How Important is it to Show on the 1st page?
Question:
How important is it to show up on the first page of a search engine (say Google)? Is there any data to show rates of success by being on page one? Page two?
Answer:
Jim McKinley: I am going to break this into two separate topics:
- How often do users click on listings on the first page of search engines?
A few years ago, AOL released data showing the click-through rate of different positions on their search results pages. The data was extremely interesting. It showed that 42% of all clicks were on the first position on the page with nearly 90% of clicks occurring on the first page of the results.
Takeaway: Unless you are on the first page of the search engines you will get very little to no traffic for a particular search query.
- Should I always try to be number one on every search query inside of Google?
The answer to this question is generally no, you should not try to be number one for every search. While being number one will guarantee you the most clicks, it is also the most expensive spot on the page. It can be very easy to burn through your entire marketing budget in a short time pursuing this strategy (and possibly end up with a $25,000 Google pen).
The challenge is to try to match the value of the traffic to what you are willing to spend on a click. There could be some extremely relevant keywords that would warrant paying to be in the first position. However, for most keywords it will make the most economic sense to be at a lower position.