‘Let’s Google It’ – that’s what we say when we want to search anything online. You don’t need statistics to guess Google’s market share among search engines. This term says it all. But there was a time when Google wasn’t our default choice for search engines. It was still an upcoming, lesser known platform whereas Yahoo! Search, MS Messenger, Homestar Runner, AOL, Lycos, MySpace, AskJeeves all demanded considerable attention.
Of course we are talking about a time when Internet penetration wasn’t anything like today and search engines weren’t a big deal. But when Larry Page and Sergey Brin launched Google they focused solely on quality of search results. They used sophisticated algorithms to ensure that users got accurate responses to their queries. This continues to be Google’s mojo till date, and the reason why we Google things before anything else.
Since Google is the leading search engine and we all use it every day, the question that comes to mind is what about the other search engines? Do they exist? What is their market share? You may be surprised to know that though Google continues to hold a lion’s share of the market, other search engines out there aren’t doing too bad either. They have their own advantages and niche qualities that make them worthwhile. If you are planning to invest on search engine optimization or SEO, you should consider other search engines too.
While your primary focus remains Google, if you want to boost your digital presence, you shouldn’t shut your eyes close to other search engines. It is true that most of your organic search will come from Google but you cannot forget that other search engines have their merits that can drive additional traffic to your site. Not doing so would keep you out of the sphere of users who don’t ‘Google’ information. So, which are the ‘other search engines’ that you must consider and why? We shall be talking in detail about few other options and why ranking on them can boost your digital marketing efforts.
Search Engines You Must Focus On
When we think of search engines, the name that pops to our minds apart from Google is Bing! That’s mostly because Bing is Microsoft’ default search engine. According to the latest data revealed by GS Stats Counter, Bing has a 6.52% market share. It may not be much but you can be surprised at how many additional page views that can mean for you. Amazon, YouTube and DuckDuckGo are other globally recognized search engines. There are also other region-specific search engines such as Baidu (popular in China) that is doing considerable business too.
Why You Must Consider Ranking on Other Search Engines
Since Google commands 86.81% of market share many would wonder why bother ranking in other search engines. Though it is true that getting a favorable ranking on Google is the ultimate goal, there is no harm in ensuring that your site has good rankings on other search engines too. It is important to understand that each platform shows up search results based on their unique algorithms. While none reveal their guidelines and secrets, there is enough information out there on how each work and what you can do to achieve better rankings.
It is generally accepted that SEO strategy which is effective on Google will work on other search platforms. If you adopt best SEO practices for Google, you will rank higher across all search engine page rankings (SERP). Having said so, each platform is different. While we shall be talking about few of them in details later on and how one is different from the other, there are other factors that you must consider. Basically, you must know the following things.
- What is the bottom-line of your website?
- What do you want your website to do for you?
- Do you want more customers (in the form of leads)?
- Are you selling products and/or services through the website?
- Is your website into news dissemination and information?
Answers to the above questions will decide how you can and should pursue optimization on other search engines.
Alternative Search Engines
- YouTube – You may be wondering why is YouTube, a Google subsidiary, in this list. That’s because YouTube has its own algorithm for ranking videos. As the largest video platform in the world with millions and millions of video content, viewers are constantly searching for videos on YouTube. The platform ranks videos based on how they have been optimized using right keywords and other SEO tools. How you optimize your video content for YouTube will decide your popularity and viewership.
How you optimize your videos will also reflect on Google’s main search page. The description used for your video is usually a deciding factor here. Even if you have a good quality, informative video content, if it is not adequately backed by a catchy title then it may not have enough clickbait to register more views, especially through Google’s main search page. A good search friendly content will have an easy, descriptive title and a good thumbnail. However you must understand that YouTube and Google don’t show similar search results, though they are so closely related. Google’s gamut is much larger and if you do not use the right keywords on your YouTube video, it will not get to the top position on Google.
- Bing – Microsoft launched Bing with the purpose of giving Google a tough competition. On paper Bing is a great search engine. Navigation is very easy on the platform, search engine results are good, and the algorithm is close to what Google uses. Unfortunately it never managed to penetrate the market like its archrival Google. Getting better ranking on Bing is definitely easier. However certain things work similarly on both the search engines. You will need high quality content for improved SERP. Bing lays importance to three things – a detailed content, useful information and good presentation. Citing sources can also earn you brownie points on Bing. This search engine prefers posts that have authenticated article authors with proper bio. Generic bios don’t feature high on Bing search results. At the end Bing prefers sites that are user-friendly, much like Google.
- Amazon – You may be wondering why Amazon features on our list of alternative search engines. There is no doubt that Amazon is the largest e-commerce platform in the world today which also means that hundreds of thousands of people are searching for products on this platform. That’s one of the main reasons why Amazon has a strong algorithm for showcasing its search results. If you are a seller on Amazon, you may not be able to decide how your products/services will be ranked in the platform but using top-class optimization tools, you can please Amazon algorithm and rank high. The things that Amazon focuses on while showing results on its search page are – product title, keywords, description, reviews and ratings and quality of images. There is another factor that you need to keep in mind – that is BSR or Best Sellers Rank. BSR gets updated several times a day and is based on sales volume and past sale figures. Since the endgame of Amazon is sales, your SEO needs to focus only on that. High-intent keywords, quality images, appropriate product descriptions must remain your focus.
- DuckDuckGo – DuckDuckGo is a new and upcoming search engine that has been expanding its user base over the last few years. With ever-increasing stress on privacy and security, DuckDuckGo is poised to increase its market share in the coming days. This search engine platform compiles results from over 400 sources which include Yahoo!, Wolfram, Search BOSS, Bing, Alpha, Yandex and many others. The entire process of site crawling and bots emphasizes on privacy and it heavily flags sites that have spammy content. Low quality content (that’s designed to rank higher on Google) doesn’t get good ranking on DuckDuckGo. If privacy is your selling point and you want to expand your loyal user base solely on this factor, DuckDuckGo is your go-to search engine.
How to Improve Your Ranking on SERP
Google is the biggest source of organic traffic to your website, but it isn’t the only one. There are other major search engines and platforms that you need to optimize your site for. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel as optimization strategies for those platforms aren’t much different from what you have been doing for Google.
You need a dedicated team of SEO experts who are well-equipped to meet your varied needs. This is where Cyrusson Inc. comes into the picture. We are a digital marketing agency based out of San Francisco and our sole purpose is to improve every business’ digital marketing reach and power. Our marketing solutions are tailor-made to meet your requirements. We understand that there is a world beyond Google when it comes to search engines for which websites need to be adequately optimized. Our SEO experts understand how other search engines work and what needs to be done to improve your website’s ranking. Get in touch with us today so that we can discuss ideas to improve your presence on other search engines.