Is being in position 1-3 without a featured snippet better for conversions?
-
I'm a cosmetic dental practice so we're local and want people to visit our website, look around and make a booking.
I've followed very closely the featured snippet debate on WBF and in the blogs here and everywhere else on the web. I've got many 1-3 positions and have been optimising for featured snippets with great success.
I have noticed though that once I get a featured snippet the CTR of the page that the snippet is taken from drops significantly. This can often put me from position one into two or three. The same thing happens sometimes on the local listings. You get in the pack and people start visiting your homepage rather than the particular services page in the SERP.
At a conference I was at, here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iXlVcbpvd0 (11:14) there is a suggestion that Vodafone de-optimise because a position one or two is better for their sales than a featured snippet.
After all my interests are not the same as google. They want to answer questions and I want to sell cosmetic dentistry. So is answering a question without bringing a user to my site a good idea? I've certainly seen the amount of enquiries drop once the category has a number of featured snippets.
Are they as good as everyone says they are? I think possibly not from my data and this Vodafone talk is the first time i've heard anyone agree.
I've scoured the web for answers and it's all just "GET FEATURED SNIPPETS", "HERES HOW TO GET THEM" etc. But my business is not about getting more traffic it's about selling. Could someone please point me to research on conversion rate and featured snippets. or ROI and featured snippets?
Thanks.
-
Yes you are right realises own confirmation bias I love how new this all is, it's so interesting and I feel we're on the cutting edge of something. I'll get some more data together and do my own little study. #alwaysbetesting
-
_Do you find that the FS can so detrimentally affect the CTR that you drop out of 1-3 altogether? I've seen that happen a couple of times but can't say for certain it's because of the FS. _
It depends on the topic and niche you are in. Can't say anything exact, in my experiences works better being in the tops positions WITHOUT a FS rather than having a FS and being the chosen one.
_Check out search console data. It all goes 100% haywire when I got the snippets. CTR right down and impressions through the roof. Clicks are stable (ish). That research you recommended looks great. Thanks so much. _
Yeap, the effect in the impression with the FS is fantastic. Be cautious, you do have more clicks even dropping down the CTR.
If I were you, I'd try to de-optimize one FS and test the results.
SEO is tough and many times is just trial and error -
Thanks Gaston, I'll test that out. I'm also thinking that you're right about the nature of the FS being question answering. It's almost as though local traffic is still visiting the site but the national traffic is just looking at the snippet and leaving. So it's worth looking at the location demo too I think.
Do you find that the FS can so detrimentally affect the CTR that you drop out of 1-3 altogether? I've seen that happen a couple of times but can't say for certain it's because of the FS.
Check out search console data. It all goes 100% haywire when I got the snippets. CTR right down and impressions through the roof. Clicks are stable (ish). That research you recommended looks great. Thanks so much.
-
Hi Ed!
Definitely **YES! ** Being position 1-3 _without_a featured snippet will drive more visitors to your site. You are clearly seing that.
The math here is simple: less visitors to your website, less conversions.
There are 2 clear studies to show here:Ahrefs’ Study Of 2 Million Featured Snippets: 10 Important Takeaways
MozCon Slide: Reverse-Engineer Google’s Research to Serve Up the Best, Most Relevant Content for Your AudienceIn the last one, the key information to extract is that google chooses more often FS that contains rather informational keywords than transactional ones.
As you say that mastered the process to win FS, there might be a chance to optimize (if that's even possible) the information shown in the snippent to include a text telling the searcher to go in the site and buy.Hope this helps.
Best luck.
GR.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Channel grouping path / assisted conversion benchmarks by industry
Hi Mozzers, I'm trying to find benchmark channel grouping paths to conversion, or assisted conversion trends, by industry... is anybody aware of any benchmark data out there? Thanks!
Conversion Rate Optimization | | Zoope0 -
Attribution model - the weighted number of conversions - GA
Hi, 1.Can someone explain me with an example what is "The weighted number of conversions under the custom selected attribution model"? How Analytics calculate it? 2. If I increase e.g social source for 1.4 in my attribution model, my organic or direct source are loosing that weighted number of conversions. Could it be because of organic or direct getting lower credit, or for some other reason? Ty. Br.
Conversion Rate Optimization | | Tormar0 -
Brand Name: Conversion Rate Optimizing: Eponymous VS Generic
Good day all, We are entertaining the idea of changing the Domain Name & Brand Name for straplessfashion.com. While still in development, the website sells women undergarments. We did some survey research and it seems that women (age 18-40) really liked either "Demi's Dream" or "Almost Skin" as a good name. More specifically, Almost Skin seems to be the more popular choice over "Demi's Dream". I think "Almost Skin" catches attention quicker and may work best in PPC. However, when personalizing a brand name is considered, "Demi's Dream" might be the best choice. Would you please offer your advise on which of these two names might be the best for a new Domain and Brand name for the website mentioned above? Which would convert better? Thank you for your help. Carlos
Conversion Rate Optimization | | 90miLLA0 -
Can someone give me some good articles about conversion?
I finally bought the seo moz pro version. I consider myself pretty knowledgeable in seo, content/social media marketing, but I am a rookie at conversion optimization. HELP PLEASE! I am trying to convert traffic into phone calls and/or contact forms.
Conversion Rate Optimization | | SwanJob0 -
How important is Conversion Rate Optimisation?
Silly question I know but just wanted to talk about it, more of a discussion then anything. How important is CRO to you? Anyone have any stats before and after? Cheers
Conversion Rate Optimization | | activitysuper0 -
Conversion and CTR best books and tips?
So there are two things a site owner needs, 1. To rank on page one and 2. To have a high conversion and clock through rate. I'm still learning both but need more help on the second. Any tips? What are the best books to study on CTR and Conversions?
Conversion Rate Optimization | | bronxpad0 -
Top 5 Conversion Rate Tips for a "Beds Shop E-commerce"
Which are in your opinion the "Top 5 things to do" to increase the conversion rate in a beds e-commerce site? The conversion is "to sell a bed" 🙂 The website is http://www.idealetti.com Thank you in advance to everyone that share his experience or give some advice!
Conversion Rate Optimization | | YESdesign0 -
How important to conversions is proper English on a website?
Many websites - especially those done in foreign countries by non-native English speakers - have many grammatical and idiomatic errors in the English copy. How important is that to conversions (actually convincing the customer to buy, etc.) Is the poor English a turn-off, a cause for distrust or discomfort - or do people not care? I'd be interested to hear people's personal opinions (the more the merrier) and if anyone has a more global perspective backed by research, testing, etc - that would be great, Thanks in advance!
Conversion Rate Optimization | | debi_zyx0