SEO Today Goes Beyond Google with DuckDuckGo

DuckDuckGo – A new search engine

The shadow of Google over the SEO scene is immense and powerful. For most SEO professionals, Google is the last word when it comes to search engines. They devise strategies keeping the algorithms of Google in mind. They conduct keyword researches on this search engine only and are basically blind-sided about any other search engine in the arena. As we go into the second quarter of 2016, this blinkers-on approach about Google in the SEO context is beginning to look a little threatened with the rise of DuckDuckGo.

DuckDuckGo – SEO experts should start considering it too

There are other players in the search engine arena that are beginning to register their presence, mudding the SEO waters considerably. In fact, you would miss out on a trick or two as an SEO expert if you continue to offer complete focus to Google alone. For example, there is the wily old fox, Bing, always lurking around the corner, forcing Google to look over its shoulders sometime or the other. Windows is not giving it up! Keeping Bing company is an upcoming superstar, DuckDuckGo.

A largely appealing claim of DuckDuckGo as a major player and a serious contender to Google’s throne is its privacy policy. Unlike Google, it puts a serious question on how your privacy is protected online. In a world that is growing serious about privacy with each passing day, this heir apparent is grabbing some attention. DuckDuckGo wants to take your searches into a private, anonymous mode, something that every searcher wants to do. So, you know how people are waking up to this search engine and how it holds potential to change the SEO scene.

Another reason why DuckDuckGo is grabbing the attention of SEO professionals is their ad space. There is only one ad opportunity up for grabs. It means, there are no challengers jostling for room along with your ad. When there is just one ad up on the screen against a keyword search, your chances as the ad buyer goes up so much more. The CTR is bound to shoot up higher than it would be on Google. With more than 108 million visits per month at a rise of 22% of their total traffic, DuckDuckGo is here to stay!

Social Media

This was the story of search engines alone. Now turn your focus on social media networks. This should interest the SEO professional as well. With social media networks like Facebook and Twitter, not to mention YouTube, offering more traffic every day, their combined strength can rival the ability of Google to provide incoming traffic on a daily basis.

Even if that does not surpass the traffic offered by Google’s referrals, it is still a sizable chunk, enough to keep the SEO executive interested. Mind you, this is traffic that you are getting over and above what you get from Google! Google has no influence on the social media traffic you generate. So why will you not keep them in your digital tray?

There are other websites that offer referral traffic to your site, beyond the scope and reach of Google. For example, twitch.tv is a referral site that generates 385 million desktop referrals. A site like BuzzFeed which is liberally shared on a social media network like Facebook alone generates more than 50 million referrals in a month. You see how Google is not the only one which has potential to generate sizeable referral numbers and keep you engaged as a digital marketer.

As a concluding statement, I would like to reiterate my stand that Google alone does not make the SEO world spin. Yes, there was a time when it seemed so, but not anymore. Like many other digital marketing players, it would be a mistake not to diversify and open out branches. By all means, continue with your SEO plan for Google. The only plan I advocate is to keep a plan B as well. Let the other players, strong, emerging players, contribute to your site’s expansion and popularity. It would be grossly foolish to let all that potential waste away!