seo research survey: common seo assumptions and real user feedback
DESCRIPTION
SurveyMonkey Audience launched a research project to discover what regular users think about SEO(search engine optimization) basics. The survey asked common questions like Google vs Bing but also asked deeper questions meant to understand the value of guest posts from a user standpoint. Some of the topics addressed by the SEO research are: social media (specifically Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus, ccTLD, links with or without anchor text, and the reasons user might bounce from a page. All the raw survey data is freely available and linked in presentation, so feel free to come up with your own insights! More info here: http://bit.ly/12kS2DfSlideTRANSCRIPT
Survey: SEO Assumptions
Conducted by:Eli SchwartzOnline Marketing ManagerSurveyMonkey
Background
• We created a survey to test 16 common SEO assumptions • The survey was conducted via the SurveyMonkey Audience
tool• Respondents were randomly assigned into 1 of 2 surveys
with 16 questions• Survey sent to 3,000 people• Survey was open for 5 days• 615 people participated• The following slides show a comparison of means between
the 2 surveys when the data was shown to be statistically significant
• 2 surveys: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/seo-assumption-1 & https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/seo-assumption-2
• Actual survey response data: http://bit.ly/12kS2DfSlide
Who answered the surveys? Survey 1
Who answered the surveys? Survey 2
Summary of conclusions
• Search users are biased towards Google, but they consider Bing’s results to be of equal quality to Google when branding is swapped
• A branded site impacts a user’s level of trust on content• An increase in Facebook likes influence a users likelihood of
sharing content• An increase in Tweets influences a users likelihood of sharing
content• An increase in Google Pluses influences a users likelihood of
sharing content• Linking to high quality sites makes a site/content more
trustworthy• US users do not seem biased towards .COM vs .CA• Users trust a guest post less when told that it is a guest post• An exact match domain makes a user more likely to do an
action like fill out a lead
Summary of conclusions cont’d
• The publish date of content does not seem to affect user trust
• Poor grammar and spelling impacts user trust of content• The greatest reasons users would block a site from
appearing in search is because of “too many ads” and “poor content”
• If a user does not find what they expect on a webpage after clicking from search they will most likely go back to Google and click another result
• 33% of users start web surfing on Google• 76% of users rely on Google to search for information• Users appear to be able to guess the context of a link
whether there is optimized anchor text or not
Question 1: Do users prefer Google or Bing
• Users in survey 1 were shown a Google search result page and a Bing Search Result page for the query “File taxes”. The headers on the SERP page showed whether it was a Bing or Google result
• Users in survey 2 were shown a Google search result page and a Bing Search Result page for the query “File taxes”. The headers on the SERP page were swapped, and users choosing Bing’s results actually thought they were picking Google.
Question 1: Do users prefer Google or Bing
Google results labeled as Bing
Bing results labeled as Google
Bing results
Google results
Conclusion:Users are biased towards Google as a result of the brand
Q2: How much does brand matter for trust?
• Users in survey 1 were asked about their level of trust for an article published on CNN.com
• Users in survey 2 were asked about their level of trust for an article published on Internetnews.com
Q2: How much does brand matter for trust?
Conclusion:Users have a greater degree of trust for content on a recognized brand
Q3: Impact of Facebook Likes
• In survey 1 users were told that there were a large number of Likes on an article, and asked if they were likely to read the content.
• In survey 2 users were told that there were a small number of Likes on an article, and asked if they were likely to read the content.
Q3: Impact of Facebook Likes
Conclusion:Facebook likes do impact the likelihood of reading content
Q4: Impact of Tweets
• In survey 1 users were told that there were a large number of Tweets on an article, and asked if they were likely to read the content.
• In survey 2 users were told that there were a small number of Tweets on an article, and asked if they were likely to read the content.
Q4: Impact of Tweets
Conclusion:Tweets do impact the likelihood of reading content
Q5: Impact of G Plus
• In survey 1 users were told that there were a large number of Google pluses on a photo, and asked if they were likely to share the photo.
• In survey 1 users were told that there were a small number of Google pluses on a photo, and asked if they were likely to share the photo.
Q5: Impact of G Plus
Conclusion:Pluses do impact the likelihood of sharing content
Q6: External links conveying trust
• In survey 1 users were told that a site they read links out to well known sites.
• In survey 2 users were told that a site they read links out to unknown sites.
Q6: External links conveying trust
Conclusion:Outbound links do impact the trust of a site by users
Q7: US user trust of ccTLD
• In survey 1 users were told that they read an article on unknown .COM site
• In survey 2 users were told that they read an article on unknown .CA site
Q7: US user trust of ccTLD
Conclusion:ccTLD does not significantly impact trust
Q8: Trust of guest posts
• In survey 1 users were informed that a writer was a staff writer and asked to rate their trust of the article
• In survey 2 users were told that a writer was a volunteer writerand asked to rate their trust of the article
Q8: Trust of guest posts
Conclusion:Users trust a guest poster less than a staff writer
Q9: Exact match domain as a level of trust
• In survey 1 users were told that the site they are looking at is an exact match for the business they sought.
• In survey 2 users were told that the site they are looking at is a random domain name for the service they sought
Q9: Exact match domain as a level of trust
Conclusion:Domain name match to query does motivate trust
Q10: Freshness
• In survey 1 users were told that the article was 10 days old
• In survey 2 users were told that the article was 2 years old
Q10: Freshness
Conclusion:Publish date on evergreen content had no significant difference
Q11: Spelling and Grammar
• In survey 1 users were shown an article about oil changes as it was published on Discovery.com. Users were asked to assess their trust of the article.
• In survey 2 users were shown the same article about oil changes but typos were inserted and obvious grammar issues were inserted.. Users were asked to assess their trust of the article.
Q11: A
Q11: B
Q11: Spelling and Grammar
Conclusion:Spelling and grammar impact trust
Q12: Users block sites in search
• This question was the same in both surveys
Q12: Users block sites in search
Q13: When users bounce
• This question was the same in both surveys
Q13: When users bounce
Q14: First website users go to
This question was the same in both surveys
Q14: First website users go to
Q15: Where users search for information
• This question was the same in both surveys
Q15: Where users search for information
Q16: Linking and context
• In survey 1 users were shown an article that used exact anchor text to link to another site
• In survey 2 users were shown an article that used a domain name as the anchor text to link to another site
16A: Linking and context (exact match)
16A: Linking and context (domain name)
Q16: Linking and context
Link contained anchor text
Link did not contain anchor text
Thank you!
Questions? Email: [email protected] or get in touch on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/schwartze