Search engine optimisation is, essentially, about pleasing search engines. That is why it is particularly strange that the SEO world spends so little time discussing exactly what the personalities of the major search engines are.

The SEO community is generally forthcoming with information, but assessment of their targets at a personal level is sadly lacking. This may be due to a universal preoccupation with the search engine behemoth, Google. Google has dominated the market with such force in the last decade that it often seems futile to consider optimising for anyone else. It often seems that even the other search engines have given up. Recent events in the search engine world have given an indication that a little more attention to the other contenders might be in order.

At the moment, the three main contenders are Google, Yahoo! and Bing. This is essentially no different to the list of the three main contenders of the last few years, except one name has changed. Microsoft may have made a smart move in re-branding their MSN search engine as Bing, with a few shiny new extras. As the technology company hasn’t actually made any secret about the connection, it remains to be seen whether anything has really changed at all.

Quite frankly, the jury is still out on Bing. Microsoft did their best with an amazing advertising campaign and created an impressive amount of buzz, but it has been several months now and the ‘new’ search engine has failed to rock the search engine world. Bing has managed to claw a small amount of custom away from Yahoo! and about one percent from Google, but that is about it.

There are small but significant differences between the three major search engines. As you may already know, Bing appears to give more weight to keywords in URLs than Google. This may change. Google has altered its attitude to keywords in URLs over time, and it’s quite possible Bing will too. Bing also has more affection for capitalised keywords and larger sites, but again, these could just be rookie mistakes.

Things will be simplified somewhat when the agreement between Microsoft and Yahoo! comes into play. It’s interesting to note, though, that even though the world’s ‘always a bridesmaid’ search engine, Yahoo!, is not yet powered by Bing, the two search engines have a lot in common. Yahoo! also favours keywords in URLs and emphasises keyword matches in results over relevant keywords.

All three search engines have been hinting at the advantages of deep linking for websites. As usual, Google is ahead of its competitors when it comes to featuring deep link pages. As the search engines increase their awareness on deep linking, the importance of internal structure in your SEO strategy becomes ever clearer. You can talk to our experts at SEO Consult for advice on improving your site’s navigation and deep links.

Even if the advent of Bing doesn’t succeed in toppling Google from its pedestal, there is a significant chance that the market share will alter. This means that a greater amount of your audience could come from the second and third search engine placeholders. This is certainly something to dwell on when it comes to your search engine optimisation plan.

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