So unless you’ve been living under a rock you have probably heard by now that Bing is copying Google search results. Ok, so not exactly copying them, but the user data that Microsoft collects is essentially making Bing give the same level of value to websites as Google does and as a direct result many sites that rank on the first page of Google will have these same rankings on Bing.
The end result to most of us who work on the web is that it’s made our SEO jobs a little easier as we don’t have to focus efforts on trying to guess the different algorithms. Instead we just have to continue to follow the Google SEO guide (PDF) and continue to produce unique content and you’ll find yourself in top ranks soon enough.
But Mike, you’re really over simplifying things, there are other search engines out there…isn’t there?
Let’s think about that for a moment. Last year Yahoo.com decided to use Microsoft Bing’s search engine to power their sites, which pretty much made Yahoo’s search obsolete unless you’re a smaller site like Excite.com who is licensing their engine. That said, I challenge any webmaster to show me current stats that show their site receiving a significant amount of traffic from any search engine that’s referral ID is not Google.com, Bing.com or Yahoo.com – seriously, when was the last time you had 40% of your traffic coming from Ask.com? How about even a measly 10%? From the sites I manage both on a personally level, to corporate to city tourism I can tell you honestly that other than the three search domains listed above, less than 2% of traffic comes in from places like Ask.com, Excite.com and AOL.com
But this doesn’t mean Google is the end all. There is still a problem that plagues the three top dogs; Content Farms. These are the content sites with user generated posts, blogs and images that currently are supplied nearly endless amounts of traffic from search engines. Places like Huffington Post, Examiner, How To, Squidoo, E-Zine Articles. Yes, places I write for, or have written for, but also the places that are now contributing to where many web surfers find their news, read their gossip and create the latest internet celebrity.
So what’s the problem Mike? All these sites are producing unique quality content.
Yes, but here is a thought – the problem isn’t that these sites are doing well; it’s that they are doing well at the expense of other sites. With their longevity and daily content updates it’s quickly becoming almost impossible to create any new site and have it do well without having to invest a ridiculous amount time, energy and money in marketing it. What we could really use right now is a search engine that ranks, rates and focuses around new sites and ideas. Not just the latest current affairs and yet another SEO landing post.
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