Let’s be honest, the majority of us (smug Googler’s) assumed Bing’s only users were the elderly or those who weren’t particularly internet savvy.

You won’t go a day without hearing the phrase, “Google it” in some form or another. However, contrary to what Google would like you to believe, it isn’t the only search engine option.

The Rise Of Bing Search

According to latest comScore figures, Bing now powers more than one in five searches in the UK, taking a surprising 20% search market share.

Of course, Google still sits comfortably in the lead but Bing is slowly but surely increasing their grip on the market.

This may well be worrying for Google, considering search results are at the core of their business.

Bing Search Is More Accessible

Over the past year, Microsoft has driven a lot of time, money and resources into fueling Bing search.

They have increased their investment in marketers, developed strategic syndication partnerships with sites such as Gumtree and have announced new products such as Bing Shopping and Bing Ads.

In an attempt to get more people searching through Bing, they have also cleverly integrated Bing search technology into their existing products such as Xbox and Windows.

Free Upgrade Anyone?

A free offer to upgrade to Windows 10 was made available to Microsoft users in May 2016, with the program running on 300 million active devices globally.

Now that’s a lot of desktop searches using Bing.

The bid to make Bing more accessible has worked and this search platform is set to rise. Bing’s presence within the search market is growing and it’s clear that their journey is just getting started.

How Does Bing Search Affect You?

With Bing’s chunk of the search market set to get bigger, Google will have less dominance in the search engines.

What does this mean for SEO and more importantly, how will it affect your business?

I’m going to take a guess and say that your website marketing is predominantly aimed at Google.

Now, putting ‘all your eggs in one basket’ in any business decision is clearly naive at the best of times but with Bing search on the rise, it’s more important than ever to ‘spread the risk.’

Growth In Mobile & Voice Search

With mobile ad spending in the UK also continuing to grow, it’s clear that many brands’ have increased their opportunities to be closer to mobile users.

Search is an integral part of the Windows 10 platform and voice search is another huge component.

Microsoft’s Cortana, a voice search interface, was built into Windows 10 devices and allows mobile users to ask questions as well as perform tasks quickly and efficiently.

With voice search expected to service 50% of searches by 2020 , you can see how Cortana is such a powerful tool for Microsoft.

You can take advantage of this too, by investing in Bing search and PPC.

B2B Partnerships

As I said earlier, Microsoft has been very busy striking up strategic partnerships and this has particularly come to play in voice search.

According to MediaMiser, Apple iOS (which runs Siri) makes up up 23.1% of the mobile and tablet market. Siri is probably the most recognised voice search persona out there – an interesting thought.

However it gets even more interesting.

Did you know that Bing is the search power behind both Siri’s search function and iOS Spotlight?

Microsoft has power over their own voice search Cortana, as well as Apple’s. This gives them an impressive amount of market share.

Other devices Bing powers include Amazon’s smart home device, Echo and Uber’s mapping technology. Not forgetting Yahoo search.

One Bing To Rule Them All

Will Bing search overtake Google? Well considering the facts, it certainly does have the potential to challenge Google.

Bing ranking will however, be a factor in the future ranking of your website. It’s partnership with social platforms such as LinkedIn and Twitter will also need to be re-considered for potential outreach.

At ICAAL, we will undoubtedly be watching Bing’s growth diligently. We’ll keep you posted.