How do Google search features influence Organic CTR and SEO?

One of the main obstacles that those of us who are dedicated to SEO have to overcome is Google itself. Gone are those days when everything was a matter of appearing in the first results for a particular search; current web positioning forces us to take into account many other variables, imposed by the aforementioned search engine.  https://londonseo.expert/

Study on the impact of SERP functionalities on Google:

We share the information obtained by the study carried out by the company Perficient Digital on this phenomenon, which increasingly affects more search results.

Methodology used for the study:

It is important to know how the analysis was structured, to have a clear reference to the results obtained. The following features were included in the search results:

• Advertisements.
  
• Featured Snippets.
  
• Image carousel.
  
• Knowledge Graph results.
  
• Local results (Google My Business)
  
• News carousel.
  
• Related questions.
  
• Related searches.
  
• Shopping.
  
• Site links.
  
• Video carousel.
  
• Study results
  Below, I share the results the company obtained in its study, and we analyze the impact it has on the CTR in Google search results.

Search analyzed:

Data from 250 million searches were taken into account, with 134 million organic clicks, 11.3 million paid clicks and 102 million non-clicks. Of those searches, it appears that 37% were conducted on mobile devices and 63% on desktop computers.

How do search result functionalities influence user behavior?

The following graph shows how new features added to search results (SERPs) impact CTR:

CTR analysis for non-branded searches by market niche
The graph shows how the CTR behaves for the results obtained from queries without mentioning brands, in the most important markets. Let us keep in mind that this study is based on data obtained in the USA market.

Note how the cars niche has the highest organic CTR, followed by the beauty category. On the other hand, the lowest CTR was for retail-oriented websites, with travel showing only a slightly higher CTR.

Why does Google introduce functionalities in its search results?

Featured snippets and knowledge graph results (featured snippets and knowledge graph, respectively) seek to provide instant answers and, of course, keep users within Google itself. On the other hand, image and video carousels are aimed at users looking for visual answers.

As long as these features provide value to users and help them get what they want as quickly as possible, Google will increase its market share and overall usage, against the increasingly growing competition in the search engine market, which represents the social networks. This leads to more advertising revenue.

How to increase the CTR of organic results in this scenario imposed by Google?

One of the great challenges for people who work in web positioning in search engines, since SEO evolves with greater opportunities and obstacles. The advice provided, both in the study in question and from personal work experience, is the following:

• Prepare content to earn featured snippets. Learn and teach writers how to write content that is most likely to win snippets, responding to the direct needs of each type of search.
• Appearing in Related Questions takes the same work process as earning featured snippets.
• The content should always be updated looking for the best answers.
• Google is becoming more and more visual. Basic image optimization practices should be applied, along with posting high-quality, original, and relevant images at the top of the page and implementing image sitemaps.
• Optimization for local search is essential if you have physical locations available for customer service. Creating and optimizing Google My Business is essential.
• To appear in the news carousel in Google mobile search results, you need to implement AMP. In fact, for mobile results, AMP is a requirement.
• Google Shopping is based on carrying out campaigns in Google Ads, although you can optimize your store thinking about their implementation, which will be good to achieve a good content structure. click here for seo services in cranbrook
• Video is one of the most consumed formats, therefore, it is common to find search results with videos, which presents us with more opportunities.

Conclusion:

Let us always remember that Google is a company that seeks to generate more resources for itself, many times at the expense of content generated by third parties (us), however, its use is so assimilated by the majority of people that we must be there, for it. It is essential to always be aware of the changes that are introduced in the search results (SERPS), to create relevant content, ensuring that it appears in each of the different options that are presented.