Target International Clients:  What search engines do they use?

Most firms that focus on injury, criminal and family law do not have an international client base.  However, if you are involved in tax, imports, patents, business, immigration and other practice areas, search in other countries might be of great interest to you.

Where does your firm rank internationally on these search engines?

Top Search Engines Across the Globe
United States – Google
China – Baidu
Japan – Yahoo  (Google / MSN)
UK – Google
France – Google
Germany – Google
Canada – Google
Korea – Naver
Brazil _ Google
Turkey – Google
Italy – Google
Switzerland – Google
Singapore – Google

As you can see, Google does dominate most countries.  However, there are some countries where Google does not (Korea, China, and Japan).

Overall Search Market Share of Companies
Google – Global     78.45%
Baidu              8.87%
Yahoo – Global          7.16%
Bing              3.17%
AOL – Global          0.58%
Ask – Global          0.53%
MSN – Global          0.09%
Microsoft Live Search     0.09%
AltaVista – Global     0.09%
Excite – Global     0.02%
All the Web – Global     0.02%
Lycos – Global          0.01%

Obviously, Google dominates from a pure total search market.  Baidu, China’s leading search engine, makes up the second largest search engine, with Yahoo properties in third.

Individual Search Engine Market Share
Google           27.32%
Baidu           8.87%
Google India      5.25%
Google China      5.03%
Yahoo! Web Sites 4.40%
Google U.K.      3.65%
Bing           3.17%
Google Germany      2.83%
Google Japan      2.65%
Google Brazil      2.58%
Google France      1.92%
Google Italy      1.74%
Google Canada      1.71%
Google Mexico      1.49%
Google Spain      1.35%
Yahoo! Japan      1.18%
Google Vietnam      0.99%
Google Australia 0.94%
Google Pakistan  0.93%
Google Turkey      0.91%
Google Poland      0.90%
Google Taiwan      0.81%
Google Netherlands 0.80%
Google Columbia    0.76%
Google South Korea 0.73%
Google Malaysia    0.72%
Google Romania        0.69%
Google Argentina   0.61%
Google Russia        0.61%
Google Thailand    0.58%
Google Eqypt        0.58%
Google Peru        0.54%

This chart breaks down the data into actual individual properties.  So for instance, Google Argentina only makes up .61% of the total search market.  As you can see Google in the US, Baidu in China, and Google in India make up the largest percentages of search (due to population sizes and internet access).

Search Market Share in the United States
Google – 65%
Yahoo -  19%
MSN -     9%
Ask –      4%
AOL –      3%

Finally, we have the chart of just United States search.  Google still dominates according to ComScore.  You can also see results from another data provider here, which put it even higher.

Conclusion
The biggest question though to take from this, is that if the United States is not your only target for your business, then you should seriously consider checking your rankings and optimizing your site for other countries.