bing – The Early Bird Gets the Worm
August 31, 2009
By: ARDELL DellaLoggia
Author's Website: http://www.cbbain.com/
As you may have heard, “ Bing is quite a bit different from Google and Yahoo, both in the way it ranks pages and the way it presents results on the page.” Personally, I feel the above average real estate agent should always use organic vs. contrived methods of reaching out to the search engines. I know there are two camps on this topic…I’m in the organic vs. “slipping in keywords at every turn” camp.
Writing to and for consumers is key, but being aware of how the search engines view what you are doing, is as important as being aware of which buttons to push (and not push) as to the seller of a home, even when you solely represent the buyer of that home. Organizing your best efforts, while incorporating some key principles for SEO, is something no REblogger can ignore. Though I seemed to get away with it for a long time 
As Michael Learmonth’s article (linked above) points out, Microsoft’s Bing offers some unique opportunities to place in more than one category, video being the new frontier. He also points out that we can’t know what Microsoft itself does not yet know. Meaning whatever you do right now could be for naught…if Bing changes as it goes, which it likely will. Still, we all know from Google that “the early bird gets the worm”, and just in case, it is a good idea to try to implement a few things early on FWIW.
Michael’s article did not impress me nearly as much, as Rodney Mason’s 13 point “thoughts on optimizing bing” in the comments to Michael’s post, that makes you want to pack up and move to Moosylvania. My advice to agents who blog is to focus on those small bits of good info that you can utilize daily, vs the ones that you hire an SEO expert to do and be done with…until you need to hire them again to change it all. So let’s just take a few baby steps:
“1) Focus on categories presented for your most key search terms. Use Bing’s categories in your key words and in your site navigation.”
Clearly this is one area where agents tend to be too self focused regarding organizing by category. I am as guilty as anyone on this one. The benefit of my 3+ years of trial by error suggests that amount of traffic is not as important as having the right kind of traffic. For instance I get a lot of traffic and questions about the Home Inspection phase. Yes, I like to help people with their problems, but searching too well for Home Inspection issues gives you what? People who are already IN a real estate transaction. This raises red flags of all kinds, not the least of which is the rule that we can’t speak with people who are represented by another agent at the time of the conversation. You don’t want to write about things that give you great traffic, but when you get a question/comment, lead you to say “sorry, I can’t answer you” again and again. Begin with the end in mind when choosing “relevant” topics and categories.
“2) Domain Age is very important. Building micro-sites off your main site vs. independent new sites is key for Bing.”
This is hugely important!…and I hope, self explanatory. Again, not a rule I follow, but one I learned early on from Greg Swann of Bloodhoundblog.
“3) Text Rules – Bing favors pages with at least 300 words of text.”
For those all hyped up about video, this could be important. Not sure if you should have a blog and a vlog…or mix it up. Hoping someone will add some thoughts in the comments. My gut says two sites, one a blog and one a vlog…but I’d love some feedback on that.
“4) Linking Out – Bing favors linking out more than other engines as long as the links are relevant to the overall context of the site and keywords.”‘
This is the one that got me all charged up to write a post on this topic. Let me repeat: “Bing favors linking out…” If you see absolutely nothing else in this post…see this! Be the early bird on this one, if you are not already linking out to relevant content. If you think putting things in bold is yelling, well know that I am yelling at myself on this one. I clearly do not do this enough. Forget about SEO…I clearly do not do this enough for many other reasons. Recognizing other experts on the topic at hand is very, very important. I do not do it, as I want my clients to view me as the expert on…well, everything. But that arrogant stance is beyond stupid.
People think I’m controversial, but actually I’m contrary by design. For almost 20 years my main strategy for attracting clients has been to say something that no other agent would say. I was doing “differentiate or die” about two steps out of the womb. I am so very happy that bing is giving me a shove in the right direction on this one, by forcing me to “link out” more and often.
For those that missed the boat on getting really good placement on Google…make Bing your objective starting now, and be the early bird who gets the worm.
- Stumble it!
- Categories: SEO
Enjoy this post? Subscribe to the Geek Estate Blog feed or get updates via e-mail
Comments
View Comments
Ajay Mehta on August 31, 2009 4:13 pm
Interesting how Bing SEO is going to be completely different from Google SEO in some respects.
But is Bing worth the extra time to optimize your site for? What do you think is the long-term viability of Bing when most people are still searching with Google?
Ajay Mehta on August 31, 2009 4:13 pm
Interesting how Bing SEO is going to be completely different from Google SEO in some respects.
But is Bing worth the extra time to optimize your site for? What do you think is the long-term viability of Bing when most people are still searching with Google?
Ben K on August 31, 2009 4:36 pm
Ajay, that's my question as well and hopefully there will be some discussion at RE Barcamp Seattle next week. For my own site, Google accounts for 80-82% of search engine traffic; Bing about 17%. But, is that because I have great placement in Google and mediocre in Bing? Or, how much of that is the fact that more people use Google over Bing. And if the latter, should I really care about the former?
In respects to #4, I try to link out from my posts, but I “nofollow” the outgoing links. Does anyone know if that matters?
Ben K on August 31, 2009 4:36 pm
Ajay, that's my question as well and hopefully there will be some discussion at RE Barcamp Seattle next week. For my own site, Google accounts for 80-82% of search engine traffic; Bing about 17%. But, is that because I have great placement in Google and mediocre in Bing? Or, how much of that is the fact that more people use Google over Bing. And if the latter, should I really care about the former?
In respects to #4, I try to link out from my posts, but I “nofollow” the outgoing links. Does anyone know if that matters?
Ardell DellaLoggia on August 31, 2009 5:14 pm
Ajay,
Dustin Luther and I have had this “argument” for years. Most “people” may use Google, but most of my clients work for Microsoft. I have always achieved more “traffic” from Google and more clients from my efforts to rank high on msn.com (soon to be bing).
There are practical aspects to blogging for business that are not to be overlooked, and not to be taught by mainstream methods. At the end of the day “real estate is local”.
I have Google clients AND Microsoft clients (Microsoft 3 to 1 vs. Google), so it behooves me to pay homage to both, now and always.
Taking bows at agent events for ranking high in Google is a fool's game. Doing what makes sense for client attraction and retention is always going to be “the prize” for me.
Ardell DellaLoggia on August 31, 2009 5:14 pm
Ajay,
Dustin Luther and I have had this “argument” for years. Most “people” may use Google, but most of my clients work for Microsoft. I have always achieved more “traffic” from Google and more clients from my efforts to rank high on msn.com (soon to be bing).
There are practical aspects to blogging for business that are not to be overlooked, and not to be taught by mainstream methods. At the end of the day “real estate is local”.
I have Google clients AND Microsoft clients (Microsoft 3 to 1 vs. Google), so it behooves me to pay homage to both, now and always.
Taking bows at agent events for ranking high in Google is a fool's game. Doing what makes sense for client attraction and retention is always going to be “the prize” for me.
Ardell DellaLoggia on August 31, 2009 5:17 pm
Ben,
I have heard of no-follow links in comments, but not in the posts themselves.
Ardell DellaLoggia on August 31, 2009 5:17 pm
Ben,
I have heard of no-follow links in comments, but not in the posts themselves.
Peter08 on August 31, 2009 10:18 pm
Thanks for your guidelines. They're really useful. Taking advantage of what's happening now is always advisable. Good post. By the way, I need your help. I know a great Kentucky home that might interest you too. Thanks.
Peter08 on August 31, 2009 10:18 pm
Thanks for your guidelines. They're really useful. Taking advantage of what's happening now is always advisable. Good post. By the way, I need your help. I know a great Kentucky home that might interest you too. Thanks.
bing – The Early Bird Gets the Worm | GeekEstate Blog - Real … | Bird feeder live today on August 31, 2009 10:19 pm
[...] is yelling, substantially undergo that I am outcry at myself on this one. View example here: bing – The Early Bird Gets the Worm | GeekEstate Blog – Real … Posted in Uncategorized | Tags: early, enough, linking-out, not-already, putting-things, [...]
david on September 1, 2009 10:27 am
Congrats on your first GeekEstate post, Ardell and thanks for this advice — I haven't paid enough attention to Bing yet. Interesting that they use linked content to determine page context.
david on September 1, 2009 10:27 am
Congrats on your first GeekEstate post, Ardell and thanks for this advice — I haven't paid enough attention to Bing yet. Interesting that they use linked content to determine page context.
Ajay Mehta on September 1, 2009 11:05 am
Wow, excellent insight. I never thought about it this way before.
Ajay Mehta on September 1, 2009 11:05 am
Wow, excellent insight. I never thought about it this way before.
Kevin Tomlinson on September 1, 2009 5:34 pm
Wow–Thanks for that. We are not in Microsoft-land down here. This is Saddam and Gpmmorah…. Anyhoo..
Thanks for the insight—kind of a leg up–or a “spot of” gaming the system!
Ardell DellaLoggia on September 1, 2009 5:57 pm
Hey Kev, where's your pretty face? See you soon! Can't wait!
Ardell DellaLoggia on September 1, 2009 6:00 pm
Thank you for the welcome, David. Our mls added new features…all microsoft driven and our mls does not work on Firefox, etc… In the Seattle area “being cool” is not as important as being a real estate professional that supports the businesses that support our home values. What's is good for Microsoft is good for our clients…yet as I said earlier, I also have Google clients, so not putting all my eggs in one basket.
Penz Custom Homes on September 2, 2009 1:12 pm
Thanks for the great post I found it very interest and insightful. I’ll make sure to pass it on to all of my friends and co-workers. If you do get a chance please check my site out at Rochester MN Real Estate … Thanks
atlantarealestate on September 13, 2009 1:47 pm
Does Bing have the whole Webmaster interface, like Google. I hate to admit, I've completely ignored Bing and have not even tried a search on there.
Rob for Atlanta Real Estate
atlantarealestate on September 13, 2009 8:47 pm
Does Bing have the whole Webmaster interface, like Google. I hate to admit, I've completely ignored Bing and have not even tried a search on there.
Rob for Atlanta Real Estate