Jul 29 2009

With the recent merge of Bing and Yahoo a lot of SEO’s will be carefully dissecting data to better understand what major factors affect the Bing search results and how those factors compare to how Google ranks websites. It only makes sense that this is done, search volume will inevitably increase in Bing and you will want to be on top of it.

In order to better comprehend how Bing and Google rank sites I compared the keyword home remodeling, and explored various SEO factors that might influence this keywords positioning.

Domain Trust
Comparing the domain trust for each website we can easily see that DoItYourself.com has a much higher trust over LetsRenovate.com. This is probably the first indication and biggest reason why Google has ranked this website number one over LetsRenovate.com.

On Page Factors
Looking at the on page factors, it’s very evident that DoItYourself.com is relying on domain trust for its rankings. The only related keyword in their title tag is Home, compared to LetsRenovate.com who is using the full keyword Home Remodeling. You can also see that DoItYourself.com does not use the exact keyword home remodeling anywhere on the homepage, this again reinforces the fact that their domain authority is high and that is the main factor they are relying on.

Now, the keyword in question, home remodeling, can be broken up into two keywords, home and remodeling. Let’s take a look at each site and how it is using these keywords separate from one another.

As you can see, LetsRenovate.com is using both keywords much heavier and in a lot more places.

Off Page Factors
Backlinks will always be a huge part of any Search Engine Optimization strategy but when it comes to Bing, it’s not really THAT big of a deal. LetsRenovate.com is ranking for a highly searched keyword but is not harnessing many backlinks to do it.

Before getting into the Top 5 Bing SEO Tips, I will assume you’re doing most of the standard on page SEO stuff like a unique title tag, meta description, H1, H2, H3’s, etc… Now that you know what main factors are influencing the Bing search results, I will cover the 5 Unique SEO Tips to get you to the top of Bing.

1. Meta Keywords – Using the meta keywords tag is something that is not heavily emphasized in the SEO world but looking at a lot of the websites that rank in Bing you will see that they are used.

2. Bold Keywords – It has been shown that bolding keywords tells search engines to put a slightly larger emphasis on that keyword. Having looked at quite a few search results in Bing, many of the pages that were near the top utilized this method.

3. Image Alt Tag – Adding image alt tags has long been used for SEO but it seems that it is more important in Bing then Google. Most of the websites I looked at were utilizing the image alt tag well and thus were ranking higher in Bing.

4. Keyword Density – In general, Bing seems to like a keyword density of 4-6%. Not to say I didn’t find websites that ranked with a much lower and much higher percentage, but overall, the top websites seemed to fall in that range.

5. Domain Age – The older the domain, the better. This is a common positive factor for any website but it holds especially true in Bing.

Well, there you have it! 5 Unique SEO Tips to get you to the top of Bing.

- Marko

You should put the title of the posting in the main ad too - not just in the title field - and you must put it between h1 tags. This will give your ad a huge edge in the search engines.

Craigslist automatically puts the title in the TITLE field between h2 tags, but that is not enough if you want to get ahead in a competitive industry: you need to put your own h1 title in the main body IN ADDITION to the one in the title field.

With BackPage you should do the opposite: Put an h2 title in the main body, because BackPage puts the title in the TITLE field in h1 tags (surely a more logical approach than that of Craigslist.)

More generally, you should use classical SEO principles when producing your ad copy, and take full advantage of the HTML that Craigslist allows: bold, italics, underline, etc.

This will ensure that your ad’s appearance on Google’s first page will be by design rather than by accident.

What IS SevenOneTwoFive? Come and find out!

Hang out with the eBoost Consulting crew at Wine Steals in Hillcrest and celebrate the release of its alter-ego SevenOneTwoFive’s July issue!

Venue: Wine Steals, Hillcrest (click here for map)

Date/Time: Wednesday, 7/15/2009 @ 7pm.

In the meantime, in between time:

• Browse the magazine issue here.
• Follow SevenOneTwoFive on Twitter @SevenOneTwoFive
• Download the SevenOneTwoFive Whitepaper - Strategic Marketing Under Uncertainty

Hit us up if you have any questions. Look forward to seeing your lovely faces there!

-johnny

BoostStrapping has moved and boy, are we woozy! It’s not unlike waking up from a post-July 4th slumber, minus the grogginess and incessant craving for a California Burrito.

There’s a lot of self-placed pressure in drafting the first post of a new address. It’s like walking in a new home; you’re afraid to walk on the carpet. But now that I jotted the first two sentences (the proverbial muddy-shoes-on-new-carpet), I feel much better. Now, it feels more like home.

Anyhow, let’s see, it’s difficult to know where to begin. Perhaps with a little something something as to why you should read the blog regularly, hmm? Well, being fortunate enough to walk the history of eBoost Consulting, let’s talk about how it germinated and what it is today, shall we?

BoostStrapping is a clever take on “bootstrapping”, see. We first opened the conversation on November 14, 2006 from Mel’s Diner in San Francisco during what is internally known and begrudgingly remembered as the “purple-and-green” era. Back then, we were a small consulting firm that didn’t know what the future held and were equipped with an aptitude for learning and a fierce belief in one another. We operated on two principles: make decisions fast and put the people (our clients & our team members) first.

Much has changed over the past few years. Our eBoost family rolls deep now, double-digits in our nuclear family, and extending to many graduates from our kick ass mentor/internship program, and network of loyal clients. During the way, we also figured out what drives the business and figured out what grows the business. That said…

…not much has changed over the past few years. Our days are still charged with the adrenaline rush of a drag race. We still go at full speed 24/7. If we’re not at work, we’re out somewhere with one another, brains spinning over work ideas. We love this business. We love what we do. It’s not work for us, it’s fun. We go to work or talk about work. It’s actually pathetic to be honest. We don’t encourage it. It just is.

When we started this blog, eBoost Consulting was just another agency. We were passed over by potential clients and more established agencies lapped us in earnings a few times over. We weren’t ignorant to it. But we were stubborn. Agencies are competing on one-off service-lines? Fine. We’ll create our own business model as a consulting firm. Clients are being more transactional with programs? Fine. We’ll only work with clients that ‘get’ the value we bring. Marketing professionals are spending less time at companies, demanding more pay when companies can’t afford it, and fighting over titles? Fine. We’ll make business a team game. Why not? We had nothing to lose.

Which brings me to today.

Here’s a take on originality. I subscribe to the school of thought that to achieve greatness in something, you have to know everything…or know nothing. Only then is the mind unfettered by convention, untouched by the work of others, and then -and only then- can you produce something unique, something extraordinary. We knew nothing enough to create a business model where our people were trained to know everything. We happen to think eBoost Consulting is pretty extraordinary as a result.

November 14th 2006 to July 7th 2009 and onward, BoostStrapping is a living journal of our journey in cultivating something extraordinary. We share our expertise with you, showcase key takeaways, evaluate new marketing tools, and describe all - both good and bad - about growing this business. For those who have joined us from Day 1, thank you. You all understand what “BoostStrapping” is. For those who are new, welcome. You’ll understand soon enough.

Thanks for poking around here. I’ll be back with more posts soon and (in a new and pleasant wrinkle) so will the rest of our team. =)

-johnny