The Scary Part: Organic Paid SEO on the SERPs - Brighton SEO Closing Talk

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

Google gets to:
Crawl our sites for free
Use our hosting bandwidth free
Scrape our content w/o trademark consequence
Rely ...

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%...

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

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

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%as...

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%
O...

The Scary Part:
Organic Paid No Clicks
Mobile
Desktop
February 2016 February 2018
Organic Paid No Clicks
65.56% 2.50% 34.4...

Across All Google’s Search Queries…
Organic CTR: 52.96%
Paid CTR:
No Click Searches:
3.49%
47.04%
~15 organic clicks for
e...

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

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

Almost Every Fat Head-Chunky Middle Consumer Product

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

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

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 th...

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)

#1: Control What Appears For Your Brand
ID sites that rank in
your space, & build
profiles on them
Claim Your Panels
Lever...

#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 + List...

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

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

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!