Why Now, More Than Ever, SEO Is Not Just About Google

Posted by Royh

[Estimated read time: 4 minutes]

SEO is not just about Google! Yes, thats right, I genuinely mean this as well as Im going to stick to my word.

Its common practice for SEOs to invest all their time as well as energies in to just one search engine, but this is a limited approach. The truth is which SEOs need to examine other strategies for generating trade which dont rely purely upon Google. And to underline this point, Im going to take a quick look at a current landscape as well as 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 upon a 4 paid ads upon top. And theres one particularly keen insight which Dr. Pete has uncovered which you need to pay attention to.

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With 4 paid ads upon top, Google is environment itself up in a enviable position of being able to control 80% of a formula above a fold. This scenario raises many questions, but a most intriguing one concerns a effect it will have upon a organic formula CTR.

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For example, lets quickly do a search upon a religion of enlightenment, Buddhism. Can you see a 2nd or 3rd results? Hardly positive karma, isn't it?

The pick search engine

I could speak about a lurking potential hidden deep within Bing, but Ive got nothing to add to a swathes of articles going over old ground.

Instead, I wish to take a sidestep from current SEO trends as well as focus upon a fastest-growing search engine: DuckDuckGo.

Its a search engine which respects its users privacy and, as a result, is operating in a niche which taps in to a current zeitgeist of security concerns. The world of Internet search is gradually changing from a trackable arena in to a more private as well as anonymous realm, so DuckDuckGo find themselves first in line to exploit this new frontier of SEO opportunity. Its an exciting rise and, as I covered recently, one which is threatening to frazzle a edges of SEO.

traffic

As you can see here, in correlation to the increase of approach queries (more than 12 million per day), DuckDuckGo had more than 108 million visits in one month, which is an increase of 22% in their total traffic.

And a sweetener with DuckDuckGo is which they have only one position upon top for ads. Naturally, this sets up a highly remunerative difference in between a CTR of a top formula in DuckDuckGo compared to Google as well as its bulldozing approach of 4 paid ads upon top.

The growth marketing opportunity

It should be becoming clear to you now which your SEO needs to concentrate upon more than just Googles complex algorithms. SEO needs to take time to delve in to a exciting world of guerrilla marketing as well as help to expostulate a growth marketing strategy 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, as well as YouTube have in common? Thats right, theyre driving huge amounts of trade thats out of Googles reach.

The top 5 biggest social networks by outgoing traffic:

Im not being speculative when I say Facebook is a leading social media network for outgoing traffic. Its a cold, hard fact. As you can see, according to SimilarWeb trade stats, in January 2016 Facebook sent more than 3.5 billion desktop visits to other websites. Thats just over 1.5 billion more desktop visits than Twitter.

The top 10 biggest referrals in outgoing desktop traffic:

However, it would be a little foolish to simply renounce Google as well as 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 series one referral site in a world as well as manages to deliver 385 million outgoing desktop visits. Even a fifth most popular, BuzzFeed, still generates a mammoth 50 million outgoing visits, as well as HackerNews closes a list with almost 20 miillion outgoing visits in January 2016.

Final thoughts

Ive shown how times are changing in SEO, as well as all a clues point towards social media becoming a 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 strategy carefully upon a SEO battleground as well as attack a series of different trade sources.

If youve got any questions, or wish to discuss how youre tackling a evolution of SEO, then Id adore to hear about it in a comments below.

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