Welcome to the latest installment of our weekly blog series, Marketing Trends. Each week, we will identify a key trend in the world of marketing. We’ll discuss the trend, why it’s important, and suggest ways that you can take advantage of this trend in your company.

Last week’s trend was Audience Targeting.

Today’s Trend = Peak Google

If you hang around certain marketing circles these days, you might hear the phrase “Peak Google” uttered here and there. What does it mean?

Peak Google refers to the point in time when the number of Google searches stop increasing, turn flat, then begin to decrease. And the reason people are talking about it more now than ever before is because many suspect that we might already be there, or right on the cusp.

What is causing Peak Google? There are a number of factors impacting the number of searches performed on Google. First, the rise of social media means more people are starting their web sessions in their favorite social network rather than Google.com. People are using Facebook and Twitter and Pinterest to discover interesting businesses and websites instead of searching for them.

Second, mobile usage and improved mobile apps make it so that smartphone users rely less and less on Google to find what they’re looking for when they’re on the go.

Third, Google’s own algorithm is only getting better. Meaning that instead of performing two or three searches to find what you’re looking for, you might be able to do it in one.

And finally, other search engines might start catching up. Recently, Google was replaced by Yahoo as the default search for the Mozilla Firefox browser. Events like that can start to chip away at Google’s huge marketshare.

Why is that important? Google is not going away anytime soon. And the number of searches is not going to drop drastically. But for a long time companies have been able to count on Google to deliver high quality traffic, organic and paid. And if people start doing fewer searches on Google, it means those companies have to start looking at other channels to generate traffic.

You should make your company, and your marketing team, aware of this trend. It’s on you to start exploring other ways of generating traffic for your business. Social media should be at or near the top of your list as “Google replacements”.

What marketing trend should we cover next? Now accepting submissions for marketing trends that we will cover in an upcoming installment of this series. Submit your ideas via our contact page or in the comments section below.