Internet Marketing - Why Your Clicks Matter
The Internet Economy
Have you ever wondered why businesses, blogs, and websites dedicate so much time and energy to getting clicks and shares on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media? It’s not just for organic exposure. Companies in the US spend millions upon millions on online marketing every year - that’s no small sum. They spend that cash for a reason:
Your clicks matter, both financially and in terms of data collection and market research.
What you share on Facebook, what ads you do (and don’t) click, and your behavior on websites is of vital importance. You directly affect how much money companies make, how they adapt their marketing, and even what websites show up in search results.
Clicks Mean Authority
Your search engine (It’s probably Google, let’s be honest) is dedicated to bringing you the best, most relevant response to your query. It wants to bring you the best website that meets your exact needs instantly, every time. If it does that successfully, you are more likely to use it again. Everyone wins - but especially Google. Google always wins.
How search engines determine which sites contain relevant, useful data is based on a host of factors, including the words in the page, how fast it loads, and who and how many people click into the site. Once you are on a site, search engines also watch your behaviors - how long you stay, how many pages you visit, and so on. It then uses that data to inform the rest of the system as to which sites get a lot of positive attention.
When you click into and around a website, you are telling Google that you like it, and it determines how much you like it by your behavior. If you like it a lot, the search engine is more likely to bring that website to other people’s attention. Your internet behavior affects your own internet experience, and the experience of everyone who uses the internet.
Obviously, sites that search engines favor get more traffic, which further boosts their position on the web, which results in sales. This leads us to our next, more concrete point - your clicks become someone else’s money.
Clicks Mean Money
Companies know that you can’t buy anything from them if you don’t click into their website - that’s why they spends so much money on marketing research, advertising on Google, websites, and other search engines, and analyzing data. Each time you click an ad or a link, someone counts that. In all likelihood, data crunchers at top companies know when and what you are most likely to buy, simply from your search history.
They also realize that, while only a fraction of clicks turn into a sale, that they can count the clicks and make predictions for sales and adjust advertising budgets, behaviors, and strategies. They are even able to tailor what ads appear in front of you, based on how likely you are to click them.
Every single click tells someone, somewhere, something - and it impacts how millions of dollars are spent, what ads are shown to you personally and all of us collectively, and ultimately the entire economy of the internet - just one click at time. On the internet, your voice counts.
Crazy, right?
Our Responsibility
All of that boils down to one point - we are partially responsible for our collective experience of the internet, good or bad, and we should be careful what we like, click, and share. Each and every click has monetary, social, and marketing impact, and changes the way our websites work and appear online. In fact, our behavior on the internet led to the development of an entire field of web development - Search Engine Optimization.
Stay tuned for more articles on how the internet works, and remember to like us on Facebook!
