Google Slavery...Old Habits Die Hard

For the first few months after Yahoo decided to go their own way with natural search (and MSN decided to get serious about the search business), the search results provided by those two could only be described as bizarre. Enough time has now passed that the dust has somewhat settled and there are three main (from a traffic standpoint) sites for quality natural searches.

The term "natural search" is to distinguish true searches, as opposed to paid advertisements which appear in the search results for many search engines these days. I guess you can't really fault the search engine companies from wanting to make some money (actually, BIG money) selling ad space, but the debate over the virtues of natural search versus paid advertising search is something that could take up a very large book and still have no clear resolution...much like arguments revolving around religion or politics.

Like most people that have been working as online home business entrepreneurs for a few years, I was strongly conditioned to the need to "feed the 800 pound gorilla" of the search engine world. Basically, "if Google didn't love you", it was very difficult to get any meaningful natural search traffic to your website. Since Google was actually the search engine that was serving up the results for most of the popular search portals, if Google didn't look kindly upon your site and rank you well, you would not be ranked well for most of the high traffic search sites on the Internet.

However, the search landscape changed dramatically early in 2004 and things have been very fluid and interesting since that time. Its not that Google has stumbled, or become ineffective as a search vehicle, its just that major players like Yahoo and Microsoft (via MSN) have decided to make a major thrust into the search business.

Having been firmly conditioned (since shortly after 1998) that Google was the "supreme deity of search engines", I took the highly publicized search entries of Yahoo and MSN with more than the proverbial "grain of salt".

Throughout a very recent two month period, one of my websites occupied the #5 position on Google, Yahoo, and MSN for a very popular and important (at least in my line of business) three word search term. This situation provided an opportunity to measure the current popularity of each of these three search providers.

If asked "before the fact", I would have guessed that Google would still be the overwhelming #1 search choice and that Yahoo and MSN would be distant #2 and #3 choices. Therefore, I was somewhat surprised by the results that were tabulated during this recent 60 day period.

For the period in question, the search popularity results were as follows:

Google: 34%

Yahoo: 31%

MSN: 20%

All others: 15%

Granted, the above results are for a single search term over a particular 60 day time period, but the results clearly show that Yahoo and MSN are already important players in the search business.

Webmasters that stick to the old ways and focus entirely on Google are missing out on a lot of search traffic these days if they are not also well ranked by Yahoo and MSN.

Kirk Bannerman operates a successful home based business and coaches others seeking to start their own home based business. Visit his website at Legitimate Home Based Business for more details.

---

Is Something Missing From Your Keywords Research? (Part 2)

In my previous article, I raised the issue that proper... Read More

The Hottest Tip On Getting A Web Site Listed Quickly by Yahoo, Inktomi, MSN, FAST and AltaVista

Every webmaster knows that the free search engines are a... Read More

PPC v Natural Search ? A Cost Comparison Case Study

The attraction of Pay Per Click (PPC) online advertising is... Read More

Using Meta Tags Wisely to Attract Search Engines and Visitors

There are certain tricks and techniques in SEO industry, which... Read More

Ten Critical Website and Search Engine Promotion Mistakes

When it comes to promoting your website, you might think... Read More

Good Things Come to Those Who Wait (and Other Analogies and Cliché?s for SEO)

We've all heard that familiar expression, "Good things come to... Read More

The Best and Easiest Google-Friendly Change to Your Web Site

No matter who you are or how much you pay... Read More

Google Page Rank Is Dead - Part II

In part I - Google Page Rank Is Dead -... Read More

All You Need to Know About Your Website Traffic is Contained in 5 Key Stats

You built that content rich web page optimized for your... Read More

Is Page Not Found Making Google Tell The World Site Not Found?

Search Engines are hard to tame, that's for sure. But... Read More

Search Engines from a Webmaster Perspective

By now, virtually every webmaster has heard or read that... Read More

Advertise Locally Using Search Engines

While search engine advertising has been a great advertising medium... Read More

Secrets on Website Promotion: How You Can Get a #1 Ranking for Your Website Name Within 30 Days

Launching a new website with enough acceleration to rise above... Read More

Press Releases Can Increase Search Engine Positioning

When you write a press release, what is your ultimate... Read More

How to Increase Alexa Ranking of Your Website

Alexa toolbar also useful to Browse expired websites database. Many... Read More

What In The World Is This Google Sandbox Theory Thing? And How Do I Beat It?

Ok, so over the past month or so I've been... Read More

The Purpose of PageRank?

I am sure the first thought provoking question that popped... Read More

SEO #6: How TO GET Banned by Google!

Yesterday you should have read the fifth course out of... Read More

What is The Google Sandbox Effect?

In the age of fair competition you may find it... Read More

Search Engine Optimization - A Beginners Guide

Getting your site listed in the top search engines, such... Read More

High Google Rankings: Frequency vs. Positioning

There's an assumption that the higher a ranking or positioning... Read More

Google WebSearch? & Google Adsense - Yahoo!

The makers of the world renowned search engine, Google, have... Read More

SEO for CEOs ? Search Engine Optimization Unmasked for CEOs

If you're like most other CEOs, the term "search engine... Read More

Finding the Right SEO Company

I often talk to people who have lost faith in... Read More

Search Engine Optimization Lies & Misconceptions

In a perfect world, everyone would be honest.In a perfect... Read More

Search Engine Essentials

What are Search Engines?There are numerous different search engines, and... Read More

SEO Training - Avoid Making this Costly Mistake!

SEO training can be overwhelming. There are literally hundreds of... Read More

SEO Trade Secrets - 8 Great Tools for Search Engine Optimization

About 80% of website traffic comes through search engines. And... Read More

What is Google Pagerank?

PageRank is one of the factors that Google uses to... Read More

The Wonders of Wordtracker: Its More than a Hunt for Keywords

For me personally, Wordtracker.com is not just a... Read More

SEO Expert Guide - Page Optimization (part 5/10)

In parts 1 - 4 you learnt how to develop... Read More

How Real SEO Analysis Works

If you're serious about SEO, you need to know how... Read More

Ten Steps To A Well Optimized Website - Step 3: Site Structure

Welcome to part three in this search engine positioning series.... Read More