The search engine rankings for the U.S. in November were recently released by comSore, and for the 16.0 Billion searches performed in November, the rankings are as follows:
Google: 66.2%
Yahoo: 16.4%
Microsoft: 11.8%
Ask: 3.6%
AOL: 2.0%
(Source: “comScore Releases November 2010 U.S. Search Engine Rankings“)
What does this mean for small businesses trying to get found online?
1) You have to be on Google. This is obvious, as Google is dominating with 66.2% of all searches. Small businesses need to have Google Map Listings and have the listings optimized for the products/services they provide, in the areas they provide them
2) You can’t ignore Yahoo/Microsoft. This might not be as obvious. When you compare Google’s 66.2% to Yahoo’s 16.4%, and Google’s 66.2% to Microsoft’s 11.8% individually, you may look at those numbers and decide to focus your search marketing & online advertising efforts on Google only. This would be a mistake–Microsoft was up 0.3% from last month, and Microsoft’s Bing will be installed as the default search engine on a number of Verizon Android-based smartphones, so they’re gaining ground. Also, in terms of advertising, the Microsoft & Yahoo ads are using the same system, so an ad placed in that network would be seen by 28.2% (16.4+11.8) of online searchers–can your business afford to ignore 28% of potential customers? Exactly.
Need help with your local listings or advertising campaigns on Google, Bing or Yahoo? Localis can help–contact us and start growing your small business today.
