SEO - Major Players
In most parts of the world when a search engine is mentioned most think of Google first. Others that are popular include Yahoo as well as MSN, although these are not nearly as popular as Google is known to be. According to a surveys held, which you can find by looking here: http://marketshare.hitslink.com/search-engine-market-share.aspx?qprid=5 , Google is by far most highly used, with 70-80% looking to use this search engine. Yahoo is next, but is far behind with only 10-20% using its services, and finally MSN is last with about 5%.
These three engines are the most well known and most used, but this is not to say that they are the only options. There are other smaller engines like AOL or Ask that do offer search engines, but keep in mind that it’s not very highly recommended that you waste your time or money on these since they are not in use nearly as much as the others. It’s obvious that if you are looking to use the search engine that has the highest popularity then you will want to look into Google. Rankings are similar no matter which engine you use between these top three most highly rated search engines.
Of course there are different styles used all over the world, and in some areas there are other well known search engines that you may not find are familiar to you. China for instance has a search engine called Baidu, which Google is known to compete closely with in that area. The beauty of Google is that the developers work hard to make it a relevant search engine no matter where you are located in the world, keeping it popular no matter where you are.
The common purpose of all search engines is the same, no matter where you are located. They all want to bring in more ad revenue by working to build a loyal audience who will be comfortable with their site and keep coming back. Quality results and easiness of use is highly important in making these search engines popular among the public. When it comes to issues of Spam, all search engines work together to fight spam sites that don’t deliver any value to the consumer. Google provides a page that is up do date with the most recent guidelines of what is considered spam. Follow the link to http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/ at the Google Webmaster area to keep up to date with this information.
Use these guidelines and tips when looking to use SEO. Your strategy will be at its best if it is based on the major guidelines that all search engines stick to. If you are sure that you are not going against any basic rules and work to provide a great site that your consumer will find useful, your site is sure to be successful.
