According to Hitwise, Google accounted for 65% of all U.S. search in April. The trailing search leader Yahoo accounted for 20.73%, MSN 8.46%, and Ask 3.69%.
Google is the only engine which has consistently increased its search volume up 11% from last year at this point.
Many in the search marketing industry preach about moving on to other 2nd tier engines with Google’s high cost per keyword (in competitive industries) and strict quality score regulations.
Moving on to these 2nd tier engines would be a great idea, only if…PEOPLE ACTUALLY USED THEM. The traffic just isn’t there. Hitwise reported out of the remaining 47 search engines, they all accounted for a total of 1.86% of US search.
Social Bookmarking sites such as Digg, StumbleUpon, and others can generate more traffic for you than advertising on Miva, Kanoodle, etc.
Planning my game plan of moving on to other engines as I have in the past but always tempted to continue, I asked about 40-50 people where they search. Most said Google, some said Yahoo.
Search engines are and will be primarily the way search is conducted online at least for the next couple of years to come. If you want maximum exposure, Google is where it’s at.
Pablo Palatnik is Managing Partner of eTrend Media Group, which specializes in Pay-Per-Click Managagement & Social Media Optimization.
