Yes its Working: Why SEO Is More Than Just Optimizing For Google

The search industry is always on a buzz about how to crack the Google algorithm updates and rank in search engine results.

But is SEO just about Google?

Too often we only think of Google when it comes to SEO because you want to rank in the greatest search engine there is. But are you missing out on anything when you are just going for the big picture?

Google isn’t the only place on the web where you could rank or sell a product. From a customer’s point of view, I would watch a YouTube product review before buying my favorite phone and if that looks good, I’d straight away go to Amazon, read some reviews and add the phone to my shopping cart.

For some, privacy is a matter of concern when online shopping since Google tracks literally every move you make. These people may opt for a search engine like DuckDuckGo where they are not interested in your data!

SEO is not just about Google and there are a lot of possibilities on the web to rank your products and get good conversions.

Search engine alternatives

The obvious question is…

Is SEO for non-Google search engines worth it? We rarely see headlines of other alternative search engines.

The answer is, the recent changes in the popularity of new search engines makes the effort worth a try. Not just that you can find new potential opportunities, you could also learn how SEO works on these new platforms and whether you should give attention to them or not.

When it comes to Google alternatives, there are many search engines that you could try to rank on.

Yahoo Search

Yahoo! Search is a web search engine owned by Yahoo. Yahoo search technology works very similar to Google’s. If you’re optimizing for Yahoo, focus on straightforward and simple keywords since Yahoo tends to show webpages that have exact keywords.

Yahoo treats title tags as an important factor to rank web pages in search results. Meaning, you should optimize the title tag relevant to the search queries without being long or repetitive.

Bing

Yahoo and Bing are really not that good at handling search queries, compared with Google. Just like optimizing for Yahoo, Bing works on straightforward keywords. Bing does not crawl and index URLs very frequently. To make sure your website gets indexed on Bing, you should submit your site on Bing Webmaster Tools.

DuckDuckGo

While most people use Google to search and find the information they need, Google does a lot of tracking and collecting your information. With more news on data breaches and personal information being misused, DuckDuckGo is a perfect solution for this. Unlike Google, DuckDuckGo tries to protect the privacy of its users by showing all users the same search results for a specific keyword and personalizing them based on the history of the user.

The Internet is moving from a trackable arena to an anonymous realm, DuckDuckGo exploits this SEO opportunity with currently more than 12 million direct queries per day and 108 million visits per month.

The best thing? They only have one position on top for ads while Google bulldozes the approach with 4 paid ads.

DuckDuckGo has its own crawler called DuckDuckBot and there is little information available about their optimization outside the traditional methods.

You can apply the following techniques to rank in DuckDuckGo search results:

Attract quality links for your key term
Do deep keyword research to find what searchers might be looking for
Learn trends from your previous visitors and their demographics
Add a geo-qualifier to your search query if you want to get listed in local results
Optimize for Bing and Yahoo

Social media

What do Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube have in common?

Huge traffic that’s out of Google’s reach.

While social media may or may not affect your Google ranking, social media profiles are the first thing that appears in search results for brand names.

For others, social media is no less than a search engine. People don’t just go to Google to find everything. They also use social profiles to find what they are looking for. A job search on LinkedIn, purchasing through an Instagram business account or even to find the trending news on Twitter, social media is a major medium for search.

Moreover, prospects check your social profiles and reviews to find out how authentic you are and what kind of presence you have on each channel.

Companies should apply the concept of SEO not only to the popular search engines but also to the social profiles they are using.

Amazon

Amazon recently surpassed Google to become the #1 product search engine. It is a great opportunity for every business to list their products and make more sales. With over $232 bn net sales in 2018 alone, there is no doubting Amazon is a leading online marketplace. So who doesn’t want to be a part of it?

While most people try to rank their product listing on their webpage, listing products on Amazon opens the door for millions of potential customers. Amazon dominates Google search results, too. This means you could hit the jackpot if you properly optimize your amazon listing for SEO, not to mention giving a close eye on product reviews. Product reviews have a huge impact on a customer’s buying decision.

Amazon SEO is more than ranking the page in Google, but to rank your page within Amazon. Almost half online shoppers go directly to Amazon for purchases rather than going to Google search results. This Amazon pie will definitely taste good for marketers if they are serious about getting conversions.

Wrapping up

Ultimately, the web is all about making your presence known. Be it YouTube, Facebook, Bing or Amazon you want your prospects to see your existence. Apply the concept of SEO everywhere you can.

Your turn. Where else do you think is a good platform to apply SEO tactics?

Guest author: Ramzeen is a social media guy at TechWyse who loves big Ideas and making brands look good on social media. You’ll usually find him on a football pitch or tasting new teas!

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