DuckDuckGo is an anonymous search engine, aiming to set a new standard of online privacy by collecting no user data. Launched in September 2008, the search engine does not log user information, store IP addresses or share personal information. [Source: Wired] This means all users are shown the same search results for any given search term, unlike many alternative search engines which may limit results to a filter bubble.
Currently owning 0.18 percent of overall search traffic, DuckDuckGo is quickly gaining momentum, reporting that they exceeded 9 billion searches in 2018. This rapid growth is also beginning to make its way into Google Analytics, as the privacy-driven search engine is now showing up as the source for a significant amount of website traffic.
Recently, DuckDuckGo’s organic search growth is outweighing other search engines, particularly in mobile search. In the first three months of 2019, their organic visits on mobile devices are up 78% year-over-year, whilst Google’s mobile search visits increased by 6%. Mobile search is being favoured more and more each year, with mobile phones now accounting for over 50% of all organic searches. This comes at a great advantage to DuckDuckGo, who are growing at a monumental pace when compared to the likes of Bing and Yahoo. [Source: Search Engine Journal]
As an SEO company in Hull, we’re always keeping an eye out for new trends in the digital world, and whilst DuckDuckGo’s market share is still very small, we are interested in their dramatic popularity surge over the last few years and what this could mean for SEO.
If you’d like to chat with our SEO specialists about our SEO services, give us a call on 01482 333833.
