Although people have been aware of the concept of Bitcoin ever since it made inroads into the financial markets way back in the year 2013-2014, however, little have they understood the underlying concept or technology that governs all transactions involving the Bitcoins. So, what is it in the first place?
Blockchain is a transaction ledger within a network that is known by each nodal point in the network and that which is essentially decentralized, maintained, owned, and most importantly regularly updated by these very nodal points.
In other words, the concept of blockchain has done away with the ideal of centralized authority and instead every member or node is aware of the transaction that is being carried out and has to approve of the procedures in order to make the transaction a success. This can be better understood with the help of an example.
Blockchain technology explained
Let us say, there are 5 members in a group and any two member wants to carry out a transaction within the group but between themselves. A ledger is created that will have details of the transaction and the amount that is being transferred within the two members.
So, at any point of time, if one of the members involved in the transaction quotes a figure that is not right, the transaction will not take place.
It means that unlike the Central Bank of any country that keeps records of all bank transactions, the record will be maintained by all banks and not just restricted to Central Bank. This helps to keep anomalies at bay as each record of the individual member is verified prior to carrying out the transaction.
How will it impact Search engine optimization (SEO)
As this technology gains foothold in several industries, more and more companies will integrate this technology in their systems. In other words, these companies have to integrate the technology in their websites.
So, this will necessitate the website developers as well as SEO professionals to work in tandem if they are trying to derive benefits from organic web traffic. Not only that it will be necessary for them to highlight and display the so called blockchain transaction details in their websites.
What will be the outcome? Such a situation may give rise to both technical issues that might adversely affect the website operations and it can also be viewed as an opportunity for the SEO professionals, wherein they have to make sure that there is no conflict when it comes to compatibility issues between the various content management systems that are employed by website developers.
How will it impact Search engine marketing (SEM)
In the virtual world, or rather digital marketing world, Facebook and Google (oftentimes referred to as virtual authorities) play the role of connecting website owners with that of the advertisers. For instance, Google aids in running ads for advertisers through Google Display Network. So, Google is the intermediate medium between the two and also enjoys a percentage of the profits for running the ads. This is the scenario when the blockchain technology is not in place.
Also, a point to be noted is that had the two, namely, website owners and advertiser known each other well, they would not have had to shell out the profit provided they trusted each other.
When blockchain technology comes into effect, there
is no need for any intermediate to run ads on someone’s behalf. This is because
this technology makes sure that every party in any transaction is genuine. This
will allow not just the advertisers but also the website owners to enjoy better
ROI over the years.