Do You Need to Optimize for Yahoo and Bing?
The recent news about the E.U. fining Google $5.1 billion for "abusing its power in the mobile phone market" highlights a simple truth we already know: Google is, by far, the dominant player in search.
As Margrethe Vestager, the EU commissioner in charge of competition policy, noted in the E.U's decision: "Google has used Android as a vehicle to cement the dominance of its search engine" (Source).
We've quoted Vestager before, about a year ago, when the European commission fined Google $2.7 billion in an at-the-time record anti-trust decision. Then, as now, Vestager pointed out how the search engine "abused its market dominance" (Source).
The prior decision, we noted, promised to change organic search:
"Google will likely change the SERP (search engine results page) in Europe, and the changes may influence worldwide SEO efforts, forcing some businesses who have paid for promoted ads to seek promotion elsewhere or double down on organic SEO."
Read: "Google's Antitrust Problems & the Future of Organic SEO"
This recent decision, as The New York Times notes, "may force lasting changes to smartphones," although the decision is unlikely to effect the success of Google:
"Google’s services remain immensely popular, and its stock price, profits and revenue continue to soar," the Times notes. "Since the European Commission began investigating Android three years ago, annual revenue for Alphabet has grown to $111 billion from $75 billion."
Read: "E.U. Fines Google $5.1 Billion in Android Antitrust Case"
It's hard to say how these fines, and the demanded changes, will effect mobile SEO.
Beyond the recent news, however, in the world of search and SEO, Google's continued success begs an important question: Do the other search engines even matter?
Google Dominates Search: Do the Other Search Engines Matter?
According to recent estimates from comScore, Google accounted for 63.5% of all "core search" queries in the United States in May, 2018. Most of the rest of the share of queries go to Microsoft sites (mostly Bing) at 24.1% and Oath, the owner of Yahoo, at 11.4%.
Numbers for worldwide search queries are a bit harder to come by, but we know that Google dominates the search market share worldwide with a 90.31% slice of the pie (Source).
In the US and abroad, Google's dominance in mobile is undisputed: a 93.58% (source) market share in the US and a 93.39% market share worldwide (Source).
These latter numbers obviously reveal a clear market dominance, yet the search statistics paint a different picture: Google dominates but the other search engines do host a significant amount of searches--Bing and Yahoo account for about 35% of all searches.
35% is significant. And Yahoo and Bing represent different consumers.
This is partly due to demographics. In his article about optimizing for Bing, John Lincoln of Ignite Visibility, notes:
"There are...some differences in the demographics of people who search using Bing and Yahoo compared to those who most often use Google. Depending on your target audience, you may want to consider the parts of the country (Great Plains, Rust Belt, Southern States) or the types of households (politically conservative) that are more likely to use Bing over Google."
So yes, other search engines matter. But more to the point: Do you need to optimize for other search engines?
Do You Need to Optimize for Yahoo and Bing?
Lincoln's article is one a few by prominent SEO writers who offer surprisingly nebulous advice on optimizing for Yahoo and Bing.
Lincolin believes "there are enough differences to warrant making necessary adjustments to ensure that your site ranks well on both" Google and Bing.
He does explicate these differences, but he does not address the self-evident question raised by most of these differences: "Will optimizing for Bing (or any other search engine) harm your Google optimization efforts?"
As Neil Patel notes in his article about optimizing for Bing:
"While Google has developed a pretty sophisticated search algorithm, Bing still relies on some of the old factors. You might feel like you’re optimizing your website for the Google algorithm 5 years ago."
For some of these factors, yes, optimizing for Bing might harm your Google optimization efforts. So short of creating another Bing-specific website, you may want to keep the focus on Google.
However, for savvy webmasters, writers like Lincoln and Patel do offer some simple optimization techniques that can boost Bing (and Yahoo) traffic without harming your Google rankings. In an upcoming post, we will discuss some of these Bing and Yahoo optimization techniques.
After all, 35% is significant. Why not optimize?
The Renaissance SEO Company: Stepman's SEO
To build an effective, fully-optimized website, you'll need the help of many experienced professionals to perform different optimization techniques for different search engines.
Or you can call one multifaceted company. Stepman's SEO is the rare company that offers a host of SEO and marketing professionals to optimize your website. Contact Stepman's SEO today to learn how you can improve your website's performance: 215-900-9398.
As Margrethe Vestager, the EU commissioner in charge of competition policy, noted in the E.U's decision: "Google has used Android as a vehicle to cement the dominance of its search engine" (Source).
We've quoted Vestager before, about a year ago, when the European commission fined Google $2.7 billion in an at-the-time record anti-trust decision. Then, as now, Vestager pointed out how the search engine "abused its market dominance" (Source).
The prior decision, we noted, promised to change organic search:
"Google will likely change the SERP (search engine results page) in Europe, and the changes may influence worldwide SEO efforts, forcing some businesses who have paid for promoted ads to seek promotion elsewhere or double down on organic SEO."
Read: "Google's Antitrust Problems & the Future of Organic SEO"
This recent decision, as The New York Times notes, "may force lasting changes to smartphones," although the decision is unlikely to effect the success of Google:
"Google’s services remain immensely popular, and its stock price, profits and revenue continue to soar," the Times notes. "Since the European Commission began investigating Android three years ago, annual revenue for Alphabet has grown to $111 billion from $75 billion."
Read: "E.U. Fines Google $5.1 Billion in Android Antitrust Case"
It's hard to say how these fines, and the demanded changes, will effect mobile SEO.
Beyond the recent news, however, in the world of search and SEO, Google's continued success begs an important question: Do the other search engines even matter?
 |
| Google's lush beautiful campus--as photographed by Benjamin Quinton for the Times. |
According to recent estimates from comScore, Google accounted for 63.5% of all "core search" queries in the United States in May, 2018. Most of the rest of the share of queries go to Microsoft sites (mostly Bing) at 24.1% and Oath, the owner of Yahoo, at 11.4%.
Numbers for worldwide search queries are a bit harder to come by, but we know that Google dominates the search market share worldwide with a 90.31% slice of the pie (Source).
In the US and abroad, Google's dominance in mobile is undisputed: a 93.58% (source) market share in the US and a 93.39% market share worldwide (Source).
These latter numbers obviously reveal a clear market dominance, yet the search statistics paint a different picture: Google dominates but the other search engines do host a significant amount of searches--Bing and Yahoo account for about 35% of all searches.
35% is significant. And Yahoo and Bing represent different consumers.
This is partly due to demographics. In his article about optimizing for Bing, John Lincoln of Ignite Visibility, notes:
"There are...some differences in the demographics of people who search using Bing and Yahoo compared to those who most often use Google. Depending on your target audience, you may want to consider the parts of the country (Great Plains, Rust Belt, Southern States) or the types of households (politically conservative) that are more likely to use Bing over Google."
So yes, other search engines matter. But more to the point: Do you need to optimize for other search engines?
Do You Need to Optimize for Yahoo and Bing?
Lincoln's article is one a few by prominent SEO writers who offer surprisingly nebulous advice on optimizing for Yahoo and Bing.
Lincolin believes "there are enough differences to warrant making necessary adjustments to ensure that your site ranks well on both" Google and Bing.
He does explicate these differences, but he does not address the self-evident question raised by most of these differences: "Will optimizing for Bing (or any other search engine) harm your Google optimization efforts?"
As Neil Patel notes in his article about optimizing for Bing:
"While Google has developed a pretty sophisticated search algorithm, Bing still relies on some of the old factors. You might feel like you’re optimizing your website for the Google algorithm 5 years ago."
For some of these factors, yes, optimizing for Bing might harm your Google optimization efforts. So short of creating another Bing-specific website, you may want to keep the focus on Google.
However, for savvy webmasters, writers like Lincoln and Patel do offer some simple optimization techniques that can boost Bing (and Yahoo) traffic without harming your Google rankings. In an upcoming post, we will discuss some of these Bing and Yahoo optimization techniques.
After all, 35% is significant. Why not optimize?
The Renaissance SEO Company: Stepman's SEO
To build an effective, fully-optimized website, you'll need the help of many experienced professionals to perform different optimization techniques for different search engines.
Or you can call one multifaceted company. Stepman's SEO is the rare company that offers a host of SEO and marketing professionals to optimize your website. Contact Stepman's SEO today to learn how you can improve your website's performance: 215-900-9398.
Do You Need to Optimize for Yahoo and Bing?
Reviewed by penulis
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Reviewed by penulis
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06.17
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