Microsoft is systematically killing off the mystery of Bing-Yahoo optimization. In addition to a post on quality content that we covered previously, Bing has now told us the 18 fundamental things that webmasters need to know about search engine optimization. Here’s the basic breakdown:

1. Make sure your site is crawlable by using an XML sitemap, a robots.txt file, and well-structured on-site navigation.
2. Improve your site structure by using an HTML sitemap and linking to trusted sources both within your site and outside of it.
3. Create a solid content hierarchy by doing basic keyword research and avoiding placement of your content in rich media such as Silverlight and Flash.
4. Use a short meta title that has fewer than 65 characters and that’s unique to each page, and try to include the targeted keyword toward the beginning of that title.
5. Use a unique meta description tag.
6. Create quality content (following the guidelines Bing provided earlier).
7. When you build links, focus on keyword-relevant anchor tags that link back to quality content on your page.
8. Create an RSS feed.
9. Use schema.org markup.
10. Create a user interface that prioritizes the user experiences; the search perspective on things like page load time aren’t as important as how the user responds.
11. Encourage social sharing with the use of social buttons.
12. Don’t cloak your website.
13. Don’t use link farms.
14. Don’t engage in three-way linking.
15. Don’t duplicate content.
16. Don’t use auto-following on the social front.
17. Don’t use thin content.
18. Don’t buy links.

It’s always good when the search engines themselves tell us what they’re looking for. While this list is fairly basic, it does cover the most needed 101 ground. What items, if any, do you feel Bing is missing?

[Sources include: The Bing Blog]