Is Google Still the Only Search Engine You Should Be Targeting in 2019?

In recent years, the internet has become the main place that customers flock to in order to seek out any services or goods they need. Therefore, it is not surprising that any company who wants to thrive in the modern age needs to have an established and appealing internet presence.

Whereas a company website would have once been enough to satisfy internet-savvy customers, it is now essential that you have a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) marketing strategy. SEO refers to the process of getting internet traffic through search results generated by search engines, based on what is most useful for the user.  

In the past decade, it has become essential that an SEO is used in order to ensure that your company’s website can be found in search engine phrases. Google has been the main search engine that SEO strategies have targeted, as it is home to 95% of all web traffic.

However, there are also many other search engines that have increased in popularity in recent years that potentially should also be added to your SEO marketing strategy. Let’s take a look at other search options are out there and discuss whether Google is still the only search engine your marketing strategy should be targeting in 2019.

Bing

Microsoft’s Bing is the second most popular search engine and it has successfully secured a hold in the market for some time now. It is unique to Google since it offers a more visual experience. It uses other tools that make it popular with users.

Bing search results are provided by Yahoo! and the search engine has become well known for its continually changing background pictures. This alternative search engine is also popular amongst Microsoft users due to Bing being set as the default search engine homepage when the internet is selected by users.

In addition, Bing also has apps available on both the iOS and Android operating systems. Bing has many of the same features as Google, such as translation, spell check and sports scores, which makes it an equally attractive search engine for many internet users.

Bing does not have a search algorithm as sophisticated as Google’s, so you may need to add more information about your website when using Bing as part of your SEO strategy.

DuckDuckGo

DuckDuckGo has become increasingly popular due to the increased privacy it has for its users. The privacy-oriented search engine does not track any online activities. It has an extension that you can be added to a user’s web browser to further protect online privacy.

DuckDuckGo is also a good search engine for you to target as part of your SEO strategy, as it has a user-friendly infinite scrolling feature, which doesn’t require the user to move on to the next page. This will increase the chance of your company getting exposure, even if you are further down the result listings.

However, DuckDuckGo’s privacy protection may cause a problem in its usefulness as an SEO tool, as it doesn’t use geo-location to generate search data. The main implication of this is for local businesses, as it makes result listings poor and not highly informative for users. Although, you can counter this by putting some extra work into your keywords, etc.

Despite these limitations, DuckDuckGo has been quietly increasing in popularity. The searches it received grew by over 50% from 2016 to 2017, and by 2018, it had 7.2 billion searches. These increases, along with its recent partnership with Samsung, make this a safe addition to your digital marketing strategy for 2019.

Social Media

Social media sites such as Facebook are one of the most popular ways to communicate and social media has become especially popular for local businesses. This has been promoted by the review and sharing features that Facebook has developed, along with the recommendations feature that now allows users to ask others for references about goods and services using the search engine feature. 

Facebook receives over one billion searches per day and many of these searches are to find out reviews, deals, and business operating hours. While there is a lot of other businesses to compete with on Facebook, you can use your local area as a way to promote yourself.

Targeting Facebook as part of your SEO marketing strategy is effective in attracting traffic to your business, while also establishing a clear brand name that will generate attention. Though if you are going to use Facebook to generate internet visits to your page, it is important that you don’t have a generic brand name that may get lost in the listings.

If the company you are establishing an online marketing strategy for is a restaurant or bar, it is advisable to set up a significant Instagram presence. By setting up a detailed Instagram account for your company and posting aesthetically appealing pictures, you can generate a lot of extra online traffic. Instagram also allows you to use hashtags so that you can be easily accessible to users who have searched for similar content to yours.

There are 6,586,013,574 searches a day worldwide, and even though the majority of these are dominated by Google, it seems an obvious decision that you shouldn’t ignore the other seven hundred million plus searches that take place on other search engine websites.

It is important that just like any other business strategy, you should avoid an over-dependence on a single platform. While it is important to recognize that Google has become a verb in association with online searches, it is important to not dismiss other options. Google is aware that it is dominant in these fields and has been known to occasionally implement policies that can suddenly decrease your rankings. Therefore, it is important to not ignore traffic attracted to other search engines.