Microsoft has been hard at work to redesign Bing in order to keep it as a contender as a top search engine. The new design, that will be ready for public use soon, includes a sidebar column that provides related search information from Facebook user’s friends. One of the new features of this sidebar allows those logged into their Facebook accounts to interact with their friends while they are searching. More importantly to marketers, the sidebar will tag Bing-suggested friends who are considered to be experts in that particular topic.
The way Bing is utilizing the sidebar is to make suggestions based on information found in friend’s profiles. This information includes their likes and photos they have shared. For an example the Bing Search Blog gave the following example:
“If you’re searching for diving spots in Costa Rica, with the new Bing, you may discover that one of your Facebook friends knows a great spot, based on photos from their last trip to Costa Rica that they shared on Facebook. Or you might find a friend who lives in Costa Rica based on his or her Facebook profile. You and your friends can only see information you could already see about each other on Facebook.”
While this Facebook information is provided, Bing also looks for experts on the search on topic from information it gathers through other social network sites and public blog content. So, if your website is considered to be an expert on the topic of hula hoops and someone searches on “Hula Hoop Tips” Bing may suggest your website in their sidebar as a valuable resource. The implications of this can be huge and requires strategic use of keywords and keyword phrases best practices throughout your website and social media sites.
This is the best time to review your website and your social media sites to see how you can improve your use of search engine optimization in order to compete as a resource worthy of showing up in the new Bing sidebar redesign. This placement is not paid for advertising and as such is much more valuable because it is almost like a personal recommendation from the social media sites or from Bing suggesting your own business website. Additionally, creating engagement from your Facebook friends talking about your specific brands or services can give an extra incentive to Bing to consider your activity for sidebar search results.
