With over 3.5 billion searches every single day that represent nearly 75% of the search engine market, Google dominates. So, the question is, should we as marketers and business owners even care about other search engines like Yahoo and Bing? Maybe.
While Google holds the most market share, it’s important to note that the remaining 25% of searches is still a massive amount. These billion+ daily searches represent an opportunity for businesses to optimize based on their niches.
Digital marketers and business owners tend to have certain preconceived notions about the demographics of Google, Bing, and Yahoo. However, a study by Further.co.uk compared each search engine’s user base to the overall population and discovered some pretty interesting data.
1. When compared to the overall population, Bing and Yahoo users are more likely to be females, whereas Google users are more likely to be male.
2. Google users are more likely to be younger whereas Bing and Yahoo have a more mature audience.
3. Google seems to have Music Lovers and Gamers whereas Bing and Yahoo share Thrill-Seekers, Bargain Hunters, Pet Lovers, Cooks and the Arts & Theater Enthusiasts. Interestingly, they all share an interest in sports.
4. No surprises here. Google users are more likely to use Google Chrome and Bing users are much more likely to use Internet Explorer. Yahoo users are relatively browser agnostic.
5. While Google sends 86% of mobile traffic to the websites analyzed in the study, Bing and Yahoo both have a higher proportion of tablet search users.
What does it all mean? It means that business and website owners should be diligent in knowing their customers and more importantly, knowing their website analytics. If your business tends to skew toward women, say, a Yoga studio, does your analytics data match the data from the study? If so, it might be worth testing out some ads in Yahoo’s market place. The good news is that they tend to be much less expensive and less competitive than Google Adwords.
If you own a pet-related business, perhaps your customers are undeserved and being ignored by your competitors on Yahoo and Bing. Again, with the less competitive landscape of the Yahoo marketplace, you may want to invest some time and money into Google’s competitors. Yahoo has a number of local business directories that are free or inexpensive. Submitting your business to them can also help with your search engine optimization by creating backlinks.
The take-away: Regardless of which search engine you use personally, it’s vital to know your customers, understand their online habits, and scrutinize your own website analytics. There are hidden gems in there that can be a gold mine of actionable data, which can help you decide if investing in Yahoo and Bing will benefit your business.
Let’s continue the conversation. Dalton Digital is an Arlington-based agency that helps businesses by designing stunning, mobile-friendly websites. We drive customer growth through search engine and social media marketing and dive deep into website analytics to uncover key insights and develop actionable recommendations.