It pays to be # 1 ranking for the keyword you’re targeting. Really pays. Really, really pays.
A post over on Earners Forum details some data crunching from the recently (and short lived) data release from AOL.
Total Searches: 9,038,794
Total Clicks: 4,926,623
Click Rank # 1: 2,075,765
Click Rank # 2: 586,100 = 3.5x less
Click Rank # 3: 418,643 = 4.9x less
Click Rank # 4: 298,532 = 6.9x less
Click Rank # 5: 242,169 = 8.5x less
Click Rank # 6: 199,541 = 10.4x less
Click Rank # 7: 168,080 = 12.3x less
Click Rank # 8: 148,489 = 14.0x less
Click Rank # 9: 140,356 = 14.8x less
Click Rank # 10: 147,551 = 14.1x less
3.5 Times More Clicks At Position # 1 Than At # 2
I always knew you got you lots more clicks if your search engine ranking was # 1 – we managed a # 1 ranking for a long while on one of the most competitive product searches on the web.
When we dropped from # 1 we measured very closely the change in the number of visitors coming from search engines. It was a lot. Not as much as the data says above, but close.
The bottom line?
Number 1 is a lot, lot better than number 2.
Cheers
I’m surprised no one has commented on this. I think these figures are an absolutely brilliant set of statistics, and with over 20m records available, it’s a good set of data to go on. It’s also a great selling point to companies on page 2, or those even on page one near the bottom about the additional benefits that SEO can bring to them.