When trying to optimize your website, chances are you’re thinking about keywords and links for search engines like Google. And while it’s true you should, there are other search engines to consider and optimize for. When you hire us at SEO Inc. to help you, we’ll look at your industry, products/services, and end goals. Then, we’ll help you build and execute SEO Consulting Services for others, such as Bing, Facebook, and YouTube. This post will discuss the pros and cons of the Top 5 Search Engines You Need to Optimize For in 2018
When someone says search engine, Google is likely the first name you think of. It does have nearly 75% of the market share. Of course, they provide their desktop and mobile search results but deliver the results for other search engines, including Ask.com. Google started in 1999; the company once offered to sell for $750,000. Now? The parent company, Alphabet, is worth nearly $780 billion.
Pros and Cons
Since they have so much market share, ranking high on Google gets you massive traffic. But because everyone else wants that traffic, organic search is highly competitive. And paid search is often more costly than other sites and search engines. With this, we’re also seeing Google moving people away from clicking through to websites and getting their answers directly within Google. (search for a measurement or currency conversion to see what we’re discussing.) There are also fewer organic results on the first page and more paid search results. This translates to more expensive competition with less potential reward.
How We Optimize for Google
We begin with an audit of your website and a competitive analysis. We look for keywords with less competition and look for ways we can beat your competitor’s current position on keywords that are harder to rank for. It’s a rather complicated process that takes time but worth it.
YouTube
This is another Google-owned property, but before Google bought it in 2006, PayPal veterans built the platform in 2005. This is the number one video search platform. More than 1.5 billion users log in every month. YouTube feeds more than 1 billion hours of video to users every day.
Pros and Cons
If successful, you can get massive traffic from YouTube. But, like Google, competition is fierce. Three hundred hours of videos are uploaded to YouTube every minute, so getting organic search results and standing out from the rest of the content there is becoming increasingly difficult. And, like with Google Ads, using paid search to drive traffic to your videos can get expensive.
How We Optimize for YouTube
We’ll look at your current channel and video content to ensure it’s as optimized as possible. We’ll look for other searches worth adding to your strategy to increase your ranking. It’s important to know what’s ahead on your editorial calendar so we can help you shape your content and understand what words and phrases you should be trying to target from the initial upload.
This is, first and foremost, a social media network, but over the years, it too has morphed into quite the robust search engine. Last year, it passed 2 billion searches per day, ahead of Bing regarding search volume. They, too, have more than 1.5 billion users logged in a month. Businesses and advertisers can reach any market under the sun, and because they’re most likely to be using it when they’re not at work – if they see your offer and like it, it’s easier to distract them from Facebook itself and get them to make a purchase.
Pros and Cons
The primary advantage is the size and diversity of the user base, along with the particular targeting options. But that user base is also the con because the more people you can access with it, the more it’ll cost you. Depending on your target audience, it can be cheaper than Google Ads but still expensive.
How We Optimize for Facebook
Regarding Facebook, optimizing your Page so it comes up in relevant searches is essential. We focus on ensuring your Page is categorized correctly, knowing precisely who your target fans are so we can help you grow an audience, and providing stellar content that allows users to learn something and engages them, too. Beyond Page optimization, we’ll also take steps to split test and optimize your ad campaigns, whether they are trying to build more fans for your page or send traffic directly to your website.
Bing
This is Microsoft’s search engine – and has been since 2009. They’ve steadily taken their market share, providing the results for AOL’s search engine. The latest data shows they account for ⅓ of web searches in the United States. They’re making improvements to their paid search options, so those who are already familiar with Google Ads can more easily make use of Bing Ads.
Pros and Cons
Though the market share isn’t as good as Google’s, it’s still got a decent size market in the U.S> and UK. Because their search algorithm isn’t as complicated, you can more easily understand and optimize for it. While we don’t expect it to remain this way forever, it’s okay to assume it over the next few years, so ranking high in Bing can still bring you a decent chunk of traffic.
Because there is a lower traffic volume, fewer professionals are attempting to rank and study the algorithm, so there’s less competition. This means those willing to give it a shot have a better chance at a good return on investment.
How We Optimize for Bing
With our understanding of the Bing algorithm, we’ll follow a process similar to the one we use when optimizing for Google.
Bonus: Amazon
This is an essential search engine for anyone in the e-commerce space — the website launched in 1995, making it one of the first large e-commerce companies. It expanded beyond books in 1999 and remains so popular that 55% of shopping-related searches start at Amazon rather than Google.
Pros and Cons
If you sell anything – you want to be on Amazon because people will go there to search and possibly find you, even if they’ve never heard of you. If you’re having trouble gaining traction for your online store’s website, starting at Amazon and other marketplaces allowing third-party sellers can be a great way to get started.
But, just like Google, the competition is fierce. Since the pricing and other information are straightforward to compare, it can be hard to convince someone to choose your product over someone else’s. The cost of selling your products there can increase and become quite costly. If you don’t have a unique effect, sales and reviews are essential to rankings, so breaking through the entry barrier can be challenging.
How We Optimize for Amazon
We focus on specific keywords. We focus on ensuring you have as many product details as possible and well-written descriptions that include relevant LSI keywords. Sales are the most significant ranking factor, so ensure you promote other ways and keep those customers happy! If you opt to sell your products as fulfilled by Amazon, your products will automatically rank higher than the same thing not shipped by Amazon.
Want us to help you improve your site and how it ranks in any or all of these search engines? Get in touch today! Or book a meeting directly with our CEO, Garry Grant. Click the following link to Schedule a call with Garry.
