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

Bit.ly/searchscape17

Some Remarkable, New Data
On Searcher Behavior…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

From All Google…
to Only Mostly Google.

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

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

Google Images Would Have:
22.58 Billion Searches/Month

YouTube: 3.13 Billion Searches/Month

Yahoo!: 2.08 Billion Searches/Month

Bing: 1.9 Billion Searches/Month

Google Maps: 1.76 Billion Searches/Month

Amazon: 1.56 Billion Searches/Month

Facebook: 581 Million Searches/Month

DuckDuckGo: 472 Million Searches/Month

Google News: 236 Million Searches/Month

From SEO First…
to Holistic Marketing.

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

2012-Today: SEO Rewards Great Marketing

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

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

From SERP Rankings…
to SERP Features.

SERP Features Are Near-Universal

SERP Features Massively Impact CTR

Many Features Remove SEO Opportunity

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

And here

Here And here Here too Also here Yup!

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

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

AdWords
54.7% of Results, 3.4% of Clicks

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

Tweet Blocks
7% of Results, 0.23% of Clicks

Google Shopping
9% of Results, 0.55% of Clicks

Image Block
11% of Results, 3% of Clicks

YouTube
6.3% of Results, 1.8% of Clicks

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

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

Knowledge Panel
38% of Results, 0.5% of Clicks

Knowledge Panel
??
!

You’re Welcome!

From Apps!…
to Apps?

We Spend A Lot of Time on Our Mobiles
Source

Almost 90% of That is In Apps
Source

But Apps Are a Winner-Take-All Market
Source

The Avg Person Really Only Uses 3 Apps
Source

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

A Better Alternative: PWAs
Source

Be Careful Over-focusing on Mobile Only
Source

Desktop’s Plateauing, Not Dying
Source

From Expressed Intent…
to Implied Intent.

Past: Query Terms Determined Results

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

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

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

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

e.g. In San
Diego, Comics
Rule:

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

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

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

From Results…
to Answers.

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

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

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

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

Is the Future Ads as Answers?

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

Extracted, Card-Style Answers
are Also on the Rise

From Voice Search…
to Smart Assistants.

Voice Search = No Threat

Smart Assistants = Some Threat

Voice
Answers =
Massive
Threat
Source

From Net Neutrality…
to an Uncertain Future.

Source

Source

Source

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

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