I've been wanting to write about this topic for a long time, but I have not seen a thread on this topic until this week (we have writing policies).
For the past couple of years, the WebmasterWorld forums have been huge supporters of Bing. For the most part, WebmasterWorld (as I see it) is anti-Google and very pro-Bing. It is just the tone of that forum and that forum is a very important forum. Almost all (not 100%) of the official Google reps have left and do not participate but we do have some limited Bing participation. And the tones of most of the threads are pro-Bing and anti-Google, especially from the owner and most of the leaders of the forum.
I always wondered, can SEOs, who are early adopters of search, make a difference in search market share in the long run. Was Google's success tied to SEOs noticing the power or was it the opposite, where market share dictated SEO involvement in Google?
A Cre8asite Forum thread asks the same question. Chuck Finley posted the thread asking, "Can Seo's Move Users From Google To Bing?" He added:
Bing is really reaching out to SEO's with their new tools and much dialogue about accepting the need for SEO and offering a very slick set of tools to help SEO's do it.Just the opposite of Google and their endless talk about themselves and how their tools are directed at Webmasters being able to deliver to Google what Google wants, or else.
This is very savvy marketing. The timing is perfect -- reach out to SEO's right at the time that Google has chosen to declare war on SEO's and is attempting to start a civil war within the SEO Community. Their whole focus is on helping SEO's help their clients succeed.
What a breath of fresh air.
I wonder if there is a way that SEO's can help promote Bing's search engine and move users over there?
Honestly, Bing has been growing in marketshare but not at the expense of Google.
My gut tells me, no - SEOs can't make a large enough shift in mindshare to help Bing take away share from Google.
In fact, I think for the most part, SEOs are followers. They follow what search engines are sending them the most traffic and work on that. Bing is growing and is being more of a concern for many SEOs and webmasters but when Google sends you 70% of your traffic and sales, where will you spend your time searching and what will you spend your time talking and writing about?
Forum discussion at Cre8asite Forum.
