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Fewer Than Half of Google Searches Now Result in a Click

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Re: Fewer Than Half of Google Searches Now Result in a Click

#231

Post by n3k5 »

ignu wrote: post #89
treis wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I though AMP was opt-in for publishers? It is but Google will only put you in the carousel at the top of the search if you use AMP. That's a significant enough driver of traffic where publishers can't afford to lose it.

it's not just the carousel. it's organic rankings too. we had an emergency AMP project after our traffic dropped 35% due to a smaller competitor implementing AMP and google rewarding them by boosting them in the search results.

That's depressing, but I will remember that when I come across an unnecessarily AMPified URL, I shouldn't blame the publisher for making this possible in the first place.

Re: Fewer Than Half of Google Searches Now Result in a Click

#232

Post by ineedasername »

cyrusshepard wrote: post #86

I think what folks are missing is that a lot of these "zero-click" searches happen as a result of Google scraping your website, and displaying the results as a "featured snippet." Yes, they link to you below the featured snippet. No, more people don't click, because they've taken the answer from your website and displayed it right in their search results. For example: If I'm searching for "best nail for cedar wood" G…

Glad the first ranked response was this. It's what I came here to say. These days you simply don't need to click as often to get what you need out of a search, and Google's business model doesn't rely on click through to web sites, but for display & click through of ads.

Re: Fewer Than Half of Google Searches Now Result in a Click

#233

Post by anotheracc »

ALittleLight wrote: post #69
buboard wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anecdotally, i am noticing a steady decline in adsense RPMs for the exact same audience over past 2 years, and adsense is now most of the time not filling the ad slot. Also, it has gotten very hard to rank in google for new sites. SEO blackhat tactics rule, and even local businesses use them. Google went from win win to win-get lost. Sadly, now that webmasters need it the most, investments in alternatives to search a…

I feel the same way about ranking new websites. In high school, friends and I made a website for which we did zero search engine optimization (nor were we even aware of search engine optimization). We still ranked in relevant queries and easily got an audience of about ten thousand uniques a month. Today, I struggle to get sites I make to show up on Google at all. For my most recent website, even searching for phrase…

Google has turned an Ocean into a pond - I think we'll all be the better for it once they're gone.

Regularly cannot turn up results that I know exist - a modest change that has no relation to the query meaning and the results often turn up.

This is not the Google Search Engine I remember.

Re: Fewer Than Half of Google Searches Now Result in a Click

#234

Post by zaat »

checktheorder wrote: post #218
SilasX wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hm, I think there's scumminess on both sides, since (as GP noted) even simple sites (e.g. for lyrics) are bloated and unusable. Before: User: Hey Google, what's the monthly payment on a 20-year mortgage with 3.9% APR? Google: Oh, MortgateSite would know, go there. MortgageSite: Here's your calculator. User: Okay, let me put in the numbers ... awesome, thanks! Oh, neat, they can hook me up with lenders. Let me take a…

>MortgageSite: HEY! It looks like you're new to this site. Want to get on our mailing list? Dear every web developer in the world who makes no effort to fight your employers' marketing department on this: I hate you.

I'm not related in any way to that scene, but what would you tell to marketing when they tell you that that while the mailing list pupup is obnoxious and annoying, it results in X users enrolling and later on Y of them actually ends being customers?

Re: Fewer Than Half of Google Searches Now Result in a Click

#235

Post by onetimemanytime »

since the 2008 recession Google has tried to avoid sending people to sites, preferring ads and Google sites instead. Each year /update they have tightened the screws. No doubt Google execs are saying, look we still send about 50% of people to other sites, there's a lot more growth opportunity.

Re: Fewer Than Half of Google Searches Now Result in a Click

#236

Post by hn_throwaway_99 »

encoderer wrote: post #12

There was a time you could build a meaningful business largely on SEO. (See: Yelp, Zillow). No longer.

What I find truly disgusting is how, as a business, you basically have to by adwords against your exact domain name, lest competitors buy it and show up above your organic positioning in search results. Can't think of a better example of a "Google Tax".

Re: Fewer Than Half of Google Searches Now Result in a Click

#237

Post by mopsi »

saddestcatever wrote: post #210

Does anyone else use search at least a dozen times a day just for spellchecking a word or confirming a phrase? I find myself pasting phrases into the search bar when autocorrect or spellcheck just doesn't do the trick. I'd love to know what percentage of "searches" were never actually looking for a target.

I use search box all the time as a calculator. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Re: Fewer Than Half of Google Searches Now Result in a Click

#238

Post by n3k5 »

nullwasamistake wrote: post #111
cletus wrote: post #15

So a common trope in the startup world is the difference between a feature and a company, the idea being that lots of features are masquerading as companies. This inevitably leads to them being shocked--SHOCKED--when some bigger player adds that feature, eating their lunch. I feel the same way about a lot of outbound sites on Google. There are a bunch of things I just don't want to go to another site for. Off the top…

It's not the same as copying the "feature", in many cases Google straight up takes your content and puts it on their homepage. The difference between a product and a feature is nothing. Every app made is just a bunch of features put together. AWS S3 is a great example, it's just like Dropbox for nerds. A lyrics website recently put fake lyrics on their site to prove Google was copying, and sure enough the fake lyrics…

> The difference between a product and a feature is nothing.

Granted, but the comment you replied to was about the difference between a feature and a company.

Re: Fewer Than Half of Google Searches Now Result in a Click

#240

Post by tzs »

MereInterest wrote: post #175
noobermin wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Curated might be better, Google has been wrong in their answers in the past.

I think the best one I've seen was when Google's natural language processing mistook the subject of a sentence. Rather than saying that the Mariner 10 space probe used a gravity assist on Venus to reach Mercury, it instead said that Mercury received a gravity assist from Venus.

Or maybe Google was getting its astronomy from a site that believes Immanuel Velikovsky's theories... [1]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worlds_in_Collision

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