A review of top search engines: Is Google losing positions?

Google has long stood uncontested as the leader in search. It has generated the majority of organic traffic globally, with Bing, DuckDuckGo, Yahoo, and many other options available to users as useful alternatives. 

Things started to change in 2024, with AI-powered engines like Perplexity and ChatGPT creating a stir. They transformed how users search for information and started generating traffic to websites.

We checked the amount of traffic brought in by major search engines in 2024, including AI-powered search engines like Perplexity and ChatGPT. We also analyzed traffic both globally and in specific countries. 

Here’s what we found during our analysis!

Brief methodology overview

Our analysis is based on Google Analytics data from 2024. We collected this data from a sample of over 13,700 websites, all of which have integrated Google Analytics in compliance with SE Ranking’s Terms of Service. 

We based our analysis on aggregated data only. This ensured that the results reflect broader trends and patterns across the selected sample. All findings presented in this report are derived from historical data and represent our interpretation of anonymized information.

Below are the countries included in this analysis: 

For this study, we used the default list of search engines specified in official Google documentation. Sources like YouTube were excluded from the analysis because they were not part of the default search engine list. 

While we strive to provide accurate and meaningful insights, we recognize that alternative perspectives or interpretations of the observed trends may exist.

Top 10 search engines by organic traffic

Google remains the dominant player in search, driving around 94.80% of organic traffic per month on average. 

As you can see from the graph below, the gap between Google and other search engines is significant. Google was the most popular search tool in 2024 for finding information online.

Here’s who appears on our list of top search engines:

Even though other search engines continue to generate less than 5% of organic traffic per month on average, the dynamics centered around 2024 showed some interesting fluctuations. Bing is still the leader in this group and competes with other engines, (including local ones) whose share also increased in 2024. This means that users are open to testing and adopting alternative search engines.

If you’d like to know more about the average shares per month for each search engine, check out this file.

Now let’s review each search engine’s performance in 2024 to see if their shares increased or decreased.

Google

Google had quite a journey in 2024, beginning with release of AI Overviews, firstly to US users and then to 100 locations. It also introduced Gemini 2.0 and launched multiple algorithm updates.

Although Google’s reputation as the go-to search engine for users around the world didn’t change in 2024, its share fluctuated a little. Google’s had its highest average traffic share in January 2024 (95.53%), but declined slightly over the following months. And although it reached its lowest point in November (94.45%), the search giant rebounded in December to 94.62%. Our data, however, shows that Google lost 0.91% of its traffic throughout the year.

Bing

Microsoft Bing ranked second among the top search engines in 2024. Bing is also recognized for adding generative AI features to its search functionality. Although Bing released its first AI feature in July, it rolled out an expansion to it in October 2024 that enabled it to generate AI answers to informational queries.

Bing is still one of the top search engines despite having a much smaller traffic share than Google’s. This means you should still make it a part of your strategy and track your positions on it, especially if your users use it to search for information. This is easy to do with SE Ranking’s Rank Tracker, which lets you track multiple search engines, including Bing.

According to our data, Bing showed steady performance in 2024, starting at 3.39% in January and reaching its first peak at 3.64% in May. In the summer months, Bing traffic dropped, reaching its lowest traffic share in August at 3.21%. Seasonality was likely a factor here. 

Bing picked up its momentum in Q4 with its highest recorded average share in November (3.81%). It met a slight seasonal drop in December (3.55%). Overall, Bing traffic increased by 0.17% over the course of the past year.

DuckDuckGo

DuckDuckGo advertises itself as a privacy-focused search engine, with its boldest claim being that it doesn’t track users or collect personal data.

Traffic from DuckDuckGo increased gradually throughout 2024, from 0.48% in January to 0.69% in December—a 0.21% increase. This reflects the demand for privacy-first alternatives.

Yahoo

Yahoo is a longstanding player in the search market and has been around for 20 years. It has a portal-style interface that combines news and search capabilities.

Yahoo also saw an overall increase, reaching 0.40% in December, compared to its January share of 0.13%. By the end of 2024, its share increased by 0.27%.

Ecosia

Ecosia is a German eco-friendly search engine that plants trees with the searches made by users. It appeals to environmentally conscious users and also has ads, news, an AI chat feature, and more.

Ecosia’s share showed a slight decline throughout the year, from 0.32% in January to 0.31% in December—a 0.01% decrease.

Baidu

Baidu is China’s dominant search engine. It primarily serves the Asian market and also offers services like AI-powered tools and multimedia search.

Baidu’s traffic also fluctuated in 2024, peaking in March (0.13%) and dropping to 0.01% in October. Overall, when comparing January to December 2024, its share decreased by 0.01%. And although Baidu’s share in the Asian market (its target) may actually be higher, we did not include it in our analysis.

Qwant

Qwant is a French search engine that prioritizes user privacy. It claims not to track users or sell their data, positioning itself as a European alternative to Google.

Qwant started 2024 at 0.01% in January and steadily grew to 0.04% in December—a 0.03% growth. 

Yandex

Yandex, a Russian search engine, offers different services beyond search, including email and maps. It might dominate in Russian-speaking regions, but we did not include them in our analysis. Its share fluctuated between 0.01% in January and 0.03% in December, still marking a 0.02% growth.

Naver

Naver is one of South Korea’s leading search engines. Its interface is in Korean, with no English version.

Naver started the year with less than 0.01% (0.0027%) in January and peaked at 0.03% in November and December. Its overall share grew by 0.03% by the end of 2024. 

Aol

AOL, one of the oldest search engines and founded in 1985 as America Online, continues to serve a niche audience despite its declining popularity.

Aol’s share saw minor fluctuations. It started with less than 0.01% (0.0018%) in January, managed to reach 0.01% in March, and kept this momentum going until December 2024. This was a 0.01% increase over the year.

Organic vs AI traffic shares analysis

The organic search engine market share remained relatively consistent throughout the year. In our data sample, it ranged from a low of 53.44% in February to a high of 60.70% in April. In May, organic traffic dropped to 59.78% and the following summer months also saw a decline, likely due to seasonality. Since then, it has not returned to its peak level.

Overall, the average share of organic traffic is 58.11% per month. We also observed an increase of 2.39% from January to December.

AI-powered engines like ChatGPT and Perplexity were notable contributors to website traffic in 2024, especially in the latter half of the year. They generated a small amount of traffic with an average of 0.03% and 0.01% per month. 

ChatGPT and Perplexity traffic

In the graph below, you can see the traffic dynamics for ChatGPT and Perplexity. Although the gap between organic traffic and traffic from ChatGPT and Perplexity is significant, we see a steady upward trend for the latter two, with a sharper one for ChatGPT.

ChatGPT’s influence grew significantly in August (0.01%). This happened after OpenAI launched its search engine prototype called SearchGPT in July 2024. This isn’t necessarily the only reason why it grew, but it could certainly be a defining factor. Chat started listing the sources it took information from, which could have led to these sources getting increased referral traffic from ChatGPT. 

Since August 2024, traffic from ChatGPT started to climb from negligible levels earlier in the year to a peak of 0.09% on average per month in December. Overall, the traffic from ChatGPT grew by 0.09% by the end of 2024.

Perplexity.ai, on the other hand, steadily grew throughout the year. Starting at less than 0.01 % (0.0013%) on average in January, it peaked in November at 0.02% before slightly declining in December. Perplexity showed steadier month-to-month growth compared to ChatGPT but had only a 0.02% increase by the end of the year.

If you’d like to know more about the average shares of organic traffic vs referral traffic from ChatGPT and Perplexity, check out this file.

Country-level outlook: Top 5 search engines and AI impact

In 2024, organic search remained the dominant traffic source across all the locations we selected for this analysis (the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain, and the Netherlands), and Google remained the dominant search engine in all regions. Bing consistently held second place, followed by DuckDuckGo, Ecosia, and Yahoo.

Some countries also showed higher adoption of ChatGPT and Perplexity, though their shares compared to organic traffic count were still quite small.

Now, let’s look at the data by country.

United States

Organic traffic in the US started strong with 57.91% in January but gradually declined, reaching its lowest point in December with 42.39%. The average share of organic traffic in the US is 49.39%. Over the year, organic traffic in the US declined by 15.53%.

While organic traffic was decreasing, Google maintained its position as the leading search engine in the US market, with an average traffic share of 91.03% per month. However, its monthly shares reveal a consistent downward trend over the year. Google’s highest average organic traffic share was in January, at 92.67%, while its lowest average share was in December at 89.91%. This reflects a drop of 2.76% over the year.

We found that by looking more closely at Bing, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo, and Ecosia’s performance in the US, we can see that these four search engines started to generate more traffic.

Bing, the second most popular search engine in the US, demonstrated consistent growth during the year. On average, it drove 5.36% of organic traffic per month, but its share grew from 4.42% in January to 5.84% in December. This is a 1.43% increase.

Yahoo also made it to the top five in the US with an average of 1.54% organic traffic per month (0.59% increase). DuckDuckGo and Ecosia closed the top five engines with averages of 1.49% and 0.07% per month (0.43% and 0.02% increase). 

To learn more about the average shares of top search engines in the US, check out this file.

As for AI search traffic in the US, traffic from ChatGPT was minimal during the first half of the year. However, from August (0.01%) onward, ChatGPT’s share saw significant growth, peaking at 0.05% in December. 

Perplexity.ai started at less than 0.01% (0.0018%) in January and maintained a steady increase throughout the year, reaching a peak of 0.01% in December. Unlike ChatGPT’s late-year spike, Perplexity’s growth was gradual.

United Kingdom

The situation in the UK is pretty similar. Organic traffic share started at 52.37% in January, faced some fluctuations mid-year, and steadily declined throughout the year, reaching its lowest point in December at 47.39%. While the average share of organic traffic in the UK is 49.93%, it saw a 4.97% decline in organic traffic.

The UK search market is also heavily dominated by Google, with an average share of 93.53% per month. The search giant started the year at its highest point of 95.54%, then faced a sharp drop in March (93.34%), and reached its lowest point in November (92.54%). Although we observed a modest recovery by Google in December (93.00%), its traffic in the UK declined by 2.54% from January to December.

Bing remained the second most-used search engine in the UK, with an average organic market share of 5.06% per month. It first grew in March to 5.12%, and jumped a second time in November at 5.99%. During the year, its portion grew by 1.89%.

DuckDuckGo, Ecosia, and Yahoo also made it into the top five, just like in the US, but with a slightly different position distribution. DuckDuckGo and Yahoo traffic grew by 0.18% and 0.03% respectively, but Ecosia lost 0.01%.

To learn more about the average shares of top search engines in the UK, check out this file.

ChatGPT’s share remained minimal in the first half of the year, but it started to rise from August (0.01%), peaking at 0.05% in December.

Perplexity.ai began with less than 0.01% in January and maintained consistent growth to 0.01% in December. Perplexity.ai’s traffic grew gradually across all months, but it is still behind ChatGPT, as you can see from the graph below.

European countries (Spain, Germany, France, the Netherlands)

The situation in other countries is pretty similar, with organic traffic being the dominant source of traffic to websites. According to our dataset, the Netherlands stood out with the highest average organic traffic share at 63.81%. France (59.27%), Germany (56,86%), and Spain (57.42%) maintained mid-tier organic traffic shares.

The list of top search engines in these locations is the same with slight regional variations:

• Google and Bing lead in all locations. 
• In France, Qwant (France-based search engine), also made it to the top five with an average of 0.44% per month.
• Ecosia, a German search engine, averaged 1.12%, held third place in Germany.

As for referral traffic from ChatGPT and Perplexity:

• France, Germany, and Spain led the way in ChatGPT-driven traffic, accounting for 0.02% of all traffic. The Netherlands reported that ChatGPT referral traffic was at 0.01%.
• France, Germany, and Spain achieved the Perplexity.ai traffic share at 0.01%. The Netherlands again lagged with less than 0.01% (0.0030%).

What does this mean for SEO and businesses?

While organic traffic share has remained pretty consistent in 2024, the growing referral traffic from AI-driven search engines highlights new opportunities for visibility. This upward trend signals that businesses should start considering AI platforms like ChatGPT and Perplexity as part of their digital and SEO strategy. 

You can get listed as a source in AI-generated answers. ChatGPT, for example, might include a link to your website in its source, giving you referral traffic. This also applies to AI-based features in traditional search engines, like AI Overviews in Google that contain a list of sources used to generate an answer. Getting featured as a source in AIOs can help you build your image as a reliable and trustworthy information provider. But even if you don’t get links from AI search engines, you can still increase your brand visibility and awareness through brand mentions. This won’t send you referral traffic but will promote your brand to your target audience.  

You still need to optimize for Google, as it continues to generate the majority of organic traffic globally. But you should consider utilizing all visibility improvement options when optimizing for visibility in both Google’s regular SERP and inside AIOs. Additionally, businesses can increase their visibility through YouTube as this is one of the most cited websites in AIOs. 

Since other engines like Bing, DuckDuckGo, and Ecosia are gaining traction, capturing these additional traffic opportunities can benefit your strategy and business. Solely relying on organic traffic from Google can weaken your businesses, so implement a diversified strategy for greater stability in the long term.

It’s also important to adapt to behavior shifts in your target users. You can’t optimize for your target users if you don’t know where they are and how they search.

How to track these changes

Here’s how to monitor your business’s visibility:

• Google (regular SERP + AIO), Bing, Yahoo

Use tools like SE Ranking to track your performance in these search engines. Just choose a search engine when creating a project to get daily position updates. In addition, the platform offers an innovative AI Results Tracker that lets you monitor keywords that trigger AI Overviews, analyze sources featured in AI-generated answers, and much more.

• Other search engines and AI platforms

Use Google Analytics to monitor traffic from smaller search engines and AI platforms: 

1. To track organic traffic from different search engines, filter data by medium (Session source/medium) and choose organic. You can also select your organic traffic source (Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc.) 
2. To analyze referral traffic from ChatGPT and Perplexity, filter data by medium but choose referral. Then specify ChatGPT or Perplexity as sources.

Conclusion

Here’s what we’re seeing:

All this shows that there is a clear shift in how users search for information, with AI search engines now beginning to complement traditional search engines. 

We’ll keep an eye on this and share more insights on our blog, so stay tuned!