6. Why should you care about this study?
This study features the largest GWT dataset to date…
1.2M
KEYWORDS
65M
CLICKS
54 BRANDS
311M
IMPRESSIONS
@NetBoosterUK @GaryMoyle NB
7. That’s a LOT of data!
@NetBoosterUK @GaryMoyle NB
8. A Daunting Challenge
Certainty of death.
Small chance of success.
What are we waiting for?
@NetBoosterUK @GaryMoyle NB
10. How has search evolved since 2011?
Average Position
NetBooster (2014)
Catalyst (2013)
Slingshot (2011)
Smoother
transition into
the lower
positions
(Normalised Data)
@NetBoosterUK @GaryMoyle NB
11. A New Click Curve To Rule Them All
We need to start
thinking beyond
the top 10!
Average Position
@NetBoosterUK @GaryMoyle NB
12. A New Click Curve To Rule Them All
1-10
Average Position
@NetBoosterUK @GaryMoyle NB
13. A New Click Curve To Rule Them All
11-20
Average Position
@NetBoosterUK @GaryMoyle NB
14. A New Click Curve To Rule Them All
21-30
Average Position
@NetBoosterUK @GaryMoyle NB
15. How does brand influence the curve?
Average Position
Large Brand
Medium Brand
Small Brand
Know where
and when to
fight your
battles
@NetBoosterUK @GaryMoyle NB
16. Impact of Query Length on CTR
1 word query
2 word query
3 word query
4 word query
authority plays
a big role for 1
word queries
Average Position
Brand
@NetBoosterUK @GaryMoyle NB
17. How can you optimise your CTR?
Publishers have a number of options when it comes to
optimising CTR
Page titles
@NetBoosterUK @GaryMoyle NB
18. How can you optimise your CTR?
Publishers have a number of options when it comes to
optimising CTR
Meta Descriptions
@NetBoosterUK @GaryMoyle NB
19. How can you optimise your CTR?
Publishers have a number of options when it comes to
optimising CTR
URL
@NetBoosterUK @GaryMoyle NB
20. How can you optimise your CTR?
Publishers have a number of options when it comes to
optimising CTR
Rich Snippets
@NetBoosterUK @GaryMoyle NB
21. How can you use this data?
Accurate CTR can offer practical business uses
Benchmarking
Forecasting Opportunities
CTR
@NetBoosterUK @GaryMoyle NB
22. Benchmarking Your Performance
Is your CTR underperforming?
To contextualise your own website, extract one month of data, calculate
the total number of impressions from your branded queries and see
where you fit within the following bands:
Small = < 28.5k
28.5 – 285k
285k +
Large
Medium
Small
@NetBoosterUK @GaryMoyle NB
23. This is only the
first step in a
long journey…
Segmenting search
queries by intent
Understanding CTR
by industry or niche
Monitoring the effect
of new knowledge
graph formats
Organic
Participation
Evolving search
behaviour
@NetBoosterUK @GaryMoyle NB
24. A final note
Search behaviour is evolving
@NetBoosterUK @GaryMoyle NB
25. A final note
We need to think beyond the top 10!
@NetBoosterUK @GaryMoyle NB
26. A final note
We need to maximise the traffic
created from existing rankings and not
just think about position
@NetBoosterUK @GaryMoyle NB
27. A final note
Understanding how we all interact
with new forms of search results will
be a crucial part of measuring and
creating success!
@NetBoosterUK @GaryMoyle NB
How does our study compare against others?
Lets start by looking at the top 10 results
In this graph we see normalised the results in order to compare our curve like-for-like with previous studies.
Straight away we can see that there is higher participation beyond the top 4 positions when compared to other studies
We can also see much higher CTR for positions lower on the pages which indicates that searchers are more comfortable scrolling below the fold.
When we look at the entire top 30 we can also see a decent amount of clicks on pages 2 & 3
This means we need to start thinking beyond the top 10!
This curve will also give us a better understanding of the potential uplift in visits when improving rankings from positions 11-30
But it’s also important we don’t just rely on one single click curve
Top 10 Results
Results 11-20
Results 21-30
Brand influence is also something that we need to consider.
In particular, How does the size of the brand influence the curve?
We banded our each of these domains into small, medium and large categories based on the sum of brand query impressions for each individual site across the entire duration of the study.
We can see that better known brands get a sizeable increase in CTR
Small to medium sized brands are in fact losing out to results from well established brands.
Keyphrase selection will be important for smaller brand. Know where and when to fight your battles
We also looked at long tail search queries to understand whether query refinement had an impact
1 word searches are likely dominated by larger more well known brands in higher positions so it’s no surprise we can see a high CTR for those types of queries
However we can see the highest CTR as primarily for queries with 4 or more words which indicates higher satisfaction as users refine their searches
Fortunately publishers have a number of options when it comes to optimising the CTR of their content.
Page Titles
Page titles add meaning and relevance for both human searchers and search engines. Using relevant keywords in page titles are heavily weighted by search engines
Page titles should be descriptive and relevant to page content
Keep titles under 70 characters (512 pixels) in length, including spaces
Include keywords at beginning of title
Each page should have a unique title
Meta Descriptions
Although meta descriptions are not directly used by search engine algorithms they are an important way to influence CTR. It’s therefore vital you write compelling ad copy.
Keep under 160 characters in length (including Spaces)
Add as many unique selling points as possible
Include a clear call to action
Add a unique and relevant description for each page
Rich Snippets (Schema)
A regular snippet displays the sites meta description or automatically generated description of the page content. A rich snippet however, gives more information about a search result such as review information, product name or price. Aggregate star rating for example can really make sure content stand out and influence both CTR and conversion in a positive way.
The page content must contain the correct mark-up for search engines to understand the content and display the rich snippet
Microdata outlined on Schema.org is the preferred form of mark-up.
Google currently supports rich snippets for people, events, reviews, products, recipes, and breadcrumb navigation
URL Optimisation
Although your URL makes up a relatively small part of the search snippet, it can still be a valuable way to make the snippet stand out to users.
Fortunately publishers have a number of options when it comes to optimising the CTR of their content.
Page Titles
Page titles add meaning and relevance for both human searchers and search engines. Using relevant keywords in page titles are heavily weighted by search engines
Page titles should be descriptive and relevant to page content
Keep titles under 70 characters (512 pixels) in length, including spaces
Include keywords at beginning of title
Each page should have a unique title
Meta Descriptions
Although meta descriptions are not directly used by search engine algorithms they are an important way to influence CTR. It’s therefore vital you write compelling ad copy.
Keep under 160 characters in length (including Spaces)
Add as many unique selling points as possible
Include a clear call to action
Add a unique and relevant description for each page
Rich Snippets (Schema)
A regular snippet displays the sites meta description or automatically generated description of the page content. A rich snippet however, gives more information about a search result such as review information, product name or price. Aggregate star rating for example can really make sure content stand out and influence both CTR and conversion in a positive way.
The page content must contain the correct mark-up for search engines to understand the content and display the rich snippet
Microdata outlined on Schema.org is the preferred form of mark-up.
Google currently supports rich snippets for people, events, reviews, products, recipes, and breadcrumb navigation
URL Optimisation
Although your URL makes up a relatively small part of the search snippet, it can still be a valuable way to make the snippet stand out to users.
Fortunately publishers have a number of options when it comes to optimising the CTR of their content.
Page Titles
Page titles add meaning and relevance for both human searchers and search engines. Using relevant keywords in page titles are heavily weighted by search engines
Page titles should be descriptive and relevant to page content
Keep titles under 70 characters (512 pixels) in length, including spaces
Include keywords at beginning of title
Each page should have a unique title
Meta Descriptions
Although meta descriptions are not directly used by search engine algorithms they are an important way to influence CTR. It’s therefore vital you write compelling ad copy.
Keep under 160 characters in length (including Spaces)
Add as many unique selling points as possible
Include a clear call to action
Add a unique and relevant description for each page
Rich Snippets (Schema)
A regular snippet displays the sites meta description or automatically generated description of the page content. A rich snippet however, gives more information about a search result such as review information, product name or price. Aggregate star rating for example can really make sure content stand out and influence both CTR and conversion in a positive way.
The page content must contain the correct mark-up for search engines to understand the content and display the rich snippet
Microdata outlined on Schema.org is the preferred form of mark-up.
Google currently supports rich snippets for people, events, reviews, products, recipes, and breadcrumb navigation
URL Optimisation
Although your URL makes up a relatively small part of the search snippet, it can still be a valuable way to make the snippet stand out to users.
