You open Semrush. Your site shows 2 visits per month. Maybe zero. You feel bad. Then you open AdSense and see real money sitting there. Real clicks. Real people. What is going on?
I had this exact experience. I was running a niche site about financial help for older adults. Semrush said it was basically dead. Ahrefs agreed. But the site was making around $500 a month from AdSense. Those people had to come from somewhere.
The answer is Bing. And almost nobody talks about this.
The Big SEO Tool Blind Spot
Semrush, Ahrefs, Moz, and all the other big SEO tools are built around Google. Their keyword databases, their traffic estimates, their rank tracking — it all runs on Google data. When they estimate traffic, they look at Google search volume and figure out roughly how many clicks a certain rank would get.
Bing is not in that calculation. Or if it is, it is a tiny fraction that barely shows up. So if your site gets most of its traffic from Bing, those tools will look at you and say nobody visits this site.
That is not a bug. It is just how they work. But it matters a lot if you are building sites in niches where Bing users are the main audience.
Who Uses Bing and Why It Matters
Bing comes as the default search engine in Microsoft Edge. Edge is the default browser on every new Windows computer. Most people who buy a Windows laptop and never change anything end up using Bing without even knowing it.
Who are these people? Often older adults. People who are not very technical. People who use a computer for specific things — checking their bank account, looking up health information, searching for financial help, reading news — and do not spend time customizing their browser.
This has a big effect on which niches Bing is good for. Topics like senior resources, government benefits, medical questions, legal help, financial assistance, and general how-to content tend to get a lot of Bing traffic. Young tech-savvy users switched to Google or DuckDuckGo long ago. But a 65-year-old on a Windows laptop with default settings is probably on Bing right now.
The Real Numbers Nobody Shows You
Google has around 90% of the global search market. Bing has somewhere between 3% and 10% depending on the country and how you measure it. That sounds tiny.
But in some niches, Bing’s share is higher than average because of the demographic overlap. If your site is about something that older, less technical people search for, Bing might be sending you 20%, 30%, or even more of your traffic.
And here is the other thing. Bing users click ads more. They are less likely to use ad blockers. Your AdSense RPM on Bing traffic is often higher than on Google traffic in certain niches.
How to See Your Real Bing Traffic
Stop using Semrush to judge your site’s traffic. Use Google Analytics 4 or whatever analytics tool is on your site. In GA4, go to Reports, then Acquisition, then Traffic Acquisition. Look for Organic Search in the channel column. That includes both Google and Bing.
Also set up Bing Webmaster Tools. It is free, takes ten minutes, and shows you exactly which Bing queries are sending people to your site. Once you see your actual Bing impressions and clicks, you will understand what Semrush is missing.
What This Means for How You Build Sites
If you pick your topics based mostly on Semrush or Ahrefs keyword data, you might be ignoring a whole category of keywords that are perfectly good — they just do not show up because the tools are blind to Bing traffic.
Think about what kinds of people use Bing. Then think about what those people search for. Then go build pages that answer those questions. The competition is lower because most SEO people are not even looking there.
Sites about grants for seniors, government programs, Medicare questions, legal aid, utility assistance, veterans benefits — these tend to do very well on Bing. And the advertisers targeting those audiences pay good money, which means your AdSense RPM goes up.
Do Not Judge Your Site by SEO Tool Traffic Estimates
Semrush traffic estimates are not the truth. They are an estimate based on Google data. They are useful for comparing sites to each other and for finding keyword opportunities on Google. But they will never tell you how much Bing traffic you are getting.
For that, you need real analytics. And if you are in a Bing-friendly niche and you have not set up Bing Webmaster Tools yet, you are flying half-blind.
Set up Bing Webmaster Tools. Check your analytics. And stop worrying about what Semrush says your traffic is.