Google is certainly the predominant search engine. But it’s not the only one, yet the majority of clients we work with in North America and Europe, are often focused on Google. Certainly this is where one starts in terms of a good SEO strategy, but it needs to extend further than that. Including regionalization for searches.

Unfortunately, many SEO or SEM (Search Engine Marketing) firms will focus you towards Google and getting your Page Rank up (another frustrating issue is Page Rank) on Google. We look at the Search Engine market like other good SEM firms, by tiers. Tier 1 is Google, Yahoo!, and MSN. Tier 2 are Ask.com and Mama.com and some similar engines. Then there’s Tier 3, where there are localized search engines and regional players. All of these need to be taken into consideration. Let’s take a small market example. In Nova Scotia, the number one search engine is NOT in fact, Google. At last check it was Mamma.com. Why? Primarily because the largest Web access provider is Aliant, the regional phone company. Aliant uses Mamma.com as their search engine through their start pages. Most people who are not Web-savvy, leave that initial page as their Start Page and thus conduct the majority of their searches through Mamma.com - so local businesses marketing on the Web locally would do better to focus their efforts more on Mamma.com ranking.

Another dynamic shift in SEO that will impact search marketing strategies is visual search engines such as SearchMe, Kartoo and Quintura. Then there’s Grokker and Pixsy which focus on image and video searches. Attention needs to be paid to these engines as well.

Fortunately, most techniques and tactics for SEO that work in Google cross over to specialized search engines and localized engines, but not all. A good SEO or SEM firm will understand alternate search engines and be able to help optimize your pages and content accordingly.