The fact that people search for something doesn’t necessarily mean they’re going to click on any of the search results.
In fact, Google’s goal is to satisfy its users right there and then without having them “waste time” clicking on any of the search results. According to a recent study, two-thirds of Google searches in 2020 ended without a click.
Two-thirds of Google searches in 2020 ended without a click.
For example, the keyword “elon musk age” gets 37k searches per month (on average). But the number of clicks on the search results (according to Ahrefs) is just 6.3k.
'Elon Musk age' search volume via Ahrefs' Keywords Explorer
That happens because Google gives an instant answer to that question, dissuading users from clicking on any of the search results:
Dividing the workload like this whatsapp number list allows both the vendor and the affiliate to focus on their strengths. The improvements are similar on desktop and mobile. Most of the focus in 2021 was on mobile results.
'Elon musk age' instant answer in Google search
So if a search query has a large search volume, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it will bring you lots of search traffic. Google may simply display the answer right in its search results.
3. Advertisers may steal your clicks
There’s one other thing that may steal those precious clicks away from you: Google Ads.
As of today, Google displays up to four paid search listings above the organic search results. And if you trace the visual history of these paid placements, it becomes painfully obvious Google is trying to make those ads nearly indistinguishable from the organic search results.
It also tends to embellish those ads with images and sitelinks to maximize the real estate they occupy and push the organic search results further down below.
In other words, ranking at the top for some popular keyword no longer guarantees that you’re going to get lots of clicks from it.