One Trillion Searches

I recently read an article in USA Today that reported…

“The average number of Google searches per day has increased by an astounding one trillion each year.”

WOW.

That’s a lot of searching.

But if you listen to certain “marketing gurus” they’ll gladly tell you that “SEO is dead.”

If you happen to be standing around when a “Social Media Guru” grabs their megaphone – you’ll hear them shout…

“People don’t search anymore they ask their Facebook friends!”

They can say what they want.

But the numbers don’t lie. One Trillion!

Here’s what happens…

Accessibility increases use.

Example…

If you don’t want to eat UN-healthy snacks – remove them from your house. If they’re around you’re going to eat them.

A friend brought me some doughnuts from a local bakery. I don’t eat doughnuts with my breakfast (usually). But because they are sitting here – I’ve eaten one with breakfast the last two days!

Back to the web…

Because we have access to Google on our laptops, Ipads and smartphones we use it.

Because we keep Facebook open in another window throughout the day and we have the app a click away on our smartphone we are tempted to use it. And we do use it more.

If Facebook did not exist there would not be more Google searches – there would just not be any “social searches.”

If smartphones did not exists there would be less Google searches – but not drastically less. We would just wait until we parked ourselves in front of our laptops before we searched.

The point is…

The availability of all this increases its frequency and usage.

Searching on Google is a Habit.

Just like checking Facebook is a habit.

Unless the convenience of Google totally changes you and I will only search more.

So don’t believe the “guru talk” until you check the facts.