Rand Fishkin | Founder &
CEO On-SERP SEO The Infuriating Reality of Search’s Future

We Had a Deal!

Google gets to: Crawl our
sites for free Use our hosting bandwidth free Scrape our content w/o trademark consequence Rely on us to optimize to their standards in exchange…

Those who solve searchers’ problems
earn clicks with their content

But Google’s been changing the
deal…

This deal’s getting worse all
the time…

Google’s Free Traffic Was a
Trojan Horse…

With 3-4 Serious Competitors, Google
Couldn’t Afford to Piss Off Content Creators

But, Once They Got 90%
Market Share… Via Rand’s Blog Core Google Search 61.6% Google Images 22.6% YouTube 4.3% Yahoo, 2.4% Amazon, 2.3% Bing, 2.2% Facebook, 1.4% Google Maps, 1.3% Pinterest, 0.5% Twitter 0.4%

And even better results wouldn’t
make folks switch… Via AdAge

Google was free to wallow
in its crappy treatment of websites & content creators

How Bad Is It?

Via Rand’s Blog In 2017,
for every paid ad click on Google, there were ~20 clicks to an organic result.

In Q3/4 2017, there were
(seasonally) fewer clicks available for SEO for perhaps the first time ever. Via Rand’s Blog

Google’s Desktop CTRs February 2018:
Paid: 3.82% Organic: 65.72% No Click Searches: 34.28% *Note:Sumsare greaterthan100%assearcherscan clickmultipleresultsperquery

Google’s Mobile CTRs February 2018:
Paid: 3.12% *Note:Sumsare greaterthan100%assearcherscan clickmultipleresultsperquery

Google’s Mobile CTRs February 2018:
*Note:Sumsare greaterthan100%assearcherscan clickmultipleresultsperquery Paid: 3.12% Organic: 38.97% No Click Searches: 61.03%

The Scary Part: Organic Paid
No Clicks Mobile Desktop February 2016 February 2018 Organic Paid No Clicks 65.56% 2.50% 34.44% 58.43% 1.83% 41.57% 65.72% 3.82% 34.28% 38.97% 3.12% 61.03% 20% drop in mobile, organic CTR. 20% increase in mobile “no click” searches.

Across All Google’s Search Queries…
Organic CTR: 52.96% Paid CTR: No Click Searches: 3.49% 47.04% ~15 organic clicks for every paid click. Down from ~20 a year ago. For every 10 organic clicks, 8.8 searches with 0 clicks.

Where Are These Changes Happening?
More heavily on mobile than desktop More on popular queries than long tail Near-equally on informational & transactional queries

Google Maps/Local

Video
Oh really?

Weather

Flights

Flights

Sports

Hotels

Hotels

Famous & Notable People The
NLP tech used to extract these snippets should scare the $#^% out of every publisher

Brands + Companies

Dictionary & Thesaurus

Film & Television

Jobs

Concerts & Events

Best (fill in the blank)…

Best (fill in the blank)…

Best (fill in the blank)…

Best (fill in the blank)…

Best (fill in the blank)…

Almost Every Fat Head-Chunky Middle
Consumer Product

Almost Every Fat Head-Chunky Middle
Consumer Product

And many, many more…

And It’s Not Just Google…

Facebook Killed Organic Reach Via
AdGo

Then They Killed Referral Traffic
Via Nieman Lab

Instagram Has Always Prevented Outlinking

Twitter & LinkedIn Now Bias
to On-Site Content Via MarginallyCoherent

Reddit Wants to Keep You
on Reddit Via Reddit

YouTube Cuts Off Descriptions to
Avoid Making Links Visible in the Default View

And, of course, Amazon

The Next Generation of Voice
Devices Will Only Make This More Painful Via Pew Research

Two Conflicting Truths For Modern
Marketers:

#1 It’s Never Been Harder
to Earn Organic Traffic From the Web’s Major Players

#2 It’s Never Been More
Important to Make Your Website (& Email List) the Center of Your Campaigns

How Can We Respond?

Leverage Every Scrap of Traffic
Google (and others) Still Send

Use CTR % Estimates in
Your KW Research This metric uses clicksteam data to estimate the % of searchers who’ll click on the standard, non-paid, organic SERPs

Shift Content Marketing to KWs
Google Is Less Likely to Cannibalize

Double Down on Branded Demand
Creation

Invest in Organic Now, So
You’re Stronger As More Traffic Goes Paid-Only (or Google-Only)

Invest in On-SERP SEO

#1: Control What Appears For
Your Brand ID sites that rank in your space, & build profiles on them Claim Your Panels Leverage the Rich Snippets Google Offers

#2: If Google Biases to
YouTube, Images, G News, Maps, etc… Create Content For Those Platforms

#3: When KWs Show Aggregated
Answers, Influence the Publishers Below to Get Listed To Get Into These… Get Mentioned + Listed In These

#4: If You’re Using Featured
Snippets, Entice the Click! Some accents are better than others? I have to know where mine ranks!

#5: If Other Sites Can
Rank, But You Can’t, Use Barnacle SEO Every one of these sites enables user or guest editorial contributions

All That Said… I’m a
Short-Term Pessimist, But a Long-Term Optimist

Organic Marketing Opportunities Will Always
Exist

And They’ll Always Give Outsized
Benefit to Those Who Invest Wisely Via SparkToro

SEO Will Be a Crucial
Skill For At Least Another 10 Years (Probably More)

Especially in Emerging Markets &
Mid-Long Tail of KW Demand

The Harder a Tactic Becomes…
The More of a Competitive Advantage It Is

Rand Fishkin | Founder &
CEO Thank You!