Emojis aren’t just for instant messaging. Brands have also started incorporating emoji SEO strategies on their websites to better promote their business. From pizza delivery to clothing stores, there is a rise in emojis taking over search results and helping brands increase their website traffic. So, if you’re looking to kick off a fast-growing SEO trend, you might want to try some of our tips.

Why You Should Have an Emoji SEO Strategy

There Is A Search Volume For It

Implementing an emoji SEO strategy is always a good choice if there is search volume to guarantee it. Using a Chrome extension like Keywords Everywhere, you can add emojis to the search bar to determine if there is search volume for emoji keywords. Let’s take a look at one of the most sought-after examples of emoji SEO: pizza delivery.

Using the text-based keyword, “pizza near me” we see that there are 3.35 million searches every month. You can see a list for a nearby pizza chain and content around the best pizza in Toronto, which is where I live. So, the content in the search results is clearly personalized to my location.

The first thing you will notice is that there is a decrease in search volume. However, the important thing to keep in mind is that 63k monthly searches are still some pretty decent traffic. And if you have a smaller pizza chain, you may have a better chance of ranking with emojis in your meta titles than without. Also, you can optimize one page of your website with pizza emojis and another page without it so you can rank for both search terms.

You may also notice that the list for that changes is nearby. After a little investigation, we found that none of the local lists used emojis in their SEO or on their listing page. So there is a possibility that you could rank for emojis list – without using emojis. But still, you might be better off throwing in that pizza emoji for a competitive edge.

 It Makes Your Search List Pop

When customers search with emojis, especially when they shop, they can use words like buy, online, shop, or some other variant. While looking for dresses to buy, we decided to go with dress emojis. Lo and behold, in fourth place are the search results with dress emojis. So we have evidence that e-commerce brands are actually using emojis in their SEO strategies.

seo emojis appear in the meta title

When searching for results, your eye is more likely to be drawn to the emoji because it’s the only graph in the text-based results. Since your eye is drawn to it, you will likely get more clicks back to your website. In the next section, SEO experts will discuss how they have received higher click-through rates from using emojis in search and ads.

Another thing to note is that Showpo doesn’t just include emojis in the list. You can also see that the list includes keywords like “party dresses” and “online clubbing dresses.” So they also get traffic from text based keywords.

Attract Younger Demographics

Emojis are not effective – or appropriate – for all situations. For example, if you’re a funeral parlor that sells funeral coffins, you probably don’t want to use the coffin emojis in your search results. Emojis work well for a younger demographic. However, they are also effective at helping your brand appear more cheerful. Let’s take a look at Habit Nest’s SEO use of the emoji in their web content as they are all about a younger demographic.

Attract a younger audience

While looking for a meditation product, we decided to use meditation emojis instead of words. Sense, all the top results (including YouTube videos) use emojis and high ratings for it. Also quite noticeable is how Habit Nest is in the first two positions. Not too shabby.