SEO attribution is still broken. Stop trying to make it perfect.
You don’t need to reconstruct every touchpoint. You need enough evidence to understand what’s contributing to the outcome.
Topic: User behavior
What to do now that AI Overviews turned search into reading sessions
Search intent still shapes content strategy, but AI Overviews now shape how users behave on the SERP itself.
Users behave differently in AI Overviews vs. AI Mode
New clickstream data shows AI Overviews reshape user behavior, from reverse scrolling to longer SERP evaluation across search intents.
Why ‘search everywhere’ is the new reality for SEO
AI may be changing search, but much of the visibility is already going to platforms that dominate results and user attention.
75% of ChatGPT users rely on ‘keywords’ for local services: New data
New data shows people use ChatGPT to find local healthcare and aesthetics providers through short prompts, keywords, and limited follow-up.
Google’s Liz Reid: The real search shift is behavioral, not AI
Liz Reid says AI isn’t driving the change in Google Search — users are. Younger audiences are shifting to video, forums, and creator content.
Historic recurrence in search: Why AI feels familiar and what’s next
AI is changing how people search – again. Learn what decades of search history can teach us about adapting to the next big shift.
Generative AI is changing search, but Google is still where people start: Study
AI tools are reshaping search habits, but Google’s dominance endures as the default gateway for online information, new research shows.
There are more than 4 types of search intent
Explore user motivations, intent categories, and tactics to create SEO content that resonates and converts.
How and why to ‘be the primary source’ for organic search
Becoming the go-to source across Google, AI tools and social platforms is key to standing out in an AI-driven organic search landscape.
Microsoft Clarity launches Google Ads integration
Microsoft Clarity's new Google Ads integration gives marketers visibility into post-click behavior, allowing them to track user interactions.
Why is this ranking on Google?
Learn why keywords aren't everything and how user behavior, machine learning, intent and more shape modern SEO.
How Google ending continuous scroll could impact ORM
Here's how individuals and brands can adjust online reputation management (ORM) strategies to adapt to a post-continuous scroll world.
Voice search optimization: What is it and how important is it now?
Explore the growth of voice search, its impact on user behavior and search, and what it means for the future.
Is TikTok a search engine? Why meeting searchers’ needs matters more than semantics
Here’s why brands must focus on user experience, not semantics, and be present on platforms where their audience is searching.
Generative AI in search: What search marketers should prepare for
Discover the impact of generative AI on search marketing and how you can prepare for the evolving landscape and unlock growth opportunities.
How Google’s continuous scroll can affect impressions and CTR
Reporting remains the same in Search Console, but eliminating the line between pages may result in new user behaviors, which can create winners and losers.
Google search results eye candy: How users navigate search features and what it means for SEO
Search behaviors are changing as users "ping pong" their attention across search results pages.
Emoji SEO presents opportunities for video
Emoji search hasn’t quite caught on, but emojis still pose some interesting opportunities for your organic visibility.
New Google Eye Tracking Study Shows The Downfall Of The Golden Triangle
A new Google eye tracking study published by Mediative shows how the evolution of the Google search results from 2005 to today has resulted in searchers looking outside of the golden triangle. The golden triangle was coined back in 2005 based on a study on how searchers looked at the Google search results page back […]
Leaked Documents Show How Yelp Thinks It’s Not Getting Screwed By Google
Yelp may once again feel Google is robbing it of its fair share of search traffic, with a study that’s been leaked to TechCrunch to prove it. A close read of that study actually shows that it proves the opposite — or at least, that it’s certainly not as damning as it sounds. Leaked Documents […]
Will Google Now For iPhone & iPad Boost Google Search App Usage?
Engadget spotted and has archived a promotional video that suggests the Google Search App for iOS may be gaining Google Now support. That support might help boost usage of the Google Search App, which barely makes the iTunes Top 100. Google Now No Longer Android-Only? Google Now is Google’s predictive search assistant, which tries to […]
Facebook Shares How People Are Using Graph Search: Finding Friends Tops List
Today, Facebook has shared information that “hundreds of thousands” of people are using its Facebook Graph Search service, highlighting that people still use it like “old’ Facebook search — to find friends. Facebook then suggests some ways to go beyond that, for those who have the new search feature. New Ways To Find Friends From […]
Exploring The Shift In Search Behaviors With Microsoft’s Jacquelyn Krones
I first met Jacquelyn Krones, a Senior Product Manager from Microsoft, at a search show. A mutual friend on the Bing team, Product Manager Stefan Weitz, introduced her to me and said, “You have to meet Jacquelyn. You speak the same language.” Stefan was right. Jacquelyn started talking about the research project she was then […]
SMX East 2010 Slide Video: Google Instant’s Impact On SEO & User Behavior
Google Instant’s Impact On SEO & User Behavior Presentations from SMX East, October 2010 Google Instant is a radically new approach to search, delivering actual search results and ads as you type, updating with each new keystroke. Some pundits have declared that this means the death of SEO, but Google maintains nothing’s changed with result […]
SEO Implications Of Google’s “Reasonable Surfer” Patent
On May 11, 2010, Google was granted a new patent that basically states that all links on a page do not have to carry (or pass) the same weight. The concept is that the value a link should pass to a target page will be largely based on the probability that a user would click […]
Researcher Jim Jansen On The “Sex” Of Search Queries & Personalization
In this column, I’ll follow up on my conversation with Dr. Jim Jansen from Penn State and his recent investigation into behavior patterns that lie within a large data set of visitor and search advertising campaign data from a high traffic ecommerce site. In part one, Jim and I explored whether a search funnel actually […]
Optimizing For Re-finding Search Behavior
Re-finding search behavior is common in web search, image search, and video search. What is it, and how can you make it easy for searchers to re-find your content?
Search Behavior: The 4th Building Block Of Search Engine Optimization
SEO is actually optimizing a website for people who use search engines, both web search engines and site search engines. The key ingredient has always been searchers -- their characteristics and behaviors.
Microsoft Paper: Improving Search Results By Mining Web Surfing Activity
A new research paper from Microsoft looks at how surfing behavior — as logged by a search toolbar — can be used to improve search results.
iProspect: Blended Search Resulting In More Clicks On News, Images, And Video
Since the advent of “blended” or “universal search” last year across the major engines, there’s been ongoing discussion and speculation about its impact on user behavior and search marketing. Gord Hotchkiss last year wrote extensively about how blended search (on Google) has in fact shifted the user focus from the so-called “golden triangle” at the […]
Scanning Barriers On The Search Results Page
A few columns ago I talked about user behavior on the results page and compared it to a shopping mall. In recent eye tracking studies, we’ve seen that several factors can create barriers or “walls” in this mall that can keep traffic from ever finding your listing.
Should All These Searches Be Forgotten?
The big search engines released end-of-the-year lists that intrigue and entertain. They can also remind us of the fundamentals of search user behavior. Each year when we look back at top searches, we get to see what searchers are up to and measure the strides in human development over the last twelve months. Our curiosity. […]
Google Mines Mobile Queries, Finds Longer Strings, More Searches, And More Clicks
Gary Price at ResourceShelf points us to an intriguing article appearing in the IEEE Computer Society’s Computer Magazine about mobile search at Google. In the piece, two researchers at Google dissect and mine mobile query logs from WAP-based searches coming through a single (unnamed) U.S. carrier. One million “page view requests” from one month earlier […]
Searchers Trust Google’s Rank Above Abstracts In Search Results
University students don’t question Google from PC World reports on a recent study named In Google We Trust: Users’ Decisions on Rank, Position, and Relevance. The study surveyed 22 Cornell University students on the Google search results. The conclusion of the study showed that these students trusted Google’s ranking of the search results at a […]