If you don't know, Bing is the new MSN. MSN was the number three search engine on the market. Yahoo was number two, then of course the mighty number one is Google.
Will Bing replace Google's dominance in the search engine arena?
Probably not anytime soon.
Let's approach this by the numbers.
Here's a percentage chart of who's using which search engines through July 2009.
(provided by http://www.seoconsultants.com/search-engines/)
Google Yahoo! Bing Ask Total
2009 07 72.07% 17.00% 7.31% 2.58% 98.96%
2009 06 74.04% 16.19% 4.99% 3.15% 98.37%
2009 05 73.66% 15.55% 5.64% 3.81% 98.66%
2009 04 72.68% 16.29% 5.67% 3.96% 98.60%
2009 03 72.13% 16.56% 5.50% 4.02% 98.21%
2009 02 72.11% 17.52% 5.55% 3.47% 98.65%
As a business, you want to show up in all three of these search engines.
So, is it possible to optimize your Website for one search engine (say Yahoo) and have it do well in the other two? The answer is NO!
The best rule of thumb is...
1. Optimize your site for Google which will cover you for Yahoo.
2 Bing is it's own animal. Optimizing it for Google will get you about two thirds of the way there for Bing. Bing has it's own set of rules and optimization quirks. (Figures, it's a Microsoft product! LOL!)
Folks, I'm just the messenger, but Bing's nastiest rule is this. The longer your Website has been out there, the better you will do in their results screens. So if you're coming new into a market, and just got your Website, you won't have much of chance if the other players who have been in that market for a while are doing what is necessary to show in the search engines. Grrrr...
Ok, just remember that search engines are the new yellow page tool for people to find things. Never ever ignore getting your site to show up in Google. Over 70% of Americans looking for stuff on the Internet are Google as their search engine tool. But take the time, and keep an eye on Bing over the next 6 months to a year. I know I will be.
Thanks,
