DuckDuckGo is a relatively new search engine that is making waves in the world of organic search. This private engine has experienced massive growth since its birth a few short years ago. You may be asking yourself why you should be concerned with this search engine. After all, Google continues to dominate the market. However, experts predict that an ever growing chunk of your website traffic will be coming from this search engine soon.
As we know and arguably love, Google is constantly developing the way their search engine works as well as their many other tools. The latest planned development from Google, in relation to how we use apps, is to make the process of downloading them an afterthought!
The Google policies regarding privacy and security are constantly being discussed and criticised. Many believe that Google has too much control over our information and too much insight into our online behaviours. However, on the other hand, Google are quick to defend their position and insist they collect data on internet users in a way that is in their best interests. This is an issue that has hit the headlines again recently as Google have now moved all of the controls in relation to privacy and security into one single hub.
One week ago, on Tuesday the 21st of April, Google rolled out its latest algorithm update targetting websites that aren’t optimized properly for mobile. This is the first time in the history of the search engine that mobile optimization has been used as a ranking factor. Fortunately for many, news of the update was released far enough in advance that site owners could prepare if they weren’t already mobile friendly.
For a change, Google was incredibly forthcoming with information regarding the update and even released guidelines to demonstrate best practices. These guidelines have helped countless businesses avoid a penalty in this past week. If your site has suffered then it’s certainly not too late to bring it up to code.
As Google continues to improve their search algorithms the quality of the results presented to users also continues to improve. More than ever the importance of factors external to the website in question are essential to SEO success. These external factors range from an effective and well conducted social media presence to the number of positive reviews the site has received on other websites. There is of course several things business owners can do to influence these things and to therefore improve the standing of their website on the search engines. As this concept of all-round quality has grown, some have questioned the role of an SEO expert within an organisation. It has become apparent that through high quality content, exceptional customer service and a strong social media presence, a business can see its website flourish in the search results with little regards to SEO as a separate entity. However, there are still several things that an SEO expert can contribute to the overall success of any website.
Over the past twenty years Google has rapidly become not only the number one search engine in the world but also the most visited website ever. With more than a million servers in centers around the globe, the internet giant processes more than a billion search requests every day. Although the majority of their profits come from Adwords, which is their paid advertising service, they also have a huge range of other wildly popular services.
The EU ruling on the right to be forgotten has continued to cause controversy as being seen as a barrier to free speech. The ruling, which gives individuals the right to request irrelevant or inadequate information about themselves be removed from the search engines, has been met with reluctance, not only from Google itself but also from the press. So far, more than 250,000 requests have been submitted to Google for information to be removed.
If you own a business then the chances are that you also have a website to represent that business. In this day and age, not having an online presence can be a serious obstacle to maintaining existing relationships, as well as gaining new customers. When it comes to effectively marketing a business website, one of the first things to consider is how to effectively optimise that website for the search engines. If nobody is able to locate your website through organic search, then you are missing out on a large amount of potential interest.
Search engine optimisation can seem a thoroughly daunting task. Updating the content of a website to make sure that Google and other search engines can accurately find and index it, can seem a huge task, but there are some simple rules for avoiding disaster.
Web3 Consulting has a comprehensive SEO strategy, and our in-depth analysis of exactly how to best present your website goes much further than the tips below. However, bearing these ideas in mind might just help you on your way to best optimising your website.
Now that we have understood how the online search engine situation has changed in the past decade, we can now evaluate the how these changes affect businesses and their online presence.
The focus on quality content and the punishment of bad content by search engines such as Google means that businesses have to take into account any content that is on their website. Investing in well-written, authoritative content means that search engines are more likely to visit the site and promoted to a higher ranking spot on their results pages. A better spot on Google is likely to contribute to a better return on investment for your website and in turn higher profits for your company. The majority of adults used search engines to look for information above any other information source, making it highly important for people to find your website with ease in the online space.
