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1 Growth Marketing Automation in a Zero-Click Google World

In 2019, companies dependent on search traffic were shocked to find out that, for 51% of all searches performed, Google fails to deliver a click to any external website. The data behind the growing number of these “Zero-Click Searches” prompted preeminent search expert Rand Fishkin to proclaim that Google is now undeniably “everyone’s competitor” in search.

After all, with 51% less potential traffic, websites receive 51% less revenue and leads. This is a colossal -- yet under-recognized -- problem for all websites that survive off their ability to generate measurable value.

Nonetheless, Google can convincingly claim that they are not cannibalizing this search traffic for selfish reasons -- rather, they are seeking to better serve the person doing the search. Search queries are becoming increasingly specific1 -- but for most of these “longtail” searches, no website has created a landing page providing an answer that meets Google’s standards. This is the reason Google places its own elements on its search engine results page (“SERP”), which reduce clicks to external websites by displaying their information right in the search results.

1 As of 2018, 70% of all search queries had four words or more--an increase of 40% from just five years before.

Changes to Google’s SERP for the search query “flight berlin new york,” 2004 to 2020. Google’s new BERT algorithm was designed to handle even more of these searches, with 10% of longtail searches now affected by it.

Introduction

COMPARISON: 2004 to 2020

2004

2020

For 51% of all searches performed, Google fails to deliver a click to any external website.

51%


This white paper will show that the solution to this new “Zero-Click Google World” is to beat Google to the punch -- create landing pages that serve longtail search better than Google can. Proof will be shown that, in cases where the landing page is of high-enough quality, Google continues to deliver the traffic, revenue, and leads to websites just as it did in 2004.

Finally, this white paper will share results of cases where websites have automated this process with a new type of growth marketing technology. The solution works the same for both Paid and Organic search, and the strategy used is supported by Google itself2.

One caveat: this white paper will only appeal to those in marketing responsible for delivering continued, measurable growth of web traffic, revenue, or leads. For the moment, only websites with a sufficient amount of content and paid search budget are capable of applying the strategy -- those in charge of growth are encouraged to contact Longtail UX to find out if they qualify.

2 “Ensure max coverage with a long tail strategy,” ThinkWithGoogle, retrieved on March 9, 2020. https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/intl/en-gb/playbook/searchexcellence/efficiency/ensure-max-coverage-with-a-long-tail-strategy

The solution to this new “Zero-Click Google World” is to beat Google to the punch.


As mentioned, on-SERP distractions are the cause of loss of clicks. An appearance in the SERPs -- both with paid and organic links -- simply is not worth what it once was. While google.com has 16 different SERP features3, this report focuses on the two most problematic ones for website revenue: Featured Snippets and Answer Boxes.

Featured Snippets

Website analytics company Wordstream estimates that the appearance of a Featured Snippet on a SERP can reduce the value of ranking on that page by 39%4.

Featured Snippets cause fewer clicks off google.com because they answer the question that led to the search, making a click unnecessary. They also physically move the #1 organic result further down the page, where searchers are less likely to scroll. In the example above, the key “travel benefits of a United Airlines credit card” are listed in the snippet, which robs chase.com of a visit from a curious credit card consumer.

Compounding this issue is the recent announcement by Google that they will now “deduplicate” links to external websites from the SERPs, which Tim Soulo, CMO of search analytics company Ahrefs, estimates may reduce the CTR of organic links by another 25%5.

3 “What is a SERP feature?” Moz Weblog, retrieved March 8, 2020 https://moz.com/learn/seo/serp-features4 “Value of a #1 Google Ranking Down 37% in Two Years?” Wordstream Weblog, retrieved March 8, 2020 https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2017/04/26/google-ranking-click-through-rate5 From 26.0% to 19.6%. https://twitter.com/timsoulo/status/1220174374944137216

The Reason Websites are Losing Valuable Traffic from Google

The appearance of a Featured Snippet on a SERP can reduce the value of ranking on that page by 39%.

39%

Text Ads

Featured snippet

(no needto click)

Answer box (no need to

visit site)

#1 organic result


Answer Boxes

The Answer Box below the Featured Snippet further reduces clicks to websites from google.com. It answers most of the searcher’s more specific remaining questions, such as “does United credit card have travel insurance?” This again makes a click through to the website (airfarewatchdog.com) unnecessary.

Answer Boxes hijack traffic from the pages which Google sent visitors, but most marketers are unaware of the impact. That’s because we have been checking the wrong metrics -- rankings and visibility.

Answer box providesfull answer(no need to

click through)

Answer Boxes hijack traffic from the pages which Google sent visitors


Why Marketers Should Not Report on Rankings and Visibility

Being “visible” on a SERP at such a long distance provides little to no value to the business. One example Fishkin reported was that the world’s #1 dictionary site, m-w.com, lost between 30-70% of their clicks from 2015 to 2020, even though the website’s “visibility” (a metric showing how often a link to the website appears in the SERPs) increased by 150%6. In this site’s case, it’s because the answer being sought -- the definition of a word -- is handled on the SERP:

6 “Google in 2020: From Everyone’s Search Engine to Everyone’s Competitor,” SparkToro Weblog, retrieved March 8, 2020 https://sparktoro.com/blog/google-in-2020-from-everyones-search-engine-to-everyones-competitor/7 “Why you may not have noticed the Google BERT update,” Barry Schwartz, SearchEngineLand, retrieved on March 8, 2020 https://searchengineland.com/why-you-may-not-have-noticed-the-google-bert-update-324103

Early results from Google’s new BERT algorithm suggest that its impact on website profits has gone undetected due to overreliance on rankings and visibility tracking7.

For these reasons, Longtail UX does not highlight rankings or visibility on Google for its users’ pages in its reports. The primary metrics Longtail UX tracks from Google traffic are revenue and leads. (There is a full explanation here of how we do this.)

Google definition

box

Google ANSWER

box

#1 Organic Result

“Visibility” is now an unreliable metric to track. The world’s #1 dictionary site, m-w.com, lost between 30-70% of their clicks--even during a period where their visibility jumped by 150%.

https://longtailux.com/how-to-measure-the-roi-of-seo


To beat “competitor Google,” marketers must do two things:

1. Create many new pages that handle very specific (“longtail”) demands by searchers

2. Provide an excellent experience for the searcher while interacting with these pages

Google only puts its own elements -- such as Featured Snippets and Answer Boxes -- above links to external websites when they cannot find a landing page that reliably serves the searcher’s intent.

Some examples from Longtail UX customers illustrate this well. Kogan.com, which generates revenue from more than 35,000 Longtail UX landing pages, has some winners and some losers.

Example: E-commerce Website (Kogan.com)

In the below search, “28 inch uhd 5k monitor,” the Kogan.com Longtail UX landing page is placed above the Answer Box in the SERP:

Achieving Revenue and Leads Growth by Beating “Competitor Google”

Above Answer box (Kogan.com page from Longtail UX)


According to Google’s algorithm, searchers who demand this specific type of monitor are generally more satisfied with the landing page result than any of their own auto-generated answers.

Looking at the landing page created for Kogan with Longtail UX, one can see why:

Looking for this highly specific type of monitor, the searcher is also looking for information that is too rich to be contained in just a Featured Snippet or Answer Box. Kogan’s Longtail UX landing page contains multiple product options ranked by relevance, prices, reviews, and other information delivered from multiple feeds.

Kogan’s Longtail UX landing page contains multiple product options

Prices

Multiple options ranked by relevance


However, for another search, “sony uhd tv usb playback,” the Kogan.com Longtail UX landing page is placed below the Answer Box:

In this case, the searcher is not looking for multiple products -- they are looking for a tutorial on how to do USB playback on the Sony device. For this search, an Answer Box (or the #1 result, from the Sony website) will suffice.

As a result, Google determined that these options provided a superior user experience, and placed the link to Kogan’s Longtail UX landing page below those options.

However, this “failure” to rank above the Answer Box is tolerable when the pages are created at scale -- as with Longtail UX. The dangerous situation for companies comes when the page is created at significant time and expense -- only to be outranked by a Google SERP feature.

Marketers can no longer risk devoting great resources to creating content without first using an automated landing page creation tool like Longtail UX to test the SERP.

Conversely, there is a significant opportunity for marketers who are able to do such testing at scale. By creating 35,000 Longtail UX landing pages to serve the longtail of demand, Kogan.com has been able to fill a niche as a destination for highly educated shoppers -- without needing to add any new SKUs. In turn, they are able to generate tens of millions of dollars in additional revenue per year.

The Reason Websites are Losing Valuable Traffic from Google

Below Answer box (Kogan.com pagefrom Longtail UX)


Example: Lead Generation Website (PackSend)

Another example from a website with the goal of lead generation (PackSend) is illustrative. For the search “cheapest shipping from australia to usa,” Google has determined that usually the searcher is looking for a quick answer. They are not necessarily looking for a service right now to do the shipping -- they just want to know the price. For this, the Answer Box suffices, and beats the landing page:

For another search, “send suitcase from australia to uk,” Google chose PackSend as the #1 result. (In this case, PackSend have decided to allow themselves to take the deduplicated Featured Snippet as well.)In this case, the intention of the user is to actually “send” this time -- not just get a price quote. Therefore a quick answer scraped from the landing page does not suffice. Based on searcher post-click behavior, PackSend wins and holds the top spot, from which they receive hundreds of leads per month.

Using Paid Search to Further Increase Longtail Revenue and Leads Growth

As we can see from the two cases above, Google’s competition with websites is truly aimed at giving searchers the best possible user experience. Where the website provides a great landing page that serves the longtail of demand, Google rewards the website with revenue and leads just the same as ever.

For another search, “send suitcase from australia to uk,” Google chose PackSend as the #1 result. (In this case, PackSend have decided to allow themselves to take the deduplicated Featured Snippet as well.)

In this case, the intention of the user is to actually “send” this time -- not just get a price quote. Therefore a quick answer scraped from the landing page does not suffice. Based on searcher post-click behavior, PackSend wins and holds the top spot, from which they receive hundreds of leads per month.

As we can see from the two cases above, Google’s competition with websites is truly aimed at giving searchers the best possible user experience. Where the website provides a great landing page that serves the longtail of demand, Google rewards the website with revenue and leads just the same as ever.

The same applies to paid search -- at an even greater scale for marketers in need of significant growth. This is because paid search marketing is not limited by crawl budget or duplicate content concerns.

“#1” result ranks below Featured Snippet and

Answer Box (PackSend page from Longtail UX)

#1 result asFeatured Snippet

(PackSend.com.aupage from

Longtail UX)


Using Paid Search to Further Increase Longtail Revenue and Leads Growth

Example: Lead Generation Website (ClueyLearning)

For example, one Longtail UX customer, ClueyLearning, was able to roll out more than 70,000 landing pages for the longtail of demand for online tutoring. This approach rapidly doubled their inbound lead volume at a 40% reduction in CPA.

The personalization of the user experience in response to the user’s longtail search was the key to this result. Parents who search for “year 9 math tutoring melbourne” expect to find just that -- a page full of options and content personalized to their specific needs.

Every grade, Every Subject,

70K longtail landing pages


Example: E-commerce Website (AdoreBeauty)

This personalization is a key disruptor for e-commerce as well. For the 110 people that search for the very specific term “frizzy hair shampoo” per month, being presented with a direct link to a landing page with 18 products matching that exact demand is a superior user experience for AdoreBeauty, a Longtail UX customer in the beauty niche.

Adding this experience for the longtail of demand across more than 2,500 paid search landing pages increased their return on advertising spending (ROAS) by 50%. More importantly, it claimed them new, loyal, repeat buyers who appreciate the ease of finding items that match their highly personalized needs.

Personalised results for longtail demand


This increase in ROAS is standard for websites that implement a longtail strategy at scale. Most retail sites have resigned themselves to using Google Shopping to handle longtail demand, but this is a mistake. Shopping Ads, like the one in the example from Bondi Boost, are often misaligned to the search (this one promises “hair growth”-- not an answer to the frizzy hair problem.) They also lead to a page with a single product, which, according to a study by CrazyEgg, are half as likely to get a sale.Single-product landing pages convert at half the rate of multi-product landing pages because they offer the user no choice. When going for a longtail strategy, marketers must offer consumers multiple options.

Google is withholding traffic to external websites because we as marketers have failed to keep pace with increasingly specific consumer demand. However, Google continues to provide traffic to websites that cater to the longtail of demand. Marketers who offer consumers rich, highly personalized pages meeting highly exact needs will win in Google’s “Zero-Click World,” and the above examples prove that the results are typically a 50-100% increase in conversion rates and ROAS.


In Summary

How to Get Started Adding an Automated Longtail Experience for Your Customers

Marketers who oversee a website with more than 1,000 pages and spend $20k per month or more on paid search can get their personalized Longtail UX strategy by scheduling a strategy session with an optimization specialist.

Schedule a Strategy Session

Those who prefer to first see the opportunity for revenue or leads growth by implementing a longtail strategy can first run the Longtail UX Search Scorecard. It will also show you which 100 longtail landing pages should be your highest priority to build.

Run the Longtail UX Search Scorecard

About Longtail UX

Founded in 2013 by an ex-Googler and a successful Internet entrepreneur, Longtail UX is transforming how businesses approach website optimization and search marketing. Our patented landing page automation technology gives businesses the unique ability to connect users to products in one click for any number of search term variations across SEM and SEO. Our technology integrates into client websites effortlessly so businesses can concentrate on what they do best. We have clients across Australia, the U.S. and Latin America including Kogan, Adore Beauty, Graysonline, Car Next Door and LatAm Autos.

https://longtailux.com/book-a-demo/?utm_campaign=sel-whitepaper-032020

https://scorecard.longtailux.com/?utm_campaign=sel-whitepaper-032020

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