Is “SEO Dead”?, Is content creation a waste of time?

Why 61.03% of people searching on Google don’t click on any of the links?

What happened organic click which were virtually guaranteed on the top pages of Google and now more than half (61%) of people are not clicking any links.

Facebook Organic Reach is Dead other social media platform the reach is not even 1% of the followers and now Google is also sending less organic traffic to other websites.

So why are people not clicking on an organic link, how are they consuming information for the search they have performed.

This is how Google search result uses to look like, where the only option for the user was to click on any of the links and know more about the search term this is when content creator, searcher and Google all use to win.

This is how it looks now where Google began rolling out and putting their Ads(2–5 ads ) above organic search, also CTR of ads have gone up from 3.3% to 8.7% (Google is making massive money from ads) and then there is a “people also ask snippet” and “Rich cards”, where user can just read about the term searched through these snippets and which helps Google keeping all the traffic . So the user is spending more time on Google and not leaving the platform by clicking on any third party link.

So now only Google and searcher wins and content creator has just created content which Google scrapes and uses it for their various snippets like People also ask or knowledge graph.

Also, the ads which were very prominent before having a yellow block bold indicator to nearly invisible now to blend with the URL

The CTR for ads which were 3.3% for mobile in 2016 has increased to 8.7% in 2018.

So now going back to question is SEO dead and is content creation waste of time.

So I think the SEO is still not dead but has become a very slow process, so for organic link click the funnel has become broader now marketers need to relook at content strategy and start building content for snippets.

Below mentioned types of content need to be created and added as part of the content strategy which would help the brands to get their content into featured snippets which may not lead to click but help in brand visibility as every snippets have link mentioned below.

1. Comparisons

Featured snippets for comparisons in my experience can be in the form of a table, paragraph or even lists. Search queries for comparisons are endless in the search world.

2. Questions (Optimizes for voice search)

50% of searches will be conducted using voice-controlled personal assistants. For example, Siri, Cortana, and Google Assistant.

People are tuning in to voice search via their mobile devices. Because we naturally ask questions when doing voice search and featured snippets show up for question-type queries, it makes sense to rank for these snippets.

Most content we have on the web today exists solely to answer questions. They may come in the form of (What, Why, How, Where, or When). These type of questions makes up every other content type on the list. So it is wise that you decide what questions you can tackle in your niche and create content answering these questions.

3. Step by step

The best content fills a need and helps searchers solve a problem they are facing. Google loves numbers, steps, and lists. We’ve seen this over and over again.

Instead of writing chunks of words all over your 5,000-word article, wouldn’t it be better if you could write down each solution clearly in steps? The sad reality is, most of us practice skim reading. They don’t really want to be looking at the whole multi-paragraph-learn-about-how-our-product-can-help-you type of content.

However, not all results are presented in the form of steps but there are some results which are returned in the form of videos. For example, look closely at the result for “How To Change A Car Tyre”

4. Definitions

You want an answer, not billions of webpages, so Google ranking systems sort through the hundreds of billions of webpages in their search index to give you relevant results in a fraction of a second.

Over the years, Google has evolved Search to make it more useful and refined their algorithms to assess our searches and results in finer detail. Its algorithm is smart enough to detect definitions of complex terms in its featured snippets. You don’t even need to start off your query with “how” or “what” questions, that’s how genius it is.

By entering “social media” gives you a dictionary definition of the term. You’ll see the same when you search for “brand management”. Don’t believe me? Try it yourself!

5. Best / Top

As general as it can be, these type of content features the author’s pick of the best or top choices in a particular niche. More often than not, you will stumble across the “best” and “top” content appearing in a numbered or bulleted list.

You should aim to answer these types of question immediately with a list of “things” and clear subheadings (h1, h2, h3, h4) that tells the search engine it is a new step with clear content hierarchy.

Generally, ranking on position 0 and getting a featured snippet means you should:

Think Inverse Pyramid!

You want to try and put the answer to the featured snippet towards the top of your page.

Start with the answer and then supplement the rest of the content on that page with information so the user could get everything answered in this one place. Think Inverse Pyramid!

You want to try and put the answer to the featured snippet towards the top of your page.

Start with the answer and then supplement the rest of the content on that page with information so the user could get everything answered in this one place.

Look at the ‘People Also Search’ Box

Looking at the results in this box can not only help you to answer relevant questions but also spark ideas for other content you can write to help your SEO efforts.

These searches are almost always related and can really help to get insight into other related keywords.

Consider this a goldmine for it offers you more opportunities to expand on a topic. You’ll be able to answer as many questions as possible in a single blog post.

Invest wisely in broader approaches — namely the production of useful content across all parts of the funnel — and you can expect to reap the rewards of your efforts now and in the future.

Please do let me know what do you think about this in comments