Is Bing Really Back? Optimizing for Bing’s New AI Assisted Searches

Since its inception in 2009, Bing has always been somewhat of an afterthought for certain users in a market that has been overwhelmingly dominated by Google Search. In January 2023, Bing searches accounted for only 8.85 percent of the global search market, while Google had a share of around 85 percent. In fact, I am willing to bet that if you found this article via search engine, you found it via Google. But that could be about to change. In February, Microsoft announced a new version of its Bing search engine that incorporates the AI technology behind ChatGPT to create more accurate and useful search results. Let's talk about how this could possibly affect your dental website and what you can do to get ahead in a potentially changing search ecosystem.

What's Changing with Bing?

According to Chat GPT:

"Bing search engine incorporates artificial intelligence (AI) in several ways to enhance its search capabilities and provide more relevant results to users. One of the key ways Bing uses AI is through its deep learning algorithms, which can understand the intent behind a user's search query and provide more accurate results."

 If we take this at face value, it could mean that Bing will become better at differentiating between transactional (dental implants near me) and informational keywords (how long do dental implants last). Ranking for informational keywords will rely heavily on your use of an effective content strategy, while transactional keywords will also benefit from well-optimized local business listings.

Bing Places For Business

Bing Places for Business is a business listing platform designed to help businesses manage and enhance their online presence across the Bing search engine and other Microsoft-powered tools. Bing Places for Business is essentially a direct emulator of Google Business Profile. Just like GBP, Bing will display a map pack of local business listings that are relevant to transactional searches. 

What GDW Is Doing

For our existing SEO clients, our team has been creating and optimizing Bing listings for several years. In February and March, we have been paying particular attention to Bing listings for all clients, ensuring they are fully operational, well-optimized, and displaying on the map pack where relevant. We also regularly monitor organic traffic via Bing Webmaster Tools.

If you are not an existing SEO client, here are a few action items that can help boost your Bing traffic:

1) Make Sure Your Website Is on Bing

Create a Bing Webmaster Tools account and submit your sitemap to be read by Bing's crawlers. This will ensure that you have a chance to show up in Bing search results.

2) Get More Facebook Reviews

Reviews on Bing Places for Business pull directly from your business's Facebook profile. While the reviews themselves are a ranking factor, Bing has also confirmed that social media signals such as Facebook shares can impact your SEO ranking. An effective Facebook marketing strategy could have some impact on your organic results.

3) Create Informative Content

Just like Google, DuckDuckGo, and other search engines, Bing relies heavily on content quality to influence ranking outcomes. Well-written, informative content will always provide the best bang for your buck when it comes to online dental marketing.

Final Thoughts

Ultimately, it will take some time to see if Bing's new AI-assisted search leads to any substantial change in the search engine industry. The good news is that regardless of which search engine you use, the fundamental pillars of dental SEO remain the same. Create outstanding content, and keep your website up to speed with the latest technical SEO guidelines. If you have questions about how to step up your dental SEO, you can read more here, or as always, feel free to reach out to our team.