SEO SAVAGES // field studies
THE SAVAGE LAB
Original-data SEO studies. We treat metrics and tactics like measurement instruments — pull the real data, test what they actually measure, and publish what we find. Method stated, limitations included, no cherry-picking.
- How Common Are AI Overviews? We Checked 30 SERPs
23 of 30 SERPs (77%) we checked showed an AI Overview, every one cites sources, and intent — not keyword difficulty — decides which SERPs get one.
read the study → // n = 30 keywords / 9 niches // by Bobby K - Is the CTR-by-Position Curve Real? We Tested 1,000 Rankings
Top-3 roughly tracks the curve, but on ~1,000 real rankings positions 11–20 out-click 4–10 (15.6% vs 8.7%) — the canonical CTR curve is a population artifact.
read the study → // n = ~1,000 ranking queries · per-position n = 2–80 // by Dr Blaze - Does Programmatic SEO Work? We Analyzed 12 Million Pages
Across 12.3M programmatic pages on nine DR 89–94 sites, 96.7% get ≤100 organic visits/month and 29% get exactly zero. pSEO is a power law — here's what actually separates…
read the study → // by Bobby K - Is Keyword Difficulty Accurate? We Audited 30 SERPs
A psychometric validity test of Keyword Difficulty: across 30 SERPs and 241 ranking pages, KD predicts page-level links well (ρ=0.91) but barely tracks domain authority (…
read the study → // n = 30 keywords · 241 ranking pages // by Dr Blaze
// measurement-literate SEO
We measure
the construct.
Most agencies optimize the proxy and report the dashboard. We build the measurement model first — then do the work. Tell us your numbers and we'll tell you which ones actually mean something.