It comes as no surprise that Google is indeed the leading search engine. Net Market Share’s data pool confirms this, as Google is responsible for 69% of all search engine traffic worldwide. Nevertheless, the other search engines also have their value: Bing accounts for 12% and Yahoo accounts for 9%.

So without a shadow of a doubt, Google must be the primary search engine in your SEO strategy, but you should consider accommodating Yahoo and Bing as well.

About Bing

Powered by Microsoft, Bing is a promising search engine that offers an excellent user experience.

Some of Bing’s unique selling points include bright visuals, which can make its competitors seem quite grey in comparison. The trending news bar is another notable feature, as it provides convenient snippets of the latest news right away.

Bing’s popularity has been steadily rising, and the search engine is particularly popular among Millennials. So naturally, it’s good advice for businesses aimed at Millennials to consider including Bing in their strategies.

About Yahoo

Yahoo has been around since 1994, and while it may have left its prime behind, the search engine has still stood the test of time, and its partnership with Bing has also played an important role in making Yahoo stronger.

Optimising for more than one search engine may require hard work, but this alliance between Bing and Yahoo does ease the process, since optimising for one means you’ll be optimised for two, and get the chance to double your rewards.

Bing and Yahoo even share the same service, called “Bing Webmaster”, which means you’ll get a two-in-one process that saves a lot of time: you’ll only need one account, one tracking script on your site, validate the code once, etc.

Moreover, we’ve put together a simple guide that sheds light on the topic, showing the differences between the top search engines.

Differences Between Yahoo/Bing & Google

Meta Keywords

It is still crucial to pay attention to your meta descriptions for Google, as they can influence click-through rates.

But Google no longer counts meta keywords as ranking factors, whereas Yahoo and Bing still hold meta descriptions as incredibly important elements.

Local Search

While Google is likely to favour big businesses due to online credibility, Bing’s results tend to prioritise smaller companies. The latter is wired to deliver results based on true proximity, so local speaks louder on Bing/Yahoo than it does on Google.

Factual Relevance and Source Reliability

You’ll notice that Bing can be quite serious in essence, by favouring relevance and source reliability. In that light; the age of the site, straight-forward content, and referral links from other websites are the key components needed to rank higher on Bing.

In contrast, Google seems to focus on content age, so websites that constantly produce fresh content have the upper hand. Engagement and active social media presence are also important factors for Google.

Conclusion

Bing has come a long way, and you may have noticed a surge of blogs writing about it, and rightfully so. The figures are there to vouch for Bing, and a number of businesses are also increasingly taking its side, but naturally, without parting with Google.

The differences between Google, Yahoo and Bing range from minor nuances to big changes. As algorithms prove to be intricate and ever-changing, Google stands out as king, the most powerful but also the more challenging to optimise. On the other hand, Yahoo and Bing seem easier to tame.

We decided to focus on their differences for this blog post, but quality SEO is also about different search engines sharing similar principles. These similarities include key factors like mobile responsive sites, link-building strategies, great content, local keywords, and alt tags.

Like Google, Bing also gives social media an important place in its criteria, as websites reviewed and/or rated by your social media network will be prioritised in your searches.

Needless to say, it’s important for businesses to take good care of their social media channels, to keep them alive and well, especially to thrive with Bing.

Do you have any views on Google, Yahoo and Bing? Feel free to leave a comment, or send us an email!