According to data from GS StatcounterGoogle’s search engine market share has fallen to 86.99%, the lowest point since the company began tracking search engine share in 2009.
The drop represents a decrease of more than 4% from the previous month, marking the largest decline recorded in a single month.
Screenshot from: May 2024.
Impact on the US market
The decline is most significant in Google’s key market, the United States, where its share of searches across all devices fell nearly 10% to 77.52%.
Screenshot from: May 2024.
Meanwhile, competitors Microsoft Bing and Yahoo Search have seen gains. Bing achieved a market share of 13% in the US and 5.8% globally, its highest since its launch in 2009.
Yahoo Search’s global share nearly tripled to 3.06%, a level not seen since July 2015.
Screenshot from: May 2024.
Search quality concerns
Many industry experts have recently expressed concern about the declining quality of Google search results.
A section of the SEO community believes that the search giant’s results have gotten worse after the latest update.
These concerns have begun to spread to average Internet users, who are increasingly voicing complaints about the state of their search results.
Alternative perspectives
Web analytics platform SimilarWeb provided additional context to X (formerly Twitter), stating that its US data for March 2024 suggests that Google’s decline may not be as severe as initially reported.
Based on our data (search engine website category, US, March 2024), it looks like we’re not there yet: pic.twitter.com/RBUJp4ZLeb
— Similarweb (@Similarweb) May 1, 2024
SimilarWeb also highlighted Yahoo’s strong performance, categorizing it as a news and media platform rather than a direct competitor to Google in the search engine category.
Don’t underestimate Yahoo. They are doing very well. They are classified as News and Media on our platform and are therefore not a direct competitor to Google in the search engine category. But they rank #10 worldwide, #6 in the US, and #1 in their category. Far superior to Bing and OpenAI. pic.twitter.com/O4yJu5QEK6
— Similarweb (@Similarweb) May 2, 2024
At the same time, Google decreases slightly 👀 pic.twitter.com/9i7paeU1QG
— Similarweb (@Similarweb) May 2, 2024
why does it matter
Changing trends in the search engine market can affect businesses, marketers, and regular users.
Google has been at the forefront for a long time, shaping how we find things online and how users behave.
However, as their market share declines and other search engines gain popularity, publishers may need to rethink their online strategies and optimize for multiple search platforms in addition to Google.
Users talk about the quality of Google search decreasing over time. As people begin to try alternative search engines, different platforms must prioritize user satisfaction if they want to maintain or grow their market position.
It will be interesting to see how they respond to this increased market share.
What it means for SEO professionals
As Google’s competitors gain ground, SEO strategies may need to adapt to how each search engine’s algorithms and ranking factors work.
This might involve diversifying your SEO efforts across multiple platforms and keeping up with best practices for each.
The growing focus on high-quality search results emphasizes the need to create valuable, user-centric content that meets the needs of your target audience.
SEO professionals must prioritize informative, engaging and trustworthy content that meets search engine algorithms and user expectations.
Be flexible, adaptable and proactive to navigate these changes. Keeping a pulse on industry trends, user behaviors and competing search engine strategies will be key to successful SEO campaigns.
Featured image: Tada Images/Shutterstock
