As a consequence of the Microsoft-Yahoo deal, many webmaster are investing a significant amount of efforts in Bing and Yahoo optimization. As a blogger and a true webmaster at heart, I was affected by this issue. It got me thinking – how in the hell am I supposed to optimize for all three at the same time?
I couldn’t think of a better way to find out besides comparing the tools Google, Bing and Yahoo provide us with in order to ease the optimization process. In fact, I found this to be a very entertaining research.
Let’s go over the facts first:
Google Webmaster Tools
If you were to ask me to describe Google Webmaster Tools in a single word, I’d use “faulty.” More often than not GWT is wrong. Just for the fun of it, here’s the list of my blog’s Top Search Queries according to GWT:
| 1. | best people to follow on twitter | 3 |
| 2. | people to follow on twitter | 6 |
| 3. | headlines with | 4 |
| 4. | getresponse | 10 |
| 5. | top people to follow on twitter | 5 |
| 6. | how to make youtube videos | 8 |
| 7. | google stupid | 6 |
| 8. | google is stupid | 6 |
| 9. | twitter marketing | 13 |
| 10. | twitter marketing tool | 8 |
Not a single query right. Not even one! Disappointing… I expected more precision from the world’s first Billion dollar internet advertising corporation. However, disappointments aside, let’s keep examining the facts. Shall We?
The Top Search Queries’ “accuracy” spreads over to Backlinks as well. According to Google, my blog has 2,493 backlinks. However, Yahoo Site Explorer shows me 5,052 links pointing back to my site. In addition, Bing wants me to believe I have 2,280 sites linking to my blog.
According to the StompreNet faculty, when it comes to backlinks – Yahoo Site Explorer is the only tool that can be trusted. I would love to agree, but since Bing came into the picture with a calculation similar to Google’s, I am starting to suspect that either Bingoogle bots are hiding something or Yahoo spiders need to learn some math.
However, jokes aside, when it comes to internal linking – Google’s the champ. It is the only one out of the three Webmaster Tools that provides information about your internal linking structure (which is one of the most important aspects of SEO).
Bing Webmaster Center
If you are familiar with GWT, you’ll have no problem in finding your way around Bing Webmaster Center Dashboard. It took me about 5 minutes to completely submit my site.
One thing that caught my attention is that Bing has something called: Page Score. My blog got five red squares out of five, however, it turns out many of my backlinks aren’t as good as I thought they were. But what is this Page Score?
According to Bing Webmaster Forums:
“Bing website ranking is completely automated. The Bing ranking algorithm analyzes factors such as webpage content, the number and quality of websites that link to your web pages, and the relevance of your website’s content to keywords. The algorithm is complex and is never human-mediated. You can’t pay to boost your website’s relevance ranking. However, Bing does offer advertising options for website owners. Each time the index is updated, previous relevance rankings are revised.”
Therefore, I believe Bing Page Score is somewhat similar to Google’s PageRank. However, the difference is that it is much easier to get a high page score than to score high PageRank. Another contrast is that unlike PageRank – Page Score doesn’t flow from page to page, it is calculated separately for each URL.
What does this mean in terms of SEO? I have no clue. But my speculation is that Bing are trying to develop a system which is similar to Google’s PageRank and so far they fell short to deliver.
Yahoo Site Explorer
Yahoo Site Explorer is an awesome backlink checker. But beyond that, I really don’t see how Yahoo is planning to top Google and Bing Webmaster Tools. Yahoo are out of their league and it is about time Yahoo realized that and did something about.
I am sorry, but I am not going to provide you with a detailed autopsy of the Yahoo Site Explorer, simply because I believe it would be a total waste of time.
To Sum Up
If you wish to find out about your site’s crawl errors, keywords, internal linking structure, pagerank and diagnostics – you’re better off with Google and Bing. If backlinks is what you’re after – Yahoo Site Explorer is right up your alley.
Google, Yahoo and Bing – all three need to keep working on improving what they call “Webmaster Tools.” As internet marketers, we need to know precisely how many backlinks we’ve got, how many pages indexed and how many broken URLs and Crawl errors are stopping us from perfect Search Engine Optimization. Back to the drawing board, Gentlemen!
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
I read a few topics. I respect your work and added blog to favorites.
Microsoft Bing would be the closet competitor of Google. but i still use Google because it shows more relevant results on the serp.
I appreciate that you are a student of SEO and that you are constantly researching and learning different things that you share on your blog.
Jan Middleton´s last blog ..Being a Person of Value Even If You Haven’t Fully Realized That Yet
Thank you Jan, to the same degree, I appreciate your
warm comments on nearly each of my posts
Igor
Bing does give search results much like Google but i would have to say that Google still gives more relevant search results.
To me, Bing gives little traffic, I get more then 80% of my organic
traffic from Google alone. Thanks for your input, Jade.
Igor
I’ve really enjoyed reading your articles. You obviously know what you are talking about! Your site is so easy to navigate too, I’ve bookmarked it in my favourites
Submitting your blog to search engine confirms more traffic to your site.
Now even Bing has launched its new Bing webmaster tools.