Google’s dominance in the US organic search market continues to expand. In the third quarter of 2018, Google accounted for 92% of organic search visits, marking a 9% increase compared to the previous year. This is the company’s strongest performance in organic search visits since the second quarter of 2015.
These findings were highlighted in Merkle’s Digital Marketing Report for Q3 2018. In addition to organic search, the report also explores data related to paid search, organic & paid social, and Amazon ads. This summary will primarily focus on organic search data.
Organic Search Visits in Q3 2018
Overall, organic searches across all major platforms saw a growth of nearly 6% year-over-year. The smartphone category experienced the most significant growth in organic search, with an 18% increase year-over-year. In contrast, organic search visits from tablets and desktops declined in the third quarter of 2018, by 6% and 4% respectively. However, Merkle noted that the decline in desktop search visits has slowed down compared to previous quarters.
Organic search visits by search engine
While Google’s organic search visits increased in Q3 2018, Bing and Yahoo experienced significant declines. Yahoo saw the largest year-over-year decline in organic search visits at 32%, while Bing’s visits decreased by 14%. In terms of US market share, Google captured 92% of organic search visits, whereas Bing and Yahoo accounted for 5% and 3%, respectively.
Organic search visits from mobile devices
Focusing on mobile devices, Google’s dominance is even more pronounced. In Q3 2018, Google generated 95% of all organic search visits in the US on mobile devices.
This data provides a glimpse into the latest trends from Merkle’s report on digital marketing.
