Organic search experienced its most robust visit growth in over two years, as revealed by Merkle’s Digital Marketing Report for Q4 2017.
Total site visits stemming from organic search increased by 6% year-over-year in the fourth quarter of 2017, marking the highest growth rate since 2015. Even desktop organic search visits saw an uptick in Q4 2017, rebounding from a significant decline the previous year.
### Organic Mobile Search Growth
Focusing on mobile organic search, there was an even more substantial growth rate of 15% year-over-year. In the US, the mobile search market is predominantly controlled by Google, which accounted for 96% of all site visits generated by mobile organic search in Q4 2017.
Mobile contributed 56% of all organic site visits from Google in Q4, significantly surpassing the figures for Google’s main competitors. Mobile accounted for 42% of organic site visits from Bing, and 18% from Yahoo.
### Organic Search Not Growing As Fast As Other Channels
Organic search visits driven by Google saw an 8% year-over-year increase, constituting 92% of organic search visits in Q4 2017. During the same timeframe, the growth of paid search clicks declined from 19% year-over-year to just 8%.
Despite the positive growth for organic search in the final quarter of 2017, there was a decrease in the overall share of site visits generated by organic search. Merkle reports that social, email, and display advertising exhibited stronger growth in Q4.
### Organic Search vs Social Media
The share of site visits resulting from organic search was 24% in Q4 2017, a 2% decrease from the previous year, yet it remained significantly higher than the site visits driven by social media. Social media platforms accounted for a mere 3.3% of all site visits in Q4 2017.
