Bing has gone through many changes on its way to becoming the search engine we know it as today, both in cosmetics and functionality. Initially, there was no search engine with the name “Bing.” Instead, it was known as “MSN Search.” Originally, MSN Search did not provide its own search results, instead pulling results from other popular services at its release in 1998. In 2004 and 2005, MSN Search began to use its own Microsoft-built search engines, although its image searches were still delivered by a third party.

In 2006, MSN Search was rebranded as “Windows Live Search” and began to include search options for things like “News,” “Local,” and “Music.” Windows Live Search also began to include its own image searching. In 2007, Windows Live Search became simply “Live Search.” However, after several of its services were discontinued, it was again rebranded as “Bing” in 2009. In the latter half of 2009, Bing bought Yahoo!

Why does this history matter? Because Bing and Yahoo! Are Google’s biggest competitors in the search engine industry. Don’t just take our word for it. The biggest leaders in SEO and other digital services agree: Bing competed, can compete, and will continue to compete with Google, making it valuable for your business.

Naturally, Bing isn’t Google, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t benefits to targeting potential leads for your business on Bing. From May 2023 to May 2024, Bing increased its search volume from 6.8% of the market to 11.2%, while Google declined from 87.6% to 80.7%.

While that disparity is pretty striking, Bing still receives a lot of search queries every month, accounts for a large fraction of internet traffic, and is on the rise as people move away from Google to find other search engine experiences that meet their needs.

If you create a Bing listing for your business, you should be aware that your customers cannot leave you reviews directly. Bing introduced this in 2017 because the company wanted to focus more on aggregating reviews, as its goal as a search engine is to help consumers make decisions. Bing pulls reviews from other sources, such as Yelp and other locations where people leave reviews. Then they post those reviews on Bing Places for Business listings and local search results.

Because Bing receives less attention than Google, it can be difficult to track down changes in Bing’s search algorithm. Despite this, Bing confirmed a 2014 crackdown on “keyword-stuffed” URLs and domain names. Using too many keywords in your content can cause Bing to prioritize other content on the search engine results page (SERP). Instead, you should focus on creating content that appeals to readers, answers their questions, and targets some keywords instead of all of them.

When Bing enacted this change, it affected 3% of Bing’s search results, so be wary of attempting to make your URL focus only on SEO and instead create people-friendly content with an eye toward SEO. That’s one way Creekmore Marketing can help your business succeed in digital marketing.

While Bing isn’t Google, you can’t afford to ignore it because of the amount of search traffic Bing gets and the unique benefits Bing provides. Of all the services that allow you to create listings for your business, Bing Places for Business has some of the most detailed and varied business categories available. And remember: all SEO work you do for your business is ultimately beneficial, regardless of where you choose to place your focus. And while we don’t recommend focusing on Bing at the expense of Google, it is another valuable piece of the puzzle.

Curious about other business listings and search engines? Check out our guides to Apple, Google Search, LinkedIn InMail, Yahoo, and more.