What’s been happening in search lately?

If you’re an entrepreneur who has taken up our mobile app business franchise opportunity or web design opportunity, you may well have been focused on running your business and navigating what has been a very trying, challenging time. Our search round-up is designed to bring you right up to date so read on for a recap of the biggest news stories you might have missed…

The video sharing app TikTok has received almost as many media mentions as Zoom during lockdown but, its latest column inches spell trouble on the horizon. Much like it did with SnapChat and Stories, Instagram has announced that it is launching a rival to TikTok, which it will call Reel. The new platform has already rolled out in three countries (Brazil, Germany and France) but will now go mainstream. 

Google has officially postponed the planned roll out of its mobile-first index , which was due to take place in September. The search engine says it will now be scheduled for next March. Although many sites are currently indexed on mobile, there remain a great deal of sites that haven’t switched to the mobile-first index. It’s possible that Google has opted to delay the final switch over until next year to allow those webmasters to rectify any issues which could cause rankings to plummet. 

The latest issue of the Facebook State of Small Business report makes for grim reading. Released in May, during the worst days of the pandemic, the report revealed many small businesses were struggling to survive, with more than a third of self-employed and privately owned businesses closed due to the pandemic and around one in two ceasing to operate. Business owners reported issues with cash flow and a lack of customers as their two main concerns.

On the back of the findings, Facebook announced a new grants for small business program and launched Facebook and Instagram Shops, which allowed businesses to start selling online righty away via their social media page. 

E-commerce has gone from strength to strength over the last few months with many shoppers choosing to order online even as bricks and mortar stores have opened. Beauty brands reported a 341% increase in online orders during the middle of April, while fashion brands registered a 114% increase in email sign-ups in May. The closure has also been good news for Amazon, which accounted for a massive 35% of all online orders placed during lockdown.