New Bing Webmaster Tools - A Closer Look

Recently I'd blogged about the updated, fantastically accessible and redesigned Webmaster Tools at Bing. For those site owners hurt by Google's recent Panda-Penguin update 1-2 punch, it's time to broaden your view of organic search traffic sources - and stop overlooking the obvious.

The real value and depth of Bing's improved SEO tool for webmasters was revealed more deeply in a recent SEOMoz Whiteboard Friday video and transcript with Bing's Duane Forrester and SEOMoz's Rand Fishkin.

I highly recommend every Mac website owner give this post a thorough read. What you're going to find out is how accessible and transparent Bing is being about providing information that matters. Their Webmaster Tools are putting more out there than ever before, right down to exact Organic Search keywords Bing visitors are using.

This is VERY different from the often hidden, estimated, or occluded keyword 'research' tools that Google is QUASI-providing. Want to know EXACTLY what Bing users are searching on and how well your pages are appearing and getting clicks for it? Bing tells you. And that's just the tip of the iceberg: Bing's webmaster friendly approach is used throughout the tool set.

No excuse! If you Haven't signed up for and verified your site(s) with Bing's new web tool you're missing out on a huge opportunity for maximizing a growing slice of the site traffic pie. And after you've explored the tools a bit on your own, read and reread the interview transcript so you fully grasp how valuable having a Bing Webmaster Tools account really is.

ACTIONABLE ITEM: Really study the top 3-5 keywords that are getting the clicks, appear most often in Bing SERP's, have the highest click through rate. You might want to carefully (re)optimize your On-Page keyword usage slightly, build some new quality backlinks targeting these proven phrases, and think of ways to incorporate these keyword sequences into your next blog post, Tweet, or FaceBook update.  In short: "Do more of what's working" - and you'll either improve - or at least solidify your presence in Bing results (which helps in Yahoo as well.)

Bing Powered FaceBook Search Results

KEEP IN MIND: Bing helps power FaceBook Search. As FaceBook continues it's ubiquity into millions of folks daily computing lives - ranking well in Bing will prove more valuable than ever. Even more obvious and tighter integration of search INTO FaceBook is planned for the year ahead. After all, why should you have to leave FB to go Search for something at Google - only to return to FB again, hmm?