In my daily life, preaching the gospel of Search Engine Optimization… I’m often asked why I talk about Google so much and “aren’t people using other search engines?” My answer – I talk Google because I want to do best by my clients. At this time in history, Google is clearly the authority. Yes, there are other search engines and people do use them. But, even other search engines base what they do on what Google’s doing. So as an SEO professional, I owe it to my clients to focus my time, and their money, where it’s going to do the most good; Google is that place.
Here’s a comparison of search Search Engine market share here in the US between March ’09 and March ’10 (courtesy of SEO by Lars):
It’s pretty easy to see why focusing on Google for my clients is time spent correctly. And, don’t forget, where Google goes, the others will follow… At least for now.
One other thing; what about all this Social Media?? Aren’t people finding what they want on the web by social media these days? Well, yes and no…
Yes, people can certainly find stuff using social media, but is it what they went to the computer for?
No, people who go to the computer with in idea of something they already know they want or need are going to go to the search engines first.
It makes much more sense for my client to be in front of people who are actively searching for exactly what my client has to offer, there’s no ambiguity here. So back to the social media question, sure, it’s viable in some instances, but i want to play in the money zone first. Once I see the SEO goal satisfied, I’ll explore social media with my client and see if it makes sense for their business.
I’ll leave you with another graph sited from the same source that illustrates just how much more powerful search engines are when compared with any other way people get what they want when they sit down at their computers. (The “Linking Sites” would be where social media falls in.)
