Google reigns supreme

Whenever I talk to clients about search engine optimisation and what they can do to improve their search engine rankings, I make sure I refer to "the major search engines" rather than getting specific about which search engine I'm talking about.

The reality is that Google is the only search engine you really need to worry about in the New Zealand market when optimising your website. Statistics from Hitwise just released show that for the last 12 weeks to December 27 2008, Google accounted for 92.27% of all searches in New Zealand. Compare that to 72% of all US searches in the four weeks to December 27, with 17.79% for Yahoo and 5.56% for Microsoft's Live search.

So, that means that when optimising your website for a New Zealand audience, you can focus your efforts primarily on Google. However, if you're looking further afield, it pays to keep Yahoo and Microsoft in mind as well.

Having said that, don't rule the other players out. Consider whether this creates an opportunity for you to achieve higher results in those search engines for keywords that in Google might be too difficult to compete for. And remember that most of the SEO techniques that will generate results for you in Google's rankings will also work for the other search engine rankings.