Bing to Impact Current SEO Strategies?

Writing by Nick Stamoulis Tweet

Microsoft are reported to be releasing their new version of ‘Live Search’ and are to brand it ‘Bing’. Known throughout the industry as ‘Kumo’, this updated search engine is purported to be ‘better than Google’ – we will soon see.

There are also reports that Microsoft has an $80-$100 million advertising campaign ready to launch that will promote Bing as one of the best search engines around. The main reason that new search engines fail is in the area of branding. Let’s face it – when the word ‘Google’ changes from being a noun to a verb, and you get sayings such as ‘go Google it’, you know the brand has stuck. You rarely hear anyone suggest you ‘go Yahoo it’ – the question is, will people ever suggest you ‘go Bing it’? Some how I cannot see that entering the language, not even ‘go Bingle it’ – it’s too close to ‘go bungle it’.

Will Microsoft’s new version of Live Search change search engine optimization? I doubt it. In fact, if your SEO strategies are well targeted, you should be aiming for results from all major search engines. You should also be looking at demographics and shaping your SEO to where your audience is. If ‘Bing’ (or whatever incarnation appears) has any effect it will most likely be in those demographics. It will all depend on how successful their marketing campaign is and who they target.

For now, check out their new search engine but don’t make any drastic changes to your current optimization strategies, especially if they are working. The old saying – if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it – holds very true for SEO. One wrong move can you see you drop many places in the SERP’s and recovery can be slow and painful – SEO, don’t ‘bungle’ it over ‘Bing’.