Rand Fishkin presented data on key changes in the search landscape in 2017, including: - Google handles over 2 trillion searches per year on Google.com alone. The average searcher does 3.4 queries per day on desktop and mobile. - Many searches now result in direct answers in features like featured snippets instead of search results clicks. - Google increasingly understands searchers' implied intent through location, device data, search history and more to deliver personalized results. - Voice assistants pose a larger threat than voice search as they aim to provide answers directly without search results. - The future of net neutrality remains uncertain but could significantly impact which sites see traffic if ISPs prioritize certain sites.

1. Rand Fishkin, Wizard of Moz | @randfish | rand@moz.com
The Search Landscape in 2017
What’s changed (and changing) in SEO, searcher behavior, technology, &
marketing

2. Bit.ly/searchscape17

3. Some Remarkable, New Data
On Searcher Behavior…

4. How Many Searches Happen on Google.com?
In May, Google told SearchEngineLand it
was 2+ Trillion…
Source

5. How Many Searches Happen on Google.com?
Source
That’s 480-720B searches/year on just Google.com US

6. Google.com US Search Session Data:
Average Session Length:
% of Search Clicks on Google
Properties (YouTube, Maps, etc):
% of Searches Resulting in a
Query Change Before a Click:
% of Searches Resulting in a
Pogostick (click->back->click)
~55 seconds
11.8%
*
21%
8%
*11.8% of distinct search
queries, 8.4% of all searches

8. Google Search Activity
The average searcher does ~3.4 queries per
day on their desktop and mobile (each).

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

10. 2.8% on Paid
Desktop CTR
62.2% on Organic
35% Don’t Click

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

12. From All Google…
to Only Mostly Google.

13. Jumpshot’s Search Volume Distribution (Oct. 2016) Source
Halloween?

14. If We Assumed There Are 50 Billion Monthly
Searches on Google.com…

15. Google Images Would Have:
22.58 Billion Searches/Month

16. YouTube: 3.13 Billion Searches/Month

17. Yahoo!: 2.08 Billion Searches/Month

18. Bing: 1.9 Billion Searches/Month

19. Google Maps: 1.76 Billion Searches/Month

20. Amazon: 1.56 Billion Searches/Month

21. Facebook: 581 Million Searches/Month

22. DuckDuckGo: 472 Million Searches/Month

23. Google News: 236 Million Searches/Month

24. From SEO First…
to Holistic Marketing.

25. 2000-2012: SEO is Possible w/o Other Marketing

26. 2012-Today: SEO Rewards Great Marketing

27. On-PageKeywordUse
Important Then: Important Now:
CrawlerAccessibility
Links(themorethebetter)
AnchorText
KeywordsinDomainName
InternalLinking&PageRankFlow
ContentQuantity
StayingUnderGoogle’sRadar
Content’sOverallRelevance(incl.KWs)
CrawlerAccessibility
Links(butonlyfromlegitsources)
AnchorText(betternotbetoogood)
Branding&Memorability
MobileFriendliness&OverallUX
SearcherSatisfaction
HaveNothingtoHide
Why? A Change in Ranking Inputs

28. Launching a New Venture?
SEO
Brand & Product
Unique Value Proposition
Audience & Influencers
Content & UX

29. From SERP Rankings…
to SERP Features.

30. SERP Features Are Near-Universal

31. SERP Features Massively Impact CTR

32. Many Features Remove SEO Opportunity

33. But, in 2017, There’s
Also More Feature
Opportunity Than Ever
Before
You can do SEO
to show up here
And here

34. And here

35. Here And here Here too Also here Yup!

36. 16 Features Every SEO Should Consider:
Videounits
SERPFeature Type How toGet In
“PeopleAlsoAsk”
FeaturedSnippet
MapsBox
KnowledgePanel
TopStories(News)
Images
Apps
Create&optimizeonYouTube(or,rarely,Vimeo)
Branding–getsearchedforwith/afterthequery
Phrasing&positionofshortanswerincontent
ClaimGMB,getlinks,earncitations,benearby
Earnbrandassociation,usestructuredmarkup
GetinGoogleNews,earnlinks,titlew/KWs
Relevantimages,altattributes,&directembeds
KWsintitle/description,getpopularinappstores

37. Books
RelatedSearches
Tweets
SearchSuggest
Sitelinks
SectionSitelinks
In-DepthArticles
Carousels/ListResults
Writeabook,useKWsinthetitle,haveanISBN
Besearched+foundcommonlyw/theKWs
Verifiedaccountshelp,useKWsintweets
Asw/relatedsearches,alsogeo-sensitive
Getlinks&visitstoseveralpoppgs;usemarkup
Growpopularsubsectionsw/popularsubpages
Authorlongerpiecesthatreceiveattention/links
Belistedalongsidecommonsetsontheweb
16 Features Every SEO Should Consider:
SERPFeature Type How toGet In

38. AdWords
54.7% of Results, 3.4% of Clicks

39. Local/Maps Results
15% of Results, 0.9% of Clicks

40. Tweet Blocks
7% of Results, 0.23% of Clicks

41. Google Shopping
9% of Results, 0.55% of Clicks

42. Image Block
11% of Results, 3% of Clicks

43. YouTube
6.3% of Results, 1.8% of Clicks

44. Personalized Gmail
??% of Results, 0.16% of Clicks

45. Top Stories?
Unfortunately, we couldn’t get
data on these (yet)

46. Knowledge Panel
38% of Results, 0.5% of Clicks

47. Knowledge Panel
??
!

48. You’re Welcome!

49. From Apps!…
to Apps?

50. We Spend A Lot of Time on Our Mobiles
Source

51. Almost 90% of That is In Apps
Source

52. But Apps Are a Winner-Take-All Market
Source

53. The Avg Person Really Only Uses 3 Apps
Source

54. Apps Are Only Valuable for a Few; Mobile
Websites are Crucial For Everyone
Source

55. A Better Alternative: PWAs
Source

56. Be Careful Over-focusing on Mobile Only
Source

57. Desktop’s Plateauing, Not Dying
Source

58. From Expressed Intent…
to Implied Intent.

59. Past: Query Terms Determined Results

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

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

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

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

64. e.g. In San
Diego, Comics
Rule:

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

66. When I first stumbled across this
article, I didn’t even know where
in Japan I’d go…

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

68. From Results…
to Answers.

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

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

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

72. Answers  More Searches
Google’s willing to lose a lot of short-term revenue in
exchange for addictive search behavior

73. Is the Future Ads as Answers?

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

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

76. From Voice Search…
to Smart Assistants.

77. Voice Search = No Threat

78. Smart Assistants = Some Threat

79. Voice
Answers =
Massive
Threat
Source

80. From Net Neutrality…
to an Uncertain Future.

81. Source

82. Source

84. Source

85. If Net Neutrality is Eliminated in the US, What
Will It Mean for Site Owners?
ISPswill chargesubscribersmore to visitsites outsidethe
includedbundles,massivelyloweringtraffic opportunities.
Alot of SEO will shift to sites included by ISPdefaults
Sites targeting top 20-30% earners will be less affected
Paying ISPs may be required to achieve the most traffic
Google may show sites’status w/ the ISPin the SERP

87. Rand Fishkin, Wizard of Moz | @randfish | rand@moz.com
bit.ly/searchscape17