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Its beyond doubt. Google is the leading search engine in the world, by far. Google indexes over 23 billion pages, against Yahoo’s 20 billion and Bing’s 17 billion. They command 89% of the market share in the UK. Google has transcended its own organisation and found its way into common use in the English language – ‘I’ll Google it.’
I would urge you not to underestimate the power of Bing, though. Despite being one of the lesser-used and more overlooked search engines, it could be your secret digital marketing weapon. Granted, the stats firmly place Bing as the underdog. But Bing, launched to great excitement in 2009, performs in a few areas that Google can’t – it has huge potential for the digital marketer if used correctly.
A lot of marketers and digital professionals don’t give Bing any effort, when they really should, Let me share with you why.
First of all, Microsoft’s search engine offers great value for money – $0.78 average CPC to Google’s $0.93. That means that if used right, I can make your marketing budget stretch further by exploiting the potential of Bing.
Bing appeals to the older demographic. Its users are traditionally weighted towards the 55-64 bracket – a demographic with more time to surf the web, and more likely to spend money when they find what they are looking for. One-in-four online shoppers is over the age of 55. That’s a big portion of the market.
What’s more, Bing’s social integrations are stronger, which improves the quality of it’s search results. Although this may become less significant now that Google has signed a deal with Twitter, Bing has contracts with both Facebook and Twitter and a longer history of ranking social posts in its results. It therefore has greater access to social data, and integrates them into its SERPs is a much less cluttered way.
There is no question that Google is still dominating the search landscape, and probably always will. But that is no reason to discount Bing. It pays to use both, and exploit them for their individual strengths. I am Bing Certified, and can help you improve your search marketing on both platforms.
Get in touch today to discuss how together we can harness the power of Bing for your business. I’ll be happy to talk you through it!
