Which search engines should our B&B website target?

The quick answer is "all of them." However, that is a little too simplistic. Generally speaking, a well optimized Bed and Breakfast website should show up well in most search engines. The fact is, not all search engines are used equally. Currently (Jan 2006) there are three search engines that control the large majority of all searches. The following graphic is based on data collected by Nielsen / NetRatings for November of 2005 illustrating what share of the search traffic each of the search engines is responsible for. Notice that Google and partners that use Google's results make up 58% of the search traffic. The other two big players are Yahoo and MSN. The other search engines contribute very little to the overall volume of searches performed.

The big 3 search engines, Google, Yahoo and MSN, are responsible for roughly 90% of search related traffic. These are the search engines to target with any Search Engine Optimization methods and marketing strategy. These are also the search engines to watch for your placement. When you look at your history of referrals from search engines, if it says a search engine like iWon is sending you the most traffic, this is a very strong indication that your marketing to Google, Yahoo and MSN has gone poorly and something is wrong. Its an indication you are missing out on a lot of potential guests.

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