Have you noticed that your business ranks differently depending on the search engine? If yes, then you may have been left puzzled as to why the disparity in rankings.
Today, we’re going to look at why rankings are different between platforms such as Google, Bing and Yahoo. We will also go over a few ways to improve your rankings for each of the leading search engines.
Why do Google, Bing and Yahoo rankings differ
The simple answer to why rankings differ between search engines such as Google and Bing is that they use different ranking algorithms. While these algorithms are different, the algorithms’ components are likely more similar than they are different. However, there are almost certainly different weightings given to each of these components depending on the search engines.
You also may have noticed that Yahoo and Bing results are identical, or at least very similar. Well, the reason for this is that Bing actually powers Yahoo results.
Do search engines other than Google matter?
You might be thinking, “Doesn’t everybody just use Google? Do the other search engines even matter?” Well, while it is true that Google is a behemoth when it comes to search, you should not discount Bing and Yahoo.
Google accounts for 92.56% of searches In the UK, while Bing and Yahoo make up 6.22% of search engine market share. In the US, the importance of Bing and Yahoo is greater. US search engine market share for Google is 88.1%, while Bing and Yahoo have 9.12%.
For your own business, you need to consider your audience in this. You can use some of the data here to see if Bing’s audience is relevant to your offering. The people using Bing might make it worthwhile optimising for this search engine, as well as Google. Plus, Bing may also provide a higher return on paid search ads compared to Google.
To answer the question “Do search engines other than Google matter?”, yes, they do. How much they matter depends on your target audience.
How to optimise for different search engines
As I mentioned earlier, the algorithms used by search engines likely share more similarities than differences. Because of this, much of what works for Google will also work for Bing.
So, SEO’s core pillars, such as allowing crawlers to access your content, using keywords, and inbound and internal linking, will all play an essential role for all major search engines.
There are, however, some differences between Google and Bing. For example, Google appears to be more advanced than Bing when it comes to analysing content. In practical terms, this means that to rank on Bing, you will fare better by using exact match keywords. On the other hand, Google is better at determining what your content is about, even if you are not using lots of exact match keywords.
Bing has also admitted that it uses social signals, while Google states that it does not directly use social signals for organic search. If you want to give your rankings on Bing a boost, make sure you invest in your social media marketing.
Google cares much more about UX than Bing. Google also has their Core Web Vitals update launching in May 2021, which focuses on factors that affect UX. For Google, look to improve page speed and engagement.
Do not forget, for both Google and Bing, sign up for Webmaster Tools and Search Console. These tools allow you to monitor how your site appears in search results, submit sitemaps, and receive messages and warnings from both search engines about issues that could impact your search listings.
Wrapping up
When starting out online, it might seem odd why your business ranks differently depending on the search engine, but hopefully, now you have a better understanding of why this happens.
If you would like to speak with professionals about improving your SEO, contact our team at hello@emiquent.com.
