Bing vs Google: SEO Comparisons

When most people think of search engines, Google is often the first that comes to mind. It has become so synonymous with searching that “Google” is now commonly used as a verb. The phrase “Let me Google it” is so ingrained in everyday language, there’s no escaping the fact that Google dominates the search engine world.  

However, it’s important not to overlook Bing’s significant role in search. While Google may lead the pack, Bing commands a substantial portion of the market and offers unique advantages. Optimising your website for Bing, alongside Google, can enhance your online visibility, drive more traffic, and capture a diverse audience. Mastering SEO for both Bing and Google involves recognising the subtle differences between each search engine and adapting your strategy accordingly. 

Bing vs Google Market Share

As of August 2024, Google commands around 94% of market share in the UK. This has increased from the 93% it held earlier this year. Bing holds a smaller market share of approximately 3.9% as of March 2024 with most of its traffic coming from desktop devices rather than mobile. Despite its small market share, Bing powers search for Yahoo and AOL, expanding its reach beyond its primary search engine. It was also the first search to incorporate its AI search capabilities, giving it an advantage over Google until they did the same. You may be wondering why these statistics matter? Well, it means that there are millions of users using Bing that you may be missing out on if your website is solely focused on optimisation for Google. 

Bing vs Google Ranking Factors 

Google uses a highly sophisticated and constantly evolving algorithm to rank pages. Factors such as relevance, content quality, mobile-friendliness, page speed, and user experience are heavily weighted. When you search for a query on Google, the results will most likely differ from Bing. You might see similar pages, but their rankings may vary due to the algorithms that Bing and Google use. Both search engines work by rapidly analysing their index created by their web crawlers. 

Google has explained their crawling process: 

“Googlebot uses an algorithmic process to determine which sites to crawl, how often, and how many pages to fetch from each site. Google’s crawlers are also programmed such that they try not to crawl the site too fast to avoid overloading it.” 

John Mueller expanded on this in 2018: 

“Some URLs we will crawl daily. Some URLs may be weekly. Other URLs every couple of months, maybe even once every half year or so.”

Bing follows a similar approach:

“Bingbot is Bing’s crawler, sometimes also referred to as a ‘spider’… 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 minimise Bingbot’s crawl footprint on your websites while ensuring that the freshest content is available.” 

The advantage that Google has is its searches are powered by machine-based algorithms that consider users’ previous search history and location when generating results. This means that if a user is looking for something specific, Google will likely provide more relevant results than Microsoft Bing because Google has a more comprehensive understanding of the user’s preferences and habits before they even start typing.

Content 

Both search engines rank quality content that is relevant to search results. Naturally incorporating your target keyword into the content and making sure your content is written with the reader in mind is an important factor for both search engines. 

Google prioritises data relevance and detailed textual content, providing an information-rich search experience ideal for users seeking depth. In contrast, Bing prioritises imagery and visual content offering a more engaging interface. In 2021 Bing introduced new features to enhance the search experience by making it more visually immersive and intuitive. These updates included interactive search results for recipes, DIY projects, and home improvement ideas, which present aggregated information and images for easier navigation. This approach caters to users who prefer to quickly scan and engage with information in a visually appealing format. Therefore, having a website that is rich with high-quality content and media may improve your rankings for both search engines. 

Local Search 

The 2021 Bing update also improved local search results by incorporating more detailed information from various sources, making it easier for users to find and explore relevant content quickly. Google however, often favours larger companies in its search results. Furthermore, While Bing Maps offers functionality similar to Google Maps, the two differ in key ways: Google Maps is renowned for its extensive business information and user reviews, whereas Bing Maps provides a visually immersive experience with its unique “Bird’s Eye” aerial imagery, offering a distinctive view of locations.

For local businesses, it’s a good idea to maintain a presence on both platforms to increase visibility and reach a wider audience. Each map service has its own strengths, so aligning your SEO strategy with the specific features of each can optimise your local search performance.

Social Signals 

Another key difference with Bing is in its incorporation of social signals—such as likes, shares, and retweets on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn—into its ranking algorithm. Unlike Google, which places less emphasis on these factors, Bing considers social engagement as a ranking factor. Therefore, focusing on your social media engagement could enhance your visibility and ranking on Bing.

Technical 

Both Google and Bing consider various technical SEO factors when determining a page’s ranking in search results. However, each search engine has its own set of priorities and criteria for evaluating these factors. For example, Google prioritises speed and mobile responsiveness as crucial ranking factors. Although site speed is important for Bing SEO, it doesn’t prioritise mobile-first indexing and Core Web Vitals to the same extent that Google does. 

Furthermore, when implementing permanent redirects in SEO, it is considered best practice to use 301 redirects instead of temporary 302 redirects. Using 302 redirects can sometimes cause indexing issues with Google, but Bing’s system works differently, automatically interpreting a 302 redirect as a 301 after it has been crawled a few times. Therefore, 302 redirects are unlikely to cause problems with Bing. To ensure your site is optimised for both Bing and Google, it’s important  to use 301 redirects when a permanent redirect is needed.

Backlinks

Both Google and Bing place a strong emphasis on trust when evaluating websites. Both search engines recognise the value of backlinks, as they indicate that users find your content valuable, trust its accuracy, and are willing to share it with others. For Google, trust is assessed through PageRank, which measures the value and authority passed through backlinks. High-PageRank links carry significant weight, and a few of these authoritative links can have a greater impact than numerous low-quality or spammy backlinks. While Google prioritises high-quality content and reputable backlinks, Bing looks for relevant information coupled with strong social engagement. Although backlinks are less central to Bing’s ranking algorithm compared to Google’s, they still play an important role. Sites with more backlinks generally rank higher on Bing, similar to Google, but the quality of those backlinks is more important to Bing. Bing offers a useful tool called Site Explorer, which helps assess the value of links on a page. Unlike Google, which aims to index all content, Bing actively removes pages from its index if they lack sufficient link authority or value. Therefore, to maintain visibility in Bing’s search results, a page must have at least one external link pointing to it. 

Page Authority

Page Authority (PA) is a predictive metric developed by Moz to predict how well a specific web page is likely to rank in search engine results pages (SERPs). Unlike Domain Authority, which measures the strength of an entire domain, Page Authority focuses solely on individual pages, providing insights into their ranking potential based on a variety of factors. Google and Bing have their own way of evaluating page authority: 

Google’s PageRank is an algorithm developed by Google to measure a web page’s importance based on the number and quality of links pointing to it. Each link acts as a “vote” of confidence, with links from authoritative pages having more weight. This helps determine how high a page ranks in search results. Google’s understanding of Page Authority is indirectly indicated through PageRank.

As discussed earlier, Bing’s ranking algorithm generally places importance on social signals and user engagement, in addition to the relevance and quality of external links, which indirectly influences a page’s authority in Bing’s SERP.

Although Page Authority is not an official term used by Bing or Google in their guidelines, it remains a vital concept in SEO. Both search engines, despite employing different algorithms, evaluate page authority through various factors to determine a page’s ranking potential in their search results. Essentially, while the algorithms may differ, they both consider similar elements to assess a page’s ability to rank effectively.

To Conclude 

Both Microsoft Bing and Google cater to the inquiries of millions daily. Each platform offers unique opportunities for your brand to reach new users looking for information, products and services. Optimising your website for both Bing and Google requires a tailored approach due to their distinct ranking factors and algorithms. If you’re looking to optimise your website for search engines, Fly High Media has you covered. Our team of SEO experts specialise in enhancing SEO strategies to boost your online visibility and drive more traffic to your site. We partner with businesses across various industries to manage their SEO efforts, employing tailored approaches to meet each client’s needs. Get in touch today to find out how we can take your business to the next level.