According to a recent study by Experian, Google’s market share for the first time in 5 years has been below 90%. The stats from October shows small growth from Microsoft and Yahoo powered searches which have taken Google to 89.33% market share, as the table below shows.

Experian summarised by saying

October saw the launch of Windows 8 with bing set as the default search engine which may have gone some way to increasing Microsoft’s market share. Online searches for Windows 8 increased by 120% throughout October showing the increased online interest for Microsoft’s new operating system. As search continues to diversify however, the market is likely to continue to shift and change.

Clearly, Google still maintains a huge competitive edge over the other search engines in the UK market. There are 18 times more searches conducted on Google Sites than on all the other search engines combined. However, this is encouraging news for Microsoft as bing once again starts to gain some momentum and traction in the UK search market.

But what does it mean for SEO in the UK?

In truth slipping below 90% was an almost inevitable event in search given the growth of Bing over the past year. Also given Yahoo has showed tiny signs of recovery following the appointment of Marissa Mayer as CEO (formerly of Google), this isn’t a huge shock to the search industry.

But does it mean you need to change your SEO tactics?

The quick answer is No.

Google still has by far the biggest share in the UK, currently most SEO’s target Google as the decisive search engine. They are Google centric. What this does mean is that you need to consider not just doing SEO for Google but also SEO for Bing and SEO for Yahoo, which powers search engines such as Lycos.

Images by Experian and BGR