A lot of internet marketing professionals optimise their websites for Google. But, there are other search engines out there that people use, too. Don’t put all your eggs in the Google basket!
There are competing search engines, people powered search engines, Social Media networks and other ways to get found online. If you’re just trying to please Google, you’re leaving money on the table.
Of course you don’t have time to try to analyse and please seventeen different algorithms but following some solid Search Engine Optimisation practices is going to get you better results on all the search engines.
Optimising For Other Search Engines
Experts will often tell you what Google prefers to what Yahoo, MSN, Altavista, and others prefer.
Here are some principles to follow in order to do well on all the search engines:
1. Check Your Stats
When you look at your website stats, you can see where your Traffic is coming from. This tells you which search engines, which keywords, and gives more useful info as well.
If you’re getting lots of hits from Google for a particular phrase that’s resulting in sales, keep doing what you’ve been doing and keep performing your Search Engine Optimisation strategies for that phrase. Likewise, if that traffic is coming from Bing, keep at those efforts as well.
2. Check The Search Engines And Study The Competition
Check the top few Search Engines regularly to see where you land in the scheme of things. See who’s in the spots you want to be in and then study their sites to see how you can do better.
3. Keep Up With Trends And News
Read news about what search engines are doing. Gurus will tell you what Google loves, what Yahoo loves, and how to achieve great results. If you dabble a bit with several efforts you can get great results.
Try a few different techniques and see how you’re doing with all the search engines and then fine tune your techniques to increase your conversion rates.
4. Don’t Forget People Powered Engines
People powered search engines, directories, and social bookmarking sites can be really useful. When people find an online site they like, they tend to visit often.
If you’re ranking well on those sites (they could be blog networks, social marketing sites, and social media sites) you can get great results on all the search engines because these sites can get Indexed in the bigger search engines and bring you results both through the little sites and the big ones.
Whatever you do to find a successful formula that gets Results in search engines is something you need to keep doing. Keep an eye on your website analytics and keep promoting your niche and you’ll quickly see where you can get the best results based on those efforts.
If your efforts are only bearing fruit in certain areas, you’ll have the knowledge about which areas you need to work on in order to gain an advantage in other search engines.
Google is a wonderful search engine but it’s not the only search engine so just because you’re not yet on page one of Google for your targeted phrases, don’t dismay! Keep working on your Search Engine Optimisation and your self promotion but in the meantime, pay attention to the other search engines as well and you’ll steadily increase your visitors and your conversion rates.
About Sean Rasmussen
Sean
Very good advice to be looking at how you are going on all the major search engines. I guess you just tend to worry about Google and not the other ones.
Hi Sean,
I’m with Gee. I know the other search engines are out there but I don’t tend to worry about them. I just find Yahoo recognizes more backlinks so I pay them a little attention but I really need to work on this area.
Working on one search engine is enough for a budding learner such as myself but this is a timely reminder that there are others out there and should not be ignored. Checking stats, study the competition , keeping up with the latest news and trends etc , etc. Never a dull moment. Having a good time management strategy .. priceless!
Hi Helen,
I agree with you. I have enough trouble trying to get my keywords ranked with Google let alone having to worry about the others. Then again, maybe the smaller search engines would be easier to get your site ranked higher with.
Here i am trying to suck it all in and i’m getting nowhere myself,i’m 56 and got redundant 2 years ago and been looking for work for 2 years and getting nowhere so i was looking on the web everywhere to understand of what’s goin on, i’m a single parent of 2 boys and just struggling around here and i just want something to get my future back again
Everything takes time Gavin and the beauty of internet marketing is once you get going you can have a business in a briefcase and work from home and have more time with your family.
I think it is good to talk to people who are actually making money doing this. It is more encouraging.
I have been learning for over 12 months basically full on and I can see the light at the end of the tunnel now.
Great and informative post. I must admit Google has been my most used search engine but I guess I should remember that Google doesn’t own the web. So much to learn.
Hi Sean
I am so thankful that I entered this competition because I have learnt so many new things these past few days.
i never considered other search engines at all thinking that google was ‘IT’. This is such valuable information and something I really need to look into on a deeper level.
Sean, I can’t imagine what else you have up your sleeve! It has only been 5 days into this competition and I have 2 pages now (going on 3) full of links to articles of yours that I have read and discovered so many new things about IM.
I never believe these self professed IM Gurus who try to sell programs that will get you a site up on the internet in x amount of days and have you ranking no 1 in no time. In the past 5 days, from what I have learnt here in all these articles that you have given to us so freely and generously, the thought of ‘Gurus’ selling those lies to the uneducated is beyond my comprehension in light of the huge learning curve one needs to take to get it right, which is what we all want to do.
Slow and steady with a breadth and depth of education (and lots of fun along the way) is definitely the Sean Eastwood way to go.
Thankyou Sean for this very enlightening blog and for giving us a very well rounded education in successful internet marketing.
Blessings
Elly
G’day Sean,
Funny thing about this is that I’d always had the impression Google was the be-all and end-all of search engines. This post is a real eye opener and I look forward to learning and absorbing more and more.
Thanks
Cheers
Harry
Hi Sean,
Seems that most of us novices overlooked this point. Another thing to keep in mind the origin of traffic.
Thanks for bringing other search engines to my attention. Because I only every use google to look for things, I don’t even think about yahoo, bing and others when optimising my site.