As a search marketer, obtaining high paid and natural rankings on Google is obviously a primary goal. According to a recent post on the New York Times, Google handled 72.1% of all search queries in December 2008. Yahoo remained a distant second with 17.8%, MSN Live nabbed 5.6% and Ask.com remains relevant with 3.4% of all searches. [Since the data only looks at search engines, search data from YouTube, MySpace and Facebook is not included.]

By focusing on Google alone, many businesses overlook 27.9% of the search marketplace.  That is right; nearly 30% of the search market place is often ignored.

Spending time analyzing how Yahoo, MSN and Ask users find your site, many businesses have developed strategies to increase their natural exposure on these engines. With Google getting the majority of attention, paid search terms often are more affordable on the ‘smaller’ engines.

By no means am I suggesting that businesses and marketers should ignore Google, however, spending time understanding how your customers use alternatives to Google can provide a wealth of information and sales opportunities.

Does your search strategy include Yahoo, MSN and/or Ask?