Bing is Bigger than Digg and Twitter

[skydivedad]

at least in the U.S. for the month of June, 2009. According to Compete (which tracks U.S. visitors only) Bing had 49.57 Million unique visitors for June 2009. That makes it the 13th largest website in terms of unique visitors in the U.S. for June. Larger than Digg's 39 Million uniques and Twitter's 23 Million for June. Just goes to show you a $100 Million Dollar advertising campaign can buy you some traction. It was beaten by it's own big brother MSN Live (people still use their Hotmail accounts I suppose) but still the growth has been impressive to date. It will be interesting to see if this growth can continue.

Also it's interesting to note that overall search volume was down across the board by 1.7% in June (Google lost .09% search queries). The tag team tandem of Bing/Live increased it's search queries by 19 million. The only major search engine to do so. Incorporating Bing and Live as a PPC Tandem is something were going to be compelled to test. No doubt other IM'ers will be doing the same.

Just thought you'd like to know...
Paul

[Matt M]

Chad, we frown on newbies making one line "thanks" posts around here.

Please go back and edit your post to a more relevant add to the thread or delete it.

Hate to see you get off on the wrong foot.

Paul,

Bing has been advertising pretty heavy all June. Not just the solo t.v. commercials for Bing but I noticed that almost all of the primetime NBC programs had short Bing adverts during their intros.

Will be interesting to see how they level out once the advertising dust settles.

Matt

[johnjimat]

thanks paul. i have got a lot of visitor to my website from bing. i dont know how. but it always from bing every day

[skydivedad]

I missed this earlier today but we've been busy. Here's Bing's own comment on "Bing at month one" published by Bing today. - the June growth as well as additional information that can prove valuable. If your looking to drive traffic with Bing I recommend a trip to the Bing Toolbox. From the Bing Toolbox website.

"The Toolbox is an organized set of tools for the entire Bing™ community. It's a one-stop portal to all of the services you need to drive traffic and increase engagement with your site and applications"

Bing Toolbox Website

All The Best
Paul

[leeb]

Up until recently, Bing was looking good. I was getting good position in organic results. However, I have seen comments reporting problems of odd behavior. Indeed I also suffered from it's evolving algo, causing me to be dropped from it's index entirely.

Hopefully Bing will grow and provide a quality service we can use.

[Croque]

Well unless Microsoft really did something great with Bing besides hype, I think those numbers will gradually go down, because most of these unique visitors are
just people going: "let me check this Bing thing going on" but after they realized that is just another search engine, they will stop.

Traffic is good, but as many here knows, traffic without sales means nothing.

[Kezz]

This is interesting, and surprising to be honest. I kind of expected Bing to die in the water given Microsoft's track record lately.

I'm wondering, has anyone had any success with PPC via Bing?

[Joel Gray]

I have a blog that ranks #2 on Bing for my keyword and I cannot get it past #5 on Yahoo and #7 on Google....so up to this point I like Bing. May change depending on what I rank next month but OK with it now.

Joel

[rapidscc]

Do we get commissions if we promote bing?

Or is there just a silent group subcontracted by microsoft for promoting it..

It would be nice to join in the promotion of something promising..Please post if you know of anything like an affiliate program for bing...

thanks,

Rapidscc

[actionplanbiz]

i have noticed i got some clicks from bing on June. and i dont even know what Bing is all about. are they mainly a search engine like google? i know my 9-5 job uses Bing's search engine as Default.

i will just google it or i mean bing it (if they are mainly a search engine)

[skydivedad]

Originally Posted by actionplanbiz

i have noticed i got some clicks from bing on June. and i dont even know what Bing is all about. are they mainly a search engine like google? i know my 9-5 job uses Bing's search engine as Default.

i will just google it or i mean bing it (if they are mainly a search engine)

Yes Bing is a Search Engine. (Microsoft's 3rd attempt) It's only 6 weeks old and are a ways from challenging Goolge as a verb or Google's world wide search query dominance.

[Chuck Evans]

Originally Posted by ChadMarano

Thanks for the info.

Instead just hit the "thanks" button.

[Kezz]

Originally Posted by SingleMom

I haven't tried the PPC at Bing, but I can tell you that in checking awstats in many of my sites I am seeing LOTS and LOTS of visitors coming from bing.com! This is so exciting! Especially in light of the fact that there is another major search engine (whose name I will not reveal) that I have completely boycotted. LOL

Interesting! You prompted me to go and check out some of my stats and its creeping up there on mine too. It's still a LOT less then Google, but a significant number nonetheless. Will keep an eye on it.

Has anybody heard anything about specific ways to optimize for Bing as opposed to Google? Have any differences in algorithms been publicized that anyone has come across?

[abelacts]

I like this new MSN better and it's fast too! I also notice that it's easier to rank on Bing than Big G - even with highly competitive keywords. I hope Microsoft will do their best to compete with the rest so that we users can benefit from it.

[Steve Campbell]

Makes complete sense and doesn't surprise me one bit. Regardless of current headlines, Microsoft is still a household name and everything they create is going to draw attention (traffic!). Digg is big in the UK but still isn't that well known, even in comparison to Twitter. Everyone has now at least heard of Twitter, but a lot of people don't really understand what it's "for" or what it's truly capable of. Until this happens, Bing and Google should be a primary focus for traffic, but it doesn't hurt to utilize all the tools that are available to you.

[DarioMontesdeOca]

Out of those 49.57 million visitors last month you can count me as one.

I was listening to its commercial in the background while working and I couldn't help but hear the "Bing" sound effect which got me curious...

So I checked it out. And I have to say that I finally have a search result for a keyword in the #1 position that I've been aiming for on Google which doesn't even show up until I add it as a keyword phrase.

Not bad.

[alexanderallard]

Maybe because there is a buzz last month about it. I wonder in the next coming months if it will be true.

[Steve Campbell]

Check out Bing vs. Google

It allows you to view search results from Bing and Google side-by-side!

[biaobao]

70% of my visitors are from bing, it is the default SE for explorer, isn't it?

[skydivedad]

Originally Posted by Kezz

Interesting! You prompted me to go and check out some of my stats and its creeping up there on mine too. It's still a LOT less then Google, but a significant number nonetheless. Will keep an eye on it.

Has anybody heard anything about specific ways to optimize for Bing as opposed to Google? Have any differences in algorithms been publicized that anyone has come across?

Hi Kezz
Those are interesting questions and the totality of the answers aren't available as of yet and like all things "Search" it really boils down to user intent.

Bing's Marketing Slug when it was launched gives us a clue. "A Decision Engine not Search Engine" It really is a search engine despite it's cute marketing angle, however it's all about how Bing displays the result it's algorithm says will have a certain level of relevancy as it relates to your "intent" when you enter the search query into it's engine. Ultimately all search engines take an educated guess as to the intention behind your search query.

Modern search engines have a huge degree of data on "you" (the universal you) that's giving them clues as to what best matches your intent and ranks results accordingly. They've followed you around your various travels on this thing we call the "internet" and they extrapolate "guess" accordingly.

Many of the methodologies search engines use within their "algorithms" are the result of what current sciences know to be true about such things as Networks, (like the small degree of separation between each of us {Think Kevin Bacon} not networking as in computers, although there are amazing similarities) Game Theory, Probability, Boolean Operations and various other data mining techniques. Call it the Math of human knowledge if you will, we can simplify it as a math formula that takes a problem (the intent behind your query) as input and outputs a solution to the problem. The problem is and always has been to define the "original intent". " The Relevancy of output versus the original intent behind the input. So search engines fudge their results with the hope they've returned enough options to make you happy with the result and you will in turn continue to use their service. Ultimately the end user has the final say about what constitutes "original intent"

In many ways we as marketers share the same problem faced by search engines. If we know the "original intent" of our chosen target market we can optimize our product and services and hence our profits and revenue. Often times we leave that work to the search engines and engage the aid of search engines to deliver to us the "market" we've predisposed had an "intention" towards our offerings. It's no wonder we become obsessed with any undo change in how these "Search Engines" operate. Many of us attempt to "game the SERPS" forgetting ultimately it's the "Original Intent" that matters.

The search engines change in response to "Original Intent" and the greatest change taking place currently and what's being lost by many IM'ers is people want more than the 10 Blue Links on Google's SERP. They're looking for video, images, podcasts, local information, related social media sites, relevant networks and other multi media forms. The Search Engines have responded accordingly i.e. Google's "Universal Search" Ask's recent redesign, Microsoft's Bing, the launch of Wolfram-Alpha and RAIS. How we choose to view the "output" has morphed rapidly.

As a marketer when I'm asked; How should we optimize? my answer is Completely! Optimize everything, your text (you are sprinkling in "relevant keywords"?) optimize your images (use keywords in the alt tag) and Caption any on-page photo using the <strong> tag. Use SEO friendly tags for your video %$?demo1vid?/ is not search engine friendly. Please Universal Search isn't going away.

Bing in particular uses a ton of 3rd party resources (content) when it displays "answers" These are things like review sites, shopping sites, blog posts and the like. These are your competitors so you should be getting 3rd party content on your site as well. Embed a well tagged video, write product reviews, do demo's, organize and plan a well tagged image gallery.

These are things that people jump to from the 1st position to other search entries. One last hint, if you do a Product Search on Bing for HD Television you'll find a ton of Bing CashBack Partners. Become one yourself!

Hope this answer some of your question.
All The Best
Paul

[peter gibson]

I've been backlinking and SEO'ing my brains out lately, and doing very nicely in google as well as yahoo as a result, but with the exception of an older domain being at #1, my newer stuff is nowhere to be found on Bing. That right sucks since it woud be nice to get that IE crowd sniffing about on my sites.

I'll re-ask what someone above me already asked... is there a way to SEO for Bing that is different or more Bing-able? Cuz right now it's a mystery to me.

[skydivedad]

Originally Posted by peter gibson

I've been backlinking and SEO'ing my brains out lately, and doing very nicely in google as well as yahoo as a result, but with the exception of an older domain being at #1, my newer stuff is nowhere to be found on Bing. That right sucks since it woud be nice to get that IE crowd sniffing about on my sites.

I'll re-ask what someone above me already asked... is there a way to SEO for Bing that is different or more Bing-able? Cuz right now it's a mystery to me.

Hi Pete
See the last few paragraphs in my reply just above yours. There are things you can do for Optimizing your sites for Bing Inclusion. I would also recommend submitting your sites to Bing as well.
All The Best
Paul

[peter gibson]

Originally Posted by skydivedad

Hi Pete
See the last few paragraphs in my reply just above yours. There are things you can do for Optimizing your sites for Bing Inclusion. I would also recommend submitting your sites to Bing as well.
All The Best
Paul

Awesomeness Paul. Exactly what I was asking. I must have been writing my reply as you posted yours. I have submitted my sites to Bing - did so the day it went live, which is why I'm finding it a bit strange to be ...well... not there.

Thanks heaps for your post.

[Josh Anderson]

Part of the reason they have so many visitors is because Microsoft uses a trick to get you to accidentally search and get redirected to Bing.

They have used this for years.

MSN is the default home page for IE. Microsoft forces the focus of the cursor into the Bing Search box and many times you think you are typing into the address bar while MS forced your cursor to the search box. Hit enter and suddenly you are on Bing.

They are also the default search in the search box in the browser for IE.

Bing gets a lot of traffic by default that otherwise may not be interested in using them.

[developerholic]

Well, BING is actually the old MSN. So whatever traffic MSN had before is redirected to BING. Plus, the amount of money microsoft spent on advertising for this SE is huge

Anyway congrats BING

[QualityCopywriting]

It is actually all in marketing. MSN Live now redirects to Bing so they are getting that traffic. Also, they are marketing it like it is the next big thing. Actually, they tried this before and it failed.

Google is and will always remain the search engine giant. I get so many visitors a day from Google it is ridiculous. I have yet to receive a single visitor from Bing.

[webdesignservice]

I also got the same experience having more clicks from Bing last month, and when i search some of my keywords in Bing, surprisingly it got the first page spot unlike in Big G and Yahoo SERP.

This is really interesting.

[ken_p]

Wow, impressive. I was skeptic with it in the beginning.

[Fernando Veloso]

Just checked again my stats in a site used by 35-65'ers, male, female (the kind of people that do not use firefox) and Bing has a small % of visitors.

Conclusion: my portuguese visitors don't use Bing.

[Mustafa Khundmiri]

This is seriously surprising ... Taking mind share from Google isn't easy but looking at the growth Bing is having, it's really interesting ... Wonder if it's the changing pic every day doing the trick? lol

[Tyrus Antas]

I really don't believe Microsoft can do much with Bing unless they push for tighter integration between windows+office and bing. Even then I doubt it will get much traction and they might even get in trouble because of antitrust issues.

That said, I can certainly envision Microsoft getting at least 20% of the market. The biggest casualty will be Yahoo.

Tyrus

[dsmpublishing]

The strange this is that as a european i didnt know who they were until last week when i got 100 clicks through via their site that i spotted on my stats they seem to be doing really well.

kind regards


sam
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