It is estimated that Google processes nearly 63,000 search queries per second.
That equates to around 5.6 billion searches every day. If you need information about a product or service, or just the latest news stories, the answer is available at the touch of a button.
The phrase “just google it” has become part of our language and many of us never consider using another search engine.
For businesses, ranking high in search queries is the key to visibility online.
Here at Avita Digital, a leading digital marketing Calabasas based agency, we are passionate about growing your business using tested and trusted SEO marketing solutions.
We like to call it SEO for dummies.
With Google owning over 92% of the search engine market share, it should certainly be a key focus for SEO. However, the remaining part of the market that’s owned by other search engines is valuable to brands too. This can be especially true for brands where voice, visual and vertical search engines play an essential role.
While Google holds the most market share, the downsides to the search engine giant are loss of privacy and cybersecurity for consumers. There are many other search engines that not only provide the same results but can offer users privacy and options to support charitable organizations as well.
SEO Packages With Junior Giants Bing and Yahoo
Before we discuss some of the other awesome search engines available online for traffic, we can’t overlook Microsoft’s Bing and Yahoo – which today are one in the same as Bing has been powering the results for Yahoo since 2011.
With 8% of the market share for search, Bing sets itself apart with its visual search capabilities. Users can drag and drop an image directly into the image search box to search for similar images online.
In addition, Bing offers a complete suite of math, science, and language tools that make learning easier for students and parents. Bing also has a, SEO marketing Rewards Program that allows users to accumulate points while searching, and the points are redeemable at Microsoft and Windows online stores.
In the mobile marketplace that accounts for nearly 55% of traffic worldwide, the iphone maker Apple recently struck a deal with Google with the Alphabet company paying $15 billion to remain the default search engine on the iphone’s safari browser.
Privacy First Search
While Google is by far the number one choice when it comes to online search queries, it’s also the option that offers the least amount of privacy. Users that get tired of being chased by ads online can benefit from search engines that offer privacy.
There are several Privacy First search engines available that are free to use and keep online activities private.
For example, if someone is looking for, say, celebrity reputation management, they want to be able to search without getting served a dozen or more pop-up ads.
We rarely think about every search query being saved and used by advertisers for retargeting. With Google, that’s exactly what happens and it is a great tool for marketers.
For consumers, it can get annoying and cause them to feel exposed.
If privacy online is what you seek, there are several alternative search engines available. We will discuss a few of the more popular ones here, including:
DuckDuckGo never tracks you or your online activities. You can add its extension to your browser to keep your actions private. DuckDuckGo has all the regular features of Google but has a really neat feature called “bangs”. It is a tool that allows you to search directly on other websites such as YouTube or Amazon by starting the query with an exclamation mark (i.e. !Digital Marketing Calabasas).
Startpage.com claims to be the world’s most private search engine. This claim can be backed up by their ‘no logs’ policy. It simply means that the search engine has no idea who its users are because it doesn’t store IP addresses or store tracking cookies.
Qwant is another reliable option for privacy first search queries. Based in France, Qwant follows strict European privacy laws to use its indexing engine combined with Bing results to avoid personalizing search results. And for music lovers, Qwant has a dedicated area where users can discover new music and lyrics with the help of AI.
Swisscows is another European privacy-first search engine that promises to never store users’ data and is passionate about family-friendly content. Swisscows stands out from other privacy-first search engines due to the commitment it has to provide a search platform that is safe for children to use to surf the web.
Search Encrypt boasts over 23 million visitors each day, has a look and feel very similar to Google. It uses local encryption to ensure searches remain private and pulls results from its network of search partners to deliver requested information. Its goal is to protect the privacy of its users by intercepting searches that could be tracked and tied to users’ personal information. One caveat is that Search Encrypt does store search history for 30 minutes.
OneSearch is another privacy-first option worth mentioning brought to you by Verizon. This one offers six privacy-focused features that have become very attractive to users. Let’s start with the three Nos: No cookies, No user tracking, and No search history. Search results are powered by Bing while providing extra layers of privacy. The remaining three features are pure, unfiltered results, keyword encryption, and the capability to share links with confidence.
Business owners must consistently work hard to drive traffic to their websites. With the above-mentioned search engines, it is obvious there are clear viable alternatives for traffic apart from Google. It is also important to note that online business directories are a great way to capture the attention of people searching directly for your services. The key to being found online is to be visible where potential customers search.
Search with a Purpose
Charity search engines offer users the opportunity to support a great cause while running their daily web searches.
While searching “family law digital marketing”, using a search engine such as giveWater offers a way to give back. By clicking on the platform’s ads, it allows you to help provide access to clean water for areas of the world where it isn’t currently available.
And while we are on the subject of water, Ekoru is a charity search engine dedicated to the cause of keeping our oceans clean. Ekoru claims that “every search helps raise funds for Big Blue Ocean Cleanup”. In addition, Ekoru’s commitment to encrypting all data and not storing searches on their servers makes it a great alternative to Google for users who want privacy and support an eco-friendly cause.
Rapidly growing in popularity, Ecosia is a charity search engine that drives positive environmental change by using its revenue to plant trees around the world. Powered by Bing search results and a focus on privacy, Ecosia has over 15 million active users that have helped to plant over 100 million trees.
Format-Specific Search
When searching specifically for images, educational material, podcasts, or videos, is Google always the best search engine for returning results?
It is certainly hard to argue that YouTube is the best go-to for videos, podcasts, movie clips, and amazing original content. YouTube processes over 3 billion searches a month, with 100 hours of video content uploaded every minute. So it’s not difficult to understand why Google purchased YouTube when all its data helps Google better understand people’s search intentions.
Similarly, there is no match to the gif library found at GIPHY. When you need just the right gif for a presentation, blog, or social post, you can’t beat the 10 billion pieces of content available with this search engine.
And if you’re looking for the optimal search engine for podcasts, look no further than Listen Notes. Podcasts are extremely popular right now, and it’s clear from Google Trends that search activity is growing at a rapid rate on Google. Since Google is not geared up as a podcast search engine, Listen Notes is the better way to find your next podcast listen.
Optimizing Your Website for Alternative Search Engines
Now that we have discussed the best search engines for traffic not named Google, what should businesses do differently to rank on them?
They must take time to understand how each search engine works, how it’s different from Google, and how their algorithms work. Optimizing properly will allow businesses to enjoy positive results and receive relevant traffic.
Avita Group has nearly three decades of experience in creating the best converting strategies for multiple industries and multiple engines. If you’d like to engage in a free consultation about your website’s conversion needs, please contact us today.
ABOUT AVITA GROUP
Avita Group is a digital marketing firm based in Calabasas, California. We specialize in attorney marketing organic Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Pay Per Click (PPC) campaign management, Online Reputation Management (ORM), website creation and conversion optimization. The Avita Group team boasts a collective experience of over 25 years in the industry and has worked with a variety of multi-million dollar companies to help them improve their ROI, build better brand awareness, and mitigate negative online reviews and results.