Search remains a key driver of website traffic, at least for the moment, before AI chatbots are fully integrated and provide new headaches. So how important is the top result on Google? A new study from Semrush indicates that the top organic result still garners a high click-through rate, though the gap between it and the second result varies by device.
The analysis indicates that slightly more than 1 in 5 searches last year led to a click on the top result, with the average click-through rate (CTR) for this position being almost the same on desktop (22.2%) as on mobile (22.4%).
However, subsequent positions fare better on mobile than desktop. The CTR on the second position on mobile was more than half that of the top result, at 13%, which was considerably higher than the CTR for that position on desktop (9.3%). Likewise, the CTR on mobile was higher than on desktop for all subsequent positions in the top 10, including 3 (10% vs. 8.1%), 4 (7.2% vs. 5.8%) and 5 (5.6% vs. 4.3%). This suggests that earning the top result is more important on desktop than on mobile.
Interestingly, in examining the clickstream data that it receives from third parties, Semrush found that zero-click searches are more prevalent on desktop (25.6% share) than on mobile (17.3% share).
Meanwhile, a similar share of searches result in an organic click on desktop (45.1% share) as on mobile (43.1% share). Google Keyword clicks are much more frequent on mobile (29.3% share) than on desktop (17.9% share), while Google Clicks are similar (10.3% and 9.7% share, respectively). Paid clicks, for their part, account for 1.8% share on desktop, but just 0.02% on mobile.
Finally, “Google has clearly changed the balance of SERPs and started diverting the searcher’s attention away from purely information results,” per Semrush. In examining keywords by search intent, Informational results accounted for 56.5% of results in 2022, down from 60% in 2021. The share of results that were Transactional in nature rose from 19.3% to 22.4%, while the share that were Commercial also grew, from 10.6% to 12.6%.
This reflects changes in the way people searched, with the distribution of keyword search volume by intent on desktops showing a shift to Transactional (21.1%, up from 16.4%) and Commercial (9.2%, up from 8.5%). The analysts attribute this to Google introducing “more commerce-led SERP features in 2022, providing more options to read reviews and buy online.”
Other Study Highlights:
- In analyzing the top 100,000 domains in the US, Semrush found that search made up about 18% of their total traffic from April 2021 through November 2022.
- Search traffic in the US increased by 16% from December 2021 to December 2022 for Electronics websites and by 12% to Media websites, but declined by 14% to Fashion and Apparel websites.
For more, check out the full results here.