Research and Studies

Latest update May 1, 2018 — This is the latest edition of our study on the state of the mobile web. In this study I’ll show you the level of usage of the mobile web last year (2017) as compared to desktop, and how 2017’s usage level compares to 2016. The stats in this and […]

In 2017 we asked nearly 5000 questions to several of the leading digital personal assistants to see which was best at answering simple, factual questions. Now in 2018 we’ve done it again, asking those questions to the following: Alexa Cortana Invoke Google Assistant on Google Home Google Assistant on a Smartphone Siri Find out how […]

We’ve been tracking Twitter’s integration into the Google search results since 2014, and today I’m publishing the fifth of our studies on the topic. The TL;DR of today’s results is that Google’s indexation of Twitter is at the lowest level ever. Read on for the details! For reference, here are links to the prior versions […]

How comfortable are real people with using voice commands with their devices? We wanted to know, so for the second year in a row, we asked over 1,000 people how they use voice, when they use voice, and why. If you’re looking to get a snapshot of how voice is used by people today, then […]

What was the most-linked-to content marketing content on the web in 2017? Read on, and I’ll provide an overview of the top pieces of content in 2017 to date, along with an analysis of what it means for your content marketing strategies. The analysis includes 1021 pieces of content, all of which were shown to […]

Just how powerful is YouTube when it comes to ranking in Google search? That’s the question I’ll seek to address in today’s post. I’ll do that by looking at the frequency of placement in the Google search results for two different types of queries, and then comparing those rankings against how other videos rank. The […]

Imagine a world where you had a digital personal assistant that you could access with voice commands from wherever you are through any internet-connected device, and it would handle all of your online interactions for you as you move about from home to the car to work and beyond. This world is becoming a reality, […]

Read my new study titled: The Argument for AMP: Lessons from 10 Case Studies. In it, you’ll see what I learned from talking with 10 companies that implemented AMP on most or all of their site pages to try to improve their performance in Google search for mobile users. I also handcrafted AMP versions of […]

In today’s post, I’ll show you data from three different dates over the past year that illustrate why links remain a powerful ranking factor. I’ll also discuss in detail why Google still uses them, and why they are likely to remain a powerful ranking factor for some time to come. In July of 2016, we […]

Recently we published data that suggests that Google does NOT use Chrome data to discover new URLs for crawling. That surprised a lot of people because most assume that Google uses every possible source to find new content. Today, I’m publishing the results of a study that takes this process one step further. In this […]

“A Must-Read for Anyone Looking to Use Video to Boost Their Search Marketing Efforts” Greg Finn – Search Engine Land Count on it: Google is going to optimize for the best combination of user experience/satisfaction (market share) and revenue on each of its platforms. What users expect on YouTube vs. Google Search is different. Stating […]

Research reveals new insights into how featured snippets work This new study documents a never before made connection between featured snippets and regular snippets in the search results, as well as a new way to recognize when your site is competing for a featured snippet. I’m also going to detail an advanced process for obtaining […]