On Google’s World Domination
In the context of search, what does it mean that Google has become the number one search engine in the most important countries in the world but five -China, Russia, Japan, Taiwan and South Korea?
There are two views on this, from an SEO perspective, it means that search marketers ought to concentrate on improving search results mainly on Google, bearing in mind local differences not only in the way people search or interact with the information, but also in the language used. Curiously, this is the type of question that most SEOs are asked when commencing an international campaign, i.e. are there any other search engines that should be considered? The truth is although there are a handful of search engines, focusing on Google will reduce time and effort when producing keyword research and designing the SEO campaign.
On the other hand, what is worrying about Google monopolising search is the fact that they do not provide any level of support for its free products, i.e: Google Maps, Google Video Sitemaps, etc., leaving small businesses out of the search equation. Big brands will find it easier to get visibility as they have bigger budgets to spend in research and potentially, search specialists investigating everything needed to promote their businesses online. However, this is not the case for small businesses, and they will not have optimised local listings, products trending on the shopping results, videos and pictures at the top in video and image searches, etc. Not only that, even in PPC, small players will not have dedicated managers to help them optimise campaigns, even worst, they might not even get phone support.
It is a shame that the whole principle of the Internet could come to an end, where regardless the size, companies were able to compete. If 2011 is the year of localised results, Google becoming the number one search engine in most countries means bad news for small businesses; and potentially less work for search marketers. We wished there were more Yandex and Baidus out there!
