Bing Blogs

Bing Blogs

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into the news, trends, people and technology behind Bing.

Webmaster Blog

Jun

14

20 13

Links, Likes and Le Retweets

Shortcuts. Such a negative term, isn’t it? Perhaps we should call it “seeking efficiencies”? But you, it won’t matter what you call it, it’s a bad path to follow when seeking support for your SEO and social activities. Every day, webmasters are surprised to learn that some tactics they thought were safe because some so-called expert told them it would work, are actually harming their chances of ranking well and driving traffic. Links Yup, links still matter. They are still a trust signal that can help ranking. But before you go crazy building links, you need to understand the relative value. None of this should be news. Direct, one-way links are best. You know, the kind where your site impressed someone enough that they blogged about it, or shared it socially. These are called organic, but you can also think of them as spontaneous as you are not actively working on building them – they simply appear. These are best as they allow the engines the strongest confidence that the link is trustworthy. I am constantly amazed at the businesses who claim these are the types of links they build. If they truly were building this way, it would be... Read More Shortcuts. Such a negative term, isn’t it? Perhaps we should call it “seeking efficiencies”? But you, it won’t matter what you call it, it’s a bad path to follow when seeking support for your SEO and social activities. Every day, webmasters are surprised to learn that some tactics they thought were safe because some so-called expert told them it would work, are actually harming their chances of ranking well and driving traffic. Links Yup, links still matter. They are still a trust signal that can help ranking. But before you go crazy building links, you need... Read More
Jun

05

20 13

The Chicken Has Landed

Last week we talked about the coming of the Chicken. I found it amusing that I started, almost immediately, to get tweets from folks asking if this was an algo update that was pending. Was Chicken maybe a code name for a big update we were planning ahead of SMX Advanced? Would more animals follow? Perhaps Chicken was organic, and Cow might affect Image Search. Fact is, it’s not. This Chicken cometh bearing a gift. The reality is much simpler and in keeping with something we’ve been working to stay focused on here at Bing Webmaster Tools for the last couple of years…helping businesses. You’ve seen it through the deep toolset we released one year ago this week (with SEO reporting and now, competitive link analysis tools built in). You’ve seen it in the Webmaster Guidelines we published earlier this year. You've seen it in the Help and How-To documentation we've shared. You’ve seen it in the webinars we’ve produced over the last 12 months (and there were about 12 we’ve been involved with over that time), you've seen it in the Sitemap Plugin we released for IIS and Apache servers, and you’ll see more of it as we move... Read More Last week we talked about the coming of the Chicken. I found it amusing that I started, almost immediately, to get tweets from folks asking if this was an algo update that was pending. Was Chicken maybe a code name for a big update we were planning ahead of SMX Advanced? Would more animals follow? Perhaps Chicken was organic, and Cow might affect Image Search. Fact is, it’s not. This Chicken cometh bearing a gift. The reality is much simpler and in keeping with something we’ve been working to stay focused on here at Bing Webmaster Tools for the last couple of years…helping... Read More
May

31

20 13

The Chicken Cometh

From ice flows to jungles, our industry has embraced wildlife as a way to communicate change. Who’d have expected creatures we thought so endearing would wreak havoc and turn worlds upside down. Between penguins and pandas and honey badgers , the changes have been many. While some changes have been viewed as negative, others were seen as positive. Clearly, one cannot judge the change by its animal spirit alone. Could you have guessed that the kick-a$$ Honey Badger would bring you the biggest step forward in Webmaster Tools since…webmaster tools started? Could you have predicted that a cuddly panda was capable of decimating businesses overnight? But why the penguin? Cute and inoffensive, we’ve seen more butch penguin images than have ever existed in the history of mankind since it was co-opted into the role as a shield! Alas, all in the name of marketing. Honey Badgers take no crap. Penguins and Pandas are cute and cuddly; all the better to send the message “Don’t fear us…” while… Well, you know. And if you look well back in history, you’d see that before there were animals frolicking in our midst, we were dancing... Read More From ice flows to jungles, our industry has embraced wildlife as a way to communicate change. Who’d have expected creatures we thought so endearing would wreak havoc and turn worlds upside down. Between penguins and pandas and honey badgers , the changes have been many. While some changes have been viewed as negative, others were seen as positive. Clearly, one cannot judge the change by its animal spirit alone. Could you have guessed that the kick-a$$ Honey Badger would bring you the biggest step forward in Webmaster Tools since…webmaster tools started? Could you have predicted... Read More
May

23

20 13

Bing Sitemap Plugin 1.0 Launch

Back in February we launched our beta Bing Sitemap Plugin tool, which enabled anyone to install this on their servers, and have managed sitemaps in place. Versions are available for IIS and Apache servers, so a wide variety of businesses could benefit from this great feature. It would create sitemaps for you, and also create a delta sitemap, alerting Bing to your newest content since it last pinged us. Having both comprehensive and delta Sitemaps provides you with significant benefits, as you will always have a full, up-to-date list of all URLs on your website that search engines can use for deep crawl, as well as a concise Sitemap of URLs that were modified recently, which search engine crawlers can prioritize. This can help in keeping bot traffic bandwidth down. In addition, the Sitemap Plugin automatically adds <lastmod> values to your Sitemap, and generates <priority> values to the Sitemap based on how popular your URLs are. Now, after having been in beta for just over two months, and with great thanks to our beta program partners , we are announcing the official release of Bing XML Sitemap Plugin 1.0 today. The Bing XML Sitemap Plugin is an open source server... Read More Back in February we launched our beta Bing Sitemap Plugin tool, which enabled anyone to install this on their servers, and have managed sitemaps in place. Versions are available for IIS and Apache servers, so a wide variety of businesses could benefit from this great feature. It would create sitemaps for you, and also create a delta sitemap, alerting Bing to your newest content since it last pinged us. Having both comprehensive and delta Sitemaps provides you with significant benefits, as you will always have a full, up-to-date list of all URLs on your website that search engines can use for... Read More
May

16

20 13

6 Hours of SEO, Social, Crawling and Authority...

We’ve had thousands of people view these webinars, but if you haven’t seen them yet, here they are again. During the fall and winter, we put together a series of 6 webinars. Each is about an hour long, and captures the webinar presentation, as well as the live Q&A we did during each session. Each webinar was free and open to anyone to join, which is a format we’ll obviously keep in the future. If there are topics you’d like covered in future webinars, let me know and we’ll see what can be done to get them produced. Drop your ideas in the comments below . We covered a wide range of topics in over 6 hours of programming: SEO 101 Started here with an overview of what to focus on, what to invest and why it matters. For most folks, its standard stuff, but for those new to the space, it’s a useful review. Crawling Basics In this session we talked more in depth about how we crawl, why we crawl and what we’re looking for. We gave tips on creating a site that search engines want to crawl, too. Bing Webmaster Tools Overview This webinar was designed to help folks learn more about the tools, how to use them and uncover useful... Read More We’ve had thousands of people view these webinars, but if you haven’t seen them yet, here they are again. During the fall and winter, we put together a series of 6 webinars. Each is about an hour long, and captures the webinar presentation, as well as the live Q&A we did during each session. Each webinar was free and open to anyone to join, which is a format we’ll obviously keep in the future. If there are topics you’d like covered in future webinars, let me know and we’ll see what can be done to get them produced. Drop your ideas in the comments below . ... Read More
May

08

20 13

The Power of Bing Ads Infographic

The Bing Ads team has been hard at work. From launching Sitelinks that allows deeper engagement, more messaging, and improve CTR to the continued global expansion , the Bing Ads team is certainly riding the momentum to deliver a new improvements and functionality. To show some of the recent progress, the team created this nifty infographic on the Power of Bing Ads. If you’re not a Bing Ads customer, you can sign up here . If you've got a microscope handy, enjoy the info right here. Otherwise, click the image to see the full size version. Read More The Bing Ads team has been hard at work. From launching Sitelinks that allows deeper engagement, more messaging, and improve CTR to the continued global expansion , the Bing Ads team is certainly riding the momentum to deliver a new improvements and functionality. To show some of the recent progress, the team created this nifty infographic on the Power of Bing Ads. If you’re not a Bing Ads customer, you can sign up here . If you've got a microscope handy, enjoy the info right here. Otherwise, click the image to see the full size version. Read More
May

03

20 13

Query v. Session: Expanding Your Keyword...

If you’re into search engine optimization at any level, you know that keyword research is the beginning of the journey. It’s your best bet to understanding what people are searching for and what content should be most popular on your site. And, we’re all used to using the standard tools to perform the research. Enter a keyword, related keywords are returned along with the query volumes over a selected date range. To be fair, one engine’s tools limits this to the past 30 days or so, while one engine lets you see organic data with a selectable date range of up to 6 months . Differences aside, the work you’re doing remains the same: looking for query volume data. Query v. Session Maybe it’s time to start a new practice in your keyword research process. Try linking like-queries together over time to gain a sense of what the searcher is trying to accomplish. One query (and the data behind it) while providing pinpoint accuracy, may not tell the entire story. Developing a view of that searcher’s session, however, can be very revealing. Here’s an example of the query v. session approach: Query: dog Session: Monday: dog... Read More If you’re into search engine optimization at any level, you know that keyword research is the beginning of the journey. It’s your best bet to understanding what people are searching for and what content should be most popular on your site. And, we’re all used to using the standard tools to perform the research. Enter a keyword, related keywords are returned along with the query volumes over a selected date range. To be fair, one engine’s tools limits this to the past 30 days or so, while one engine lets you see organic data with a selectable date range of up to 6 months... Read More
Apr

26

20 13

Announcing Malware Re-Evaluation and Geo...

Today, we are releasing two new features in Bing Webmaster Tools . The first feature — the new Malware tool — helps you understand whether or not you site contains malware and also allows you to submit and track a “Malware Re-Evaluation” request. You can find the new Malware tool in the Reports & Data section. The second feature — Geo-Targeting — helps you provide Bing with information about the audience you are targeting with your site or a section of your site. You can find the Geo-Targeting feature under the Configure my Site section. Let’s look at both these features a bit more closely. A New Malware Re-Evaluation Workflow Every day, thousands and thousands of sites on the web — many of them owned by webmasters like yourself — are unknowingly infected by malware. Often, this happens because of some vulnerability that allowed a malware distributor or hacker to take control of the site. As a result, the security of unsuspecting visitors is at risk, too. Therefore, to protect our Bing users, we scan the web to look for web pages that have been infected. If Bing detects that a site is willingly or unwillingly serving malware... Read More Today, we are releasing two new features in Bing Webmaster Tools . The first feature — the new Malware tool — helps you understand whether or not you site contains malware and also allows you to submit and track a “Malware Re-Evaluation” request. You can find the new Malware tool in the Reports & Data section. The second feature — Geo-Targeting — helps you provide Bing with information about the audience you are targeting with your site or a section of your site. You can find the Geo-Targeting feature under the Configure my Site section. Let’s look... Read More
Apr

25

20 13

Bing Business Portal is Now Bing Places...

Your customers are online – are you? We know time is in short supply when you are busy running your business. That’s why at Bing we are always looking for ways to simplify your experience of getting your business online and managing your business reputation on the web. The launch of Bing Places for business is the first of many steps in our effort to provide you with all the tools you need to easily and quickly find local customers online. Whether you are new to Bing Places for Business or if you had already claimed your listing on BBP, please review the scenarios below for applicability to your business. 1.) If you’re new to Bing Places for Business, e.g. your business was never claimed, go and claim your listing now . 2.) If you already have a business listing verified, rest assured that your data will be migrated from Bing Business Portal to the new web experience under Bing Places for Business over the next 3-4 days. a. Note: where you used to have to email in a spreadsheet for bulk uploads, you will now be able to perform that upload through the web interface. 3.) If you had a listing under Bing Business Portal, but never completed the verification... Read More Your customers are online – are you? We know time is in short supply when you are busy running your business. That’s why at Bing we are always looking for ways to simplify your experience of getting your business online and managing your business reputation on the web. The launch of Bing Places for business is the first of many steps in our effort to provide you with all the tools you need to easily and quickly find local customers online. Whether you are new to Bing Places for Business or if you had already claimed your listing on BBP, please review the scenarios below for... Read More
Apr

19

20 13

SEOs With Their Heads in the Sand?

Over the last 3 months I’ve spoken at 9 conferences and done 5 live webinars. And a trend has emerged, unfortunately. This trend is split between companies and consultants, though from along the singular line of SEO work. To illustrate, I’ll paraphrase a recent Twitter exchange. No names, to protect the innocent, and if they read this, ferme la bouche… ;) Tweeter : Duane, we have a lot of problems with scrapers. If we write a message for them to stop in the meta keywords tags, will we get penalized? Duane : Huh…? Wha…? Por que? I mean, WTH…? Tweeter : We think we can get them to stop scraping if we post a message there to them. Duane : Well, it’s unlikely you’ll get penalized, but if the message is way off topic, the algo might look at you funny, wondering why you’re tag is so oddball. I wouldn’t do this. Tweeter : Understood, though we’d like to try this. Duane : Why the heck would you waste your time with this? It’s not going to stop the scraping, and “could” lead to other issues. There are other ways to actually block scrapers. Tweeter : We agree, but this client is thinking they... Read More Over the last 3 months I’ve spoken at 9 conferences and done 5 live webinars. And a trend has emerged, unfortunately. This trend is split between companies and consultants, though from along the singular line of SEO work. To illustrate, I’ll paraphrase a recent Twitter exchange. No names, to protect the innocent, and if they read this, ferme la bouche… ;) Tweeter : Duane, we have a lot of problems with scrapers. If we write a message for them to stop in the meta keywords tags, will we get penalized? Duane : Huh…? Wha…? Por que? I mean, WTH…? Tweeter... Read More

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