Let’s agree that when we talk about SEO, we are looking at the market leader, and pretending otherwise would be beating around the bush. However, it turns out runners-up can’t be ignored, and you might have heard about them. One question won’t be silenced: What about Bing?
Microsoft plans to release a version of Bing that uses ChatGPT to answer search queries. The Information reports that Microsoft hopes to roll out the new feature before the end of March in a bid to make Bing more competitive with Google.
What Is ChatGPT?
ChatGPT is an artificially intelligent chatbot that interacts conversationally with its user. A tool created by OpenAI, it is capable of admitting its own mistakes and even contesting incorrect assumptions. In other words, it offers a more human form of dialogue.
In July 2019, OpenAI received a grant of 1 billion dollars to, according to them, “build artificial general intelligence” (or AGI).
OpenAI explains its ambition when developing AGI: “An AGI will be a system capable of mastering a field of study at world expert level and mastering more fields than any human being.”
Well, it looks like the fruits of the investment are starting to be reaped. I don’t know about you, but this statement gives me the impression that a competitor at the height of Google is coming.
With that in mind, the next step is figuring out whether to do Bing SEO and how to do it.
SEO for Bing
Why Should I Do It?
According to Statista, Bing sees an average of 1.2 billion visitors per month. Its market share is approximately 9%, while Google exceeds 80%. But you can’t deny the fact that there are many people in the world using Microsoft’s tool. 1.2 billion!
I recently witnessed a client of mine using the tool. And I have a hypothesis about the culprits: Microsoft 365 and MS Windows! Companies and users end up bumping into Bing because of other products from the tech giant, and users leave it as the main search engine in their browsers.
And Bing isn’t all bad, okay? Try doing a search there. I searched for “laptops for sale” and particularly liked the results. They match my search intent and show snippets similar to Google’s, but with animations—where you hover the mouse, the elements move.
It also took less time to load searches on Bing than on Google. Plus, I searched for a slightly more complex term (“delete GitHub repository”), and the results seemed satisfactory.
In other words, if you get Bing as your default search engine and search without any problems, why not continue using it?
Finally, my last argument would be this: Almost everyone is looking at Google. Greater competition results in a more expensive and challenging path to reach first place. Meanwhile, on Bing, your business might find some opportunities your competitors are ignoring.
If your company has the structure for it, you can do a test and even dedicate yourself to doing SEO focused on Bing.
How to Do SEO for Bing?
Here you may have a challenge, as the market has been looking at Google for a long time. Processes and tools (like Semrush, for example) are based on searches with the market leader.
So, if I were your company’s Bing-focused content strategist, I would go down the following path. Explore the Bing Webmaster Tool; create a strategy following Bing’s guidelines; and review results for the target keyword in Bing versus Google.
RockContent has an in-depth article on Bing SEO, so I’ll summarize other tactics in the following list:
- Pogo sticking—think about user engagement with content
- Increase click-through rate to page after appearing in results
- Leverage Bing’s Connected Pages feature
- Use backlinks
- Invest in anchor text
- Have a keyword in the website’s domain
- Produce original content
- Look for relevance on social networks
This approach is very similar to your strategy for Google, right? That’s why the acronym “SEO” is not “GoO” or “BiO.”
The great truth is that all search engines are focused on delivering the best possible result for the user. What changes with ChatGPT is that Bing will potentially offer a better product. If you focus on producing content for your audience, so will Bing.
I hope I helped you understand the main message, the importance of ChatGPT in content marketing, and the Bing SEO issue. Taking advantage of the fact that the name of Bing’s tool is called Webmaster, I would like to point out another post about why Google removed “webmaster” from its branding. Good reading!
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