UK Search Engine Usage Trends and Diverse Marketing Strategies

By Ricky Pitcher
06 December 2007

The public’s biggest common misunderstanding about the internet is that Google is the only search engine anyone uses, this is far from true. Google is currently the number one search engine and in a position of dominance, however other search engines retain considerable market share.

According to web analysts such as hitwise.co.uk, Google consistently enjoys a market share of between 65-75% of all UK searches. Some estimates go as high around 80%, this has lead many companies to conclude that only Google is important in forming an online marketing strategy, leading to websites simply advertising with the Google AdWords service. While AdWords is undoubtedly a great way to market your site, it is never wise to ‘put all your marketing eggs in one basket’. Even if the highest estimates are right and Google gets eight in ten search engine users, you are missing out on millions of potential clients: you wouldn’t be happy if you ran a high street shop which two in every ten people could not see.

How to Broaden your Marketing Strategy

Google is not the only place to have your website found on the internet and Google’s AdWords is not the only way to advertise on Google.

Another option is to use Yahoo’s Search Engine Marketing, having Ads on both will give you a marketing present on the two major search engines, potentially covering around 85-90% of all search engine users. If you have the budget to run two PPC (pay per click) campaigns simultaneously, this can be very effective in getting customers to your site. This can be a very expansive option and while it will deliver results in the short term, when you stop the ads, the flow of new customers will stop too.

However PPC is not the only way to advertise on the search engines, the organic listings on the left hand side of Google, Yahoo and others is usually the first thing people look at on search engine results. An Organic SEO (search engine optimisation) campaign will raise your websites rankings on these listing, having the advantage of working across all major search engines simultaneously. There are other advantages to Organic SEO, even after you stop a campaign it will have a residual effect on rankings and (if you already have a PPC link present) is a way of having two links on the same page of search engine results. Organic SEO can include many procedures, from tag optimisation, link building, manual submissions, content optimisation to social book marketing and beyond.

Why is Good Online Marketing Vital?

Put simply, more and more people are using the internet to do business, research and shop. In the year 2000 26% of the UK’s population were internet users, this has risen to 64% in 2007 (source: Neilson) with everyone predicting further rises. People worldwide rely on search engines and there are legitimate ways of promoting your site on them to ensure that your company is the one that benefits from this interest.