Rand Fishkin discusses changes in search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine results pages (SERPs) in 2018. Google controls over half of all web searches but distributes traffic across different domains relatively evenly. Features like featured snippets and knowledge panels now make up a large portion of clicks. Marketers must adapt by optimizing for these features through content, links and other signals. Personalization also plays a bigger role, as Google tailors results based on location, device and user history. Overall, SEO requires a focus on providing helpful answers rather than just links.

1. Rand Fishkin | Founder & CEO
The Search World in 2018
What’s changed in how people search the web, and
how search engines serve results (and what that means for marketing)

2. There’s a Lot of Misleading
Data Out There...

3. Google has 63% of US Searches?

4. Facebook sent
more traffic than
Google the last 3
years?

5. This seems
important…

6. But when the media amplifies these stories, the
headlines are immensely misleading 

7. How Do We Get Trustworthy
Data?

8. The data I trust most comes from clickstream
sources like Jumpshot:
It’s biased by the panel of browsers, but not by the websites
that install a given tracker

9. Breakdown of Searches
on Major Web
Properties
(May 2017)

10. 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%
Breakdown of Searches
on Major Web
Properties
(Feb 2018)

11. Good News for SEO

12. Google’s Growth
2017 trended ~10-15% higher than 2016, not
including voice or Apple devices

13. Via Rand’s Blog
For every paid ad click on Google, there are 20
clicks to an organic result.

14. Via Google Trends

15. Via Google Trends

16. Bad News for SEO

17. 95% of clicks, 10%
of marketing spend
5% of clicks, 90%
of marketing spend

18. Via GetResponse
2,510 marketers surveyed by GetResponse in 2017 said SEO
is only the 4th highest ROI channel they invest in

21. Via Geoffrey Weg

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

23. What are the Web’s True
Top Traffic Referrers?

24. Via
Google.com
Oct 2016
Facebook.com
Reddit.com
YouTube.com
Imgur.com
Bing.com
Wikipedia.org
Gained/Lost
59.2%
6.5%
5.4%
4.5%
2.2%
2.2%
1.4%
Yahoo.com 6.0%
+3.4%
-1.3%
-2.0%
+0.3%
-1.2%
+1.5%
-0.1%
-1.7%
Amazon.com 1.3% +0.1%
Top Traffic Referrers Feb 2018
57.8%
5.2%
3.4%
4.8%
1.0%
3.7%
1.3%
4.3%
1.4%

25. Via
Google
Facebook
Yahoo
Bing
Reddit
GoogleAd Services
Twitter
YouTube
Amazon
Traffic Referrer % of Referrals*Rank
Wikipedia
Gmail
Comcast
Microsoft Online
Imgur
MS Office
DoubleClick
Ebay
AdServer
DuckDuckGo
Deloton
57.8%
5.2%
4.3%
3.7%
3.4%
2.7%
1.9%
4.8%
1.4%
1.3%
1.2%
2.3%
1.2%
1.0%
0.9%
0.9%
0.8%
0.8%
0.7%
0.6%
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*Methodology:
Forthisdata,Jumpshotcombinedthe
largest30trafficreferral sourcestositeson
theweb (mobile+desktop),andisshowing
thepercentof thosetop30combined(thus,
thelongtailof referralsisn’trepresented
here)
*Biases:
JumpshotdoesnotcollectdataoniOS
devices,somobileisbiasedtoAndroidand
desktopisbiasedtoPC.DataisforFeb.1-
28,2018,USonly.

26. Top 10 11-100 101-1K 1K-10K 10K+
Google 22.2% 14.9% 18.0% 18.7% 26.2%
Facebook 42.7% 17.7% 15.3% 12.9% 11.3%
Yahoo 39.2% 15.8% 15.6% 14.0% 15.4%
Reddit 75.2% 11.0% 7.2% 4.4% 2.2%
Youtube 80.1% 7.2% 5.4% 4.1% 3.2%
Not All Referrers Send Traffic Equally
(data below from May 2017)

27. Top 10 11-100 101-1K 1K-10K 10K+
Google 22.2% 14.9% 18.0% 18.7% 26.2%
Facebook 42.7% 17.7% 15.3% 12.9% 11.3%
Yahoo 39.2% 15.8% 15.6% 14.0% 15.4%
Reddit 75.2% 11.0% 7.2% 4.4% 2.2%
Youtube 80.1% 7.2% 5.4% 4.1% 3.2%
Not All Referrers Send Traffic Equally
(data below from May 2017)
Google distributes traffic pretty evenly

28. Top 10 11-100 101-1K 1K-10K 10K+
Google 22.2% 14.9% 18.0% 18.7% 26.2%
Facebook 42.7% 17.7% 15.3% 12.9% 11.3%
Yahoo 39.2% 15.8% 15.6% 14.0% 15.4%
Reddit 75.2% 11.0% 7.2% 4.4% 2.2%
Youtube 80.1% 7.2% 5.4% 4.1% 3.2%
Not All Referrers Send Traffic Equally
(data below from May 2017)
Facebook is strongly biased to the top

29. Top 10 11-100 101-1K 1K-10K 10K+
Google 22.2% 14.9% 18.0% 18.7% 26.2%
Facebook 42.7% 17.7% 15.3% 12.9% 11.3%
Yahoo 39.2% 15.8% 15.6% 14.0% 15.4%
Reddit 75.2% 11.0% 7.2% 4.4% 2.2%
Youtube 80.1% 7.2% 5.4% 4.1% 3.2%
Not All Referrers Send Traffic Equally
(data below from May 2017)
Reddit & YouTube even more so

30. Mobile CTR
2.0% on Paid
40.9% on Organic
57.1% Don’t Click

31. 2.8% on Paid
Desktop CTR
62.2% on Organic
35% Don’t Click

32. CTR on Google Mobile vs. Desktop
There may be more traffic opportunity from
desktop STILL due to higher CTR Source

33. The move from SERP ranking
to SERP Features

34. SERP Features Are Near-Universal

35. SERP Features Massively Impact CTR

36. Many Features Remove SEO Opportunity

37. But, in 2018, There’s
Also More Feature
Opportunity Than
Ever Before
You can do SEO
to show up here
And here

38. And here

39. Here And here Here too Also here Yup!

40. 16 Features Every SEO Should Consider:
Videounits
SERP Feature Type How to Get In
“PeopleAlsoAsk”
FeaturedSnippet
Maps Box
KnowledgePanel
Top Stories(News)
Images
Apps
Create & optimizeonYouTube(or, rarely,Vimeo)
Branding– get searchedfor with/afterthe query
Phrasing& positionof short answerin content
Claim GMB, get links,earn citations,be nearby
Earn brand association,use structuredmarkup
Get in GoogleNews,earn links,title w/ KWs
Relevant images,alt attributes,& directembeds
KWs in title/description, get popularin app stores

41. Books
RelatedSearches
Tweets
SearchSuggest
Sitelinks
SectionSitelinks
In-DepthArticles
Carousels/ListResults
Write a book,use KWs in the title,have an ISBN
Be searched+foundcommonlyw/ the KWs
Verifiedaccounts help,use KWs in tweets
As w/ relatedsearches,also geo-sensitive
Get links& visitsto severalpop pgs; use markup
Grow popularsubsectionsw/ popularsubpages
Authorlongerpiecesthat receiveattention/links
Be listedalongsidecommon sets on the web
16 Features Every SEO Should Consider:
SERP Feature Type How to Get In

42. The move from results
to answers

43. Many Queries
Get No Clicks at
All
According to Moz’s
clickstream data, <25% of
searchers will click from a
result like this.

44. This is so common that, according to Jumpshot data,
49% of searches results in 0 clicks!

45. Why Sacrifice Ad $$ for
Answers?
These are high CPC
ads, with high ROI
Why is Google hurting ad
CTR w/ these answers?!

46. Google’s willing to lose a lot of short-term revenue in
exchange for addictive search behavior

47. Answers  More Searches
The addiction of search is
powerful, i.e. “Google always
knows just what I mean!”

49. Ads Can Be Answers Too…

50. In Organic, Featured Snippets Are Google’s
Primary “Be the Answer” Bet

51. These Snippets Also Power Voice Search

52. Extracted, Card-Style Answers
are Also on the Rise

53. More on How to Become the Answer:
Via Dr. Pete (and more Dr. Pete)

54. The move from expressed to
implied intent.

55. Past: Query Terms Determined Results

56. Today: Google Knows What You Want Better
Than (& Before) You Do

57. Elements Google (Probably) Uses in
Predictive Intent:
Location & Prior Behavior of Users in That Location
DeviceAttributes: Type, O/S, Speed, InstalledApps, etc
Search,App, & Browser History
Gmail Behavior (& possibly all keyboard behavior)
Temporal Elements & Time-Based Patterns

58. Different Devices/People; Different Results
Seattle, WA Northampton, MA

59. It’s Not Just Search Suggestions;
It’s Rankings Too

60. In San Diego,
comics rule:

61. I stumbled across an article
mentioning this resort in
Japan early in my trip-
planning research

62. By searching for & clicking the site in Google, I
biased the engine to show me more results from
that domain in the future.

63. By the time I reached evaluation
stage, it was too late to convince me
to stay anywhere else…

64. If Google Becomes a Suggestion Engine,
Marketers Will Be Left With Two Choices:
Capture attention here Or compete, unaided, here

65. But Rand, How Do I Rank
My Site in Google?

66. 8 Broad Areas of Google’s Ranking Algorithm
(for classic, ten-blue-links style results):
Links
Quality of Host
Domain
Query
Satisfaction
User
Experience
Personalization
Technical &
Crawl
KeywordsContent

67. Does the text match what Google’s ML systems
calculate to be relevant, high-quality, & a match
for the searcher’s intent?
Content

68. Editorially-given, anchor-text-rich, followed links
from high quality sources still matter to Google
(esp. in competitive results)
Links

69. If Google sees high rates of pogo-sticking or
other signals that your page/site isn’t solving
search queries, they’ll likely rank you lower
Query
Satisfaction
Via WB Friday

70. Using the searcher’s keywords intelligently on
your page still matters for rankings (and for CTR
in the results)
Keywords
Ring failed to rank
until they changed
their page title to
include “video
doorbell”

71. Domains accrue signals of quality & value.
Powerful domains may give the pages they host
a boost in ranking ability.
Quality of Host
Domain
Via OSE

72. Google wants to see sites provide an easy-to-
use, intuitive experience on every device, at
every speed, without impediment.
User
Experience

73. Speed & accessibility to crawlers still matters, and
Google still doesn’t handle non-text, or non-HTML-link
accessible pages well.
Technical &
Crawl

74. The geography, device, search history, and
timing of a searcher’s query can all change
Google’s results significantly.
Personalization

75. Rand Fishkin | Founder & CEO
Bit.ly/seoin2018