Almost 30% of people need to redo their Google searches, either refining or expanding queries, according to research published by SEMRush, an online marketing software company.
SEMRush took data from 20,000 anonymous users who made 455,368 unique searches. He then looked at how long it took them to take a further action. For over 70% of users, it took less than 15 seconds to make a secondary click, meaning they likely found the website or answer they were looking for. Almost 30% of users, however, were refining, redoing or expanding their searches in some way, suggesting that answers weren’t effectively filtering to the top.
SEMRush found that keyword conversions occur more often on mobile, 29.3% versus 17.9% on desktop. It suggests that people who need quick information may be searching for answers on Google rather than clicking on a website.
On desktop, the study also found that 25.6% of results were “zero clicks.” This means that a person did not click on a link after making a query. It could mean that they refined their search or found the answer they were looking for without clicking on a link to a website. The latter could spell trouble for the billions of sites that rely on traffic to generate ad sales; while fewer clicks is better for people looking for quick answers, it hurts the many news and information sites that create this content.
Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Complaints about Search’s faltering reliability continue to surface in online discussions and articles. From Reddit thread to pieces The Atlantic, people say they’re fighting back against websites that try to game Google’s search engine optimization and the company’s own results filtering system. Search also remains Google’s most valuable product, with it controlling more than 92% of the online search market sharehelping the company generate advertising revenue.
Some users say they now use the short-form video platform TikTok to find the answers they’re looking for instead of Google. Maybe that’s why Google is getting on board more TikTok-like features in the search and why it was spent $100 million to buy an AI avatar startup.
Alphabet, the parent company of Google, reported $69 billion in revenue this past quarter, with $39.5 billion coming from “Google Search and others.” Even then, Google’s earnings were below analysts’ estimates.
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