| Tweet | Buffer |
We saw the posts on Intelligent Positioning and Search Engine Watch earlier this month and did the exact same study but with a larger (2955 SERPs), more diverse (1-9 words in length) set of keywords. We used keywords serviced for real clients, which provide a sample representative of more competitive, valuable, and realistic SERPs.
Data for our Sample:
Results:
Wikipedia appeared in positions 1-10 for 28.2% of keywords.
*7-, 8-, and 9-word phrases were left out due to low sample size
Conclusion: Sample selection matters. There is no doubt that Wikipedia owns a large portion of search results. But, for competitive phrases, Google does not just give a top 10 spot to the free encyclopedia.
Mark Rees
Inbound Marketing Consultant at digitalrelevance
Mark Rees is an Inbound Marketing Consultant and Orr Fellow at digitalrelevance. He holds a degree in Entrepreneurship, Economic Consulting, and Public Policy from Indiana University.
Very interesting. With regards to the “Phrase Length” graph, it’s curious to see such a dip for three-word phrases. Why would this be the case?
Great post, Mark. The more ambiguous a keyword is, the more likely it is to return a Wikipedia result. If I search for a one word noun as opposed to a 2-word or 3-word descriptive search, I am most likely looking for a definition or for information. I wonder how many of those SERPs with Wikipedia as a result also had dictionary sites as well.
Thanks for the cool research.
cool post! Keep up the good work!
Very good analysis Mark! What about Ebay and Amazon for product related searches?
Craig,
Great question! Here’s the break down for Amazon (eBay appeared in only 0.28% of results)
Position 1 – 2.2%, 2 – 2.1%, 3 – 1.7%, 4 – 2.4%, 5 – 2.7%, 6 – 0.4%, 7 – 0.4%, 8 – 0.4%, 9 – 0.7%, 10 – 0.3%
Granted you asked about product related searches, this sample is much wider. Replicating the original 1000 noun study may be a better sample for an eBay/Amazon study.
I blogged a reply essentially validating your results, but plotting them over 5 years and against 348 Million SERPs. I dug into the Ebay vs Amazon vs Youtube vs Wikipedia angle too. Pretty exciting stuff here:
http://www.spyfu.com/blog/think-wikipedia-dominates-google-rankings-think-again
Thanks, Mike!