Understanding Google In-Depth Articles' Market Share

In-depth articles are typically long-form content from major publications, but, unlike news results, they may be months or years old. Google seems to be targeting “evergreen” resources, focusing on proven articles from trusted publications.

While some marketers have received excellent traffic bumps from in-depth articles, they’ve had to compete against some major websites. It appears that in-depth articles are actually slanted to favor larger, more established sites, at least according to a Forbes article by Dr. Peter J. Meyers and Denis Pinsky written earlier this year. They found 10 websites accounted for nearly 65 percent of the results for in-depth articles.



Here are the top 10 sites dominating the in-depth results.

1. nytimes.com — 25.3 percent
2. wsj.com — 8.0 percent
3. newyorker.com — 5.7 percent
4. theatlantic.com — 5.6 percent
5. wired.com — 4.2 percent
6. slate.com — 3.9 percent
7. businessweek.com — 3.7 percent
8. thedailybeast.com — 3.3 percent
9. forbes.com — 2.8 percent
10. nymag.com — 2.7 percent

Top 25 Phrases with In-depth

1. jobs
2. ancestry
3. wedding dresses
4. shoes
5. toms
6. 50 shades of grey
7. laptop
8. halloween costumes
9. diabetes
10. smartphone
11. bruce springsteen
12. pregnancy
13. led
14. tablet pc
15. depression
16. tory burch
17. global warming
18. laptops
19. cruises
20. car sales
21. travel
22. mba
23. apartments
24. router
25. stock market

Not all Categories are Equal
Meyers and Pinsky also discovered that in-depth articles don’t appear as frequently for some topics as they do for others. Here’s a list of topics, and what percent of searches within those topics triggered an in-depth article box:

1. Family & Community — 14.4 percent
2. Health — 12.8 percent
3. Law & Government — 12.0 percent
4. Arts & Entertainment — 7.2 percent
5. Finance — 7.0 percent
6. Jobs & Education — 5.8 percent
7. Hobbies & Leisure — 5.6 percent
8. Computers & Consumer Electronics — 4.8 percent
9. Internet & Telecom — 4.4 percent
10. Food & Groceries — 3.6 percent
11. Home & Garden — 3.2 percent
12. Sports & Fitness — 3.2 percent
13. Travel & Tourism — 3.2 percent
14. Dining & Nightlife — 3.0 percent
15. Real Estate — 3.0 percent
16. Apparel — 2.8 percent
17. Beauty & Personal Care — 1.6 percent
18. Retailers & General Merchandise — 1.4 percent
19. Vehicles — 1.2 percent
20. Occasions & Gifts — 0.8 percent

If you want more traffic and you’re in a category that’s low on this list, in-depth articles might give your search traffic a major boost.