For his talk at Learn Inbound 2017 Branded3's Director of Search Stephen Kenwright looks at the comparison of search between Ireland and the rest of the UK.

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State of search
in Ireland
Stephen Kenwright @stekenwright

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Just because it worked somewhere else…

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39.3
21.3
13.0
35.2
18.7
11.7
19.5
5.6
2.8
0.0
5.0
10.0
15.0
20.0
25.0
30.0
35.0
40.0
45.0
Google Bing Yahoo!
Total audience Desktop audience Mobile audience
UK audience of search engines (millions)
March 2016
Source: comScore

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Bing audience numbers in Ireland
March 2016
Unique searchers
1m
Source: comScore
Share
8.8%
Monthly searches
15m

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Bing impressions
In millions
11
8
10
9
11
9
11
13
12
11
13
14
16 16
18
15
18
14
13
15
14
16
17
12
13
11
17
28
25
26
25
28
35
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
Source: Microsoft

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Desktop
89%
Tablet
3%
Mobile
8%
Bing monthly impressions by device
Ireland
Source: Microsoft

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Chrome
49%
Safari
22%
Firefox
8%
Internet Explorer
7%
Other
14%
Ireland
Browser market share
Chrome
42%
Safari
30%
Internet Explorer
7%
Firefox
7%
Edge
4%
Other
10%
UK
Source: Statcounter

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Unique users in Ireland
Bing
1m
Source: Google / Bing
YouTube
1.3m
Google
2.2m

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Mobile

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Proportion of adults with a smartphone
H1 2016
UK
71%
Ireland
80%
Sources: Ofcom / ComReg

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66.00%
68.00%
70.00%
72.00%
74.00%
76.00%
78.00%
80.00%
82.00%
APAC South America North America Europe Ireland
Smartphone users who have purchased on their phone
Oct 2016 – last 6 months
Source: IAB

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23%
26%
43% 42%
34% 33%
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
50%
Global average Ireland
Daily/Weekly Monthly A few times a year
Frequency of mobile purchases
Oct 2016
Source: IAB

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The Irish are obsessed
with their mobile phones

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A (brief) history of Google and mobile
Apple launches
the iPhone
2007
2010
Responsive Web Design
Google launches
1998
Google launches
its first Android
2009
2015
Mobile search
overtakes desktop
Google pays $1bn to be
iPhone search default
2014

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The iPhone predates Responsive Web Design
by at least 3 years

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90% of users start a task on one device
and complete it on another
Source: Google / LukeW

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Use Resizer to see your content on different screen sizes
design.google.com/resizer

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Google, Apple, Adobe and Microsoft
collaborating on variable fonts
FastCo Design / Erik van Blokland

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What’s important on mobile?

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What’s important on desktop?

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What’s important on tablet?

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Speed

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Number of 4G subscriptions
UK
Q4 2013
2.7m
Source: Ofcom
Q4 2014
23.6m
Q4 2015
39.5m

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Number of 4G subscriptions
Ireland
1.7m
Source: Ofcom

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27.3%
50.2%
0.0%
10.0%
20.0%
30.0%
40.0%
50.0%
60.0%
Q3 2015 Q3 2016
Data generated on 4G networks
Ireland
Source: ComReg

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A (brief) history of Google and site speed
2010
Page speed becomes
desktop ranking factor
Google launches
1998
5G
expected in UK
2020
4G
available in UK
2013
PageSpeed
Insights
2011
AMP
2016
2019
5G
expected in Ireland

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AMP adoption

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Adoption of AMP
UK vs. Ireland
UK
6.49%
Ireland
5.68%
Source: BuiltWith

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65% of Irish websites use WordPress
Source: BuiltWith

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AMP is awesome!?

35. @stekenwrightCloudflare.com

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61% improvement in Page Load speed
in 30 mins
tools.pingdom.com

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At home
68%
At work
9%
On the go
17%
In store
2%
Other
4%
Where are you when you search on your mobile?
Source: Think with Google

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Both at home and
outside
66%
Mainly at home
16%
Only at home
8%
Only out of home
1%
Mainly out of home
9%
Where do you use the internet on your phone?
Source: Ofcom

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3%
2%
7%
13%
17%
19%
18%
22%
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
Midnight - 3am 3 - 6am 6 - 9am 9am - Noon Noon - 3pm 3 - 6pm 6 - 8pm 8pm - Midnight
When do mobile searches occur?
Source: Think with Google

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Conversion rate
Client example
Mobile
6.79%
Desktop
4.30%
Tablet
4.57%

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24.46%
21.55%
11.49%
7.80%
6.27%
3.29%
2.63% 2.42%
1.49% 1.08%
0.00%
5.00%
10.00%
15.00%
20.00%
25.00%
30.00%
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Mobile click through rate
Industry average: September 2016

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More
branded3.com/blog/mobile-ctr

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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
September 24.46% 21.55% 11.49% 7.80% 6.27% 3.29% 2.63% 2.42% 1.49% 1.08%
April 30.40% 20.03% 11.81% 9.25% 5.37% 3.86% 3.03% 1.74% 1.47% 1.08%
0.00%
5.00%
10.00%
15.00%
20.00%
25.00%
30.00%
35.00%
Mobile click through rate
Before/after May 2016 mobile-friendly update: September vs. April 2016

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85% of all pages in the mobile search results
meet mobile-friendly criteria
Source: Google

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Mobile-friendly
63%
Not mobile-
friendly
37%
April 17th 2015
Percentage of mobile-friendly URLs in top 10 results
Mobile-friendly
64%
Not mobile-
friendly
36%
May 18th 2015
source: Stone Temple

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What did Mobile-Friendly
really do?

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Traffic trends
Client example
Desktop Mobile Tablet Linear (Desktop) Linear (Mobile) Linear (Tablet)

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Mobile rate of growth
Client example
0.0%
2.0%
4.0%
6.0%
8.0%
10.0%
12.0%
14.0%
16.0%
18.0%
20.0%
Feb-13
Mar-13
Apr-13
May-13
Jun-13
Jul-13
Aug-13
Sep-13
Oct-13
Nov-13
Dec-13
Jan-14
Feb-14
Mar-14
Apr-14
May-14
Jun-14
Jul-14
Aug-14
Sep-14
Oct-14
Nov-14
Dec-14
Jan-15
Feb-15
Mar-15
Apr-15
May-15
Jun-15
Jul-15
Aug-15
Sep-15
Oct-15
Nov-15
Dec-15
Jan-16
Feb-16
Mar-16
Apr-16
May-16
Jun-16
Jul-16
Aug-16
Percent of mobile traffic from Google organic Percentage of mobile traffic excluding Google organic

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Mobile
40%
Tablet
23%
Desktop
37%
Search volume by device
Search volume vs. actual traffic
Client example
Mobile
14%
Tablet
36%
Desktop
50%
Organic data sources

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Ranking position
Client example: mobile vs. desktop
-9000
-8000
-7000
-6000
-5000
-4000
-3000
-2000
-1000
0
1000

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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
September 24.46% 21.55% 11.49% 7.80% 6.27% 3.29% 2.63% 2.42% 1.49% 1.08%
April 30.40% 20.03% 11.81% 9.25% 5.37% 3.86% 3.03% 1.74% 1.47% 1.08%
0.00%
5.00%
10.00%
15.00%
20.00%
25.00%
30.00%
35.00%
Mobile click through rate
Before/after May 2016 mobile-friendly update: September vs. April 2016

52. @stekenwrightSource: Merkle
Traffic from 4th text ad
June/July 2016

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What is organic competition like?

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Search landscape
Flights
54.4%
31.7%
26.8%
15.6%
15.5%
15.0%
13.1%
9.6%
8.3%
7.8%
6.0%
5.5%
5.2%
4.4%
3.0%
3.0%
2.5%
1.6%
1.5%
0.8%
www.skyscanner.ie
www.jetcost.ie
www.expedia.ie
www.edreams.com
www.tripadvisor.ie
www.cheapflights.ie
www.ebookers.ie
www.budgettravel.ie
www.ryanair.com
www.farecompare.com
www.aerlingus.com
www.lastminute.com
www.easyjet.com
www.skyscanner.net
www.cheapflights.com
www.kayak.ie
www.tripadvisor.com
www.flybe.com
www.britishairways.com
www.lufthansa.com

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23.3%
22.6%
22.5%
21.8%
18.5%
11.2%
7.1%
6.2%
5.8%
5.5%
3.3%
3.0%
1.4%
1.1%
0.9%
www.littlewoodsireland.ie
www.boohoo.com
www.debenhams.ie
www.missguided.eu
www.asos.com
www.arnotts.ie
www.riverisland.com
www.prettylittlething.com
www.forever21.com
www.marksandspencer.ie
www.next.co.uk
www.newlook.com
www.houseoffraser.co.uk
www.topshop.com
www.johnlewis.com
Search landscape
Fashion

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93.1%
49.7%
34.0%
33.1%
19.7%
17.1%
11.0%
10.8%
4.2%
1.2%
1.2%
0.9%
www.mortgages.ie
www.consumerhelp.ie
personalbanking.bankofireland.com
www.ebs.ie
aib.ie
www.kbc.ie
www.permanenttsb.ie
www.bonkers.ie
www.bankrate.com
digital.ulsterbank.ie
www.irishtimes.com
www.independent.ie
Search landscape
Mortgages

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Search landscape
Tea
68.7%
21.5%
14.8%
10.4%
7.4%
5.6%
5.3%
4.7%
2.5%
2.3%
2.1%
1.7%
1.5%
1.3%
en.wikipedia.org
coffee.ie
www.teavana.com
www.bewleys.com
www.coffeebeans.ie
www.barrystea.ie
www.lilysteashop.ie
www.discountcoffee.ie
www.javarepublic.com
www.amazon.com
www.watermark.ie
tea-coffee.ie
www.verocoffee.ie
www.amazon.co.uk

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Links

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Localised data works best

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Don’t limit yourself to .ie domains

61. @stekenwrightmoz.com/followerwonk

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Site metrics are terrible in Ireland

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Relationships with journalists
and bloggers are long term

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Search in Ireland

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Agency
9%
In house
67%
Agency/in house
22%
Not at all
2%
SEO
Who does search in Ireland?
Agency
26%
In house
19%
Agency/in house
18%
Not at all
37%
PPC

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Organic search
72%
Paid search
12%
Referrals
9%
Direct
7%
Biggest sources of traffic

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Using AMP
22%
Planning to implement
43%
No plans to implement
35%
AMP in Ireland

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Using HTTPS
74%
Planning to implement
18%
No plans to implement
8%
HTTPS in Ireland

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Links
35%
Content
42%
Technical SEO
14%
Something else
9%
What do Irish marketers think is the strongest ranking factor?

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Thanks
stephen.Kenwright@branded3.com
@stekenwright