How Many Clicks Go to the Top Position on Google?
According to a recent study of tens of millions of users, 53% of google users click on the first listing. A more recent report about the value of google result positioning from Chitika.com claims that only 32.5% clicks #1. However, even Chitika showed that 75% of Google users click on the top 5 results.
How Many Clicks Do Webpages on Google’s First Search Results Page Get?
Does it matter whether your site ranks at the top of the first page of search engine results pages (serps)? According to a new report conducted by Compete.com, being ranked first in serps rather than second can make a huge difference as far as search marketing ROI goes.
The report was compiled after Compete analyzed tens of millions consumer generated search results starting from Q4 of 2011. It provides interesting insights about what online marketers should focus on achieving if they’re to drive huge amounts of organic traffic from search engines. From the illustration, the report found that organic listings account for 85% of search results while paid listings only account for 15%. About 55% of the pages appearing in search results carry ads.
Organic search listings get the highest number of click through rates. However, it matters what position a particular webpage appears on in the organic search results.
From the study, the click through rates are distributed as follows:
- First position gets 53%
- Second position gets 15%
- Third position gets 9%
- Fourth position gets 6%
- Fifth position gets 5%
From these statistics, the page appearing in the first position of organic search listings gets well over three times the number of clicks the second placed webpage gets. Compete.com analysts advise search marketers to focus on attaining the top position in search results since this is where majority of clicks go. Brands should therefore develop ranking strategies that include continuous monitoring of results and adapting to the ever changing search engine algorithms.
The report also highlights that paid listings also get the most clicks if they appear at the top of serps. The right sidebar carries the majority of the paid ads accounting for 61%. Interestingly, ads placed on the right sidebar account for only 13% of clicks on paid listings. From the report findings, the top two ad listings appearing on the right sidebar get 4% and 3% for first and second placed ads respectively. Interestingly, at 9% the third paid ad on the ad block at the top of the page gets more than double the number of clicks the first listing on the right sidebar gets. This means getting your ad placed on the ad block on the top of the page is much better than being placed on the right ad block. This is further emphasized by the fact that the first paid listing appearing on the ad block at the top of serps gets 59% of all paid listing’s click throughs.
The compete.com report offers other significant insights that are useful to marketers including the following:
- The top ad block on serps accounts for just 24% of all paid listings and gets 85% of all paid ad clicks
- The bottom ad block on serps accounts for 15% of all paid listings and gets 2% of all paid ad clicks
- Being first or second on the bottom ad block doesn’t have much significance since the click throughs are shared equally at 1% each.
On a final note, according to compete, due to the ongoing strategic battles that are taking place in serps, marketers need to beware that a single decision can make a huge impact on overall results. Marketers should also focus on the ROI of their ranking strategy be it through SEM or SEO since the investment for such efforts is usually limited.
