SE w(O)ah

 

I’m a Gen Xe'r, I was around when the sweet sound of dial up rang in my ears like angelic trumpets, I can remember floppy disks and Walkmans (smell the nostalgia).

I watched as the Internet bubble expanded and popped and what was left standing was a few giants.

I’m old enough to remember Netscape Navigator (I popped my Internet cherry on this bad boy, it was messy, but my god it was fun). Excite, Alta Vista and Yahoo! Remember those?

One of these hulking behemoths started by Larry page and Sergey Brin has now become ubiquitous with the word search. You know you've made it when your brand becomes the actual term. We no longer searched for things on the internet we "Googled" them. 

But how much the world has changed since those early internet highways. Little villages are springing up, and those villages are becoming booming towns and cities and they want the search to just be inside their little eco bubble thank you very much.

The internet is more fragmented than ever.

Why do you think Google bought Youtube? Because they know that most kids are leveraging that for search instead of their platform. 

Look at TikTok, it’s looking like outstripping Google for search queries.

TikTok videos are also starting to appear in googles search results.

What does this mean for the future of SEO, I predict a continuing fragmentation where users explore and hang out on more niche social platforms and guess what, if you aren't appearing on those platforms, you ain't gonna attract young talent. Your website and google just became irrelevant (sorry all you hardworking SEO guys and gals).

GENERATION ALPHA

TikTok is not only a driver of search but a facilitator too. Word of mouth and trust building at the speed of thought are where its at for Generation Alpha.

And personal brand building leverages that trust at a much deeper level.

data from riseatseven https://riseatseven.com/blog/the-ultimate-guide-to-tiktok-seo/

Think about the impact this will have on your products and services appearing on search AND how these new users habits will affect this change generationally.

My suggestion build out your companies personal brands across these bigger social channels. LinkedIn TikTok and YouTube. As platforms grow their search volume increases as well.

Oh but we don’t need to worry about that, we don’t make our money from appearing on "kids platforms". Okay smartypants but the talent you need to hire decade after decade DO and now you don't exist.

So good luck with that hiring and growth curve prediction you put together for the next 20 years.

It’s not so much the slow march of progress but a hop, skip and a jump!

Can’t we just stop all this social stuff and go back to forums 🤣

Nope I didn't think so either. Staying relevant and top of mind to the younger generation is going to get harder over time, unless your company fragments as well. But Nick how do we do that?

Good question. With the hundreds or thousands of people that work for you, send them out into these new cities springing up everywhere and get them talking to people. 

So are you gonna start to trust your staff on social just like kids trust influencers on TikTok or are you going to go the way of CD-ROMS, Floppy disks and DVD?

The choice is in your hands.