Context: In a study published in May 2023, researchers compared predicted CTR with actual CTR for SERP features across 6 million clicks, 24 million impressions, 67k keywords and 43 e-commerce stores between May and August 2022.
Results: the presence of most SERP features hurts CTR.
Interesting: Some SERP Features decrease clicks on all web results, others lower clicks on the first 3 results and raise them for the others, but most SERP Features improve CTR for sites linked in them and reduce it for everyone else.
š To add to the paper, I conducted my own analysis of 1,000 random keywords across 7,869 results (US) and found overlapping results:
ā¢Ā Organic results appear most often in position 2 (73.6%) rather than 1 (51.5%)
ā¢Ā Knowledge graphs are the SERP Feature most often appearing in position 1, followed by popular products (5.7%)
ā¢Ā Discussions & Forums hover mostly around positions 3 to 6
ā¢Ā Video and image carousels often appear in positions 4-6
ā¢Ā Related searches or popular products often appear in position 6-9
How you can use this information:
- Lower expectations and search volume projections for SERPs with knowledge cards
- Optimize for carousels (image + video), Featured Snippets, PAAs, local packs, top stories and organic product listings
- Monitor SERP Features and their impact in different combinations
Link in comments šš»
This post was originally shared by Kevin Indig on Linkedin.