The search engine has been planning to remove them for a while now, and it has finally happened.
The desktop and mobile search results from Google have now had their emoji support removed, in a move that has been a part of the company’s strategy for some time now and that has surprised some but that has been perfectly expected by others.
Google has never pretended that it has been much of a fan of the emoji when it comes to mobile tech based searches.
The actual removal of the emoji from desktop and mobile search results was a quiet one that occurred over the weekend. The ability to conduct a query through the use of these emoticons was simply taken off without making any form of official announcement that could be found by the time of the writing of this article. Searchers have since noticed that when they try to use them as a part of a query, they do not receive the results that they once would have.
At the same time, pages that continue to use emoji for mobile search optimization won’t be penalized.
The only real outcome is that those emoji will not appear in Google search results when the page happens to come up in the search results. That said, when accompanied by text, the emoji will still appear in the headers. It is only in the description text that it will no longer be displayed or called up into the mobile searching results.
This has occurred after emoji have been permissible as a part of mobile queries for quite some time now. A few months ago it finally managed to work its way into the desktop search world, as well. However, a few weeks ago, Google did mention that it would no longer be supporting emoji for its search on any kind of device so now that this has actually occurred, there are many who don’t find it to be truly surprising.
Emoji had been used for desktop and mobile search by certain brands as a part of a broader strategy to make their way to the top of the results list. For example, a new way for a pizza restaurant to search engine optimized could have been to do so with the pizza emoji. That is no longer the case, when searching through Google.
As smartphones and tablets reach a growing number of consumers, marketers need to evolve their techniques.
As a growing number of consumers become smartphone owners and users, emerging channels are staring to make their way into mobile marketing strategy development, particularly in areas that had been greatly dominated by search engine optimization (SEO).
For many years, online efforts to reach consumers depended greatly on SEO.
Now even the brands that have been effectively implementing SEO techniques are discovering that they need to expand their mobile marketing strategy efforts to include other elements, as well. It isn’t that search engine optimization has lost its importance, but the importance on relevance is growing at a very rapid pace. In essence, this means that efforts in optimizing for search engines need to take in more than issues such as the traditional keywords and inbound links.
A quality mobile marketing strategy is proving more complicated to marketers than expected.
The reason is that there are many other factors that need to be kept in mind when thinking about a consumer using a mobile
device. For example, while the traditional SEO components are still important to these techniques, it is up to sites to prove that they matter. Search engines – and their users – are becoming frustrated with the number of results to queries that involve unrelated content.
Data from 2013 has shown that only 13 percent of screen space is dedicated to organic search results. The rest of it was primarily made up of advertising and unrelated content. This has been causing traditional search traffic at the giants, such as Google, to decline, which it has been doing since 2013. Native search on mobile is starting to cut its way into this area.
This has also caused a trend that is leaning toward those emerging channels. A good quality mobile marketing strategy must be a part of the overall SEO effort. Therefore, while it is important for regular, keyword rich (not stuffed) content to be maintained on websites, it is becoming increasingly important to include elements such as social media management and other more smartphone friendly channels so that mobile device users will be able to obtain the information and answers that they are seeking through the company’s website instead of the competition.
