Just when you had a grasp on search engine optimization, reports are that the impending Microsoft-Yahoo! partnership could shake things up. Why? Because Bing differs from Google and Yahoo! in the way it ranks pages and presents search results. This is causing online marketers to keep a close watch on SEO in time for the Bing-Yahoo! merger in 2010. At that time, Yahoo! “will make the switch to Bing’s organic search results in the third quarter of next year, and then fold in Bing’s paid search results soon after,” reported AdAge.com.

If SEO for Bing requires drastic changes, online marketers will become concerned about losing a large portion of the search pie and, ultimately, sales generated from search engine leads. According to my recent blog post, comScore Reports Bing’s Usage Increase, the Bing-Yahoo! deal could pose a legitimate threat to leader Google by capturing 25 percent of the U.S. search market. But I’m reassuring you not to worry if you’re SEO best practices are intact.

According to AdAge.com, “The biggest challenge for marketers will be to figure out how to land among the top five spots on both Bing and Google.” With the emergence of Bing as a search engine contender, AdAge.com thinks this “could mean a return to the late ‘90s when it was common for marketers to create separate pages optimized for Yahoo!, Google, Lycos and AltaVista…” In other words, websites could require two versions of each web page, one optimized for Google and another for Bing. But this thinking fails to consider that SEO best practices have changed since the ‘90s. For example, companies now run the risk of being blacklisted for duplicate content. And if you’re website is hundreds of pages deep, you’d have to create 200 unique-content (yes, unique) pages, not just different site maps. Not only is this time consuming, but also unnecessary if you follow SEO best practices. For companies engaging in healthy optimization practices, there is a much more effective method for achieving page-one results.

According to AdAge.com, the main difference between Google and Bing is that the former places “more weight [on] inbound links, while Bing focuses more on the content or the keywords contained on pages.” For companies concerned about two approaches to optimization, continuing in current SEO best practices will address all key areas. Rather than focus on inbound links for Google versus content for Bing, approach all of these areas under the common umbrella of SEO best practices. Focus on on-site and off-site SEO. For example, at 15miles, our marketers monitor search engine visibility for all tier-one search engines, including Google, Yahoo! and Bing. In addition, we monitor traffic from all engines to see if major traffic shifts begin to occur.  After all, it’s called search engine optimization, not just Google optimization. This includes building inbound links; creating SEO-friendly, on-site meta data and body content; blogging and participating in off-site social networking. The idea is to create a COMPLETE search presence, not exclusive Google or Bing visibility. Then, we take the national brand and optimize its local dealer websites for additional online visibility within local markets.

For those who point out that Bing displays only five organic search results on the first page and groups search results into categories after that, we found this to be true primarily for specific keyword searches such as “Nike” or “McDonalds.” For companies feeling the pressure to gain page-one Bing exposure, these are brand searches. For Bing, users may have to visit the second page to view the sixth search result, but an effective SEO strategy should get your website ranked high for your own brand. Bing’s local searches such as “Starbucks in Chicago” and generic keyword searches such as “marketing” are grouped similar to Google’s organic results — longer lists that scroll down the page (about 10 results per page) with local brand affiliates generally occupying the top results. As the world of search continues to dominate the marketing landscape, more emphasis is placed on local search results. In fact, even Twitter and other social sites are beginning to offer local, real-time consumer search results because they understand that consumers shop locally for their favorite brands.

As a leading search agency, we’re always staying on top of the latest industry trends. Because Bing’s algorithm isn’t completely set, some suggest that “any strategy formed today might have to change when the integration with Yahoo! takes place.” In other words, their approach is wait and see. Our approach is proactive. While we don’t know Bing’s algorithm just yet, SEO best practices remain the same: optimize your off-site and on-site SEO elements simultaneously. If you do this, you won’t have to worry about two separate optimization strategies. And remember to optimize your corporate site as well as your local franchisees to capture a larger percent of the search market for your brand.

Read more about the impacts of the Bing-Yahoo! merger on SEO.