Google was the most popular search engine in the world by a vast margin during the last decade. It was also a dominant player in the search engine marketing industry and owned more than 36 per cent of the online advertising market overall. According to Search Engine Land, businesses should expect more of the same in 2020 and beyond.

“As I talked with my colleagues and researched trends for 2020, it became clear that for all the controversy surrounding Google’s growth – for all the buzz surrounding threats to Google, including the rise of Amazon – Google just keeps finding ways to become more dominant,” wrote contributor Adam Dorfman.

During the next year, Dorfman expects Google to launch a variety of new advertising tools – including, perhaps, premium Google My Business services. He also expects it to capitalize on searchers’ tendency to remain on Google properties during the search process. Increasingly, searchers are able to find satisfying answers to their queries through the knowledge panel, Google My Business listings, and other features on the search engine results page (SERP). Even when they click away from the SERP, they tend to visit other Google properties, including Maps and YouTube. Roughly 50 per cent of searches now occur from beginning to end on platforms owned by Google, meaning companies that wish to remain visible online will have to invest more in Google advertising.

Of course, 2020 won’t be a seamless year for the search giant. More attention than ever will be paid to black-hat Google My Business tactics (paid reviews, fake listing, keyword stuffing, etc…) and the US election will increase scrutiny on all large tech companies, Google and Facebook most notably. But these issues are unlikely to affect Google’s position as the world’s dominant search engine or discourage advertisers from embracing the company’s marketing tools.

As a Google Premier Partner search engine marketing agency with valuable insights on Google’s preferred practices, GrowthEngine Media can help your business make the most of the many advertising opportunities on Google platforms. Contact us today to learn more.

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