We recently read a blog written by Rand Fishkin, co-founder of SparkToro, that discussed new data from an update to Fishkin’s initial Google clickstream data study; revealing that in June 2019, for the first time, the majority of Google searches ended without a click on an organic or paid search result.
Using data from Jumpshot, Rand explored what these latest updates mean for marketers and the future of SEO; and in this blog we’ve pulled together some of his key (and most interesting) findings to share with you.
The updated data revealed that as of June 2019, searches made on both mobile and desktop resulted in 42.25% of organic clicks, 4.42% of ad clicks and an astonishing 50.33% of zero-click searches.
Looking at data from 2016 to 2019, it’s clear to see desktop has not changed much over the last three years, with organic only down a few percent, and the results of June 2019 not far off from January 2016.
However, on mobile, where more than half of all searches take place, the results have presented a consistent pattern, with organic falling by almost 20%, while paid has nearly tripled, and zero-click searches have been on a significant rise.
There could be a number of reasons for this, if you consider Google’s increased aggression with how ads and instant answer-type features appear on a mobile device, or perhaps it’s the result of Google sending a huge portion of search clicks to their own properties (according to Jumpshot, Google sends 6.01% of all searches (~12% of search clicks) to websites owned by Alphabet, Google’s parent company).
So, what can a marketer do to ensure they are still achieving SEO success amongst these changes? Rand details three key ways:
- Make sure you are trying to find new ways to get value from zero-click searches
- Seek out keywords that have a higher CTR opportunity
- Get your content optimised on Google’s own properties (YouTube, Maps, Images, AMP, Knowledge Panels, etc.)
To find out more and read Rand’s full blog on the results of the new data, please click here.