How I Use Ecosia as an SEO Manager

As an SEO manager, I use plenty of search engines and AI tools. It's not just Google or Bing, and it's not just ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity or Gemini. I also use alternative search engines, and the one I use most is Ecosia.

Ecosia lets me quickly double-check what I need in both Google and Bing, from one place. I'll show you how. But first, let's clear up what Ecosia actually is.

1. What is Ecosia?

Ecosia is a search engine that uses search to fund environmental goals.

Every time you search, you help plant trees and fund projects such as renewable energy and the restoration and protection of biodiversity hotspots. Today that means more than 70 active projects in more than 35 countries.

Ecosia shows results from Google and Microsoft Bing, so in part it works as a proxy search engine. Alongside that, it has its own index.

Together with Qwant, another European search engine, Ecosia co-founded European Search Perspective, a joint venture building a Europe-based search index for both engines. I think it's a really good initiative.

2. How can you use Ecosia?

What I like most about Ecosia is that I can choose my search region, which is inherently useful for SEO work. Sometimes I want results from all around the world. Other times I only want results from the United States, the United Kingdom or Germany, and I simply pick that region.

I can also choose my preferred search provider: no preference, Bing or Google. Each choice gives me a different set of results.

Funding environmental projects doesn't mean Ecosia is behind on tech. It offers AI search features, including document uploads and AI-assisted search, and uses Melious as its AI provider. If you'd rather have a traditional search experience, you can turn every AI feature off.

You can also open a profile and track your climate impact: how many seeds you've earned, how many trees you've planted, how much energy you've generated and how much area you've potentially helped restore, just by searching.

There's a collectibles feature too, where you collect tree species, animals and tools, and learn more about them and about Ecosia's projects.

3. The Ecosia browser and apps

Ecosia is also available as a standalone browser, with Ecosia already set as the default search engine.

Its privacy panel keeps an eye out and warns you about unsafe sites. It loads fast, has an energy saver, and you can customise it to your needs.

There's also an Android app on Google Play and an iOS app on the App Store.

4. Ecosia for businesses

Ecosia offers solutions for businesses too.

Through Ecosia for companies, businesses can get in touch to fund tree-planting projects around the world. Ecosia has partnered with communities and large companies globally, and there are some great case studies of how businesses have used it.

5. Is it all real?

If you're wondering whether all this is actually happening, check Ecosia's YouTube channel, where they share their projects and make videos about them.

They're also on Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn and Facebook.

Ecosia is also fully transparent about its money.

It publishes monthly financial reports showing exactly how much it made and how it spent it, and you can check them any time.

6. How I use Ecosia as an SEO manager

Now for the practical part.

Checking SERPs by region and provider

I regularly need to check search engine results pages and how they differ across search engines.

Instead of going to each of the major ones, I use Ecosia.

I pick the region I want to check: all regions for a global view, or a single market like the US, the UK or Germany. Then I can see how a keyword ranks in Google, in Bing or in the European index. It's quick, and it works really well.

Going deeper with Ecosia AI

When I need more in-depth coverage, I use Ecosia's AI features, and Ecosia produces more clean energy than all its searches and AI queries use.

I can upload documents and images and use the standard AI chat for everyday tasks and questions. For complex problems, there's Think longer. I can also generate images to turn my ideas into visuals, and ask it to show sources for every answer.

The feature I like most is Learning. It breaks a topic down step by step, so instead of just handing me the information, it teaches me how things work. I use it regularly.

Ten blue links, or AI overviews: your choice

With every AI feature turned off, Ecosia sometimes feels like old Google with ten blue links.

That often gets me to the information faster.

When I want AI Overviews, I switch them on, and then I can look at the SERP through the eyes of potential visitors, or potential clients of the company I work for.

Images, Videos, News and Maps

Then there are the usual tabs.

In Images, I check whether it makes sense to create visuals for a focus keyword. I also look at Videos and News, and when I need more, Maps.

Jumping to other search engines

From Ecosia, I can search Wikipedia, Amazon and YouTube directly. That means I can quickly check several platforms, all starting from one place.

Clean, direct links

Ecosia doesn't wrap its results in redirect links, so you immediately see where a result actually leads, including any redirects, before you click.

Sometimes that's all the information you need as an SEO manager.

7. Why I recommend Ecosia

Over my years in SEO, I've recommended Ecosia to people in the industry, to my family and to people in completely different fields.

As an everyday search engine, it can easily be your default. For general searches and basic information, you'll find what you need quickly, without going to the bigger search engines.

I recommend it because you fund environmental projects, you help plant trees, and it's genuinely a good search engine. Otherwise, I wouldn't use it as an SEO manager.

Last but not least, and probably most important: it's fun. You're searching the web all the time anyway, so why not do it in a way that does something against climate change?

Try Ecosia as your search engine.