Bing Algorithm Update
19May

Bing Following in Google's Footsteps

Microsoft announced last week that they are also taking steps to improve search rankings for those websites that are mobile-friendly.  We all know that Google took similar steps last month, in what some were calling “mobilegeddon,” so the future of mobile-friendliness is definitely here.   And although Bing’s change isn’t quite as drastic as Google’s, there are still some things you need to know.

Bing began testing mobile search behavior by tagging search results with “mobile-friendly,” which allows mobile searchers to skim results to know which ones are optimized to answer their needs on a mobile device. Mobile users had a positive reaction to this tagging, saying it allowed them to get to the information they needed quicker and easier. This was one of the main reasons Bing was enticed to roll out a mobile-friendly search signal. Below is an example of this tag on a mobile search results page:

Bing Mobile SERP

What’s Bing’s strategy for this algorithm update? Here’s what Bing had to say about it:

Our approach to mobile friendliness as a ranking signal balances the need to improve the ranking for mobile-friendly pages, with the continued focus on delivering the most relevant results for a given query. This means that for mobile searches on Bing, you can always expect to see the most relevant results for a search query ranked higher, even if some of them are not mobile-friendly.

Bing still wants to provide the most relevant information first, no matter the mobile-friendliness of the website. This means that for those websites that are still highly relevant for the search query but are not quite mobile-friendly, should not be penalized from this update. However, the update will improve the rankings of those websites that are mobile-friendly. So if there is a tie in the relevancy ranking, the website that is mobile-friendly will appear first.

When will this change take place? Bing feels that they are close to getting the algorithm right, and although there wasn’t a definitive date announced, you can expect the update to take place within the next few months. They are also developing a similar tool to Google’s mobile-friendly test that will help you analyze your website to see if it’s ready for mobile users. The tool will be ready in a few weeks, and we will be sure to keep you updated when it is ready. In the meantime though, check out our previous blog post Why Being Mobile Is Crucial To Your Dealership’s Success to see some of the key things your website needs to be mobile-friendly.

“Mobile-friendly webpages are key to satisfying on-the-go information needs, so it is important to optimize sites for an increasingly mobile user base,” says Microsoft’s Shyam Jayasanker. Wondering if your website is ready to keep up with the ever growing mobile user? Leave us a comment below!

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