There was a time when
marketers openly voiced their opinion against Google’s encrypted search
, going as far as saying that Google is “bending the internet to it’s will”. Two years later, Google’s encrypted search has not only persisted but they have slowly, but gradually made the entire search encrypted thereby stripping the marketers of an important tool from their online marketing arsenal – the keyword data.
To add to marketer’s troubles, Bing – the second largest search market share holder – has also started encrypting search results thereby causing similar stir in the search marketing world.
Search Engine Watch reports that the Bing encrypted search is completely optional at this point. It is not even mandatory if you’re logged into your Microsoft accounts.
However, just like Google did, Bing will get there soon enough.
HubSpot reported the trend with Google’s encrypted search and how the keyword data was lost over time. You can expect the same with Bing, but possibly a little more expedited than it was with Google.
Image Source: HubSpot
According to comScore , Google’s market share is around 67%, while the market share of Bing is at 18%. Bing also powers Yahoo search, so it wont be long before it joins the encrypted search party.
For now, Google and Bing combined control 85% of all online searches, which means soon enough, we as marketers will completely lose insight into what keywords searchers use to find our sites.
However, this time, marketers will be better prepared to accept such unwelcome changes from the search giants. After all, both the search engines and marketers share a common goal – to please our target audience with valuable and relevant content.
