Why Bing SEO Matters in 2025: Expert Tips You’re Missing

When people talk SEO, it’s always about optimizing for Google. But here’s the thing—Bing SEO isn’t sitting quietly in the corner. In 2025, it’s actually pulling in more serious traffic than most marketers want to admit. 

If you’re only optimizing for Google, you’re neglecting potential leads, clicks, and conversions that your competitors are getting from Bing traffic.

This guide is to show you how Bing SEO fits into a smarter, well-rounded strategy, especially now that Microsoft is pushing hard on AI, ChatGPT integrations, and Edge browser dominance.

Whether you’re running a content site, a local business, or an e-commerce store, you’ll want in on this.

Why Bing SEO still matters in 2025

Bing powers over 1.1 billion monthly searches globally—and that number’s been climbing thanks to Windows 11 defaults, Edge browser upgrades, and the new AI-powered Bing chat experience. 

Plus, Bing (and other Microsoft-owned search engines like Yahoo! and AOL) handle over 28% of all desktop search queries in the United States. Globally, Bing captures around 12% of desktop searches—still a significant share for anyone targeting users with high purchase intent.

Bing is also deeply integrated across Microsoft platforms—including Windows, Office, Xbox, and the Edge browser. In other words, millions of people use Bing without ever Googling a thing.

Plus, with Microsoft fully integrating ChatGPT into Bing, we’re looking at a search experience shifting toward conversational AI and contextual results.

Bing users also tend to convert more. Multiple industry studies show that Bing traffic often has higher CTRs and better ROI, especially in finance, B2B, and e-commerce. 

The audience skews slightly older, more affluent, and more likely to take action on a search result.

Think: professionals, researchers, and B2B buyers—people with real budgets. The typical Bing user is:

• Aged between 35–54
• Household income above $75,000
• Equal gender split
• More likely to convert on e-commerce or B2B sites than Google users

Why do people use Bing instead of Google?

There are a few key reasons, and they directly impact how you think about SEO for Bing:

1. AI-powered search is attracting new users

Microsoft’s launch of Bing Chat and generative search has introduced a whole new audience to the platform. Bing now offers AI overviews, a cleaner layout with sources included, and a “Deep Search” feature for more detailed answers.

Users can get structured, conversational search results, which is especially appealing to people looking for quick research or comparisons.

2. Less ad-heavy, more organic visibility

Bing SERPs are cleaner. It generally shows fewer ads than Google, which means a higher ratio of organic results, making it easier for well-optimized pages to stand out. 

If you’ve been buried under Google Ads clutter, optimizing for Bing SEO gives you a better shot at visibility.

3. Built-in user base via Windows and Edge

Bing is the default search engine on Microsoft Edge, which is bundled with Windows 10 and 11. Unless a user changes their settings, they’re using Bing for everything from opening a new tab to searching from the taskbar. 

This “default stickiness” keeps Bing’s daily usage high, especially among less tech-savvy or enterprise users who don’t bother switching.

4. Higher-quality traffic (lower bounce, more clicks)

SEO pros often point out that Bing traffic converts better. Users from Bing tend to spend more time on the site, visit more pages, and click more affiliate links. One reason is that there is less competition, as fewer sites optimize for Bing. If you optimize for Bing SEO successfully, you stand out faster.

5. Voice search and AI assistants rely on Bing

Amazon Alexa, Microsoft Cortana, and ChatGPT’s search mode pull data from Bing. 

And with Gartner predicting that 25% of people will shift from traditional search to AI assistants by 2026, Bing is positioned to be the backbone of that future. If your content isn’t in Bing’s index, you risk being invisible in these new search flows.

In short, if your SEO strategy only revolves around Google, you’re fighting in the most saturated, ad-heavy market. On the other hand, Bing offers a quieter but more rewarding channel, where effort pays off quicker, especially for content-rich, well-structured sites.

How does Bing search engine work [Google SEO vs. Bing search engine optimization]

While the foundation of SEO remains consistent—crawlability, relevance, and quality—the way Bing and Google rank your content isn’t a copy-paste situation. 

If you’re treating them the same, you’re likely underperforming on one of them (hint: probably Bing). Let’s break down where Bing SEO guidelines differ from Google:

1. Desktop-first indexing vs. mobile-first

Google switched to mobile-first indexing a while back, meaning it primarily crawls and ranks your site based on the mobile version. This makes sense because most people search on their phones.

Bing search engine optimization, on the other hand, is still desktop-first.

According to Bing’s team, they maintain a single unified index optimized for both desktop and mobile. They have no plans for a mobile-first model. 

If your desktop version has better content or structure than your mobile version, you could rank higher on Bing than on Google without even realizing it.

If your site uses responsive design, you’re covered. But if you’ve got separate mobile URLs (like m.example.com), double-check that both versions are SEO-friendly. What looks fine on Google might be missing pieces for Bing.

2. Exact match keywords vs. semantic interpretation

Google has been prioritizing semantic search since RankBrain and BERT. It tries to understand what you mean, even if you’re not saying it in so many words. This means keyword stuffing is no longer helpful.

Bing, however, still prioritizes exact-match keywords in key places—title tags, H1s, and even meta descriptions. 

They’ve been very open about this in their own documentation. If your target phrase is “affordable electric bikes,” use that exact phrase, not just synonyms or loose variations.

For example, try searching for “best mechanical keyboards for typing.” Google will show you articles with great UX, relevant content, and broader context.

Bing will show you older, exact-match domains like mechanicalkeyboardreviews.net, which rank near the top. This is not a bug; it’s simply Bing’s way of recognizing keyword matches. 

3. Prioritizing meta tags for Bing

Google sometimes ignores meta descriptions and generates its own metadata for your page for many relevant queries. Bing, on the other hand, still gives ranking weight to meta descriptions and title tags.

That means you should treat your meta descriptions like valuable real estate. Don’t just write it for CTR—include relevant keywords because Bing might actually use it as a ranking signal.

4. Older domains and backlinks matter more

Authority is a ranking factor everywhere. But Bing leans harder on domain age and established backlinks. A clean, aged domain with a bunch of trustworthy backlinks is a gold mine here.

While Google gives newer pages and sites more wiggle room with freshness and quality signals, Bing tends to trust what’s been around longer. So if you’re running a newer site, you’ll need to build up trust signals faster—think high-quality inbound links and exact-match content alignment.

5. JavaScript handling and technical indexing

Here’s something tech teams need to know: Bing isn’t as strong as Google when it comes to handling JavaScript-heavy pages. If your site uses client-side rendering, you might be invisible to Bingbot.

Google has better capabilities for rendering JS after multiple passes. Bing’s more dependent on static HTML content, or at least pre-rendered output that’s crawlable without relying on scripts.

But this doesn’t mean Bing cannot render JavaScript at all. It just means Bingbot doesn’t fully support every JavaScript framework that your favorite modern browser might handle with ease.

Like other search engine crawlers, it faces challenges in processing JavaScript across large-scale websites while also trying to reduce the number of HTTP requests made.

Also learn about: Does AI Content Rank in Google?

Bing search optimization ranking factors you should know about

Understanding what matters to Bing’s algorithm gives you a significant edge in optimization. Unlike many search engines that guard their ranking factors closely, Bing offers remarkable transparency about what influences their search results.

1. Content relevance and completeness

Bing places substantial emphasis on how well your content matches user intent. 

What makes Bing unique is its focus on content completeness. Your pages should provide sufficient information to fully answer the query without forcing users to hunt for more details.

Avoid creating thin content or pages showcasing ads instead of valuable information. Bing specifically warns against websites that are “thin on content, show ads or affiliate links primarily, or redirect visitors away to other sites quickly” as these “tend to drop in rankings on Bing”.

2. Focus on quality and credibility

Bing’s ranking system strongly emphasizes a website’s clarity, integrity, and trustworthiness. It doesn’t just measure how well-optimized a page is—it evaluates whether the content serves a clear purpose and comes from a credible source.

Here’s what Bing looks for when determining quality and credibility:

• Reputation of the site: Bing considers who’s linking to your site. For example, if a reputable news site links to you, it signals higher authority than a new or unknown blog.
  
• Tone and discourse: If your content promotes hate, incites harm, or uses hostile language, it’s flagged as low-quality. Bing favors respectful, balanced content—even when the topic is controversial.
  
• Clarity between fact and opinion: Sites that clearly label content as opinion, satire, or editorial hold more weight than ones that blur the line or try to mislead readers.
  
• Originality and source transparency: Original reporting or first-hand accounts are valued more than copied or poorly attributed summaries. If referencing others’ work, ensure the source is credited clearly.
  
• Ownership transparency: Sites with clear ownership, authorship, and editorial accountability are trusted more. If users can’t tell who’s behind the content, Bing may treat it as less reliable.

In short, Bing rewards sites that are honest about their purpose, back up their claims, and avoid inflammatory or misleading content. Credibility isn’t just about backlinks—it’s about how responsibly and transparently you publish.

3. User engagement metrics like dwell time

Bing directly acknowledges using engagement metrics as ranking signals. Their webmaster guidelines state that Bing “considers how users interact with search results”.

Key engagement metrics Bing monitors include:

• Click-through rates on search results
• Time spent on pages (dwell time)
• Whether users return to search results quickly
• If users refine or reformulate their queries after visiting

4. Page speed and technical performance

Page speed serves as a critical ranking factor for Bing. 

Research also indicates that a 100-millisecond delay in page load time can reduce conversion rates by 7%. Likewise, a 2-second slowdown changed queries per user by -1.8% and revenue per user by -4.3%. 

To optimize for this factor, focus on:

• Image compression and optimization
• Minimizing HTTP requests
• Using browser caching effectively
• Reducing server response time

5. Freshness and update frequency

Bing clearly prefers up-to-date content, especially for topics where timeliness matters. 

Indeed, Bing’s approach to freshness is nuanced. Recency heavily influences rankings for queries related to breaking news or rapidly changing fields. For evergreen topics, freshness may carry less weight.

Regularly update your important content throughout the year to maintain its “freshness signal.” Bing can detect when publishing dates have been changed without substantive content updates, so meaningful revisions are necessary.

💡 Related to your reading: How Long Does SEO Take to Work? 

How to rank on Bing: 7 quick SEO tips

Ranking on Bing is easier than most people think, mainly because so few actually try. Bing rewards clear content, structured pages, and old-school SEO tactics that still work well on its algorithm.

Here are seven fast, proven ways to improve your visibility on Bing—starting with the basics.

1. Use exact match keywords in titles and headers

Unlike Google, which focuses on intent and semantic understanding and search intent, Bing still leans heavily on literal keyword matching. If someone types in “best CRM for recruitment agencies,” Bing gives preference to pages that include that exact phrase in key areas like:

• Title tag
• H1 and H2 headers
• URL
• First 100 words of the page

What that means for you: Skip the clever headlines and write for clarity. If your page is about “remote hiring software,” that exact phrase should be in your title, not a synonym like “virtual recruitment tools.”

2. Optimize for desktop-first indexing

Google uses mobile-first indexing—it crawls your site based on the mobile version and ranks it accordingly. Bing, on the other hand, is still desktop-first. If your site doesn’t render well on desktop or hides content that’s available on mobile, you’re hurting your Bing rankings.

What you should check:

• Is your desktop layout clean and crawlable?
• Are there any elements (text, navigation, schema) hidden on desktop that appear on mobile?
• Are your images and CTAs responsive across desktop resolutions?
  

Responsive design still works best—but unlike Google, Bing doesn’t punish you for having a desktop-optimized experience. In fact, it expects it.

3. Submit your sitemap and URLs to Bing

Bingbot doesn’t crawl as aggressively as Googlebot. If you wait for Bing to crawl your new pages, you could wait weeks, especially if your site is newer or has low authority.

Luckily, Bing gives you manual control through Bing Webmaster Tools:

• Submit or update your XML sitemap
• Submit individual URLs instantly
• Monitor crawl status and indexing issues
• Get real-time SEO insights about pages that are ranking or blocked

Even great content won’t rank if it’s not indexed. Submitting your URLs ensures that Bing sees and evaluates your content faster, which is critical when launching new landing pages, blog posts, or product pages.

4. Build backlinks from trusted, aged domains

Bing is obsessed with authority and domain age—arguably even more than Google. It doesn’t just care about who links to you, but how long they’ve been around and whether they’ve been consistently trustworthy.

If a domain has been live for 10+ years, consistently publishes niche-relevant content, and links to you, Bing gives you more credit than it would for links from newer high-DR websites.

So no, a link from a brand new “SEO tricks” site with DR 85 doesn’t carry the same weight as a 12-year-old niche blog with DR 55. This is one of the biggest missed opportunities in Bing SEO.

Here’s what works really well on Bing:

• Old niche blogs: Outreach to aged sites in your industry with low publishing frequency. Bing often overvalues them because of their longevity.
  
• Industry association websites: Think regional chambers, vendor directories, educational institutions.
  
• High-trust forums and archived communities: Bing still indexes older forums like Quora threads, TripAdvisor posts, and Reddit archives more actively than Google.
  

5. Add schema markup to enhance search appearance

Schema markup isn’t just about visibility on Bing—it’s about indexing accuracy and helping Bingbot understand your content faster and more reliably.

Bing supports various schema markup formats, which help it understand your content better. Implementing schema.org markup enables rich snippets and improved visibility in Bing’s search results.

So if you skip markup, Bing might misclassify your content, or ignore it altogether.

And unlike Google, which sometimes rewrites snippets regardless of your markup, Bing tends to acknowledge exactly what you declare in your schema.

Where schema really impacts Bing rankings:

• FAQ schema: Still gets shown on Bing’s search results more consistently than on Google (where it’s limited now).
  
• Product schema: Especially important for e-commerce. Bing uses this to display availability, price, reviews, and even shipping info.
  
• Breadcrumb and sitelinks schema: Bing shows expanded listings more frequently when this is implemented cleanly.

Bing accepts multiple formats for schema markups:

• JSON-LD (preferred)
• Microdata
• RDFa
• Open Graph

6. Improve user engagement signals

Bing has been quietly refining how it interprets user behavior, and it’s not just looking at bounce rate or time on page. What really matters for Bing SEO is satisfaction signals that show a user found what they needed and didn’t have to keep searching.

This is where Bing’s model starts acting more like a product review system than a search engine.

Key engagement metrics Bing watches:

• Pogo-sticking: If a user clicks your result and then bounces back to the SERP quickly, that’s a negative signal.
  
• Click-through rate (CTR): High CTR tells Bing your title and snippet match intent. Low CTR = less relevance.
  
• Dwell time: If someone spends 90 seconds+ on your page, Bing considers that a good outcome, even if they don’t click again.
  

Bing appears to track these signals on a per-keyword basis. So if you rank well for “free CRM tools” but users quickly leave your page, you may lose rank for that specific query, but not others.

How you can improve engagement signals for SEO on Bing:

• Strong intro hooks: Your first 2-3 sentences should validate that the user is in the right place. Use headers like “Here’s the quick answer,” or “Let’s make this simple.”
  
• Sticky navigation: Internal links that keep users exploring are a huge win. Bing favors sites with higher internal click depth.
  
• Avoid thin content layouts: Even if your content is 1,500 words, if it’s all cramped in a single scroll block, Bing may treat it as low-value UX. Break it up with real headings, FAQs, and visual elements.
  

7. Prioritize international and Bing local SEO

For websites targeting multiple regions, implement proper hreflang tags to signal language/region targeting. Claim and optimize your Bing Places listing, essential for local search visibility.

Bing’s local and international SEO results are driven by Bing Places for Business and regionally optimized schema and content. 

It’s not as robust as Google’s local pack, but Bing’s integration with Microsoft tools means your business might show up in Bing Chat, Outlook Maps, and Windows 11 search bar results.

Why Bing local SEO matters more than you think:

Steps to improve local and international Bing SEO:

Bing tools for SEO

If you’re optimizing for Bing, you need to stop thinking like a Google-only marketer. The good news is that Bing gives you a set of free tools that are simpler, less bloated, and in some cases, they are actually more transparent than Google’s stack.

Here are some built-in Bing tools for SEO you can try out to boost your Bing search engine optimization. 

1. Bing Webmaster Tools

Think of Bing Webmaster Tools (BWT) as your control center for managing SEO on Bing.

What you can actually do inside Bing Webmaster Tools:

• Submit sitemaps and URLs manually: Bing doesn’t crawl as frequently as Google, so manual submission speeds up indexing, especially for new blog posts or landing pages.
  
• Check crawl errors and blocked pages: Unlike Google’s generic messages, Bing gives clearer crawl issue reports, especially helpful for diagnosing JavaScript-heavy pages or CDN errors.
  
• Keyword performance tracking: You’ll see which queries brought impressions and clicks, and how your average position has changed—filterable by country, device, and date.
  
• SEO Analyzer: This is Bing’s version of Lighthouse. It provides on-page SEO audits with issues grouped by severity, like missing meta tags, broken links, or slow load times.
  
• Backlink analysis: Bing gives you a real list of inbound links, with referring pages and anchor text. Not as deep as Ahrefs, but great for monitoring core links without a paid tool.
  

2. Bing Keyword Research Tool

Inside Bing Webmaster Tools, there’s a hidden gem—the Keyword Research Tool. While it’s not as robust as other tools in the market, it gives you actual Bing search volumes, which is critical since keyword popularity often differs from Google.

How to use it:

• Enter a keyword and get monthly search volume trends (specific to Bing)
• See device breakdowns (desktop vs mobile)
• Analyze keyword variations by country and language
• Spot gaps between Google and Bing search behavior
  

Let’s say you’re ranking well for “best recruiting CRM” on Google, but not on Bing. Plug it into Bing’s keyword tool and you might find that “top ATS software for recruiters” actually has higher search volume on Bing. 

Just by entering a simple query (on the left), you can get insights into keyword volumes for particular regions in a keyword–all in a few seconds:

3. URL Inspection Tool

Bing’s URL Inspection Tool helps you debug issues page-by-page. Similar to Google Search Console, you can:

• See the last crawl date
• Find out if a page is indexed or not
• Check if schema markup was detected
• View canonicalization decisions made by Bingbot
• Understand crawl delays or crawl-blocks from robots.txt
  

This tool is especially helpful if you notice that some URLs aren’t showing up on Bing, even though they’re ranking fine on Google.

4. Site Scan (Technical SEO health check)

Inside BWT, Site Scan lets you schedule technical audits of your entire site for technical SEO issues. It can flag:

• Broken links
• Meta tag issues
• Uncrawlable pages
• Image ALT tag gaps
• Page speed concerns
  

What makes this tool helpful is that it prioritizes the issues based on impact, so you’re not stuck fixing cosmetic stuff while missing critical SEO blockers.

Again, if you’re looking for an in-depth site audit tool that doesn’t require a Microsoft Bing account, try Writesonic. 

Writesonic’s built-in site audit tool can scan your entire site and flag problems across technical SEO, indexability, technical structure, page speed, and more. It also assigns you a score indicating how strong your site health is:

Unlike other site audit tools, Writesonic’s built-in feature is easy to understand even if you don’t have the best technical SEO knowledge. It also breaks down issues into actionable categories like “critical,” “high,” and “low” — so you know what to fix first. 

Don’t have time to optimize a missing schema markup? Just click “Fix with AI.”

If you want to rank on Bing, you don’t need a massive tool stack. You just need to pay attention to the signals Bing looks for, not just what works on Google.

Bing might not get the hype Google does, but ignoring it is a missed opportunity, especially if you’re after high-intent traffic, less competition, and better visibility on AI-powered platforms like ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot. 

The playbook for Bing SEO is slightly different from Google’s, but simple: focus on exact-match keywords, clean site structure, and Bing’s built-in tools. 

Do that, and you’ll tap into a search engine that rewards clarity, authority, and smart execution.

FAQs

1. What is Bing SEO?

Bing in SEO refers to the process of optimizing your website for visibility on Microsoft’s Bing search engine. Just like with Google, it involves improving your content, site structure, and backlinks—but tailored to Bing’s ranking system. It also includes using Bing-specific tools like Bing Webmaster Tools and its keyword research tool.

2. What is the difference between Bing SEO and Google SEO?

The biggest difference lies in how each search engine evaluates content. Bing places more weight on exact-match keywords, domain age, and social signals. 

It also still uses desktop-first indexing, unlike Google’s mobile-first approach. Meta descriptions, schema markup, and older backlinks matter more in Bing SEO optimization than they do for Google.

3. Is Bing overtaking Google?

Not globally—but Bing has carved out a solid share, especially in the U.S. It powers over 28% of desktop searches in the U.S. and has grown steadily with the help of Microsoft Edge, Windows, and AI integrations like Copilot and ChatGPT. 

While it’s not replacing Google, Bing is now too big to ignore—especially for B2B and voice search visibility.

4. How to rank high in Bing?

To rank well on Bing, focus on exact-match keywords in your titles and headers, optimize for desktop experience, and submit your sitemap through Bing Webmaster Tools. 

Build backlinks from aged, trustworthy domains, use schema markup to enhance crawlability, and improve page speed and user engagement. Bing rewards clarity, structure, and trust more than algorithmic complexity.

Saloni Kohli

Content Strategist

Saloni Kohli is a Content Strategist with over four years’ experience in B2B SaaS content marketing and SEO. She has shaped and executed end-to-end content strategies—ranging from editorial planning and long-form thought leadership to conversion-focused landing pages and email campaigns. At Writesonic, Saloni combines creativity with data-driven insights to elevate brand voice, drive organic growth, and maximize audience engagement.