Big changes are underway at Microsoft search engine Bing, with a complete revamp of how it organizes product information. The new Product Search will make it easier for customers to view useful details about the items they are thinking about buying – and make it easier for savvy businesses to get a good sales pitch out there.
One for the main search results, one for product information and one for social information, such as which of a logged-in user’s friends have bought a particular item. Bing will draw on information from other sites, such as Facebook, to make this third column work. The hope is to make the results feel more personally relevant to the consumer. Images of popular products will be shown at the top, as in a traditional store window display.
Alongside this, Bing is offering an opt-in rich captions feature, which allows advertisers to add product descriptions. Basically a couple lines of text describing an item, this will provide an opportunity for creative advertisers to maximize product appeal through judicious use of language and provide extra space for branding. Adding information on pricing and stock availability will also be an option, as will pictures.
Settings for the new system will be located on Bing Merchant Center pages; for those who do not have one already, now is the time to get it set up. Product Search will roll out slowly over the next few weeks, so there is still time to ensure good positioning early on; however, it is worth acting quickly, as applications can take some time to be processed. Merchant Centers can be set up from Bing Ads. Adobe claims that the latest version of its Media Optimizer is already set up to support Product Search, so this may be a useful addition to the toolkit.
The new Bing searches will still include paid advertisements, which will also appear on Yahoo. These are supposed to work primarily on an organic search basis, so effective search engine optimization designed around Bing’s priorities is going to become important. In order for the rich data to work properly and stay up to date, it will be important to use search-friendly URLs throughout product and catalog pages, making it easy for Bing to relate the two.
For more information and expert help with all aspects of this process, contact Xcellimark at (888) 318-3950 ext.211.