So you read that Microsoft’s new Bing search engine was a big deal? That the company had finally gotten its act together and launched a new product that would drive great volumes of new traffic . . . and new leads for you? And that Bing represents solid challenge to dethrone the current search champ, Google?
Don’t you believe it.
As a home improvement dealer, you need to be where your prospective customers are. And despite all of the hoopla (and all of the clever PR) about Bing, Google is still the tool of choice for searchers.
Let’s look at a recent survey of traffic received by 60 Web sites. As of this past May, Google was responsible for 78% of all Internet searches. You can quibble with how that number is generated, and stats wonks can point out the minutiae, but as someone who buys online media every day, my numbers have convinced me that Google is indeed that dominant.
That leaves 22% of the search audience open for the rest of the search engines to split. Yahoo owns roughly 11.5% and Microsoft’s MSN handles 6.5%. AOL, ASK.com and the rest of the minor search engines cpver the remaining 4%.
Now, flash forward to the end of June, after Bing was launched with much fanfare. What happened to the audiences served by the other search engines?
Nothing.
Let me repeat. Nothing.
After two months, it appears Google may have gained a fraction of a percentage point. Bing, supposedly superior to the former MSN, gained half a percentage point. And it appears to have stolen that half of a percentage point from a “lost in the woods” Yahoo.
So while Microsoft has rolled out it’s Bing to lots of press , not much has changed in the world of search. No matter what Microsoft’s PR department tells you, Google is still the place where the vast majority of homeowners search for solutions to their home improvement challenges. .And it’s where you’ve got to be, too.
