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For a long time, Google was the homepage to the online world, but this is rapidly changing. So what does this mean for online visibility and how does traffic from other search engines compare to Google?
The search landscape is changing as the way people use and interact with the web evolves. Finding information is still the top reason for using the internet, but other purposes are gaining ground – like staying in touch with friends and family, keeping up with the news and watching video, TV or films.
More importantly, people spend most of their time online using chat and messaging apps (94.8%), closely followed by social networks (94.6). Search engines are the third-most used websites and apps, but only 81.8% of people have used them in the past month.
Search market share is the first dataset we need to look at. A lot has been said about Google losing market share to Bing in the wake of Microsoft implementing generative AI into its search experience.
While Google’s loss isn’t as dramatic as first reported, any change is significant for a company used to cornering 90+% of the market.
According to StatCounter, Google had a 90.48% share of the market in August 2024, down from 92.07% in July 2023. Meanwhile, Bing climbed to 3.93% in August from 2.99% in July the previous year.
However, the biggest loss for Google – and the biggest gains for Bing – came from desktop searches over the past year. In July 2023, Google had an 83.49% share of global desktop searches while Bing had 9.19%. By August 2024, Google’s share of desktop searches dropped to 79.65% while Bing’s increased to 11.98%.
In the UK, Google’s loss of desktop searches is smaller over the past year, but Bing has a higher share than the global average.
On the other hand, Google dominates mobile searches with a 94.69% share globally and a 97.7% share in the UK. In fact, Bing (0.75%) falls behind Russia’s Yandex (1.76%) and China’s Baidu (0.88%) for global mobile searches.
While, in the UK, Yahoo has the second largest share of mobile searches (0.88%), followed by Bing (0.45%) and DuckDuckGo (0.43%).
The key takeaway here is that Google is still the dominant force in search. That being said, more and more searches are taking place outside of traditional search engines, so market share doesn’t reflect the whole search landscape anymore.
So, what does the landscape look like if we forget market share for a moment and look at which platforms drive the most traffic?
According to analysis from SparkToro and Datos, Google drives the vast majority of referral traffic to websites – but not as much as its market share might suggest:
Once again, Google is the dominant name here but it’s worth noting that Microsoft and Bing drive a more comparable proportion of traffic to their search market share.
Furthermore, even if you only optimise for Bing, Yahoo and DuckDuckGo, that gives you access to a further 10.97% of all traffic. Now, throw in the top social sources (YouTube, Reddit, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn), and that opens another 13.90% of potential referral traffic.
With extensive search and social visibility, you can unlock almost 25% of all non-Google referral sources.
If we analyse Similarweb data for Google and the other top search engines, we learn more about who is using each one and how. Firstly, looking at device distribution reveals how much mobile dominates the Google experience.
If your SEO strategy prioritises Google, then your mobile optimisation game needs to be on point. Interestingly, it’s a similar story with DuckDuckGo while Bing and Yahoo are more desktop-centric. So, if you’re optimising for multiple search engines, you want a responsive website that delivers equally impressive experiences on both mobile and desktop.
Now, if we look at gender distribution, we can see the majority of users for all four search engines are male. Bing has the highest proportion of male users (64.64%) followed by DuckDuckGo (63.13%) while Yahoo is closest to an equal distribution with 53.19% male and 46.81% female.
Age distribution shows that the majority of traffic from all four search engines is aged 25-34. For Bing, Yahoo and DuckDuckGo, the second-largest age group is 35-44 and Google is the only search engine with the 18-24 segment as its second-biggest age group.
Crucially, we can also see an overall trend of fewer people aged 18-24 using these search engines overall. This reinforces the point that younger audiences, in particular, are spending more of their online time outside of traditional search.
Earlier, we touched on Google’s dominance in mobile searches vs other search engines. However, we also raised the point that it’s losing mobile searches elsewhere – to non-traditional search tools.
People are performing more and more searches outside of Google and traditional search engines. Google may have a ~90% search engine market share, but this doesn’t reflect the whole search landscape anymore.
In 2022, Google Senior Vice President, Prabhakar Raghavan, revealed the search giant was losing search to Instagram and TikTok. More specifically, Gen Z is increasingly using social search to find local businesses, places to eat, the latest fashion trends, etc.
Outside of social, Google is no longer the go-to place for product searches. As of 2018, more product searches take place on Amazon than Google. In 2023, 50% of all product searches happen on Amazon compared to 31.5% on Google.
At the same time, Google has seen a plethora of search tools emerge in recent years that are designed for specific purposes. Travellers use Airbnb or Booking.com to find accommodation and Skyscanner or Kayak to book flights. When people are hungry, they turn to Deliveroo for food deliveries and, when they need a lift, they reach for the Uber app.
Some of these platforms generate traffic; others (like Airbnb) are closed platforms. However, they all have an impact on the search landscape and the kind of traffic Google drives to websites (or doesn’t).
Above all, Google is still the dominant force in search. We’re not only talking about market share, either. Google drives more traffic to websites than any other online source and finding information is still the main reason people use the internet. That says a lot about Google, but it says even more about the role of search in online experiences.
That being said, visibility on other search engines is more valuable than ever. And, aside from simply being visible, marketers need to determine why and how people use other search engines.
For example, a company that generates most of its traffic from desktop is probably going to get the most value from Bing. Meanwhile, a company trying to drive local foot traffic from mobile search should prioritise Google Search.
However, they’ll also need to look at how younger audiences are using platforms like Instagram and TikTok to discover and find local businesses.
As search expands beyond traditional search engines, brands need to be visible in the right places. This starts with knowing your target audience, where they spend their time online and the purpose behind using each platform.
If you need help identifying the key visibility points for your search marketing strategy, call us on 02392 830 281 or send us your details below and we’ll be in touch.
Gemma joined Vertical Leap in March 2020 as an SEO Specialist after having worked in marketing for 7 years for both in-house and agency side, where she was involved with everything from social media management, through to content development and email marketing campaigns. As a member of the ESEO team, Gemma helps to deliver strategic SEO campaigns across a range of brands on a local, national and international level. Gemma is well travelled after exploring the world for almost two years and living down under for 12 months. She’s passionate about snowboarding, fitness and supports her local football team, Southampton FC! When she’s not at work doing SEO, you can often find her on her paddle board floating somewhere on the River Hamble or indulging in a snack or two.
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