Listing your business on top of search engines is a cornerstone behind any online success. And it can’t be otherwise, with 93% of all website traffic coming from search engines. Moreover, about 98% of all Internet users enlist the help of a search engine at least once every month. On average, a person does at least 3-4 searches daily, meaning exposure through these websites is not just advisable but mandatory if you want your business to succeed online.

Naturally, not all search engines are made equal, though practically, they use similar algorithms to list their search results. This means that if you have done a great job with the SEO of your website, you won’t have to make any considerable changes to appear on all search engines for particular words. Still, there are some differences when listing your business.

Why is search engine exposure instrumental to your success?

If having 93% of all traffic coming from search engines is not enough to sway you that you need to play by the search engines’ playbook, you might want to consider going offline as a whole. Still, there are far more benefits to being among the featured websites on all search engines. First, the position will bring you some outstanding CTR, which you can’t reach by any other means (be it social media, emails, or anything else). For example, the first position in Google for any given keyword will give you an average CTR of 19.3%. In comparison, the average CTR on Facebook is 0,9%.

While most of us can confidently name Google as a search engine, Larry Page and Sergey Brin’s brainchild is not the only search engine on the market. With Microsoft’s Bing generating over 1 billion visits each month, it’s safe to say that investing some time and resources in other search engines might prove highly profitable.

As of this moment, Google remains the King of search engines, with 92% of the global search engine market. Bing is far behind in second place with 3.33% of the market, followed closely by another Microsoft-owned search engine – Yahoo (1.34%). Forth in the rankings is Yandex, with 0.97% of users preferring it over any other search engine, and fifth is China’s Baidu.

While intuition would probably tell you to put all your eggs in the Google basket, the fact is that millions of users generally avoid the tech giant’s engine and prefer one of the less popular ones. This is especially true in China, where the state regulates the internet, and the population generally uses Baidu. So, to ensure you will appear in every market you desire, you need to know how to list your business on these top 5 search engines.

Google My Business

Having your business listed on Google has no alternative. With 92% of the global market, it’s hard to imagine having a successful business without using Google’s search results as an organic traffic source.

Benefits

• It’s free – It’s a mutually beneficial partnership where you get a highly popular platform to show your business location, website, and contact details. At the same time, Google enriches its library of services, which might interest people.
• You will appear on Google Maps – With 70% of people using Google Maps to navigate and search for locations, it’s not hard to imagine how beneficial it would be to have your brand and store on the map. Moreover, over 97% of users learn of local businesses thanks to the Google business profile.
• Your leads, sales, and revenue will increase drastically – GMB is a goldmine for leads. 70% of all customers will go to a business location because it was listed on the Google business platform. Furthermore, a regular business with GMB will enjoy an average of 1,009 searches monthly, and half of them will end up contacting the company. Moreover, 16% of all google listings exceed 100 calls per month.
• You can get reviews – Getting reviews is the best thing to happen to a business. With 90% of consumers reading reviews before visiting a company, getting some form of review is instrumental for your success, and having them on Google is easy, convenient, and valuable.

Downsides

• Everyone uses it – Being so popular is a blessing and a curse. You might get all the benefits of being in the GMB program, but so does your competitor from across the street. This somewhat nullifies the advantages over your competitors but still allows you access to a much larger public. So enlisting will not be pointless.
• False reviews – With 90% of people reading reviews before contacting a business, Google reviews become a double-edged sword. Some unfair competitors can ruin your reputation by writing false comments. Still, that’s a risk you must take, and you should moderate the comments you receive every day, so you can detect and respond quickly to such reviews.

How to enlist on Google My Business

Enlisting your business on Google is a quick and easy process that doesn’t need any specific knowledge or experience. Your first step is to Sign in to your account or sign up if you don’t have one already. Next, go to the GMB webpage and click “Manage Now.” There you will have to write your business name and details. Note that you should write down your business’s exact name and don’t add any keywords. The latter may even force a suspension by Google.

The next step is adding your business to the map (if you have a physical store). Again, make sure to add the exact address, or people won’t find you on the map. To be sure, check if the pin on Google Maps is in the right spot.

Next, choose your industry and services, and enter your business hours and other relevant information. Also, add photos, Q&A, and news. Finally, you will need to verify that you are the business owner. For this, you will have to add a phone number and a website (if you have one). Then, you will receive a verification code through mail or text. Once you enter the code, you will get full ownership of the business listing. The last step is physical verification, which comes after pressing the “Finish” button. You will have to verify your listing either by automated video call or by a postcard to the address you’ve entered. The latter may take up to 12 days, so we recommend finishing it faster using the automated video call.

Bing Place for Business

At first, glance, having only 3.4% of the search engine market might sound like a way too negligible number to waste time on. Still, Bing has over 1 billion users each month. Furthermore, it’s Microsoft-owned, meaning most windows and android products have Bing as a default search engine. Moreover, most people prefer to avoid Google’s nosy cookies and use Microsoft’s search engine instead.

Benefits

• Far less competition – With fewer users, there is lower competition for their attention. Not anyone is ready to invest their time and resources to add their business on Bing, but as it takes around 30 minutes to enlist, it’s really a hidden gem.
• Requires minimal maintenance – There is truly nothing to it. All you need to do is keep the relevant information up-to-date.
• Microsoft owns it – This means that all Microsoft OS and products have Bing as their default search engine. Many prefer to continue using them, as does browsers like Firefox.
• Has useful analytics on the listing – Allows you to compare your relevant statistics with your competitors. Also, Bing gives you information on how to improve your brand.

Downsides

• Far fewer people use it – There is no denying it. With Bing Place of Business (BPB), you will reach far fewer consumers.
• Bing’s algorithm is not as good as Google’s – This means you need to get a bit more creative with the keywords, but that still won’t help you get nearly as many leads as using Google.

How to enlist on Bing Place for Business

Your first step should be to create an account. Visit the BPB webpage and follow the instructions. It’s easy, and it takes no more than 5 minutes. The next step is to check if your business is not already enlisted. If it is, good news, your work is almost done. Just click on the option “claim a business,” verify you are the brand owner, and you can then edit all the existing information.

Even if you don’t have an account already existing on Bing, if you have one on Google My Business, you can just transfer all the details and be done with it.

Still, for the sake of argument, let’s say you decided to start your enlisting with Bing and not with Google. Then you need to create a new listing.

The first step is to choose the business type and country. Just select your country of business and your industry. It’s astoundingly straightforward.

Next, you need to complete your business profile. Write your relevant business info like name, phone, address, and website. Ensure your address is accurate, as it will appear on Bing Maps. You can also add open hours, social media accounts, images, a logo, and a short description.

Finally, it’s time to verify your listing, and you have two options. If you want to make it instant, you should choose the option to confirm through the website, email, or phone. Verification may take up to 14 days, after which your info will appear on Bing search.

Yahoo

Yahoo is well past its prime, but if you run a business, you should acknowledge it as a potential organic traffic source. Especially if your primary target is the US market. Yahoo has more than 225 million active users per month and is the most popular email among US citizens.

Benefits

• Untapped aging audience – Yahoo offers a unique opportunity to advertise to an age group that rarely uses the internet, except for some basic needs like emailing and quick searches. The primary users are aged 50+ and rely on their first account from when Yahoo was the most popular search engine in the world.
• Increased visibility – Yahoo will automatically share your listing to over 40 other websites under its cap. This will help your reach out immensely.
• Outstanding for local listings– If you are targeting the US market, it’s probably just as good as having a listing in Google, but you have far less competition. Still, that doesn’t mean you can swap Google for Yahoo altogether.
• Increases trust – Yahoo requires a physical address, creating a highly trustful platform where users know that scammers would likely skip it.

Downsides

• Smaller audience – We can’t pretend as if Yahoo is that colossal business opportunity. It’s an excellent addition to your overall portfolio, but standalone, it’s nothing. Especially if your target audience is outside of the US
• Lags behind in technology – Although Yahoo is Microsoft owned, it uses outdated technology, which is seriously behind Google and Bing. Still, they are trying to improve, so that might change soon.

A bit harder to Navigate – The whole system is a bit less intuitive than the competition, which makes it harder for newcomers to get used to. Still, it’s not rocket science, and one can easily find their way around.

How to enlist on Yahoo

Though navigating the interface of your Yahoo Business Listing, also known as “Yahoo Local Basic Listing,” is a bit hard, signing up is relatively straightforward.

First, you must visit the Yext website, where Yahoo has outsourced its business listings. There, your most straightforward solution is to write down your business, and it will scan it from over 50 search engines and just add it right in. After you find your website, you must confirm your email and address. Next, you will be taken to the price plan page. Yahoo will try tricking you into signing up for one of their plans. However, if you click “Claim your Basic Listing only on Yahoo here,” you will get a free one.

This will get you to the form, where you must enter some information, confirm that you are not a robot, and click “Place Order.” Next, you will receive an email, which you need to confirm, and that should be it.

Just to be sure, you will have to check if your Yahoo Listing Status says “Opted in.” If it does, you are done. If not, you will have to opt-in, which can be done by a phone call or through an official submission. The second option will take around two weeks to complete, while the former will have an immediate effect.

Since Yahoo is the seniors’ choice, all of this can be done by phone.

Yandex

Being Russia’s preferred search engine, Yandex does not sound as appealing as the previous entries. Still, with a $14 billion market cap and over 50 million users monthly, getting your business on Yandex should definitely not be out of the question. Yandex is an excellent choice if your business targets Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and Russia, as the search engine’s primary users are in these areas.

Benefits

• Tap into the anti-establishment target group – The generally distrustful people would stay away from big brands like Google and Microsoft, so Yandex is the next best thing.
• Perfect for targeting Eastern Europe and Central Asia – Yandex is the search engine of choice for countries in Russia’s sphere of influence. So if you target people in these countries, Yandex is a must.

Downsides

• Relatively small market – 50 million users are just a tiny fraction compared with Google, Bing, or Yahoos numbers.
• Users are mainly in Russia – While it does have around 2 million users monthly from the USA, Yandex is used primarily in Russia.

It’s Russian based – While that’s not a big problem on its own, the Russian Government has proven to be somewhat untrustworthy in 2022.

How to enlist in Yandex Business Directory

The first step, as always, is to enter your account or create one if you don’t have one yet. Then, go to the New business listing page, where you must fill out your business name, industry, and address (You should also pinpoint it on the map). Next, you must enter your contact info and confirm your registration. This is done through an SMS, which should arrive within 10 minutes after you’ve shared your phone number. After you’ve successfully verified your business, you have the opportunity to add some more details, like open hours, service area, and others.

If you have a physical address, it will show up in Yandex maps in a few days. Afterward, you can add additional business lines, industries, and other details.

Admittedly it’s not that hard to do, and adding your address in Yandex is definitely something you should do whenever you have a 15-minute free window.

Baidu

Like Yandex, Baidu is not very popular in the US, but it’s most widely used in China. So listing your services there might prove very profitable if your business is intertwined with the country.

Benefits

• It’s the Chinese Google – With 1.5 billion people in a single market, Baidu is tough to beat.
• A growing market with a traveling population – Chinese tourists are becoming more common. Just like we prefer using Google Maps everywhere, so do the Chinese use their own search engine’s map. So having your business listed will get you way ahead of your competitors, even if you live outside China.

Downsides

• It’s paid – You need to pay to get listed, which is strange for a search engine, but as a monopolist on the Chinese market, I guess they can afford it.
• It’s predominantly for the Chinese market – The Chinese market might be huge, but it’s still one market. Baidu is rarely used outside the Asian country.
• The process is complex – You’d probably have to use translation or someone who knows Chinese to get by.

It’s China owned – A state holding a search engine is always a bad sign, and although censorship will probably let your business on the map, in a conflict, this can be swiftly changed.

How to enlist my business on Baidu

Enlisting your business on Baidu is simultaneously the easiest and the most challenging thing you can do. You need to contact a company in China, ask them to add your business, pay a fee of a few thousand Yuan (a few hundred dollars), and they will add your business. You will have the opportunity to add all your information, but changing it afterward won’t be as straightforward as on other search engines.

For Baidu, the best course of action is to hire a third-party representative that will deal with the enlisting, while you will just enjoy the benefits. That, however, is only profitable if you have a business in China or you are in a high tourist destination where Chinese tourists are well-known to visit. Otherwise, enlisting on Baidu is frankly a waste of time.

What you need to remember.

Each of the top 5 search engines has its own benefits and downsides. Naturally, Google and Bing are a must. Yahoo is recommended, and Yandex is good to have, while Baidu, you need only in specific circumstances. The good news is that almost all of them are easy to manage, straightforward to enlist, and purely profitable to have. Still, for all of them, you will need a website, and the best way to get one, with the best hosting services you can find, is to get to HostArmada and check out our offers. We can even help you get the best plan depending on your needs and preferences. So call us now, and let’s get you started.