Posted by Royh
[Estimated read time: 4 minutes]
SEO is not just about Google! Yes, thats right, I genuinely mean this and Im going to hang to my word.
Its common practice for SEOs to deposit all their time and energies into just a single search engine, but this is a singular approach. The truth is that SEOs need to investigate other strategies for generating trade which dont rely purely on Google. And to underline this point, Im going to take a quick look at a stream landscape and prove why this is an essential step for SEOs to take.
In mid-February, after a few months of in-depth testing, Google finally released details on a 4 paid ads on top. And theres a single particularly keen insight that Dr. Pete has uncovered that you need to pay attention to.
With 4 paid ads on top, Google is setting itself up in a enviable in front of of being able to control 80% of a formula above a fold. This scenario raises many questions, but a most intriguing a single concerns a effect it will have on a organic formula CTR.
For example, lets quickly do a search on a religion of enlightenment, Buddhism. Can you see a 2nd or 3rd results? Hardly positive karma, isn't it?
The alternative search engine
I could speak about a lurking potential hidden deep within Bing, but Ive got zero to add to a swathes of articles going over old ground.
Instead, I want to take a sidestep from stream SEO trends and concentration on a fastest-growing search engine: DuckDuckGo.
Its a search engine which respects a users privacy and, as a result, is operating in a niche which taps into a stream zeitgeist of security concerns. The world of Internet search is gradually becoming different from a trackable arena into a some-more private and anonymous realm, so DuckDuckGo find themselves first in line to exploit this brand new frontier of SEO opportunity. Its an exciting rise and, as I covered recently, a single that is melancholy to frazzle a edges of SEO.
As you can see here, in correlation to the increase of direct queries (more than 12 million per day), DuckDuckGo had some-more than 108 million visits in a single month, which is an increase of 22% in their total traffic.
And a sweetener with DuckDuckGo is that they have only a single in front of on top for ads. Naturally, this sets up a highly lucrative difference in between a CTR of a top formula in DuckDuckGo compared to Google and a bulldozing proceed of 4 paid ads on top.
The growth marketing opportunity
It should be becoming clear to you now that your SEO needs to concentrate on some-more than just Googles complex algorithms. SEO needs to take time to delve into a exciting world of guerrilla marketing and help to drive a growth marketing tactics of your client/company.
One of a most sweeping changes to SEO in recent years has been a scorched earth policy of social media traffic. What exactly do Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube have in common? Thats right, theyre driving huge amounts of trade thats out of Googles reach.
The top 5 biggest social networks by effusive traffic:
Im not being speculative when I say Facebook is a heading social media network for effusive traffic. Its a cold, hard fact. As you can see, according to SimilarWeb trade stats, in January 2016 Facebook sent some-more than 3.5 billion desktop visits to other websites. Thats just over 1.5 billion some-more desktop visits than Twitter.
The top 10 biggest referrals in effusive desktop traffic:
However, it would be a little foolish to simply renounce Google and put all your eggs in a social media basket. There are still plenty of other websites you should be looking to portion your SEO efforts out on.
Twitch.tv is a number a single referral site in a world and manages to deliver 385 million effusive desktop visits. Even a fifth most popular, BuzzFeed, still generates a huge 50 million effusive visits, and HackerNews closes a list with almost 20 miillion effusive visits in January 2016.
Final thoughts
Ive shown how times are becoming different in SEO, and all a clues point towards social media becoming a brand new Google. This, of course, could easily be misconstrued as repeating a SEO/Google mistake of neglecting diversification. However, this couldnt be further from a truth. Instead, it underlines a need to choose your tactics carefully on a SEO battleground and conflict a number of different trade sources.
If youve got any questions, or want to discuss how youre tackling a evolution of SEO, then Id love to hear about it in a comments below.Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on a top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by a Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!