Is Bing Worth Optimizing for in SEO?
Bing isn't your priority, but registering with its tools takes little time. Here is what is worth doing.
· 2 min read
Google overwhelmingly dominates search in France as in most countries. Should you therefore ignore Bing? The answer depends on your audience, but the effort required is small.
Why pay attention to it
- A complementary audience: Bing remains the default engine on many professional Windows machines and in the Edge browser. Depending on your sector, this can represent a non-negligible share of visitors.
- Engines and services that rely partly on its results: some alternative engines and assistants use data from Bing. The details of these partnerships change, so check the current status if it matters to you.
- Free tools and access to data on your site.
- Less competition on some queries.
What it has in common with Google
The fundamentals are the same: an accessible, fast site, useful content that answers search intent, a clear structure, quality links, correct structured data. If your SEO is good for Google, it is largely good for Bing.
What to do concretely
- Create a Bing Webmaster Tools account and verify your site. You can import your sites directly from Google Search Console.
- Submit your XML sitemap.
- Check the reports: performance, crawling, errors, keyword research, links.
- Check that your robots.txt file doesn't block Bing's bots.
- Complete your local listing if you have a neighborhood business: Bing offers its own business listing service.
IndexNow: quickly signal your changes
IndexNow is an open protocol that lets you automatically notify participating engines when a page is created, updated or deleted. Bing and other engines support it. To my knowledge, Google does not participate in this protocol: keep using its Search Console and sitemap. Many CMSs and plugins offer a simple integration.
Differences to know
- Algorithms differ: the same site can rank differently.
- Bing states that it values certain signals such as content clarity and link quality. Official recommendations are available in its webmaster guidelines.
- AI features built into Microsoft's search evolve quickly.
Should it be a priority?
- No, if your resources are limited: focus on Google first, which brings most of the traffic for most sites.
- Yes, a minimum: registering with Bing Webmaster Tools and submitting the sitemap takes an hour and gives extra visibility.
- More if your analysis shows your audience uses Bing a lot: look at the share of Bing traffic in your statistics.
How to decide
Check your statistics: what share of your organic traffic comes from Bing? If it is notable, investing a little time in monitoring it is justified. Otherwise, a basic setup is enough.