So how has Bing been at sending traffic to y'alls sites?

Hi folks (hi Lynn!)

First post on the new forum. Didn't see a dedicated SEO section but if I missed it... mods and admin know what wrath to inflict upon me...

Bing.com, the new(ish) search engine from MSN has been pumping a lot of traffic into one of my sites and I'm wondering if any of you are seeing traffic from them as well.

The traffic I'm getting is actually legit, with people viewing more than one page on the site, clicking ads and links, etc. It's kind of caught me off guard there's so much coming in, and it seems to be real-time, like when I post to the site, it's indexed within minutes and people are visiting that page.

Thoughts?

Paul

Welcome Paul :)

Bing shocked me too. After over a year of Twitter holding the #1 spot as top referrer in my stats, Bing knocked it right out in month one. I'll have to check my stats again here in a bit and see if that's still the case. Interesting for sure...

Hi Paul,
Welcome! No worries about the post, there is one main marketing section here on the forum so you're in the right place. Glad to have you here.

As for my stats, that is on my list to learn about so I couldn't tell ya about that which reminds me...back I go to add another topic suggestion for a webinar ha ha:)

From mThink/Revenue Magazine:

Microsoft's Bing grew 22% in August according to Nielsen, giving it a 10.7% share of searches within the US. This confirms the earlier reports from ComScore and others that Bing has managed to build upon its promising first month. This indicates that while the massive launch marketing campaign gave Bing a boost, enough users are finding the experience useful to keep the momentum going.

Against all the odds, it seems as though Microsoft has successfully reinvented its search business. What's more, it's done it just in time to take advantage of Carol Bartz taking over at Yahoo and opening the door to the recently announced 10-year revenue-sharing deal between the two industry giants. Yahoo's search business has pretty much stalled over the last couple of months but Bing and Yahoo combined now provide nearly 27% of searches which is more than enough for PPC advertisers to take the time to build them into campaigns.

Remember too that wherever there are new users, new ad-management interfaces and new search functionality - see Bing Visual Search - there is inefficiency in the market until things shake out. And where there is market inefficiency, there is room for arbitrage and opportunity.

I just looked at the stats on my most popular site and Bing is still extremely low:

google (organic) 48,176 67.78%
yahoo (organic) 6,464 9.09%
(direct) ((none)) 5,548 7.81%
bing (organic) 1,227 1.73%
aol (organic) 1,098 1.54%

Which makes me think that I probably have a lot of opportunities to get more traffic from Bing that I'm completely missing.

Does anyone have any tips as to what Bing likes to see ranking-wise or a suggested resource?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by pschlegel

I probably have a lot of opportunities to get more traffic from Bing that I'm completely missing.

Does anyone have any tips as to what Bing likes to see ranking-wise or a suggested resource?

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Paul, based on the stats you presented here, you're receiving nearly 70% of your traffic from Google and less than 2% from Bing. Why on earth would you want to optimize your site for Bing?

Don't fall into "the grass is greener on the other side" trap. Despite Bing's impressive start, Google is still king. And as long as that's the case, you should focus on maximizing your traffic potential from Google above anything else. If you do that, the traffic you receive from Bing and the other search engines will take care of itself.

David Jackson

Thanks David - I was thinking more in terms of developing satellite sites that were Bing-specific via outsourcing.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by pschlegel

Thanks David - I was thinking more in terms of developing satellite sites that were Bing-specific via outsourcing.

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No problem, Paul. But even with the satellite sites scenario, my question would still be the same. Why? Marketers are so quick to jump on what they perceive the next big thing. I reiterate what I said earlier:

"Focus on maximizing your traffic potential with Google. If you do that, traffic from Bing and the other search engines will take care of itself."

David Jackson

Hey Paul,

Is that a static site or a blog? The stats I was referring to were from ClickNewz (wordpress blog) and I'm pretty sure Paul Short is looking at blog stats too.

I don't know the answer to your question, but wondered if that might be a factor.

Thanks, Lynn

It's a combination, but most of the traffic is to the blog.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by pschlegel

Does anyone have any tips as to what Bing likes to see ranking-wise or a suggested resource?

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Paul, even though I stand firmly behind my comments regarding focusing your optimizing efforts on Google, I also believe in presenting opposing viewpoints, whenever they come to my attention. In that regard, you should read, "How to Optimize Your Website for Bing" by Jeremy Morgan.

By the way, while nothing in the article really altered my opinion, I hope it helps you.

David Jackson

Thanks for the link, David. Interested to check it out myself.

You're quite welcome, Lynn!

David Jackson

Thanks, David. Interesting read.

You're quite welcome, my friend! Anytime.

David Jackson

I'm not sure about recently, but for awhile I was seeing A LOT of bing traffic, but the strange thing was that it was for keywords, no phrases and when I went to the link I couldn't find my site anywhere - most of the words weren't great either, I can't think of examples offhand but at some point it was getting more annoying than anything.

So I'm not sure that the bing traffic is what I'd call quality traffic although I do like the search engine and am hoping that this kind of thing will get fixed.

I use hittail (which I love) so it shows the link that the traffic comes from and when. I do find that once in awhile I can't find my link so it's possible that it is actually many pages back.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jan Ferrante

For awhile I was seeing A LOT of bing traffic, but the strange thing was that it was for keywords, no phrases and when I went to the link I couldn't find my site anywhere - most of the words weren't great either, I can't think of examples offhand but at some point it was getting more annoying than anything.

So I'm not sure that the bing traffic is what I'd call quality traffic.

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That's the point I was making. Despite its impressive start, the jury is still out on Bing in a big way.

David Jackson

This came up on the IMTW Podcast this week (to be released soon) and the consensus was that it's too early to get a feel for their algorithm. Definitely something to keep an eye on though...