitly warns against the following tactics, which can result in penalties or de-indexing:

• Cloaking is one such technique that involves a website showing different versions of the same page to Bing crawlers and Bing users. 
• Hidden text or links
• You should not rely on AI-generated content, but Bing considers AI content as malicious, and your website will get penalized
• Keyword stuffing
• Duplicate content
• Scraped or copied content from other reputable websites
• Sending automated queries to Bing
• Manipulative link schemes
• Prompt Injection
• Misleading Structured data markup

Optimizing a Website’s Keywords for Bingbot

You need to focus on in-depth keyword research to optimize your website for Bing SERP. The Bing’s crawler is known as Bingbot. Keyword research is crucial for Bing SEO, as it helps identify relevant search terms and phrases. You need to add these keyword optimization steps to help skyrocket your Bing strategy.

Invest in a keyword research tool

You need to search keywords worth optimizing your content for, and this tool should help you with the process. Tools such as SEMrush and Ahrefs can help in Bing SEO to provide information such as a keyword’s popularity and how difficult it may be to rank for the keyword. Bing also provides a free Bing keyword research tool to make your research easier.

Keyword search

This is where you actually search for relevant keywords that you want to rank your website. It might be a good idea to choose long-tail keywords instead of single words. Such keywords are generally easier to rank for as their niche tends to make them less frequently targeted by other websites.

Focus on Exact-Match and Geo-Targeted Keywords

Place your primary keywords exactly as users would search for them in titles, URLs, and meta descriptions. For example, use “best Italian restaurant in Chicago” rather than a variation.

Incorporate location-specific terms to capture Bing’s preference for local search results. This is crucial for brick-and-mortar businesses and service providers.

Perform competitor analysis

The keyword research tool you invested in may also offer other features such as checking keywords your competitors are targeting, which helps you find keyword ideas for your own website. Just make sure not to target a keyword because your competitor has done so.

Use target keywords on your website

You can insert the chosen keywords into your title tags, meta descriptions, headings, and a few places throughout your content. Bing prefers exact match keywords, so it’s wise to use them exactly as they are spelled. But don’t overstuff your content with irrelevant keywords, as this can lead to Bing de-ranking your content or website.

Track and analyze your keyword rankings

You need to regularly monitor your keywords to help you stay on top of your rankings. Plus, you need to update your content from time to time, as old and outdated content can delist your website. Most good keyword research tools will include features for tracking your rankings over time.

Technical Optimization

Technical optimization is critical for Bing SEO, as it affects website crawlability and indexability. So, let’s analyse the top tips to improve your technical SEO. Here’s how you can polish your website’s technical backend to help Bing crawl your website more easily and give you better rankings:

Verify and Monitor with Bing Webmaster Tools

You need to verify your website first. Claim your website in Bing Webmaster Tools for access to performance data, crawl errors, and indexing insights. The XML sitemap is a document in XML format that lists the available web pages and media on a website. You need to submit an up-to-date XML sitemap to help Bing efficiently crawl and index your website.

To submit your XML sitemap to Bing, you can either use the Bing Webmaster Tools Sitemap tool or add your sitemap’s URL to your robots.txt file. (Your robots.txt file tells Bing which website pages or files it can and cannot crawl.)

Site Speed and Performance

Bing penalizes slow-loading sites. Ensure your pages load in under 3 seconds by compressing images and minifying code. You can also improve your page speed by using content delivery networks (CDNs). This way, it will load versions of your web pages stored in locations geographically closer to your visitors.

While Bing’s audience skews slightly more desktop, mobile-friendly sites still rank higher. Bing has taken a mobile-first approach to ranking sites since 2015, so prioritise the mobile version of your website. You can also use a responsive website theme to help your website automatically reconfigure its look for the best user experience. Use Bing’s Mobile Friendliness Test Tool to ensure responsiveness.
Secure your site with a valid SSL certificate. Bing prefers HTTPS for user security.

Accessibility and Clean Architecture

Organize your site with logical categories and subpages. This aids both users and Bing’s crawlers. Add descriptive alt text to all images for accessibility and better indexing. Use canonical tags to indicate the original version of a page and prevent penalties for showcasing duplicate content.

These tags inform Bing of the “master copy” of your web pages in the event it encounters multiple pages with similar or even identical content. Bing can then ignore the duplicate page versions and crawl your website more efficiently.

Error Management and Monitoring

You need to ensure there are no errors when it comes to crawling your website. Regularly check Bing Webmaster Tools for 404 errors, blocked URLs, and other issues. Resolve these promptly to maintain optimal indexing. You can use log files to monitor how Bing crawls your site and identify potential bottlenecks.

Content Quality

Content quality and relevance are vital for Bing SEO, as they directly impact search rankings. Bing prefers long, in-depth articles that thoroughly address user queries. Strive for comprehensive guides and detailed blog posts that solve problems or answer specific questions. You can focus on topics that remain relevant over time.

Update older articles to keep them current and maintain their rankings. You can also boost engagement by integrating social media buttons and crafting content that resonates with your audience.

Internal Linking and Readability

Connect related pages within your site to help Bing crawl and understand your content structure. You need to follow a clear structure. Use H1 tags for main titles, H2/H3 for subheadings, and bullet points or numbered lists for clarity.

Write in a clear, accessible style. You can avoid using jargon and break up long paragraphs for easier reading.

Structured Data and Schema Markup

You need to implement structured data for products, FAQs, breadcrumbs, and local businesses to enhance rich snippets and improve visibility in Bing’s search results. It helps Bing understand and index your media, but also uses them to populate rich features for your lists to make them more attractive to searchers. You can use Bing’s URL inspection tool to check if you have marked up your content correctly.

Use JSON-LD or Microdata formats for your schema markup. For example, a bakery using Recipe schema saw a 40% increase in Bing traffic.

Optimize Metadata and Titles

→ Use concise, keyword-rich titles (50–60 characters) that clearly communicate the page’s topic.

→ Write action-driven meta descriptions (150–160 characters) that include target keywords and entice users to click.

Use Multimedia Elements

Bing favors pages with rich media. Use high-quality images, infographics, and embedded videos to enhance user engagement. Always include descriptive alt text and captions. Such texts can help Bing understand your media and rank it appropriately.

They also improve your media’s accessibility, as visually impaired visitors can use screen readers to have such descriptions read out to them. Audio files can further enrich your page and cater to diverse user preferences.

Optimizing your media file sizes:

You can use image compression tools to reduce file sizes and image sizes as much as possible. So, before uploading any media to your content, make sure it only takes up less storage space as it helps faster loading times. This improves the user experience and the likelihood of ranking your website higher.

Building Quality Backlinks

Backlink building is an essential aspect of Bing SEO, as it impacts website authority and credibility. The more websites you have linked to, the more popular it will seem. This can lead to a boost in your Bing rankings. But as mentioned earlier, Bing does not support you engaging in abusive link-building tactics such as:

• Buying a large number of temporary links to artificially increase your website link count in a short period of time.
• If you’re leveraging link farms to get numerous websites in their network to all link to yours.

Such cheap gimmicks can result in Bing delisting your website. Instead, you need to focus on adding quality links from trusted websites.

But how do you naturally build quality links? You need to organically add links from websites that Bing defines as trustworthy. Here are some tips to help your link-building game stay strong on Bing SEO:

Guest Posting

→ Write high-quality articles for reputable blogs or websites in your industry.

→ Include a contextual backlink to your site within the content or author bio.

→ This not only earns you a valuable backlink but also exposes your brand to a new audience.

However, you’ll need to persuade them why you’re the best person to blog about a topic as opposed to anyone else. Craft your pitch accordingly!

Creating high-quality, shareable content

If you create original content that others find useful, then website owners want to link to it more than thin filler content that barely contains any insights. It’s not only blog posts; you can also create infographics, case studies, and videos that can attract backlinks if they are value-packed.

You can help visitors link to your website easily. One way is to offer code snippets that visitors can easily copy and paste for linking to your website from their own.

Getting listed on online directories

Case studies show that websites focusing on strategic link-building, especially from reputable sources, can see dramatic increases in organic traffic and rankings. For example, one of the new websites saw a 243% increase in organic traffic after securing just 10 high-quality backlinks within six months.

Building quality backlinks for Bing can seem challenging, but it’s about earning trust and authority in your niche. The Bing Webmaster Guidelines encourage website owners with this quote:

“Obtaining links from trusted sites requires hard work, but if you follow a consistent pattern of providing valuable content to your users and share links from your website to others, the trusted links will begin to appear on your website.”

Local SEO

Local SEO is vital for businesses with physical locations, as Bing uses Google My Business data to display local results. Optimizing a website for local SEO requires a deep understanding of local search ranking factors. For improving your local SEO, I suggest these tips:

Optimize for Local Keywords

Focus on creating some original Geo-Targeted content. Use city, region, or neighborhood names in your content, titles, and meta descriptions. Create dedicated pages for each location you serve, with unique content and local information.

Bing Places for Business

Ensure your business is listed and fully optimized on Bing Places for Business. Include accurate NAP (Name, Address, Phone) details, business hours, and high-quality images. Customer reviews can improve your local visibility and credibility on Bing, so make sure you encourage Reviews

International SEO 

Among other factors, international SEO might be crucial for you if your website is targeting international audiences. Here, Bing takes into account a page’s language and the searcher’s city and country when ranking web pages.

So, mostly, a page in the native language of the searcher in a particular geo-region is more likely to rank higher than any other pages. So, if you’re targeting traffic from a certain location, you need to focus on these SEO steps. 

Localization Best Practices

For localizing your content, you may need to translate it into your target audience’s native language and then modify the translation to include region-specific dialects. For that, Hreflang tags are HTML code attributes that signal to search engines the language a web page is in and the geographical region for which the page is intended. Specify language/country targeting (e.g., hreflang=”fr-CA” for French-Canadian content). Set preferred country/language in Bing Webmaster Tools to prioritize regional indexing.

→ Use ccTLDs (e.g., .co.uk) or subdirectories with region-specific keywords.

Content Adaptation

→ Display prices in local currency and measurements (e.g., kilometers vs. miles).

→ Avoid idioms or references that don’t translate (e.g., humor varies by region).

→ Storing the different language versions of your web pages under subdirectories or subdomains

Regional Link Building

→ Submit to country-specific platforms and register your website in local directories (e.g., Yelp France or Yellow Pages Canada).

→ Partner with regional bloggers or journalists for backlinks.

Performance Tracking by Region

→ Use BWT’s Search Performance report to analyze traffic from target markets.

→ Track and Monitor Local SERP rankings for geo-specific keywords (e.g., “hoteles en Barcelona”)

Bing SEO Tools

Webmaster Tools, such as Bing Webmaster Tools and Google Search Console, are essential for SEO. 

1. Bing Webmaster Tool

Bing Webmaster Tools (BWT) is essential for optimizing and monitoring your site’s performance on Bing. 

Setup and Verification

→ Use XML file upload, HTML meta tag, or DNS record (CNAME) to verify ownership.

→ Streamline setup by importing your existing Google Search Console data

Key features and best practices include:

Sitemap Submission: Submit XML sitemaps to ensure Bingbot crawls and indexes your pages efficiently.

IndexNow API: Automatically notify Bing of new or updated content for near-instant indexing (reduces crawl latency by up to 50%).

Site Explorer: Analyze site structure, crawl data, and backlinks. View indexed pages, errors, and subfolder performance.

SEO Reports: Receive automated recommendations for fixing issues like duplicate meta tags, thin content, or missing alt text.

Crawl Control: Adjust crawl frequency for specific pages or directories to prioritize critical content

URL Inspection: Check real-time crawl status, HTTP headers, and SEO issues for individual pages.

Backlink Analysis: Identify high-quality inbound links and disavow spammy ones.

Security Monitoring: Detect malware, hacked content, or copyright violations

How to Use BWT for Bing SEO:

• Monitor keyword and page performance to spot optimization opportunities.
• Regularly run site scans and fix highlighted technical issues.
• Analyze backlinks and pursue more high-quality, relevant links.
• Submit updated sitemaps and URLs for faster indexing.
• Use geo-targeting for international or local SEO strategies.

2. Microsoft Clarity

It is a free analytics tool from Microsoft that helps you understand how users interact with your website. Clarity focuses on visualizing user behavior, which is vital for optimizing user experience, a key Bing ranking factor. 

Key Features:

Visualize where users click, scroll, and spend the most time on your pages. This reveals which content elements attract attention and which are ignored, helping you optimize page layouts and calls-to-action.

Watch anonymized replays of real user sessions to identify navigation issues, confusion, or frustration points. This is invaluable for uncovering UX problems that might hurt engagement and SEO.

Analyze user behavior by device, browser, country, or custom tags. For example, see if mobile users struggle with certain elements, allowing you to fix issues that could impact Bing’s desktop-first but increasingly mobile-conscious rankings.

Performs A/B Testing and compares user interactions across different page versions to determine which layouts or content perform best.

Track where users abandon forms, helping you optimize for more conversions and lower bounce rates.

Clarity integrates with other Microsoft products, including Bing Webmaster Tools and Azure, for a streamlined analytics workflow.

Clarity is privacy-conscious, making it suitable for sites with EU visitors

3. IndexNow:

A protocol developed by Microsoft that allows instant notification to Bing (and other search engines) when you update, add, or delete content. This speeds up indexing and ensures your latest content appears in Bing’s SERPs faster

4. SE Ranking & Nightwatch.io (Rank Tracking):

These platforms offer Bing-specific rank tracking, including local and “near me” keyword monitoring-essential for businesses targeting Bing’s desktop-heavy and local search audience

Monitoring Search Traffic

Monitoring search traffic is crucial for SEO, as it helps track website performance and search rankings. Tools, such as Google Analytics and Bing Webmaster Tools, provide insights into search traffic and user behavior.

Here are some Key Metrics to track for monitoring Bing search traffic and performance

Conclusion

It’s high time you take Bing SEO seriously, as it has the potential to tap into a distinct audience that you didn’t know existed. But before you hop into Bing, make sure you check your data, monthly traffic source, and decide whether it can work for you. If it does, then most of the optimization techniques used for Bing are similar to those of Google, but pay attention to details like giving importance to exact keyword matching. You can also prioritize on-page SEO and technical SEO to give you a competitive edge.

Don’t forget to utilize Bing’s webmaster panel for performing various SEO tasks such as diagnosing your website, analyzing your website performance, and helping you get reports. So, make sure you rewind this article when you need to brush up on your Bing SEO tricks and tips. Good luck with Bing!

FAQs

Does SEO work on Bing?

Unlike Google, Bing is more SEO-friendly and provides a variety of free diagnostics and SEO tools to help you better understand and optimize your website according to their algorithm. It’s a great idea to take full advantage of these resources to enhance your SEO efforts.

Is Bing SEO different from Google SEO?

Bing SEO differs from Google SEO in several key ways. First, Bing places more emphasis on exact-match domain names and keywords within the domain name, whereas Google prioritizes content quality, user experience, and relevance. Additionally, Bing is generally more transparent about its ranking factors, making it easier for website owners to understand and optimize their pages. On the other hand, Google’s algorithms are often more complex and opaque, requiring more effort to decipher.

How to get traffic from Bing?

To get traffic from Bing, it’s important to optimize your site properly, and one key factor is the description meta tag. Unlike Google, where keywords in the meta tag are no longer a major ranking factor, this tag still plays a significant role in Bing’s indexing and ranking process. By ensuring your meta description is well-crafted and relevant, you can improve your chances of ranking higher in Bing’s search results.

How do I appear on Bing?

To appear on Bing SERP, follow these steps:

• Ensure your website complies with Bing’s Webmaster Guidelines.
• Verify ownership of your site through Bing Webmaster Tools.
• Submit your website to the Bing News PubHub for evaluation, especially if it’s a news site.