Why You Need To Be Right At The Top Of Search Engines

I see this all the time. If I have a client in the office and they’re doing a search for something, they almost never look beyond the top 3 or 4 results that the search engine provides.

They’ll just move onto a different search term.

People Usually Look At The First 3 Or 4 Search Results

A small Microsoft Research study (pdf file) found that “no matter what result they eventually clicked on, our participantsPublish usually looked at the first 3 or 4 search results. When they clicked on the first or second result, they still looked at the first 4 results.”

Danny Sullivan’s Search Engine Land has a more in depth look at the study.

But the end result – if you want to be found, you have to be near the top of the search engine results. Anywhere else and you’re wasting your time.