Let’s not beat around the bush here. When you think of search engines, you think of Google. When you’re using SEO techniques, 99% of the time you’re using what should really be called GO techniques. Yes, millions (if not billions) of searches are made on other search engines every day, but it takes enough time optimising for Google that everything else is really a bonus.

So SEO ticked along nicely for a few years; Google became better at catching the scammers, the scammers worked harder to get around Google and everyone in between enjoyed increasingly relevant search results.

Now Microsoft have released their new search engine, Bing, with a business partnership between Microsoft and Yahoo bringing not one, but two giants to level at Google’s internet pie.

A marketing blitz costing Microsoft $80 million added 2% to their market share for searches. With the Yahoo deal, this could mean the Micro-Hoo platform running on Bing will account for 28% of all searches.

While this isn’t enough to destroy Google, this sudden competition means that we need to watch carefully for any SEO repercussions. Focussing solely on the big G would mean missing out on potentially millions of searches a day. If you’re curious as to how the different search engines present their results, check out the side-by-side, celebrity deathmatch of http://www.bing-vs-google.com.
Early results seem to show that Bing can actually produce some more accurate results, with fewer useless, invaluable results padding the show. So how does all of this affect SEO?

1) “Stay Calm, Carry On” is rather bad advice.

Even before Bing came onto the scene, it was vital to stay at the top of your game when reading up on new SEO and marketing techniques. Now, with an actual bona-fide Google competitor, who not only has a well designed product but also very deep pockets, new features and innovations are likely to be churned out at an accelerated rate. Fortunately, we’ll cover any new developments here to keep you abreast of the changes.

2) Stick to the basics and don’t GoogleHack.

Using techniques specifically for Google is always a bad idea, but now it is even more so. Instead, stick to building a strong readership, informative content and original material.

3) Don’t rely exclusively on link backs.

Bing is stricter than Google; bloggers are likely to lose out with Bing awarding big points to only the most authoritative sites. Whether this will spell Bing’s success or its failure, only time will tell. Until that day, keep your content new and exciting.