Google, Yahoo, Baidu, Excite, AOL, DuckDuckGo, Bing, Ask.com, Wolfram Alpha, Yandex, Lycos, CC Search, Swisscows, and MSN pay much less attention to what is actually on your web page itself (content-wise) than what some people think. As a matter of fact, you don’t actually have to mention your keyword anywhere on your website to rank highly for the keyword!

Ranking is determined most of the time, like in a democracy, by “voting”. If Google, Yahoo, AOL, or Big, MSN et.al. are “voting” for your website, you will rank highly or have a favorable placement when users are searching for any number of things. Google, Bing, and Yahoo are the dominant search engines based on the aggregate search traffic with Google out pacing the rest by a long shot.

BrightEdge (https://www.brightedge.com/blog/7-things-you-must-do-to-rank-for-your-keywords) has seven tips to help rank your keywords better. They begin with doing some keyword research beforehand, then move into the navigational framework of your website, and then off to SEO audits, and content creation/optimization and your on-page SEO’s, segway toward linked earnings, and social media, and finally tracking your performance. So, what does all of this mean?

Keywords are the foundation of website optimization. BrightEdge suggests that you “create an excel spreadsheet with a series of keywords from your competitors’ sites”. Aha! You may also wish to take a look at Google’s Webmasters Tools and add those to your list.

Website structure entails using the keywords to help users navigate the pages with ease. Does your website have a theme? Are there any other targeted themes or categories that can be helped with keywords?

An SEO Audit allows you to see what is getting you results and what is falling short. Blogs need to consider social metrics like Facebook or Twitter shares or retweets, likes, etc. as well as, the quality and quantity of backlinks that various search engines use to determine credibility and authority of the content contained therein.

Content creation, optimization, and on-page SEO is next. Content needs to look and read complete, ensure that it is more than 250 words depending on the topic. Content placement should be near the top of the page so it is the first thing that visitors see. Try not to duplicate content. Create metadata or clickable information links. If you use videos or pictures create descriptions so the SEO can capture that and rank your page higher too. Use headings and subheading to help separate data and information. If you have more than one page be sure they are all linked to one another.

Link earning means that other like your content and want to be affiliated with it. Links to your website from others forms what is called your backlink profile. Search engines look at the quality and quantity of those links when ranking your website.

Engagement via social media plays a huge role in rank and visibility. Number and quality of followers are also factors.

Keep track of your results. Track them month over month, week over week, quarter over quarter and year over year to see what works and where you can improve.

Who is good for what?

Google has a global market share of about 87%. However, searching in the major leagues comes with some trade-offs. For instance, privacy. Search engine titans catalogue browser habits of their users and share that data with advertisers and other interested parties.

Bing and the other suite of MSN search engines have nearly 23% of the search traffic in the USA. Bing offers a rewards program that is redeemable at Mircosoft and Windows stores.

Yandex is big in Russia with about 45% of their search engine traffic flowing through them. Belarus, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, and Turkey also use Yandex quite a bit.

If you want to search copyright-free then you might try CC Search. You can locate videos, graphics, and pics with repercussions.

Swisscows is the farm friendly alternative search engine. They never collect, store, or track data searched though them. They use AI (artificial intelligence) to determine the context of the user’s query.

DuckDuckGo does not track or store search data either.

StartPage ponies off of Google. They offer Google rich results, but do not track or store the searched data. The have a URL generator, which is a proxy HTTPS service, that eliminates cookie collection.

Search Encrypt uses a combination of encryption methods to encrypt the information that you search to ensure that your search stays private.

Gibiru touts themselves as the “Search engine for Patriots”. According to them they use a special Google algorithm that is unable to track and store your search data and uses no cookies.

OneSearch is a Verizon search engine product. They say it is encrypted, does not store or track search results, and does not share information with advertisers.

Wiki.com is a crowdsourced search engine. Which means it generates its results from the thousands of wikis on the net making it a community led information system.

Boardleader helps you locate message boards or online forums for a variety of topics.

Givewater attempts to have a positive impact on the world by empowering their users to help resolve the issue of poor water quality and ineffective sanitation around the world.

Ekoru uses renewable energy in their data centers. They do not store or sell any data from their searches. 60% of their monthly revenues got toward climate related charities, animal welfare, and conservation.

Ecosia is an environmentally friendly search engine. Instead of creating CO2 like Google does they plant trees for every 45 searches.