Alternatives to Search Console
February 28, 2023
lsandil
Bing Webmaster Tools with Microsoft Edge
Microsoft Bing is experiencing a renewed popularity, despite Google’s influence in the search engine world. It is very easy to register on Bing Webmaster Tools, especially if you are already a Search Console user.
A few words about Microsoft Bing search engine
Microsoft Bing, or simply Bing, is the second largest player in the search engine market. It was developed by Microsoft and was introduced in 2009. The search options are roughly like Google: websites, images, shopping, news, travel, etc.
Microsoft had partnered with Yahoo! to offer additional opportunities to appear on the web for webmasters, and to get a bigger place alongside the giant Google.
Bing’s tool for webmasters: Bing Webmaster Tools
If you compare Bing tools with Google Search Console’s popularity, they may seem to lag behind. However, it might be a waste to overlook the traffic that Bing generates, which is why it’s worth looking into Bing’s tools for webmasters.
To be included in the Bing search index, you don’t have to register with Bing Webmaster Tools. But by doing so, you gain access to a whole set of tools that provide you with valuable information about your visibility. This way, you can optimize your traffic on Bing and generate leads.
Here are some of the Bing Webmaster Tools features, among others:
Get detailed reports on traffic-generating search queries, number of impressions and click volume,
- Submit your website to be crawled,
- Remove content you don’t want indexed,
- Monitor the performance of your web pages,
- Disavow links,
- Configure the way Bing crawls and indexes your web pages,
- Solve spam or malware problems.
All of these features allow you to determine if changes need to be made to increase traffic.
Referencing your website on Qwant
Created in 2013, Qwant search engine promotes the protection of personal data on the web. Therefore it attracts many Internet users who do not want to share their data with the giant Google.
A few words about Qwant search engine
“Qwant Search finds everything but who you are”: this is the statement that perfectly sums up what Qwant is, the European search engine that promises to respect the privacy of its users.
Indeed, unlike other search engines such as Google or Microsoft Edge, Qwant does not track you when you search and does not exploit data. No cookies are installed on the browser, and the history of queries is not recorded.
The entire business model of this search engine is based on the protection of consumers’ personal data: there is no commercialization of the data collected.
No packaged solution with Qwant Search yet
The only downside with Qwant is that it does not yet have an alternative to Search Console to allow webmasters to interact with the search engine.
However, it is possible to interact with the team through the Qwant contact form available on their website. Thus, if you do not find your website on the search pages, you can contact them to index your site.
Yandex.Webmaster in the Russian market
Alternative to Google Chrome, the Yandex search engine is called the Russian Google. It is the second search engine in Russia, not to be missed if you want to export to the Russian market.
A few words about Yandex search engine
The Yandex search engine offers the same tools as Google to its users, with a simple design. It has the reputation of offering a better user experience than Google, which may explain its success in Russia.
Indeed, Yandex offers a platform system that provides its users with all the services they need, with suggestion lists identical to Google. Its areas of specialization include: Yandex Maps, Yandex Images, Yandex Money for online payments, or Yandex Translate which is a translation tool.
The Yandex tool for webmasters: Yandex.Webmaster
The equivalent of Search Console for Yandex is the Yandex Webmasters tool, which allows you to get an idea about the quality and security of your website. The information you can get is the same as in Google Search Console, including:
- Information about search queries, statistics, and recommendations to improve your performance,
- Information about the indexing of your website,
- Information on external links pointing to your pages and on your internal links.
With the Yandex.Webmaster tool, you can also view the robots.txt files of your website and remove internal result pages.
Baidu Webmaster Tools in the Chinese market
Baidu is a Chinese company that has developed a search engine of the same name. Its operation is almost the same as the other competitors on the market, but its specificity is that it offers queries in Mandarin.
A few words about Baidu search engine
Baidu is the most used search engine in China, so it is essential to be well positioned on it if you want to reach the Chinese market. The functionalities are similar to the other search engines: websites, press articles, images or stock exchange results.
In 2011, Baidu set up a partnership with Microsoft to provide answers to queries in English. However, like all companies in China, Baidu follows government guidelines, which means that results pages are filtered, and some may be censored.
The Baidu tool for webmasters: Baidu Webmaster Tools
The Baidu Webmaster Tool offers the same type of interface as the Search Console, with features to optimize its visibility on the Chinese market: keyword analysis, diagnosis of the security and quality of your web pages, etc.
In addition, if your site does not have a mobile version, Baidu Webmaster Tools guides you in creating and customizing an application that will be the equivalent of your website.
What alternatives should you focus on?
In your SEO strategy, the integration of all these webmaster tools can bring a significant workload. Depending on your market and your visibility objectives, some webmaster tools may not be useful to you.
To help the search engines that you target less, consider using a robot.txt file. This way, you will easily indicate to search engines which resources of your site you do not want to index.
As you can see, the American giant is not the only one on the market: search engines related to Google exist and can be very interesting in your SEO strategy!