Earlier this week, folks using their Bing Webmaster Tools would have noticed a new tool slipped into the mix. On the "Crawl" tab, you can now find a link to the Markup Validation Tool. This tool is a great way to understand if the added code is actually going to be readable, as intended. While the markup code being inaccurate will not cause your page to render any differently in most cases, having the syntax incorrect can affect our ability to use the data as you intend.

Whether you've decided to move your website to a new domain or you're moving content within a current website, its important to know how to protect the trust value your current content has with the engines. Over time, links get built, content ages and aquires trust. You don't want to walk away from that if you can help it. Why start over when most of that value can be transfered to the content's new location? The solution to your problem is the 301 redirect.

It's conference season again, and we're looking forward to see folks at the shows again this year! If you're planning to attend either the SMX West event, or the SES NY event, here are discount codes for each event. SMX West : SMX10Bing will snag you a 10% discount SES NY : 20Bing will snag you 20% off If you want to hear what we have to say, we encourage you to join us at the following sessions. SMX West - booth #406 Feb. 28 - 9AM - 10:15AM Getting Personal,

As you go about working on your websites, optimizing things and managing your social media programs, its easy to lose track of information, or overlook something. In this post well take a look at some things you want to avoid doing. It may also be worth taking a look through your site and your programs to make sure youre not doing any of these things moving forward. Cloaking Cloaking is the process where you determine who the visitor is coming to your website,

Ever wonder whats behind the merging of social signals into search? Not too long ago, all SEOs had to worry about were the old standbys: title tags, links, content, etc. Today, and in the future, social signals play a larger part in ranking, so whats an SEO to do? Why its happening This is fairly easy to explain.

2011 is almost in the history books, so now seems like a great time to take a look back over the year and remember what weve been up to here at Bing Webmaster Tools. First hand its easy to see how quickly a year can slip by. Being inside a search engine is an amazing place, and this year saw solid growth for our Webmaster program. We covered a lot of ground attending conferences all around the US,

When building or managing a website, it almost goes without saying that you need to be in control. You need to be able to make changes to certain elements if you home to optimize the website properly. Lets take a look at nine items you should be sure are firmly within your control when you start optimizing a website. And were not just talking search engine optimization here. Think broader than that. Think of truly building a better, more useful website,

Malware. Just mention the word and watch people cringe in fear. No one likes it and most seek to even avoid saying the word out loud, lest they be stricken by something nefarious. The topic should not be taken lightly, as getting infected with malware can have dire consequences. From your brand being tarnished to identity theft, nothing involving malware is a joke. Which is why its taken so seriously by the search engines. In fact, youll notice,

Weve spent the better part of a year now hitting the shows, running surveys and holding focus groups. Along with the information we captured direct from the webmaster community through those sources, there is the daily flow of inbound suggestions and, yes, items needing to be fixed, that we can draw insights from. Today were rolling out the latest features and updates, most of which come directly from user feedback. You spoke, we listened, worked and are now delivering.

Everyone wants to be an authority. Everyone wants to be acknowledged for their, well, knowledge. Everyone wants the increased ranking and traffic that comes when an engine sees you as an authoritative resource. But so few actually plan a path to success, thinking instead that blasting everything they find across Twitter and auto-following everyone will boost their numbers and get them recognized as an authority. Lets take a look at what it really takes, shall we.

Dictionary.com shares this meaning of syndication )see #8( when used as a verb: to publish simultaneously, or supply for simultaneous publication, in a number of newspapers or other periodicals in different places : Her column is syndicated in 120 papers . In most cases, being syndicated is seen as a positive thing. Youve hit the big time, youre in demand, people what to hear from you. All good signs youve made it. Naturally syndicated content on the Internet,

Almost every website will reach a point when they need to implement redirects. Whether its because you moved content around, or youre moving to a new domain, redirects can help you keep the traffic flowing, pass the value URLs have been assigned by the engines and help keep bookmarks working for your loyal visitors. You dont need to fear implementing redirects, but you should understand which is best to use and their limitations.

With social playing such an important role today in your overall online marketing efforts, its important to get things right the first time. As the old saying goes, first impressions matter. Getting a do-over in todays face-paced online business environment is tough, especially when everything you do is recorded, archived and essentially available to anyone willing to search almost forever.

With our very busy lives, its easy to be tempted to engage in tactics that would seem to create efficiencies for us. Signing up for, or paying for services which appear to take the pain out of critical tasks like managing your social program properly, or building links to your content may seem like a smart move, but be warned. You may be setting yourself up to fail in the long run. What is a link farm? Simply put, a link farm is a service which builds links to your content.

Let's take a look at some of the bigger ticket issues folks should focus on when optimizing their websites. This list is not meant to cover everything, but to focus in on some of the more important aspects you should look at addressing. The first part of this list is presented in a rough order of importance based on getting work done. In many case, you'll find your own circumstances won't allow your focus and investments to match this list. Don't sweat it.

Bing Webmaster Tools will now be showing integrated data from Yahoo within certain areas and reports. Given the combined effort the Search Alliance represents, it makes sense to showcase relevant data from both engines within a webmaster account. Most areas and data within the accounts will not be affected.

Waking up to find your website, or portion of it, has been removed from a search index can be a perplexing and frightening experience. What if you could help reduce that risk by restricting access to sensitive areas of webmaster tools, and render them read only for assigned individuals? Bings Webmaster Tools places exactly that kind of control within reach. By managing user access levels, you can control who has full access as an Admin,

Join us at SES San Francisco and SMX East! Bing Webmaster , and other Bing groups such as Maps , Local , Mobile and Core Search , will be attending the shows looking to talk to folks. We want your feedback on current features, and idea for new things you want to see us build out, so these shows are an excellent chance to talk directly to the folks who do the work inside Bing. The Bing Booth will be prominently located, so swing by, chat,

From an early stage people are taught that links are important to ranking well in the search engines. Too many people believe that its quantity over quality. Worse yet, some folks believe success lies in selling, or buying, links. Everyone agrees getting a good link is hard work and almost everyone has a formula for what they feel will work. Before I get into the detail in this post, I want to share a quick, recent story.

Building quality content is far more than simply building content. And how do we measure quality? In this post well examine some of the factors often attributed to quality content, explain why you want to include them and help explain how the measurement of quality happens, though it may not be what you expect. Well tackle these in reverse order, first examining what qualifies content as quality, then reviewing the basic outline of producing quality content.