State of Affairs in the SEO world

Google has had a monopoly in consumer searches over the last few years. However, the rapid growth of social media and changes in the online behaviour pattern of consumers has created a number of challenges for Google. In case, your business is dependent on Google searches, you should follow the latest trends to make sure that they do not have an adverse impact on your business:-

Organic reach has gone down

Despite the fact that Google still has a major share of the search engine traffic, the consumer’s level of intelligence has undergone a big change in the last few years. Organic reach has gone down. Organic reach refers to the number of people who see your post through unpaid distribution. This is because most of the internet users are searching for information elsewhere.

With users being well aware of the difference between organic listings and sponsored listings, this has made them wary of clicking on paid ads even if they are the best source of information that they are looking for. As the competition for many keywords have gone up, the rise in ad prices has led to the presence of mixed information in searches. Most of the internet users rely on the opinions of their peer groups while looking for any information.

Mobile applications and social networking sites are capturing market share

These days, most internet users have become increasingly dependent on their mobile devices for everything from scheduling their daily routine to making new acquaintances. Online consumer traffic is, therefore, splitting at a fast rate. The rise in the number of mobile applications has given tech-savvy users a far more targeted option. For example, instead of searching through all pages of Google for the best bistros in New York and finding results that are difficult to understand, users can just pull up Yelp to make that decision in half the time through the application’s detailed listings of the best establishments and peers’ reviews & ratings.

Similarly, a person who used to search for the latest hairstyle trends on Google is now likely to use Pinterest. So, as a business owner you need to know exactly where your client is looking for your product, instead of relying solely on your product gaining a top ranking in Google’s search results. Through social media, you can invite your clients into a conversation, listen to their grievances and act on rectifying them. A more effective social media strategy for businesses is to engage in customer-centric interaction. So, having a good ranking may not be enough to attract traffic.

People follow the opinions and decisions of their friends

People no longer rely only on the search results of anything they look for in Google. Their ways of searching have undergone a change. Facebook’s latest move to come up with a search option is one of major threats to Google’s market share. When internet users search for something like a movie or a clothing brand, they also want to scope out the opinions and tastes of people who are close to them. Google has been quite slow to adapt to this trend. People are more likely to respond to their friend’s favorite clothing line rather than the one that comes up on the first page of Google.

Facebook has the plus point of faces

Though people are divided on the issue, many people do not trust Google as much as they used to earlier. The ability of having faces associated with names is the biggest plus point of Facebook. Google doesn’t have such an advantage. Though it has tried to catch up with Facebook through Google Plus (G+), this feature has not been able to provide users with the expected benefits.

Being social proof is one of the major factors that can have an impact on consumer’s decisions. Till the time Google finds out a way to come up with a better social platform than Facebook and help people share what they want to, it may become a tool meant for academic research. Giving people the information they are looking for is the main function of search engines. However, the point of concern is that since clients have many other options regarding where to search, businesses that have till now relied completely on SEO need to know where the customers are looking for what they need.

About Vanessa Kim

Vanessa is the principal contributor to this Guest Post. She is a professional content writer works for Saffron SEO. She believes in creating ideas, making use of logic and analytical thinking to it’s core potential. Staying self-motivated, Digital Marketing for him arrives as an inherent passion development services and much more.