Historically Emojis were used in MMS or online instant messaging. Recently though we are now seeing Emojis appear in search engine results as brands incorporate them into their overall SEO strategy. Using emojis in SEO can increase Click-Through Rates ⚡ Emoji Characters Can Improve Relevance in Search + They help you stand out from the crowd, so using them can help you promote their businesses. This is a new SEO trend so no matter if you’re a Pizza shop, a roofing contractor or a car yard emojis are starting to appear in search engine results. SO strike now while this hot trend is taking off and you’ll be ahead of the curb 🌡️🔥.
They appear on the first page results for your target keyword
To know if you should add emojis to your SEO title or not the best place to start is in the search engine ranking results page for your target keyword.
This means that there is a high chance that in adding Emojis could help you rank. Of course, each word is different, and its definitely worth doing your research before adding emojis into your SEO title tags. The other reason is that sometimes people search by emojis. younger internet users may decide to be lazy with their typing so to take this trend you could have an emoji in your title. (below we can see a search of 🍕 near me)
In Perth when searching and using the text-based keywords, “pizza near me” we see that there are 8,100 searches every month. However, if we search for “🍕 near me” there is only 1,200 searches every month. The main difference is that the text version is very competitive and the emoji version isn’t. A good SEO strategy in this case should incorporate both to get the best benefit/results.
It Makes Your Search Listing Stand Out
When we make a purchase online it is 90 percent visual decision-making process. This means if you use emojis in your meta and title tag data you get the added benefit of standing out on a “dull looking” Search engine results page. While looking at browsing results, your eye is more likely to be drawn to the emoji since it’s the only graphic in the text-based results. Since your eye is drawn to it, you’re likely to get more clicks back to your website. In a later section, our SEO experts will discuss how they’ve received higher click-through rates from using emojis in search and ads.
Above is a “plumbers Perth” Google search you’ll see the emojis in the second result and how much it stands out overall.
Attract a Younger Demographic
Emoji use is definably situational or case by case. A great example of this would be if your in the funeral business, you probably wouldn’t get a lot of clicks if you added a coffin emoji in your title tag or meta data as it may offend your potential customers. But if your topic is generational in nature and your target audience is in the younger demographic then having emojis could inspire click/purchase. This should be reflected in any / all social media marketing presences brand wide, the younger demographic tend to share a lot of viral content that appeals to them and trends suggest that they relate to them as they use them in the online communication. The take way – If you’re targeting a younger audience, emojis can help you better communicate with them.
Emojis in YouTube Titles Rank Better
Its important to realise that this strategy can be implemented in YouTube & Social SEO as well. There is evidence that Facebook and Twitter posts rank high in search results for emoji keywords.
But if we look as a search – men’s suite (👔 suite)” we noticed that a YouTube video claimed one of the top spots.
The videos have used emojis to stand out and also be found. This case is interesting as there are a lot of emojis used – In the future we might find that google and other search engines make changes to there algorithm to snuff out “emoji stuffing” which would essentially be overusing an emoji in a meta title/description or article. However, right now, we’re seeing that you can rank high by adding two of the same emoji in a title.
Google Brought It Back
Google likes to change things in there search algorithm all the time. In the early 2010s they first introduced the emoji as a inclusion within the SERPs. However, in 2015, they made the decision to remove them from listings. And a couple years later they brought emojis back. This suggests that they want you to use them why else would they bring them back?
We’re starting to see more brands take advantage of this move. It’s only been a couple of years since emojis were reintroduced and so brands are slowly starting to integrate emojis into their content. Over the next few years, we’ll be seeing smaller brands take over search results for keywords with emojis in it to earn their space in Google’s listing to edge out big competitors.
Increase Your Click-Through Rate
There has been a lot of talk around this in the SEO community recently. We personally don’t have data on the click-through rate for brands who use emojis, countless SEO experts have reported that their click-through rate increased with it.
The simple fact is by using an emoji in a meta title or description the content with the ranking results draws the eyes more, Since more people are noticing the emoji, it’s more likely that they’ll click on it as well. In some cases SEO experts world wide also incorporate Emojis into there Google AdWords. If this is one of your main sources of ad traffic, you can add emojis to potentially get more clicks back to your website.
Emojis in Local SEO
From what we have discussed above its quite clear that emojis help boost visibility for local SEO. If you only sell products online, local SEO might not be too helpful for you. However, if you also own a physical location, you might find that emojis give you a boost in traffic. Especially if your brand name includes an emoji word – like the pizza or suite example we mentioned earlier.
Improve Product Page Visibility
In conclusion we have shown how there are brands taking advantage of emojis in the SERPs and how you could also leverage them on your site SEO, Adwords accounts and social media as they increase your overall page visibly. Want to learn more? Contact the team at Perth Digital Edge to elevate your brand and stay ahead of the competition. Find your digital edge today.
