This week the biggest discussions centered around the shift from organic to paid over the last two years.
Also, Danny Sullivan announced that he will be working at Google in a liaison type role.
Search News Discussions:
New Findings Show Google Organic Clicks Shifting to Paid
Growmap, shared a blog post from research from Brian Wood, SEO at wayfair.com, who stated
“Over the last two years, the total share of organic clicks on page one of our e-commerce SERPs has dropped 25% on desktop and 55% on mobile.”
Would does add the following caveat,
“It’s important to note that this type of CTR change is not true for every SERP. This data is only applicable to e-commerce intent search queries, where ads and PLAs are on nearly every query.”
Danny Sullivan joins Google as a “sort of public liaison for search”
To quote the announcement, “…My title is still being determined, but the position will be to serve as a sort of public liaison for search. The goal is to increase the connection between those at Google who work hard on search each day and the public that depends on Google for answers. I’ll be educating the public about how search works. I’ll be exploring and explaining issues that may arise. I’ll be looking at ways to take in feedback and work for solutions to improve search going forward….”
The overall feedback from webmaster world members was that this would be positive for the webmaster community.
Featured Discussions:
Yes, Competitors Can Edit Your Listing on Google My Business EVEN IF YOU CLAIMED IT!
View full discussion
According to Joy Hawkins, Merchants do not get notified when edits are “suggested.” Any time Joy Hawkins did hear about a notification, it was sent after the edit was live.
How “Direct Traffic” May Be Undermining Your Marketing
Ergophobe shares some of the reasons why traffic may end up in the direct bucket in Google analytics
- Cross-domain problems
- Secure to Non-Secure Referrals
- Tracking Blockers
- Off-line Ads
Featured Snippets Do Get Clicked
Over on cre8asiteforums.com, members discuss if featured rich snippets help drive more traffic or if they hurt traffic. Member grumpus comments, ” It’s not surprising for many questions. There’s always the “Short” and the “Long” answer to most questions. If the short answer rings true in the snippet, then the page would logically expound on that and give the long answer as well.”