In the world of search engine optimization, many behave as if there is only one game in town. For English-speaking audiences in particular, these people can be forgiven to some degree: Google enjoys 80 percent or more of the search engine market throughout large segments of the world.

However, that remaining 20 percent can be a meaningful source of traffic, income and conversions at-large if targeted properly. Most notably, Bing and Yahoo are the next two largest competitors, with over 15 percent of market share in many countries.

But what incentives exist to encourage brands to target Bing and Yahoo specifically? We’ll take a gander at three major reasons you don’t want to ignore these platforms.

It’s Easier to Achieve Results

Google has created a complex set of algorithms designed to maximize user experience, but it also serves as a bulwark against a very competitive atmosphere being easily manipulated by marketers and brands. In order to ascend the ranks of Google’s SERPs, you must put in copious amounts of work and wait seemingly eons to see results in all but the least-contested niches.

With Bing and Yahoo, the nature of SEO is much simpler. Instead of pinging search engines and waiting months to determine whether your efforts are paying off, you can begin seeing results much sooner if there is less competition in your niche (there usually is). Bing and Yahoo also utilize SEO-friendly procedures that don’t penalize the use of select links or make keyword usage innately complex.

They Love Social Signals

Think about all the hard work your brand may be putting into social media. This valuable channel helps brands gain exposure and reach their target audiences, but it provides diminished value in the world of Google SEO. While social media pages can rank in select search results relating to your brand or locally-relevant topics, the use of social media itself doesn’t provide inherent SEO benefit via Google.

On Bing and Yahoo, however, social signals are a true boost to SEO. This means your social media activity can help bolster the visibility of your website’s key pages in relevant search results. In the case of many brands, optimizing outcomes for these search engines may be as simple as setting up Bing Webmaster Tools and associating your brand’s website and social media platforms together.

There’s Far Less Competition

In any apples-to-apples comparison of SERPs between Google and Bing/Yahoo, you’ll almost certainly find far fewer competitors targeting the same keywords. Much of this has to do with the fact that Google has become such a behemoth in the world of SEO, sucking up virtually every brand focused on SEO.

While Bing and Yahoo combined only generate about a quarter of the traffic as Google, the number of brands you’ll have to fight against in order to effectively be visible is arguably even lower. As such, pinging search engines with optimized content is not just more likely to have an impact, but your results will likely provide net benefit for a longer period of time.

Bing and Yahoo may not be the biggest, but they have an abundance of opportunity awaiting those smart enough to target them. Whether it be easier use of SEO practices, fewer competitors or benefits from social media impacting performance, giving these search engines attention just makes sense.