SEO News

Because an increasing chunk of your target audience may well be heading to DDG in the coming years.

Don’t believe me? Rand Fishkin of Moz fame said it will be “the fastest growing search engine of 2016.”

If you’re still not convinced, here are some enlightening stats about DDG that might make you pay attention. 

1) It averages 10m queries a day

According to its own traffic stats, DDG averages around 10m queries a day.

This might not be up there with the likes of Google, but it means DDG is definitely a significant player in the search market. 

2) 12m queries in a single day last December

While average search queries are at 10m, DDG managed a 12m-query day back in December. 

3) 350m queries last month

DDG achieved an impressive 350m search queries for December 2015.

4) 3.41bn queries last year

For the whole of 2015, DDG achieved 3.41bn search queries. 

Again, this might not seem much next to Google, but for a relatively young search engine it’s pretty significant. 

5) 73% growth in 2015 

Part of the reason these numbers are so significant is the pace at which DDG is growing. 

The 3.41bn 2015 number was up from 1.97bn in 2014 – a 73% YoY increase in search queries.

6) 22% increase in traffic from January to December 2015

Over the course of 2015, DDG’s monthly traffic grew by 22%.

In December the site had 108m visits. 

7) Tech fans love it

DDG users show a strong affinity toward tech news sites, according to a report by SimilarWeb.

Comparatively, Bing users show affinity to typical websites you would expect of average internet browser (Reddit, Amazon, Google, etc). 

8) Average bounce rate is 31%

The average bounce rate for DDG users is 31%, according to the same SimilarWeb report. 

This is significantly better than Bing users’ average bounce rate of 43%.

9) Average time on site is 9.5 minutes

DDG users spend an average of 9.5 minutes on sites they visit through the search engine. 

By contrast, Bing users spend an average of just 7.5 minutes on each site. 

10) It offers people what Google can’t (and won’t): true privacy

This infographic from Tech.co and Optilocal has a pretty good run-down of the privacy differences between DDG and Google, along with a load of other interesting facts and stats.

Click to see the full version

11) It does other things that Google can’t

But privacy is just one feature DDG has over Google. 

DDG also offers functions such as the ability to view someone’s social media profile without leaving the search engine, the ability to easily expand shortened links or check whether websites are down, and there’s even a password generator. 

These little UX tweaks could be key to DDG attracting an increasing number of users away from Google, not just relying on the privacy issue but actually providing an even better user experience.  

12) It’s the default search engine in the new Adblock Browser for mobile

Ad blockers are here to stay. Let’s not kid ourselves about that. And there’s the old saying: ‘if you can’t beat them, join them.’

If DDG is the default search engine for arguably the most popular ad blocking app of them all, brands should take that very seriously. 

Failure to optimise for DDG on mobile could lead to brands missing out on an increasingly large mobile ad blocking audience.  

13) It has signed the Acceptable Ads Manifesto

This one is less about ad blocking but more about a clear commitment to creating a user experience that benefits people rather than brands. 

The Acceptable Ads Manifesto was created by Adblock Plus as a way to encourage brands to stop ruining the online user experience with crappy ads like the ones in the screenshot below. 

Here are the key points of the manifesto:

It might be a PR move  – in fact it almost certainly is – but it also suggests DDG is taking UX seriously and this can only have a positive impact on people wanting to use it. 

14) It makes money without tracking people

In short: DDG is not going anywhere. It isn’t just a political flash in the pan. It is a profitable business. 

In an ask-me-anything session on YCombinator’s Hacker News site last year, founder and CEO Gabriell Weinberg said:  

DuckDuckGo is actually profitable. It is a myth you need to track people to make money in Web search.

Most of the money is still made without tracking people by showing you ads based on your keyword, i.e. type in car and get a car ad. These ads are lucrative because people have buying intent. 

All that tracking is for the rest of the Internet without this search intent, and that’s why you’re tracked across the Internet with those same ads. 

I will be writing a post about how to optimise for DDG in the near future, so keep your eyes peeled!

Posted by dudleycarr

Today we’re excited to remove the Beta label on Moz Local Insights! This feature has been in beta since November when David first announced it. This release of Insights continues the push to provide our customers with a holistic understanding of local search presence.

First, a tremendous thank you to all of our customers who gave us feedback about what works and what doesn’t work.

In the two months that Insights has been active for all 60K+ listings in Moz Local, we’ve collected 2.5 billion individual metrics! Insights is tracking 220K search keywords, traffic for 13K locations in Google Analytics, and 1.1M reviews.

Now, with the addition of Google My Business data and Google/Facebook reviews, Moz Local Insights is ready to have organizations large and small depend on it to deliver value for customers investing in local search.

This release includes a large number of small improvements and tweaks. However, the following are the big changes since we first announced Insights:

First up: Google My Business data

The release of the Google My Business API has been a welcome change for everyone doing local listing management. We have big plans in the near future to make extensive use of the API to help with distribution by eliminating the need for downloading and uploading CSVs every time listing information changes.

Moz Local Insights helps clients with many US/UK locations see what their performance looks like in aggregate across all your Google My Business locations. We’re using the API to help collect Google My Business data currently locked away in the dashboard and accessible only a single location at a time.

Here’s how Google My Business data looks like within Moz Local for a medium-sized client:

The screenshot shows 35 listings aggregated in a graph with the same data that’s available in GMB. Insights will also break out locations by best performing, worst performing, and top gains and losses. The same data is available for the click data.

Google My Business makes up to 90 days of data available. With Insights, we’ll track this data over time, starting with the initial 90 days of data available in GMB at the time we’re given authorization.

Second: PDF reports

From the beginning, Moz Local Insights has aimed to focus on the data and the visualizations that are the most meaningful to you and your client. The missing link has been making that data available via PDFs so that they can easily be shared with others.

We provide a single PDF, organized in sections containing the following Insights sections:

• Distribution Insights (Accuracy, Listing Score, and Reach)
• Performance (Google My Business and Google Analytics)
• Visibility (Local pack and organic)
• Reputation

Our focus for this feature was to make the PDFs easy to set up, compelling, and beautiful. Here’s a peek at what the PDF report looks like for Moz.com:

You can check out the full sample PDF report here.

Starting today

With Moz Local Insights coming out of Beta, we’re starting our normal 2-week trial for listings. During the 2-week trial, you’re free to try out all of the functionality — including the newly announced features. You can purchase the listings at any point during the trial. Pricing is only $120 for self-serve locations and $99 for enterprise locations per year.

What’s next?

We’re happy to get all of the improvements out, but there’s more goodness along the way — and shortly! Here’s the list of things we’ll tackle next for Search Insights:

• Exporting via CSV
• Omniture support
• Keyword suggestions
• On-demand PDF exports
• More review sites including Instagram

Even though the beta period is over, we’re just as eager to hear from you about what works or could be better with Moz Local Insights. Please feel free to reach out to me or send feedback here.

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don’t have time to hunt down but want to read!