Over the past few months, the digital marketing sphere has undergone a geo-social revolution, which has been led by social networking and social deal websites. Some of the leading social media websites leading this revolution are Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, while the top social deal sites are Foursquare, Groupon and Scvngr. This local revolution has resulted in both search as well as SEO, developing into a location-based game.
Search engines have always been concerned about geographical locations. A few years ago, many of them like Google, Yahoo and MSN Bing, began adding ‘geography’ to their list of relevant factors. Soon, the social media revolution began changing the way people search for online information, just like it changed numerous other aspects of the Internet. While previously, more importance was placed on the location entered by a user in a digital marketing search query, now, the area where the searcher was located began to be considered more important.
Search engines improved their algorithm, placing more value on the searcher’s location, to display search results that would be more relevant to the user. Accurate information about a user’s exact geographic location also helps search engines serve digital marketing ads from local companies, which are expected to increase online conversions, immensely. The main reason why search engines like Google began concentrating on ‘localising search’ is because of the growing popularity of mobile phones, which have global positioning systems (GPS) and Internet connectivity.
These smartphones are simply flying off the shelves, in hundreds of countries around the world, as more and more people decide to go mobile. Internet-enabled mobile phones also feed the desire of users to remain constantly connected to their friends on various social media websites. Many users are addicted to various social media applications and digital marketing games, relying heavily on their mobile phones to stay connected. As a result, mobile search has become more important than ever.
Google has always been the first-mover when it comes to anything related with search. Realising how popular social media was becoming, it soon developed Google Realtime, the first search engine for searching through digital marketing comments, tweets and posts from social media websites. This social media search engine allows users to view up-to-the second updates from sites like Twitter, FriendFeed, Facebook, MySpace, and Jaiku. One of the best features of Google Realtime is that it is able to filter search results according to the geographic location of the searcher.
Currently, searches run from mobile phones represent up to 10 percent of all searches run on Google. This is expected to rise, as more and more Internet-enabled phones are sold. Hence, most digital marketing experts predict that Google will continue to develop its search algorithm to include geo-social factors for determining search engine rankings for various keywords.
Brands conducting digital marketing strategies must understand how crucial it is to garner social media ‘real estate’ by interacting with mobile users. Companies that showcase their location on social-deal sites like Facebook Places and Foursquare, while using keyword-rich descriptions, stand the chance of gaining much higher search rankings.
Qudos Digital is a leading digital marketing agency, and can be contacted on 0845 388 5583 or info@qudosdigital.co.uk.