When you search for your site in Bing, if it doesn’t come up in the search results or if its new, you can submit your URL in Bing Webmaster Tools:

Just go to Bing URL Submission and submit your site URL.

Create an XML Sitemap & Submit it to Bing Webmaster Tools

Whether your site comes up when you search for it in Bing or not, you still need to create an xml sitemap and submit it to Bing Webmaster Tools.

Go to bing.com

Click Extras in the top right corner and choose Webmaster Center.

Click on Sign in to Use the Tools. You’ll need a hotmail or live email account to do so, so if you don’t have one, simply sign up for one so you’ll be able to access Bing Webmaster Tools.

Once inside Webmaster Tools, just enter your web address and your site map address. Make sure, of course, that your sitemap address ends with dotxml

Next, you’ll need to verify ownership of the site by following the exact same procedures you follow when submitting your xml sitemap to Google and Yahoo.

If for some reason you are not submitting your sitemaps to Google and/or Yahoo, you absolutely must begin to do so.

Bing provides two ways to verify ownership:
XML file authentication or Metatag authentication.
Both require that you add an authentication code to your site that Bing provides.

As the technical details are far beyond the scope of this post, you can find specifics on creating your xml sitemap at xml-sitemaps.com and on verifying it at: http://help.sitesell.com/sitemaps/live-webmaster-tools.html#VERIFY

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The new Microsoft Bing search engine introduces us to seven new and useful features, ranging from categorized search and deep links to related searches and search history.

Best Match

Bing determines what it thinks is the best match for your search and features it at the top of the results.

Homepage Summary

When you move your mouse over a listing, a window appears in the right sidebar that shows you what’s on the page.

Deep Links

When you search Directory One, for example, and you mouse-over the orange dot, you get a description of the homepage along with links to five inside pages:

• Services
• Company Profile
• Our Process
• Biographies
• Press

These must be what Microsoft means by deep links, even though they are titled: Also on this page!

Categorized Search

Categorized search helps users organize their search by increasing the authority and diversity of results. Bing groups search results by category. For example results for a specific city may include weather, airport, restaurant, and hotel groups

What they mean by groups is, for example, when you search the word Microsoft, the results are grouped by categories as you scroll down the page. So categories for Microsoft include:

• Microsoft Products
• Microsoft Online Services
• Microsoft Investor Relations
• Microsoft Company History
• Microsoft Jobs
• Microsoft Images

You can also click on any of the category headings to generate more related results.

Does categorized search actually improve relevance?

Not necessarily. When I searched the word Bing on Bing, of course the Bing search engine came up first. But Bing Crosby came up third, which is higher than where he came up when searching Bing on Google.

The bottom line is search engines by their very nature will never be 100% relevant because it’s simply not possible to serve up results that will please all searchers all the time. As the old adage goes, “you can’t be all things to all people.”

Related Searches

Bing gives you the opportunity to click on related searches in three places. First, a dropdown menu that appears as you enter your search word.

For example, when you enter the word Houston, you get eight choices in the dropdown:

• Houston Chronicle
• Houston Astros
• Houston Community College
• Houston Texans
• Houston Rockets
• Houston Weather
• Houston News
• Houston Press

You get five more to choose from at the top of the left sidebar:

• Travel
• Restaurants
• Jobs
• Hotels
• Attractions

And then seven more Related Searches under those.

Search History

Below the Related Searches you’ll see links to your search results from the last 48 hours. This is a nice touch because if you’ve searched for something once, chances are you’ll go back and search for it again later. Guess in a way that means you didn’t find exactly what you were looking for the first time.

Telephone Numbers

Another useful feature that even Microsoft doesn’t mention, or at least I haven’t seen them mention, are telephone numbers. Business listings actually include either local or 800 numbers, in the window that appears in the right sidebar.

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1. Read the instructions
Sounds obvious enough but I can’t tell you how many times I tried to use commas when semi-colons were required or vice versa to create lists. Also if the last phrase on a list gets cut off between the words, it means the list is too long so simply delete your entire last entry.

2. When submitting multiple locations to Google Maps and Microsoft’s new Bing Local, each site needs to be verified. You’ll have the option to verify immediately by telephone or request they mail a post card to each location in about two to three weeks. When choosing the telephone option it’s absolutely critical to create a schedule and notify each location the day before. You’ll also want to allow about a half hour between calls from Google and call each location again just before you activate the call request. With Google when you submit multiple locations, if you don’t get verified on the first call, there may not be a second chance. You simply need to request the postcard alternative if the telephone verification link is not available.

3. For multiple submissions as you might expect Google Maps, Yahoo Local, the new Microsoft Bing and Superpages lead the way. The “big three” all provide a dashboard from which you can list and manage multiple locations from one page with a single email address and password. At Superpages, all you have to do is call and ask and they’ll set one up for you.

4. Take full advantage of the information opportunities offered by most of the local directories. Superpages leads the way, asking for almost the equivalent of a whole website’s worth of info, with Google Maps running a close second. Simply make sure to fill out the submission forms as completely as possible.

5. If you are submitting more than ten locations or websites, check out Google Maps multiple submission Excel data sheet. It enables you to submit both the basic information as well as optional data such business hours and payment types.

6. Take advantage of the opportunities to upload photos and even videos. What could be better than photos and videos directly accessible from your local directory listings?

7. Make sure to come up with a tasteful coupon offers for the local directories that offer them.

8. Briefly mentioned this one back in part one, “Submitting Multiple Locations to Local Directories:”
Do your keyword research and use keywords whenever appropriate in your site titles, descriptions, tag lines, products or services, specialties, photo & video file names, and video titles.

9. Whatever you do, don’t go overboard with keywords. Don’t just plug in keywords unless they make sense and are relevant.

10. Several local directories, for example, Microsoft Bing, offer the opportunity to include deep links. Make sure to use them appropriately by linking to pages inside your site that will provide useful or helpful additional information to your users.

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The following post is meant to be a combination tutorial (How to Submit Multiple Locations to Local Directories) and case study of my current project, the Right Step Drug and Alcohol Treatment Centers.

Step #1 Client Information Checklist

Create a client information checklist for the client to fill out and return. You will then be able to copy and paste from this document when submitting each location.

The following sample client information checklist is a compilation of the info requested by the local directories for each location:

Business Name: (exactly as you want it to appear):
Street Address:
City, State:
Full Zip Code: (all 9 numbers)
Telephone Number:
Fax Number:
Toll Free Number:
Payment Options: (circle all that apply)
VISA, MasterCard, American Express, Diners, Discover, Debit
Cash, Check, Other: ______________________________
Up to 5 Products or Services you provide in order of priority:
Up to 5 Product or Service Brands:
Up to 5 Specialties:
Languages Spoken:
Year Founded:
Number of Locations:
Number of Employees: (not published):
Business Hours:
Special Offer or Local Listing Deal:

Please provide at least one photo for each location. (Maximum: 10)
You may also provide at least one video for each location. (Maximum: 5)

Optimization

Many of the above including product or service names, brands carried, and specialties provide additional opportunities to legitimately use keywords in your listings. You will also want to optimize the file names of the photos and both the file names and the titles of the videos.

Services:

Alcohol treatment, alcohol treatment center, alcohol counseling, alcohol recovery, drug treatment, drug treatment center, drug rehab, drug rehabilitation, drug counseling, substance abuse treatment

Brands:

The Right Step, Spirit Lodge, The Next Step, TRS Behavioral Care

Specialties:

Detox, residential treatment, intensive outpatient, sober living, aftercare

Step #2 More Optimization -Optimize the location business names

Make sure that you have the correct optimized business name for each location. If, for example, they are already listed in any of the local directories, chances are pretty good that many of the locations will be listed using different business names. Work with the client to arrive at optimized business names for each location. By optimized in this case I mean names that include either a primary key phrase or an appropriate geographic descriptive keyword, or preferably both, as in the following examples that are part of the Right Step multiple location link building campaign I’m working on now:

The Right Step Alcohol & Drug Treatment Houston

The Right Step Alcohol & Drug Treatment Dallas/Fort Worth

The Right Step Alcohol & Drug Treatment Plano

The Right Step Alcohol & Drug Treatment Austin

The Right Step Alcohol & Drug Treatment Hill Country in Wimberley

The Right Step Alcohol & Drug Treatment Albuquerque

The Next Step for Men Drug and Alcohol Treatment DFW

The Right Step Alcohol & Drug Treatment Beaumont

The Right Step Alcohol & Drug Treatment Dallas

The Right Step Alcohol & Drug Treatment Clear Lake

The Right Step Alcohol & Drug Treatment Fort Bend

The Right Step Alcohol & Drug Treatment Baytown

The Right Step Alcohol & Drug Treatment North Houston

The Right Step Alcohol & Drug Treatment Northline

The Right Step Alcohol & Drug Treatment NW Houston

The Right Step Alcohol & Drug Treatment Pasadena

The Right Step Alcohol & Drug Treatment San Antonio

The Right Step Alcohol & Drug Treatment The Woodlands

The Right Step Alcohol & Drug Treatment West Houston

The Right Step Alcohol & Drug Treatment Baton Rouge

The Right Step Alcohol & Drug Treatment Houma

I would have preferred to have added the word Center, for example,
The Right Step Alcohol & Drug Treatment Center Baton Rouge, but that would have exceeded the number of characters allowed in the name of the business for many of the directories.

Step #3 Description & Tagline

Write a 200 character description and a business tagline if they don’t already have one and add them to the client info document so that you’ll be able to easily copy and paste from a single document.

Description:

Alcohol and drug treatment center provides residential and outpatient solutions to alcohol and substance abuse. End addiction and begin a new life with The Right Step. Most insurance accepted.

Tagline:

Providing compassionate, comprehensive substance abuse care

Step #4 Create Optimized Coupon Offer

Please call 1-877-627-4389 to arrange a Free Evaluation by a licensed drug & alcohol addiction professional.

Step #5 Set-up Email Addresses

In order for your listings to be accepted, verified, and published, you will need a unique street address, local telephone number, and email address for each location. More than likely the individual street addresses and telephone numbers in most cases will already exist. If the unique email addresses don’t already exist, you’ll need to create a master gmail account along with an individual gmail address for each location. In the above example I used rightstepd1@gmail.com for the master account email. The individual email addresses already existed and were not being used, so I forwarded them to the master gmail address. That way I was able to verify the email addresses on my own without having to rely on 21 different people to click the verification links from the directories. Also, by using a generic email address for the directory account user IDs, all the submission data can easily be handed over to the client simply by giving them the gmail account.

Step #6 Document

Create an Excel spreadsheet for the project to keep track of the directories, completion dates, and directory user IDs and passwords when applicable,
which also makes it a piece of cake to provide the client with all the info connected with each submission.

Step #7 Submit

Here’s a link to the list of local directories I submit to. In part two next week, I’ll add tips and comments for each of the individual local directories.

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With today’s economic situation, interest in discount coupons is definitely on the rise. While everyone loves a good grocery store coupon, discount coupons have now become the rage in the world of online directories.

Call it a wake-up call or just a little reminder that we’re in the middle of an economic recession, but many of the paid directories included in the Directory One up-and-coming link building package are offering discount codes for submissions during the months of May and June.

Examples include:

• Rubber Stamped
• Aviva Directory
• Greenstalk
• Global-Weblinks
• DirJournal.com
• eWilla Directory
• Best of the Web
• Sezza Directory
• Site Sift
• Ezilon
• Massive Links

Check out the complete list including specific discounts and discount codes at Deborah Mastaler’s Link Spiel blog or Contact Directory One for all your link building needs.

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The short answer is you can never have enough backlinks.

Believe it or not it’s easier to know when you have enough money than it is to know when you have enough backlinks.

According to the answer to a reader question in a Houston Chronicle article by Scott Burns, “you know you are rich when more money won’t change where you live, what you eat, what you drive or who you sleep with.”

On the other hand, you know you have enough backlinks when your website or blog reaches number 1 in Google for the key phrases you have optimized for. You will, however, still need more backlinks to stay there. With that in mind, it would seem that getting more quality backlinks is virually a never-ending process.

Although Google page rank may not be as important to search engine rankings as it once was, it’s still ego boosting to see your site improve its page rank. So unless your site is already a PR 9 or 10, you’ll always need more quality backlinks - along with more quality content in order to hopefully improve your Google page rank.

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Probably not! However, if they do, they, most likely only read blogs written by other “mainstream” people, for example, restaurant or movie reviews. And if they are on Twitter, they probably keep up with Oprah, Ashton, or Shaq, and tweet a lot about what they’re having for lunch and dinner.

Why I even raise such questions is simply because sometimes it’s difficult to justify all the time and effort that goes into maintaining a blog, when you’re not really sure whether “mainstream” people, or more specifically, small business owners, even read them.

In other words, if the service you offer is search engine optimization and your target market is small business owners, if those small business owners don’t read blogs, well, you can see where I’m going with this.

The Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy defines a small business as an independent business having fewer than 500 employees. If 500 employees is a small business, I’d hate to hear how many it would take to classify as large, which I guess would be 501.

Fortunately, however, I wouldn’t be surprised if small business owners do read blogs, assuming, of course, that the subject matter is of some interest to them.

If I had to venture a guess regarding who reads blogs, I’d probably come up with beginning bloggers, marketing bloggers, seo bloggers, and even other small business bloggers. The key phrase here, however, is other bloggers.

So in actuality if what we have on Twitter is SEO and affiliate marketers essentially marketing to each other, then what we have with blogs is bloggers essentially blogging for other bloggers!

Although the only stats I could find were really old, according to Clickz back in July of 2003, “blogs seem to be read mostly by men (60 percent vs. 40 percent women), in homes where the total income is more than $60,000 per year (61 percent) and the majority (73 percent) of blog readers have been online for more than 5 years.

And here’s what else we know. Again according to Clickz in August of 2005, “blog readers spend more time and money online than other web users who don’t read them.”

“Fifty million Americans, or 30 percent of all American Internet users, visited a blog in the first quarter of 2005.”

“The average blog reader viewed 77 percent more pages than the average Internet user who doesn’t read blogs and blog readers average 23 hours online per week, compared with the overall Web user’s average of 13 hours.”

Of course, bloggers and tweeters, themselves, could easily do 13 hours in one day!

“Blog readers are 11 percent more likely than the average Internet user to have incomes of or greater than $75,000.

More recent, but still older stats from the Pew Research Center tell us that only 11% of Internet users in US read blogs on a typical day while 42% claim to have read blogs at least once.

After all those stats, we still don’t know whether or not small business owners read blogs and tweets.

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