If you are like me and mulling over the role of Emoji’s in the search landscape, read on…
From typing to voice, to image - search is ever evolving and the inclusion of Emoji’s in search just took this to another level! Google has been debating the use of Emoji SEO for long, enabling it and disabling it time and again. However, in 2016 Google decided to re-introduce it (Bing and Yahoo have mostly always allowed it). And why not, they say our brains process visual information 60,000 times faster than text, plus emoji’s come with the intrinsic benefit of circumventing language barrier and further simplifying search usage for consumers!
However, the use of Emoji is not just limited to search. Today, Emoji is being used in email marketing, PPC, social media, marketing campaigns and SEO optimization. In fact, digital experts predict that Emoji SEO will be the next big thing in the next few years! It may appear inconsequential now, but the rate at which Millennial and Generation Z are using Emoji’s, Emoji SEO will become inevitable! Picture this:
- Nearly 92 percent of online consumers use Emoji on a regular basis
- Some linguists believe that Emoji could evolve to become a new standard of communication, as a language in and of itself
- With 845 Emoji’s available on a standard iPhone keyboard, using Emoji’s to communicate is naturally going to translate into how people use search engines
- A marketing automation company analyzed almost 9,400 marketing campaigns across iOS and Android platforms and discovered that Emoji usage within those messages had soared 775% year-over-year in the period ending March 2016
Being in its nascent stage, Emoji SEO has its own challenges (e.g. the intent of people using specific Emoji could differ on the interpretation of the Emoji itself, accessibility via desktops, meta-data tagging, page-rank methodology etc.) however, it does present immense growth opportunities and as digital marketeers we must continue to monitor the trend.
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