SEO Is Dead (ish) – Under 15% Exposure Ahoy

Off the back of recent Google updates the SEO community is in a bit of a mess, what previously worked to get and keep sites ranking high on the organic SEO listings now doesn’t work as effectively and now Google’s recent product listing ads changes, coupled with sitelink extensions, star ratings and enhanced advert text including Google +1 stats mean that the organic listings real estate on a Google search results page is vastly less than it used to be. So is it true, SEO is dead?

One recent assessment we saw calculated that on an average user’s screen, that position one on organic SEO listing has under 15% of the screen pixel exposure and now attracts less than 10% of the clicks made on the search engine results page where previously it would have been more in the 30% range.

The ads are now simply more visible and make more impact thanks to ratings stars and site link extensions etc. and also the new product listing ads are very distracting too. These factors of space and distraction combine to mean that even if you get to position one on an organic SEO listing now it’s nowhere near as effective as it used to be.

In the image below you can see four distinct areas of results which we have highlighted for clarity with Green and Blue borders, two in each colour and then finally one lesser area in Red. The Green bordered areas are AdWords paid listings. Of these adverts the first two ads have link extensions in use under them which are the blue links, the first advert has ‘site links’ to deeper pages on the site, the second advert has ‘product links’ extensions linking to specific products, this advert also has rating stars by other buyers and whilst second it actually takes up most of any single advert on the screen. (Great use of product link extensions!)

You’ll see that the product image adverts highlighted by the Blue borders make a big impact here in the two large blocks, then more AdWords listings continue down the right hand side of the page in the second Green bordered block.

Finally at the bottom of the page in the centre is the Red bordered area which houses a solitary SEO listing! This is the SEO territory that everyone is fighting so hard to get, sadly it doesn’t look very impressive does it after all the ads and shiny product images!?

Google have forced a situation where most of the ‘above the fold’ (the visible area without scrolling your mouse) screen space is taken by revenue generating ads which means that those companies fighting it out for organic listings have to be number one or there’s not really much point being second or third as the volume of traffic is negligible.

Some companies tell themselves that searchers are a savvy lot and they know to ignore the adverts and ‘trust’ the organic listings but here’s a reality check for those companies; recent research suggests that over 40% of people have no clue which listings are paid and which are organic, so any company clinging to the notion that users know ‘real’ content from paid ads need to work into their marketing plan the fact that 4 in 1o people don’t know which are organic SEO listings and the other 6 may not care, the average user simply doesn’t know what is a paid advert and what is an organic listing.

In this new landscape the only SEO terms that are still truly winning out over PPC listings really are the long tail search terms where questions are asked or information is sought rather than the more targeted decision based keyword terms where those searching are further along the buying route using more intent in their search terms.

So to recap, anyone selling a product or service thinking they can get by purely on SEO listings might find that their traffic is already diminishing, especially if they sell popular products, Google will continue to monetise their pages as much as possible, they can’t not do this, shareholders expect increased revenues each quarter so we don’t see the SEO landscape getting any easier over the months and years ahead.

The fact that needs facing up to now that paid ads and paid product listings is where the majority of search engine traffic from Google for most products and services will be generated moving forward, it’s time to evolve or die!