Search Engine - Percent Use
by Paul Flyer
Search Engine Watch produces a monthly report on the amount of use each search engine receives. The statistics to watch are the “share of searches by search provider.” For example, Google provides results for several other search engines. Thus, the searches are still made via Google though indirectly. In March 2005, the percentage share of searches by search provider was as follows:
Google 54%
Yahoo 21%
MSN 14%
Ask 5%
Other 6%
Given these statistics, the following principles apply:
1) Only three search engines matter: Google, Yahoo, and MSN.
2) Don’t waste money or time on search engine submission services that promise to submit your site to a gazillion search engines.
3) Build your marketing strategy around these three search engines.
4) In particular, build you marketing strategy around Google.
5) Don’t neglect Yahoo and MSN. That additional 35% of searches is indeed significant.
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