Keeping on top of the constant changes to search engines is a huge part of SEO. Creating future-proof strategies from this understanding gives our clients a huge advantage.
Recently, Bing have announced the launch of helpful bots that will be used in their search engine results pages (SERPS). Built on Microsoft’s Bot Framework, these helpful chat bots will be automatically generated using data in Bing Places and through information submitted by business owners.
These bots will soon be rolled out across other channels such as Facebook, Messenger and Cortana while currently available for Bing, Skype and SMS.
The recently added bots will provide searchers with a chat option allowing them to ask questions about the business or service they’re searching for. For example, asking whether a restaurant is child-friendly or has disabled access might be something a user may ask. If the bot doesn’t know the answer it will encourage the user to call the business to have their question answered.
The addition of these bots give SERPS a whole new perspective, with a distinct impact on user experience. Search users will be able to find richer, more personalised information which could even lead to transactions taking place within the SERP very soon.
The automation of these bots really highlights the data available to search engines and the potential this has to create unique, personalised experience for customers without much input from businesses.
It will be interesting to see Google’s response to these developments who don’t currently have any equivalent functionality.
