Bing has been aggressive in its attempt to cut into Google’s substantial lead in the search engine market in recent months. The inclusion of calls to action directly alongside search results makes including Bing in an enterprise SEO strategy a competitive necessity. While Google still maintains almost two-thirds of the market, Bing’s addition presents a simple chance for businesses to convert searchers quickly.
Bing reported that its algorithm now includes metrics to record the most frequent actions on a site. From there, three action buttons will appear next to a business’ home page and highest ranking deep links on Bing’s SERPs. Currently, only major websites within the airline, courier, restaurant, banking, car rental, software and hotel industries are included. Searches must be for the specific brand name, rather than a general industry term. For example, a search for “Marriot” resulted in the calls to action. However, a search for hotels, which yielded a link to Marriot’s website did not include the options.
Most of Bing’s recent moves have been aimed at reducing the amount of time searchers have to spend surfing before finding the information they seek. Brafton reported last week that Bing launched Adaptive Search to tailor search results based on previous activity. With the inclusion of calls to action, Bing has improved the likelihood of a search yielding the best results and prospects converting quickly.
