How do people actually use the Google search engine?
Reliable SEO data is hard to come by, since Google doesn’t share a lot of user behavior data. But recently, Rand Fishkin published 23 SEO statistics about searcher behavior collected from sophisticated clickstream monitoring companies with a sufficiently broad sampling to present a reliable picture of how search engine users operate.
You can read the post (linked above) for all the details, but today let’s highlight a few items of particular importance to lead generation SEO campaigns:
Twitter gets 0.23 percent of all search clicks (see item No. 10 on Fishkin's list), a small share. B2Bs actively engaged on Twitter (and other social platforms) as part of an SEO effort may want to re-evaluate.
In contrast, YouTube gets 1.8 percent of all search clicks (item No. 11), a strong share. Video works, and I think especially well for B2Bs with complex products, services or value propositions. No video? Maybe you should re-evaluate that as well.
Several data points reveal the surprising popularity of image search (e.g., No. 14). Again, B2Bs with complex offerings can capitalize on the adage “a picture is worth 1,000 words” in their SEO campaigns, by (a) producing high-quality images, and (b) optimizing them.
What’s your keyword strategy? No. 16 reveals a massive 25 percent of all search volume occurs outside the most popular 100 million keywords. Long-tail keyword focus is a winning strategy!
No. 23 is cause for celebration: Almost 88 percent of all Google clicks go to domains other than the top 100 search-traffic-receiving domains. This is great news — there’s plenty of room for SEO success for companies of all sizes.
We’re strong believers in data-driven marketing strategies — and have invested heavily in our proprietary data collection, analysis and reporting tools. If you’re looking for a better SEO strategy, one based on facts and not theories, please contact us.