Which Search Engines Matter to YOU?

Which Search Engines Matter?

All search engines are not equal. With literally thousands of search engines and directories, which ones truly matter? Which ones will bring you the most qualified traffic to your site?

Search Engine Usage Share

More than half of global Internet users rely on Google for their search needs. Google is also ranked number one in the United States. See recent usage share percentages below.

Search Engine Usage Share (U.S.)

Google = 57%
Yahoo! = 23.7%
Microsoft = 10.3%
Ask = 4.7%
Time Warner (AOL) = 4.3%

Source: comScore, September 2007

Who Powers Whom?

You may be surprised to learn that search engines feed their results to each other. For example if you are searching in AOL, you are actually receiving Google natural and paid search listings. Searching on MSN, will return search results from Yahoo! and Overture.

Knowing what search engines provide listings to others, is important in understanding which engines you should list your website with. Although these partnerships constantly change, the chart below should give you a good idea of the current search result environment.

Search Result Provider Chart

Search Engine	Main Results	Paid Results	Directory Results
AllTheWeb	Yahoo	Yahoo	none
AltaVista	Yahoo	Yahoo	Open Directory
AOL Search	Google	Google	Open Directory
Ask	Teoma	Google	none
Gigablast	Gigablast	none	none
Google	Google	Google	Open Directory
Microsoft	Yahoo	Yahoo	none
Netscape	Google	Google	Open Directory
Teoma	Teoma	Google	none
Yahoo	Yahoo	Yahoo	Yahoo

—Source: Search Engine Watch, 2007

Vertical Engines & Directories

Don’t forget to include your website in appropriate vertical search engines and directories. Listings in these engines can produce a number of qualified site visitors. Vertical search engines and directories are industry specific—they focus on listing websites in a particular field or industry. For example, FindLaw.com is a vertical engine for the legal industry.

Visit these sites to look for vertical search engines and directories for your industry.
Search Engine Guide
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Target Audience Search Preferences

Take the time to clearly define your target audience's search preferences. For instance, if your website markets low-cost supplemental health insurance to AARP members, than you want to list your site on search engines that people in that age group use frequently. If statistics show that the majority of AARP members use AOL Search, then a good portion of your search engine optimization and advertising efforts should focus on achieving well-positioned listings in AOL Search (results provided by Google.)

Get the Results You Need

Blindly submitting your website to thousands of search engines will not give you the results you need. Be smart about which search engines you submit your site to. You need to understand which engines and directories reap the largest user share for your specific site, which engines provide results to one another and which vertical engines and directories address your target audience.

Learn more about Strategic Ranking and our search engine marketing solutions!

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