5 Things Businesses Need to Know about Duck Duck Go

Founded in 2008, Duck Duck Go is a search engine that prides itself on being different than Google in several ways. With the slogan “Take Back Your Privacy—switch to a search engine that doesn’t track you,” the platform has appealed to user privacy by providing a search engine which doesn’t build a profile and knowledge of user habits. It has been said to be “a completely secure and private search engine”—which means that users are not tracked in any form and IP addresses are not collected. This plays out differently than Google as everyone sees the exact same results regardless of user preferences.

Why Duck Duck Go Continues to Gain the Attention

Duck Duck Go has gotten a lot of attention from the SEO and digital marketing space in recent years, while possibly not being common knowledge in the user community just yet. However, there is something to be said about the digital marketing community being interested. In the coming years, user privacy within a highly digital world could gain a lot of attention and increase in value and importance. Plus, a search engine that doesn’t tailor itself to users does level the playing field in certain ways that could be important for small businesses—more on that in a bit!

A recent article by Search Engine Land showed that the platform has had 10 billion private searches (and counting) which they are deeming as a reflection of the concern people now have for reducing their digital footprint online. Below is a screenshot from that article that shows the growth of the engine to date:

5 Things You Need to Know about Duck Duck Go As a Small Business Owner

Offers Several Different Search Features

Duck Duck Go is not just a Google alternative; it is an entirely different concept and platform, containing several unique features in both design and function. Here are a few unique features that are especially important for small businesses to be concerned with:

• Embedded Social Media. When you conduct a search for a person, business, or brand, you will get instant access to their social media—with a link and icon built in to the search results. Whether it is directly getting a customer searching for you to your LinkedIn or Facebook page URL, or allowing them to connect with one of your employees on Twitter directly, this platform is very social media forward and really makes all of the difference for small business accounts looking to build their following from relevant searchers.

• Search Apps (and their Alternatives). On Duck Duck Go, you can search the app store directly, and get immediate suggestions for alternatives if you have not completely settled on a software.

• A User Enhanced Platform. This is not to say that Google does not have their users at the core of their design (they do), but some might say that Duck Duck Go has really crafted their engine for the user in unique ways. Some of these awesome user friendly features include auto-suggested searches, maps and local search, image search, and instant answers.

While Google certainly has these features, Duck Duck Go has maximized the potential of these features on a clean and user-friendly platform. Most importantly to users that prefer Duck Duck Go, however, all of these features are presented with enhanced privacy. This means users can get all they can with Google with enhanced security.

User Experience is Shared

For small businesses this is a big one! Duck Duck Go shows the same search results regardless of the user conducting the search. This is in opposition to Google because it does not prioritize sites that a user has personally been searching, making rankings even more of an even playing field for businesses. This means that if you are the highest ranking in your industry, you get the first place result to every user that searches for your relevant terms. In terms of small business concern for this platform, it is more important than ever to improve your SEO and make sure you are worthy of land in those first few spots for your key terms.

Be Active and Focus on SEO

Duck Duck Go is going to have a slightly different approach to search engine rankings than Google, considering that a search looks the same regardless of the user that is conducting the search. Make sure your website SEO is the best you can make it and that you are consistently writing on your blog and posting on your social accounts. Further, Duck Duck Go’s interest in “instant answers” means that the discussion going on in your industry cold make the cut in answering a searcher’s question. You should be as engaged in your industry’s community as possible.

Advertisement is not a Part of this Search Platform

Unlike Google where you have to be concerned with AdWords, paid search, and other advertisement features, Duck Duck Go does not want advertisement to be a part of their user’s experience. As a consequence, small businesses do not need to be concerned with advertisements in the same way as they do with Google. Going off of the late point, this means you need to make organic your focus!

The Number of Users is Growing

As stated earlier in the article, the number of searches for this platform is growing significantly. This means that although it is a much smaller platform compared to Google, more and more people are actively seeking out ways to reduce their digital footprint online. This platform is clearly reaching people that have privacy and security concerns and is likely to continue growing in both importance and use in the coming year. Start by searching for your company on the platform and see where you fall in search, local and social media results.

What do you think of Duck Duck Go? How do you feel this platform could make an impact on your business’ online presence in the coming year? Let us know in the comments section below!

About The Author

Jason Hawkins / http://www.themiamiseocompany.com

Jason Hawkins is the CEO & Co-Founder of The Miami SEO Company. He has over ten years of experience in search engine optimization, conversion rate optimization and lead generation. His core responsibilities include identifying ways to increase value of services rendered, training staff on advanced SEO topics, and A/B testing internal processes to consistently improve client return on investment.