Wondering why you should care about other search engines besides Google? Here’s why this can be an important SEO strategy for your business.
When you think of search engines, you likely think of Google. And while Google is the largest, most prominent search engine by far with nearly 90% of the market share, you should not count out the other search engines from your SEO strategy.
Imagine that you could increase your website traffic by 10%. Would you do it? By considering other search engines, you open the opportunities to do just that.
Learn about the other search engine options besides Google and why they should be part of your SEO strategy.
Google is the focus for the SEO industry, and understandably so given its popularity and position as a thought leader in the space.
But understanding how other search engines work and how you can optimize your site to welcome traffic from these search engines can help you increase your website traffic and meet more prospects and customers.
These are the leading Google alternatives for search.
Bing is the second-most popular search engine with a little more than 4% of the total market share as of 2024. The search engine is more popular on desktop, capturing 11.66% of the market share, and 5.05% on tablet. Mobile devices are the least popular platform with just .85% market share.
While it is slightly more popular in some continents than others, the statistics are not significant. Regardless of where your customers are, it is valuable to include Bing in your search engine optimization strategy.
While Yandex has less than 3% of the total market share, its use in Russia is significant. If your business operates in Russia or has Russian customers, optimize your site for Yandex given that 72.32% of searchers use this search engine in Russia.
Users outside of Russia are minimal with less than 1% of all traffic.
As one of the earliest search engines, Yahoo still holds some market share although it might look outdated. Yahoo still holds the place as the fourth-most-popular search engine. In North America and South America, Yahoo is the third-most-popular search engine. Companies in these areas will find greater value in optimizing their sites for this search engine.
Baidu is to China what Yandex is to Russia. So while it might look like it owns minimal market share overall, you won’t want to overlook it if your customers are based in China where 52.86% of searchers use the search engine.
Its use has decreased in China since 2023 while Bing has increased during the same period. But it is still worth consideration in your search strategy in the region.
Just 2% of search engine users conduct searches using Google in China.
Touted as a safe, private browser, DuckDuckGo is popular among those who want to avoid tracking. The search engine also allows for fewer ads than its competitors, making it a less cluttered space, which could result in greater ROI for the visitors you do get from the site.
There are several other search engines that are popular in certain areas or with a specific subset of the population. Here’s a look at those.
As you go through the stats and uses of other search engines, you might not see a compelling reason to consider the other 10% of search traffic outside of Google. But before you count these search engines out, consider these reasons to optimize your website to welcome these searchers.
Although other search engines offer less traffic, studies show that some provide high-quality traffic. Dig into your statistics to see whether traffic from various search engines provide lower bounce rates, higher conversions or more time on site.
If you’re new to your industry, getting to a space with less competition can help you reach your audience and grow brand awareness. So while competition for keywords related to your business is likely fierce on Google, you might find it more affordable to run ads on other platforms as you work to grow your SEO and increase your traffic through referral traffic and other sources.
Your audience might be more prevalent on other search engines. Complete market research to understand your audience, their pain points, needs and where they seek more information about your products and services.
Companies that struggle to see results on Google might find that they can be far more successful with other search engines. Perhaps it’s a misalignment of keywords and searches from your target audience.
Too much reliance on Google can lead to problems when the search engine changes its algorithms. While this is the nature of SEO and you need to monitor and adjust accordingly to maintain your rankings, it’s better to have diversified traffic to give you time to adjust without losing massive portions of your website traffic.
While Google is the most prominent search engine, some browsers use a different default search engine. That can increase traffic from these search engines if your audience regularly uses these default browsers.
Search engine preference ebbs and flows. As such, it’s wise to already be a leader on that platform. That way, you’re a leader and ready to capitalize on the preference change. If you haven’t optimized your site for that search engine, you’ll be trying to play catchup and might not get the chance to earn more traffic during such shifts.
To best understand the nuances between search engines, we’ll look at the two largest: Google and Bing.
Bing prioritizes sites with strong connections between domain name keywords and on-page keywords. In contrast, Google is more nuanced and can understand content quality and user experience to make those larger factors in ranking.
Bing states that it prefers more established, older content. Google prefers updated content that is more recent. If you’re working to rank for both search engines, you should publish new content frequently but ensure your old content remains optimized.
Both Bing and Google use backlinks in deciding search rankings. But how they do so varies. Google puts more emphasis on quality while Bing uses a mixture of quality and quantity. To rank for both search engines, ensure your backlinks are high quality but also work toward having several backlinks to pages you’re working to increase rankings for.
Building a winning SEO strategy requires deep expertise, not just of Google, but of the entire search landscape. New Light Digital uses SEO to help companies increase their website traffic and revenue with conversion tactics that help you make the most of every website visitor. Schedule your free consultation to start ranking on the most relevant search engines for your business.
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