{"id":6024,"date":"2012-03-15T10:30:07","date_gmt":"2012-03-15T10:30:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/?p=4424"},"modified":"2012-03-15T10:38:58","modified_gmt":"2012-03-15T10:38:58","slug":"search-engine-popularity-statistics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/search-engine-optimisation-seo\/multilingual-seo\/search-engine-popularity-statistics\/","title":{"rendered":"Most popular search engines – UK, US and Worldwide"},"content":{"rendered":"

Which are the most popular search engines I should target in each country?<\/h2>\n

Its not often I look at trends data but its good to do every quarter. The popularity of search engines does change and within this blended search like video, images, local search is becoming more important.<\/p>\n

My comments below focus on how this data has search implications but the links also show popular social networks &\u00a0entertainment\u00a0sites. This data is always useful when justifying time & effort for channels or campaigns. Another tool not mentioned below is Google's Adplanner<\/a> (& its top 1000 sites report<\/a>), this is a great tool when you need data \/ demographics on categories or specific websites.<\/p>\n

Data on most popular UK search engines - Hitwise<\/h3>\n

March 2012 update<\/strong> - Hitwise have just published a simple infographic summarising UK search behaviour. The main insight which prompts questions about how we target through SEO and paid search is the new keyword data. As a rule of thumb around half of search terms are three words or more showing the potential for targeting the long tail. On the other side of the coin, competing on short one and two keyword brand and generic \u00a0terms is still very important at 51%. Facebook is now the most searched for term, replacing Google...<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

May 2011 update<\/strong> - Another Hitwise update on search engine use. This update on search engine and social media popularity<\/a> shows that Google still accounts for 90% of searches - the key figure - many uses visits across all Microsoft sites which is misleading. I'm often asked whether a focus on Bing is worthwhile. This suggests not unless you are a large brand tapping into demand of many consumers for a mass market product. A search specialist at a phone retailer also mentioned to me that it's worthwhile for brand and brand mispellings since many still use Internet Explorer which is powered by Bing by Default.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Data updated monthly from Data Centre.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Source:\u00a0http:\/\/www.hitwise.com\/uk\/datacentre\/main\/dashboard-7323.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Data on US search engine popularity - Hitwise<\/h3>\n

Hitwise have some useful free data on their \"Data Centers\" pages which can be useful if you get questions from colleagues like \"Should we be doing more on Bing?\".<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Source:\u00a0http:\/\/www.hitwise.com\/us\/datacenter\/main\/dashboard-10133.html<\/a><\/p>\n

You can also find search engine share from Comscore. For example:<\/span><\/h3>\n

http:\/\/www.comscore.com\/Press_Events\/Press_Releases\/2011\/1\/comScore_Releases_December_2010_U.S._Search_Engine_Rankings<\/a><\/p>\n

Implications of reviewing search engine popularity<\/h3>\n

So what do the latest stats show us?<\/p>\n

1. Google.co.uk<\/a> dominates in the UK, so search marketing activities must focus here. YouTube is also in most reports on the hitwise report though not counted as a search engine, a large audience to target though!<\/p>\n

2. Google.com<\/a> accounts for 10% of UK searches so it's worth checking your rankings on here if you are a large brand<\/p>\n