Is Google a “dying mall”? Well, at least the 60,000 people, who clicked like on the original tweet saying so posted by Emily Valesco, think so.
Recent research by SEMRush reported that there has been an increasing percentage of people dissatisfied with the search results given by Google. Most often they have to resort to modifying the search words to find answers to their queries or at times don’t find relevant answers at all.
According to the report, 30% of users refine or work on improving their search queries somehow. It can be quite frustrating having to modify the keywords over and again to find the answers.
The tweet that gaslit this discussion went viral with over 7,000 retweets and 60,000 likes. Many agreed with the tweet’s content and said they have found themselves increasingly seeking ways to modify the search with additives like quotation marks.
A Twitter user even suggested so by replying “Try using “
However, the initial tweeter refutes saying that the whole essence of search engine optimization would be lost if we had to work harder to search for results. She states that users shouldn’t have to be subject to advanced search operators to get the right results. She also mentioned that a lot of the operators, (mind you we think they were simpler than the ones suggested now) don’t work that efficiently now.
Another person responded by saying that all they want is for Google to just find what they are looking for. This is true with regards to how many agreed to the point that Google has been showing them not the exact results.
These said inefficiencies are not only being noticed by non-SEO people but also those working in the field of SEO.
Sarah Carling raised the matter by sharing a screenshot of her search for how many calories are there in a bottle of wine. Her tweets state how Google keeps modifying the search by showing the result for calories in a ‘glass’ of wine. She goes a step further by using quotation marks for the word bottle but the answer remained unchanged.
Below is the tabulated result of the research done by SEMRush.
| Number of Keywords used | Percentage of users | |
| Desktop searchers | Mobile searchers | |
| 1 – 2 words | 31.6% | 31% |
| 3 – 4 words | 38.2% | 39.9% |
| 5 – 11+ words | 30.1% | 29.1% |
As you see, the percentage of people using longer keyword phrases to search on Google is more in recent times. Could this be because they are finding it difficult to find answers to what they seek on Google?
Someone from the search marketing community also reflected on the point that search engines were always bad and people may have forgotten this now. They also said how they use “reddit” as a part of their query to get better relevant results.
Many expressed their dissatisfaction with Google’s suggestions on the SERP.
Even presently, Google is a popular search engine that many rely on for getting their answers. Does a tweet discussed and agreed upon by over 70,000 people deem Google to recheck its search engine optimization strategies?
Google has recently released several updates with regard to SEO and plagiarism of content. This shows they are working regularly on updating themselves. However, what made thousands of people agree that such a beloved search engine is like a “dying mall”?
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