Bing's Rise in the Market Share
Bing made headlines in April 2015 when it finally topped 20% of the U.S. desktop market share. This was a huge step forward for the Microsoft-owned search engine, but how has it been holding up since then?
Bing Hit 20% of U.S. Desktop Market Share & Continues to Rise
If you follow the monthly or quarterly reports that show the market share for the most-used search engines, then you’re probably used to seeing Google on top. It’s no longer a shock that Google dominates more than 60 percent of the U.S. desktop market share. But underneath the giant’s umbrella are several search engines vying for the No. 2 spot.
Until the last few months, Yahoo was a steady second, ranking far below Google but still above Bing. However, in April, comScore released data that gave Bing it’s moment in the sun. As of March 2015, Bing had surpassed 20 percent of the desktop market share in the U.S. and sat at 20.1 percent.
But Bing didn’t hit a plateau, at least not yet.
According to the latest numbers from comScore, Bing reached 20.3 percent in May 2015, up 0.1 percent from April and 0.2 percent from March. Sure, a few tenths of a percent may not seem revolutionary, but it’s still important, and we’ll tell you why.
Why You Should Care About The Rise of Bing
At Online Potential, our clients ask us why market shares matter more often than we care to admit. Yes, Google is No. 1. But will it always be No. 1? We can’t predict the future, but we can point out a trend when we see it.
Bing has made a few strides in becoming a better competitor against Google, and whether or not that was a motivating factor in the company’s decision, the results are clear: users are searching more on Bing than they were before.
One of the reasons may be that Bing is hopping on the mobile trend with labeling mobile-friendly websites in an attempt to improve user experience. The labels are small, but the impact has been huge. In an instant, search results on a mobile device are labeled so users know before they click whether a site is optimized for handheld devices. No more guessing, no more surprises. And if you want to navigate a website that isn’t mobile-friendly, Bing has left those results untouched. No huge penalties, no monkey business. And we think that’s great.
But what does all of this mean for your Internet marketing strategy, and how do these new number affect your advertising campaigns?
Optimize For Your Audience
Some bloggers will tell you that the Age of Google is coming to a slow and steady close, and that other search engines, like Bing, are taking the patient route to the No. 1 spot. We doubt it’s that simple, but there are implications here that should not go unnoticed.
First, and most obvious, is that more users are using Bing to search. The numbers indicate that these users are former Yahoo searches and former Google users. If you take a look at the point change from April 2015 to May 2015, Google lost 0.1 percent and Bing gained 0.1 percent. Yahoo remained the same at 12.7 percent of the market share.
Perhaps users found Bing’s mobile-friendly label useful, or maybe they appreciate Bing’s subtle approach to promoting user experiences. For comparison, when Google announced it would start penalizing sites that are not mobile-friendly or responsive, it sounded almost like threat: rework your site or else!
Luckily for us, and our clients, we create all of our websites to be responsive, so no matter what platform your audience chooses, your site is legible, readable and easy to navigate.
The Future of Web Searches
It’s too early to say that Bing can or will overtake Google. After all, Google has a lead of more than 40 percentage points. But, you definitely want to investigate how your target audience is searching and whether or not your audience favors one search engine over the other.
And no matter where your audience searches, you can rest easy knowing that if you came to Online Potential for website design or Internet marketing services, you won’t be penalized with either Bing or Google. We’ll be keeping an eye on Bing and it’s subtle yet effective changes.
Stay tuned!
