Whether you create a personal brand on purpose or start a successful company by accident, you’re going to need to leverage marketing to grow and expand. Unless you’ve been house-bound before the current COVID-19 lockdown rules came into place, you’ll know that search engines are the key to success.
With their help, you can utilize SEO trends to rank highly on SERPs and boost sales and conversions. Plus, leads are likely to go through the roof, too. It all stems from Google and Co’s influence on the industry.
But, why are they at the top of the tree, and will their position ever be challenged?
Bias Is Low
The haters will point out that the success of search engines, Google especially, is down to biased algorithms. They run and control the internet, so they get to control what people see, including their branding and marketing efforts. Although it was once a popular theory, and there’s no doubt that it doesn’t hurt to incorporate them into your strategy, there is evidence. Google search bias is very low, according to Gotch SEO. The only potential sticking point in their report was that Google employed humans and that humans are inherently biased. Still, it’s not much of an argument for search engines rigging the market.
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And Reputation Is High
A direct knock-on effect of the above is this – customers turn to them for answers. Search engines’ reputations are high, to the point shoppers check with them before making a purchase. There are several ways that this piece of knowledge should impact your advertising campaigns, but the two main ones are SERPs and reviews. Ranking on the first page of Google will instantly make you reputable, increasing the chances of conversions. Plus, quality reviews will reinforce the image that you want to convey, i.e., a business that is honest and reliable. To put it into perspective, there are 74,000 searches for reviews from car buyers every month.
The Competition Is Flailing
For the crown to slip from the heads of search engines, there has to be stiff competition. Social media platforms are the closest competitors, yet they have distinct disadvantages. One is that Google and Co. are using their history to consolidate success via billion-dollar budgets. More problematic for search engines’ rivals is the continued PR disasters. Facebook and Twitter have to deal with calls for web regulation regarding user content. Search engines, however, slip under the radar unscathed.
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Content Will Always Be #1
What makes engine leaders and what will continue to do so for a long time is the fact that content is essential to marketing. While social media companies benefit from this, search engines exploit it more than any business because they give people the power to react in real-time. Yes, you may see an ad that you like on Instagram, yet you’ll use Bing or Google for the bulk of your research. Content only encourages browsers to use search engines more often, strengthening their position at the top.
The crown isn’t going anywhere yet. Will it one day? What do you think?
Featured image credit: Pexels – CC0 Licence
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