Listing expectations: how much better is ranking No.1 versus No.10?

Read these shocking statistics. According to Penn State researchers, 54% of users view just one page of search results when performing searches at a search engine. Only an additional 19% went on to the second page of results, and fewer than 10% bothered with the third page of results.

More shocking statistics

About 55% of users checked out one result only. More than 80% stopped after looking at three results.

What does this mean to you? It's crucial that your pages be found in the top-10 search results for your most important keyword phrases. Even better, try to get in the top 3!

Click Through Rate (CTR) in Pay Per Click (PPC)

Recently, I ran across an interesting study by the Atlas Institute that examined how much traffic a Web site could expect to receive based upon which position your page occupied in the top 10 results. If you ever thought that occupying position 4 was about as good as position 1, then think again.

According to the study, you can expect your click-through rate to decline rapidly after position 1. Click-through rate, or CTR, is computed by dividing the number of times a listing or ad was clicked by the number of impressions, or times it was viewed.

A search engine will have a limited number of impressions for any given keyword or phrase. Think of these impressions as a Boston crème pie with each search position occupying a slice of that pie. Unfortunately, if you're last in line at the desert bar, the piece of pie you get will be dramatically smaller the further you are from that first slice.

For example

With Overture, if you receive 100 clicks per day for a number 1 position on "strawberry cheesecake," then according to the study, you could expect to receive about 77 clicks in the number 2 position. A number 3 position drops to about 59 clicks. By the time you reach position 10, you would receive only 7 or 8 clicks. The relative percentages vary between Overture and Google AdWords, but the conclusion remains the same: You can literally double your traffic by simply improving your rankings by a few positions.

So when dealing with paid placement, should you always go for that number 1 slot? Only if maximizing your traffic is of paramount importance, as you'll normally pay a premium for the first few positions. That's why it's important to track the profitability of your campaigns You must know how much you can afford to pay before you begin to lose money. Otherwise, you can burn through a lot of cash in a hurry.

You have an investment in time getting started, but once you secure that number 1 placement, you could receive the aforementioned 100 clicks per day for free. The challenge in this is knowing how to do it in the least amount of time.

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