The Issue of Privacy in Search
Any SEO agency, search engine user or online customer can relate to the issue of privacy in search. This applies to all searches but is felt distinctly when it comes to the topic of health. Users who have searched for medical advice, online pharmacies, pharmaceutical products or medication know the worry of privacy on search engines like Google, and most searchers are now aware internet browsers are constantly recording their activity. It is common knowledge that Google tracks searches, which is as true for medical search as it is for E-commerce - what can be viewed as an invasion of the user's privacy is also a great tool to simplify search, but new search engines are now making a difference by offering an alternative, private option...
Duck Duck Go and the Private Search
Duck Duck Go easily distinguishes itself from all the other search engines simply by not allowing searches and online activity to be tracked. Built with GitHub, written in Perl and using Apache 2.0, Duck Duck Go has been improving its technology on a more regular basis to keep up with new online behaviors. Apple included the search engine as an optional search engine for Safari on September 18th, 2014. Firefox Mozilla did the same in November 2014.
The small but mighty search engine uses the Tor Network by routing traffic through a series of encrypted relays.
Duck Duck Go's ability to remain hidden means it has the perfect capabilities to let users seek and purchase pharmaceuticals without any fear of being tracked and possibly embarrassed. The same applies to sensitive E-commerce purchases.
What About Remarketing?
E-commerce site managers often request a remarketing strategy from their SEO agency, particularly behavioral remarketing campaigns which work by placing both tracking cookies and persistent cookies onto users' computers after they have visited a site. It allows search engine marketers to target users with any combination of complex criteria, such as:
- Arriving from a certain domain, campaign, URL or search keyword
- Visiting a minimum amount of pages on the website
- Visiting one or more preselected pages on the website
- Connecting from a certain geographic location or IP-address
- Technical details (such as browser or operating system)
- The internet provider
- Any combinations of the above, using regular expressions
But as none of these factors can be tracked using Duck Duck Go, it could make it difficult for marketing managers, particularly in E-commerce. However the rise of Duck Duck Go announces it is being adopted by users, meaning it must be incorporated into SEO strategies.
POLARIS is an SEO agency in London specialising in organic search marketing for clients in Healthcare, B2B, Travel and E-Commerce.
