Google, Bing and Yahoo Index
Search engine optimization [SEO] is a skill unto itself. What many people are unaware of is that there are different optimizing techniques for Bing, Yahoo and Google. Without this knowledge, you may get indexed [listed] in Google but not in Yahoo or Bing. The truth is there is no single standard for optimization that pleases all search engines.
By the way, Yahoo coordinates now with Bing and as such is really one search engine sharing data. Since Google is the obvious master of the Search, why would anyone worry about being listed in Bing/Yahoo? Simple!
Last year, Bing/Google squirreled away 25% of search activity. Against a giant like Google, that’s phenomenal. Here are a few of the differences between Goggle and Bing.
Google Optimization
Uses “Canonicalization” to choose the URL on your site that seems to produce the most pages – there is an example at the end of this section
Page size is not an issue – when Google was young, it only scanned the first 100k of a page
Follows redirect codes 301 & 302 – prefers 301 as the indicator but will follow a 302 code
Follows Meta Refresh when set at “zero second” timing and treats the refresh as if it were a 301 redirect
Follows backlinks for indexing purposes regardless of the number of pages involved
Now to demonstrate what “canonicalization” is all about. Let’s pretend you have a website called JoeSmith.com. In setting up that site, some pages may have a URL that reads “joesmith.com”, “www.joesmith.com”, “joesmith.com/index” or “joesmith.com/home”.
A bot will read each of these as different websites– not different pages. Googlebots select the one that points to the largest number of pages. In turn, this means that the other pages are not going to show up on the search list.
Bing Optimization
Bing bots drop the www and access only the root web URL – http://joesmith.com – and indexes that page even if all the links to and from the page are dead
Follows only 301 redirect codes and ignores 302 totally – sometimes, Bing will refuse to index the site at all if there is a 302 redirect
Caches only the first 100k making page size relevant to indexing
Meta Refresh on a page will immediately terminate the Bing bot and your site is neither crawled nor indexed
Bing weighs a websites authority according to the number of backlinks found for indexing purposes – usually the backlinks must point at the home page
Since Bing is still in its infancy, it may take months for your website to be indexed. Additionally, the numbers of pages on your site that are listed are going to be much fewer than you will find on Google.
That said, this will change as Bing/Yahoo becomes more experienced and their crawlers develop additional techniques.
Meta Tags
Since neither Bing nor Yahoo are interested at this point in indexing an entire site, the only search engine that would be interested in Meta tags is Google. According to Google, Meta tags are no longer necessary, nor useful. Sometimes, Meta tags will actually cause confusion in indexing pages since some pages may appear to be duplicates.
Why a Professional SEO Is Essential
As you can see, optimizing a website is much more complex than it may at first appear. It is certainly a lot more than determining and highlighting keywords, using authoritative links and insisting on original and informative content.
There are ways to optimize a site that go deep within the sites coding instructing and directing bots how to list pages and what content is important.
Give us a call today for all your SEO needs.