While I'm writing this, google is the most used search engine. With the new branding of Microsoft's Bing, and Yahoo's WOO.... and the changing of the way search is done, how much will google suffer? More importantly, to those of us that have invested a lot of time, energy, and money into optimizing based on google's algorithm... What will the changes in the marketplace mean for you? Basically just looking for your opinions on what the future COULD hold. Has the time come that quality content is what will really be king? Will some of the tricks and tactics we use become obsolete?
I do not think Google will suffer at the least bit. They are still the number one search engine and I believe they will maintain that position even with new search engines. I also think Bing and WOO is easier to rank high in since it is mostly keyword optimization and on-page SEO. They seem to have less importance for off-page SEO. This takes less energy to complete and you can still focus on google's algorithm.
Honestly, I see nothing appealing about Bing. I've been looking at the search results over the last couple of days. I think it's the same old garbage in a shiney new trash can. I know their getting lots of traffic right now, but it's because of their media blitz. I've gotten emails from MS about Bing asking me to check it out and give feedback. I saw it on the news. But as soon as the media storm dies down they are going to go back to being the same old #3 player in search w/ single digit marketshare. Their little preview of the page is pretty cool, but they are doing a crappy job picking the text to display. For example, we have an 800 number on our home page - 800-XXX-XXXX. They picked some random patent # and date from our footer and displayed it in our home page's preview pane as if it were a phone number... The patent #s in our footer are formated X,XXX,XXX so I don't know how they would interpret that + a date as a phone number. The actual results themselves are FULL of 1, 2, 3 page affiliate sites... something I do NOT miss at all in Google's results. Google is pretty vigilant about removing thin affiliate sites from their SERPs when they get reported. I don't see MS or Yahoo! doing anything in the next decade to unseat Google or steal their market share of search. Neither of those companies are innovative enough to do so. Google is innovative, has LOTS of PhDs and very creative, intelligent people... It's going to take a totally new player IMO to challenge Google in any way when it comes to the best search results.
This is what concerns me... in the short term. Microsoft has the resources to make Bing a lot more popular then their MSN search (which is still tied to some internet providers like comcast). I think, in the short term, they will not dethrone Google, but have a good chance of giving them a run for their money. for NO other reason but their marketing campaign.
I agree with everyone's comments so far 100%. They may pick up some market share because of the cool and newness and HUGE marketing campaigns backed by microsoft. But the results are still pretty crappy. There are a few examples where the results are good but 80-90% of the results are still crap. And optimizing for it is the just spammy, high kw density, on page SEO which is... well, spammy. And this is why the results suck. But if you have a strong site with a good overall presence then you should show up pretty well.
anyone care to take a stab at how much of Google's market share Bing will take in the next few months??? I would guess about 20%, just because of the newness and advertising.
I'm starting to see a small amount of traffic from Bing appearing in my Google Analytics. What not my Microsoft/Yahoo Analytics? What tools is Microsoft or Yahoo providing to the Search Engine Marketer? Google is very smart because they are wooing the Content Developers whereas Microsoft is too good to do that, they have to own and control everything overtly... whereas Google is covert. And Yahoo.... well Yahoo just doesn't get it. I am NOT impressed with BING. I hope I am totally wrong about it and I hope it does in fact bring good traffic to sites from searches in ways that Google is not... but I do not see that happening. I see BING as a very commercial platform that excludes the "little guys" entirely. Microsoft should work on a Single Version OS that actually works. Seriously XP is still the bread and butter OS... but how long can they keep milking it?
Bing is just a newbie.. Don't compare it with Big G. And yea.. if you do good SEO for Google.. it should rank well in Bing also
I have started taking traffic from generic listings in Bing but nothing from woo? Its strange as for some search terms I wasn't in the first 40 on live search but a week later the same long tailed kw are giving me a 3rd or 4th. My pages are of course optimized for google so I imagine some of the good stuff is rubbing off.
so far google is still impossible to beat! and with regards with the techniques we use, I could say yes some of those techniques we use right now will become obsolete after a year or even months. That's why seo should always be updated in every corner of search engines.
The 3 competitors - Console Game - Nintendo,Sony,Microsoft - Nintendo dominated and then Sony but now no dominator. Google,Yahoo,Microsoft - GoOgle is big and smart more than other Search Engines. But I predict someone will beat google in near future.