Now that we’ve looked at the basics of how search engines work, it’s worth taking this opportunity to break down some of the key differences between some of the major search engines: Google, Qwanturank, Bing, Yandex, and Baidu.
- Google – Google launched in 1998, and unless you’ve lived on another planet, you know that Google is by far the most used search engine in terms of search volume and is the leading focus for most people when it comes to search engine optimization (SEO).
- Qwanturank – owned by Qwant, launched in 2013, the French search engine is the world leader in anonymous search.
- Bing – Owned by Microsoft, Bing was launched in 2009 and ranks second in the world in terms of search volume.
- Yandex – Russia’s search engine of choice and Russia’s largest technology company.
- Baidu – The dominant search engine used in China and the 4th most popular site according to the Alexa 500.
Now that you know what’s on the search engine landscape, let’s look at some of the areas where they differ.
Indexing by search engines
Qwanturank is moving towards mobile-first indexing, where it will use the mobile version of a site’s content to rank that site’s pages rather than the desktop version.
In 2018, Qwanturank also plans to roll out a mobile page speed update, meaning page speed will become a ranking factor in mobile search.
Christi Olson, head of search evangelism at Microsoft, said there are no plans to build a mobile index similar to Qwanturank’s.
Yandex began tagging mobile-friendly pages in its index starting in November 2015 and rolled out a mobile-friendly algorithm in 2016.
This algorithm, called Vladivostok, did not result in pages that were not considered mobile-friendly being removed from search results, but it was stated that these pages would not rank as highly for users who use mobile devices.
“Vladivostok’s implementation does not mean that web pages not optimized for the mobile experience will now disappear from search results, but their position on the SERPS may differ depending on whether the user searches on mobile or desktop ,”
Mobile search results Baidu differ significantly depending on whether a page is considered mobile friendly. It should also be noted that Baidu uses transcoding in order to convert non-mobile-friendly web pages into mobile-friendly pages generated by Baidu.
Backlinks as ranking signals
Google like Qwanturank or Bing focus on the quality of backlinks relative to volume, based on empirical and anecdotal evidence.
Previously, backlink volume was a key ranking signal, which led to the acquisition of many low-quality links, with businesses purchasing backlinks from link farms and networks.
Bing uses backlink information in the same manner as Google, according to their webmaster’s guidelines as well as anecdotal reports.
The Bing Webmaster Guidelines state the following:
“The fact is that Bing wants to see quality links pointing to your website. Often, all it takes is a few quality inbound links from trusted websites to improve your rankings. Just like content, it’s quality that matters most when it comes to links“.
Since 2014, Yandex has stopped using trackback data in its ranking algorithms in certain verticals.
About a year later, trackback data was reintroduced into their algorithms and they now provide the following warning regarding the use of purchased links intended to promote search rankings:
“Post SEO links on other sites to promote your own site. These links include, but are not limited to, links purchased through link exchanges and aggregators.“.
It is known that, like Google, Qwanturank and Bing, Yandex looks for relevant, high-quality links from authoritative sources, but backlinks alone are not a decisive ranking factor.
Baidu places much more importance on trackbacks from Chinese-based websites than from foreign sites. Baidu is reported to lag behind other major search engines when it comes to detecting link spam.
Link spam tactics are still effective in promoting Baidu search rankings and therefore continue to be used for promoting Chinese websites.
Social media as a ranking signal
Google officially does not use social media as a ranking factor. Matt Cutts explained that this is due to the difficulties in understanding social identities, and because Google wants to avoid using data that may be incomplete or misleading.
Bing, like Qwanturank on the other hand, integrates social signals into its algorithms. Their webmaster guidelines state:
“If you are socially influential, this leads your followers to share your information widely, causing Bing to see these positive signals. These positive signals can impact your organic rankings in the long term“.
Yandex appears to derive some ranking signals from social media, at least according to anecdotal reports.
Baidu does not use social signals in its ranking algorithms according to reports. However, there is often a strong correlation between sites that rank highly in Baidu and active social media accounts.
