As time has gone on, and our search engine patterns have changed, a big new trend is beginning to emerge: people are using Google for branded searches more than ever before.
Put another way, people are searching for “Nike” instead of “best running shoes”, or “GreenMellen” instead of “web design companies in Atlanta”. People are doing their research elsewhere, generally on social media or in AI tools, and then using Google to take them to the company site.
SparkToro‘s Rand Fishkin recently shared some amazing data in this LinkedIn post, culminating in this image:
So what does this mean?
More than ever before your company needs to be the answer, not an answer. You need to be active in social media, you need to be showing up in AI answers, and you need to be showing your expertise to your prospective clients. Once they see how great you are, then they’ll head over to Google and find your website.
(and make sure your website doesn’t disappoint)
There are certainly still some people that search for “best running does” and “web design companies in Atlanta” on Google, but those numbers are fading. If you rely on that kind of traffic, the next few years could get pretty rough for you. Take the time now to build your entire presence, and reap the rewards when people head over to Google to find you by name.
