For any small business struggling to compete, nothing can improve your drive toward dominance better than a solid search engine optimization strategy. There seems to be more importance being given to organic search results than at any other previous time. Consumers are looking for answers and they tend to want them quickly and they want them as local as possible. In some recently released research from Ignite Visibility, it is quite clear that your SEO strategies can make you or break you. The following data is taken directly from their published results:
- Surveyed 500+ respondents between the ages of 25-60 to find out what audiences look for in the search results–and how often the results presented reflect intent. In this study, we provide benchmark click-through rate data by position. We analyzed over 1,000 queries and controlled for branded search by segmenting it out of the results.
- Higher-ranking pages still drive the most clicks, but any front-page position is a valuable source of traffic.
- Intent is huge for click-throughs in 2020–especially if you look at local or E-commerce-specific queries, people consistently expect the same types of results for these categories (directories and shopping results, respectively).
- Brand awareness drives clicks, but it’s not the most important factor.
- The majority of respondents are not receptive to ads in the search results. Most (85.2%) preferred to click on organic results, and 66.7% responded that if Google added more ads to the results, they would want to use the search engine less.
- Written content is still king. Despite the growing emphasis on video and image production, 55% still prefer to see written content in the search results.
- Web privacy continues to be a concern for users. In the case of ad targeting, 62.1% had no idea why Google was targeting them for certain ads.
- Ranking #1 isn’t everything. Yes, ranking higher is better, but most respondents looked at more than three search results before deciding to click.
- Brand awareness matters, but it’s not a deal-breaker. The slight majority, 55%, said that they would only click on a brand they knew in the search results, while 44.9% would still click regardless of they knew the brand.
- Meta descriptions remain a crucial SEO element. When asked which factor has the most significant impact on their decision to click a result, 62.9% responded it was the description.
- Good news for Google: most searchers are satisfied with the search results. When asked, 72% replied that the search engine was mostly accurate at matching their queries will search results.
-Written by Kevin Sawyer
