By now you’ve probably heard about the Yahoo/Bing Search Engine deal. So what’s that mean for Joe User?
Basically, it all boils down to the fact you’ll need to start paying more attention to Bing. Google still dominates the market and will for some time. However, Bing is gaining traction with this deal and could gobble up some search market share over the coming months.
That said, I’m recommending to clients that they don’t make an abrupt strategy decisions just yet but instead address the merger with a measured approach.
From an organic search engine optimization standpoint, I am keeping a closer eye on their Bing search rankings and making some site changes that will specifically help their Bing placements.
Most of our clients use Google exclusively for pay-per-click marketing for reasons explained in my earlier post, Pay-per-click Marketing – Where to put your money? However, I am considering splitting some PPC campaigns between Google AdWords and Bing on an experimental basis. I’ve read some anecdotal evidence where others have had better success with Bing than Google. I’m curious if it will translate for our client base.
In summary, pay attention to Bing but don’t go change everything just yet.
P.s. SEOmoz published a great blog post, Top 10 Things the Microsoft/Yahoo! Deal Changes for SEO, that explains the implications of this merger more in depth (and perhaps more eloquently) than I have.
