Microsoft has been a distant third in the search engine race for quite some time, so when Bing hit the scene, I have watched with a careful eye. When clients ask me the question, “How important is it that we optimize for Bing?”, I respond, “Let’s look at the search engine usage numbers.”
Google has dominated the space for quite a stretch. The search engine giant, on average, owns 60% or more of the share of U.S. searches. Microsoft is typically in the single digits. It’s a steep climb.
According to an article in today’s New York Times:
Still, Bing remains a distant third in the search race. It would have to triple its audience to catch Yahoo — and grow eightfold to tie Google, which accounts for 65 percent of searches in the United States.
The same article is praising Bing for its ambitious effort to start the climb. Responses have been positive in general, and I feel Microsoft’s team has generated some buzz on a product that people use and like.
So, let’s get back to the numbers game and the question about optimizing for Bing. Microsoft has moved up a couple of points.This move is good. Is it news that has me rethinking my search engine marketing strategies and optimization efforts? No.
I recommend–on this day and with Bing in its infancy–to look at pay-per-click on Bing. Costs are attractive and there are more eyeballs, generating buzz and clicks. For organic search, I still keep my eye on Google and that fat share it has of all U.S. searches.