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: elis@surveymonkey.com or get in touch on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/schwartze