Microsoft in July 2024, launched a generative search for Bing known as Bing’s AI-powered search. This came after Bing’s rival Google launched its own generative AI search known as AI Overviews. Bing’s AI-powered summaries are powered by Large Language Models and Small Language Models.
Similar to Google’s AI Overviews, whenever a user searches for a query on the Bing search engine, it automatically tries to understand the user’s intent and review millions of web pages in its network to provide a quick result in the form of a brief summary. Users also get the option to visit the source of these summaries by clicking on the link provided along with these AI-generated summaries. Industry experts such as Neil Patel are considering this to be the future of online search.
AI-powered summaries have revolutionized the way users interact with the search engines. It has improved the user experience manifold. Users get a quick answer to their query without scrolling through multiple links on the SERPs to get the answer. Another advantage is that Bing’s AI-powered summaries are displayed at the very top of the SERP result page followed by the normal search result links. So, for marketers and content publishers, it has become crucial to optimize your content for generative AI-based searches.
Here is the challenge that comes with the advancement of AI-powered summaries and AI overviews. As per a study done for Google Generative engine optimization, data shows that traffic to the publishers’ websites may go down by almost 25% due to the way information is provided to the users diminishing the need for them to click and visit the source website.
There has been an uproar after this statistic came out in the market. To counter this, Bing in a statement mentioned that their system indicates not much change on the CTR for the publishers’ websites and it is eventually going to benefit the content publishers who keep the content fresh and updated on their websites.
How to Optimize Your Website for Bing’s AI-Powered Summaries:
- The primary focus should be users’ intent and not the keywords: Create more and more content that targets users’ intent. Yes, keyword optimization is important, but to optimize the content for the future of search, you need to focus more on addressing the users’ intent in your content.
- Optimize your content for long-tail keywords and semantic keywords: As long-tail keywords are best suited for the conversation language, so make sure you start targeting them in your content. With this, targeting semantic keywords will help as well. Semantic keywords are terms that have similar content and intent as the primary keyword and are easily relatable.
Below is an example of Bing’s AI-powered search summaries giving me an answer when I searched for “what are semantic keywords.” You can see the summary and in that, there are 5 links that are connected to the publisher websites from where this summary has been created by the AI. The link to these publishers appears below the summary as well.
When I made the same search on Google, this is what I got:
Here the AI Overview is on the left and the related content publishers’ website links are on the right. Feel free to test this out yourself to get a better feel of how this works. I bet you will find it very interesting.
- Optimize for conversational search queries: This is important, as it will help you to rank in search results powered by Natural Language Processing. Try writing long-form content that answers specific queries from your target user. Include frequently asked questions in your content template.
- Setup and Review Bing Webmaster Tool: I have seen marketers who usually follow the Google Search Console tool and ignore the Bing Webmaster tool. But as you are optimizing your website for Bing’s AI-powered search, make sure to follow the insights and optimization recommendations on the Bing Webmaster tool. You will get clear insights on how Bing crawls and indexes your website.
- Start using structured data and schema markup: A few years back, this was considered as the future of search and still plays a crucial role in SEO Optimization Services and AI generative search. Use of these helps search engine bots understand your content structure and fetch out key data for summaries.
- Improve content quality and relevance: It is advisable to keep the content comprehensive, fresh, and relevant to the user’s intent. Make sure you go through the old content on your website from time to time and look for any updates required. Keeping the content fresh allows the Bing bots to crawl the content regularly.
- Build Authority: Building an authoritative presence online also helps with Google’s Generative engine optimization. There are various ways to build an online reputation in your business niche. Some of the well-known ways are to build an effective presence on social media websites, forums, and online communities. Start posting good informational content and interact with other members. Try to answer their queries and solve problems.
- Get Reviews and Recommendations Online: If you have a business website, make sure to build a presence on business listing websites such as Bing Places for Business, Google My Business, Yelp, Apple Maps, Facebook, Instagram, etc. Having positive reviews, mentions, and recommendations will help build your online authority and thus help with optimization for AI generative search.
- Improve website crawlability and page load speed: Make sure that your website is optimized for all devices and screen sizes. Keep the navigation clean and clear using breadcrumbs. Optimize pages with proper titles and meta descriptions. Add content on the pages in clear sections using heading tags such as H1, H2…H6.
So, let’s get ready and optimize your website for Bing’s AI-powered search summaries. It is important to take the first step if you haven’t already started. Microsoft is coming up with regular updates on its AI search engines, and following the optimization steps above will surely increase the chances of your website getting ranked for Bing’s AI-powered search.
By leveraging SEO Optimization Services and content optimization services, you can stay ahead in this evolving search landscape.