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Search engines are web-based systems used for retrieving information from the Internet. They have economic power because of their position between information providers and information seekers. Search engines can influence the flow of information seekers towards information providers by the way information is indexed, stored, and portrayed as search results. If a search engine provides good coverage of website content from one group of information providers, e.g. developed countries, but neglects the coverage of information supplied by another group, e.g. developing countries, then information seekers – possible customers - would be automatically guided towards the content that is covered best. This effect has negative implications for many information providers as customers are guided towards foreign websites that are indexed more thoroughly and portrayed as relevant search results more often. If such search engine coverage bias exists between countries, it would result in business interest flowing away from countries with poorly covered website content and towards countries with well covered website content. This paper examines the severity of such search engine country bias against developing countries, using South Africa as an example. Website visibility - the number of existing, known hyperlinks that can guide a search engine’s crawler(s) towards a specific domain - is mentioned in literature as a possible cause of search engine bias. Search engines use known hyperlinks to guide their crawlers towards new, uncovered website content. This study shows that the higher visibility of websites from developed countries is a cause of search engine bias in favour of such websites. The visibility of South African websites is examined and discussed in the context of search engine coverage bias. Keywords: Internet, search engines, web search, country bias, website visibility, developing countries.