Top 4 Search Engines
Are you ranked in all of them?

In a recent study by the University of Pittsburgh and Pennsylvania State University (my alma mater) they found that only 1.1% of results appeared on all 4 major Search Engines*. They did their testing by running 12,570 different queries through Yahoo, Google, MSN, and Ask Jeeves.

For those of us who fight and claw to be highly ranked in as many Search Engines as possible, it makes it seem all that more frustrating. The fact is that each Search Engine looks at different things on each site to determine it's ranking. In a world where each judge in a beauty contest is looking for something different it's no wonder that no two people pick the same beauty queen. If you're rankings are similarly ranked, in only one or two Search Engines, don't worry it's not the end of the world.

The report went on to say that 84.9% of the top results were unique to one Search Engine. Google had the lowest number of unique results and Yahoo had the highest.

Are you only focusing on one Search Engine?

At 'A4' we prefer to target those sites that make sense for your business. Generally we don't adopt the line of thought that focusing all our attention on one Search Engine is the best strategy, unless you really have some specific issues to resolve. Having a single Search Engine line of thinking puts one's Search Engine eggs all in one basket. Diversity is key in driving traffic to your site and getting noticed.

When you define your goals for your site, keep these two things in mind.

• First, take a broader look at what you want to accomplish with a one year goal.
• Second, think about several important Search Sites to diversify your efforts towards.

* Source: University of Pittsburgh and Pennsylvania State University - Go Nittany Lions