Google may be the dominant web search leader, but how your content is optimized for Bing matters too. ‘I’ll Google it’ has even become a common phrase in today’s culture, meaning to search or to look up certain information. Bing’s 15.7% of all web searches come in a distant second place behind Google’s 66% in the search market, but Microsoft is dedicated to closing the gap by using methods that help extend and support your brand beyond what is currently possible within Google.
In a recent campaign, Bing It On, Microsoft openly challenged Google to a head-to-head competition for search engine supremacy, where users compared any five search results and selected which results were the most relevant and ultimately, better. Bing claims that blind users chose Bing’s results over Google’s by a 2-to-1 margin. Although Bing proved to be a worthy adversary, blind taste tests will get them just so far.
Bing’s advantage lies within its ability to search and leverage people’s Facebook friends to persuade decisions and provide trusted knowledge. When friends upload recommendations and reviews online, consumers are more comfortable trusting those sources and catapult a brand’s relevance beyond any SEO or SEM initiative. This may seem trivial but this could be the most powerful feature of any search engine. When searching for vacations, cars, restaurants, virtually anything, you can either search through the list of recommendations and reviews from total strangers, or, you can see the recommendations and photos from Facebook friends whose opinions you trust.
While Google uses information from Google+ to make similar recommendations, there’s no argument that Facebook’s reach greatly surpasses it. Essentially, Bing has not only been able to qualify their own search results, but make a push to confirm a new level of legitimacy for marketers to continue investing in Facebook. In fact, this insight emphasizes the importance of becoming a good steward on Facebook and providing great content that your customers will want to engage in. After all, the more likes, posts and photos they see come up from their friends, the more at ease they will feel in making purchasing decisions resulting in greater follow through.
It’s hard to say that Bing will ever catch Google for search engine dominance; however, it does offer a different perspective on the traditional sense of search. If for nothing more, it differentiates itself as to why it’s another important tool to utilize instead of becoming another either/or choice. Maybe one day the phrase will change to, “I’ll Bing it.”
