The Value of Google Result Positioning
May 25th, 2010
How much is the top spot on Google actually worth? According to data from the Chitika network, it’s worth a ton – double the traffic of the #2 spot, to be precise.
In order to find out the value of SEO, we looked at a sample of traffic coming into our advertising network from Google and broke it down by Google results placement. The top spot drove 34.35% of all traffic in the sample, almost as much as the numbers 2 through 5 slots combined, and more than the numbers 5 through 20 (the end of page 2) put together.
“Obviously, everyone knows that the #1 spot on Google is where you want to be,” says Chitika research director Daniel Ruby. “It’s just kind of shocking to look at the numbers and see just how important it is, and how much of a jump there is from 2 to 1.”
The biggest jump, percentage-wise, is from the top of page 2 to the bottom of page 1. Going from the 11th spot to 10th sees a 143% jump in traffic. However, the base number is very low – that 143% jump is from 1.11% of all Google traffic to 2.71%. As you go up the top page, the raw jumps get bigger and bigger, culminating in that desired top position.
| Google Result | Impressions | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2,834,806 | 34.35% |
| 2 | 1,399,502 | 16.96% |
| 3 | 942,706 | 11.42% |
| 4 | 638,106 | 7.73% |
| 5 | 510,721 | 6.19% |
| 6 | 416,887 | 5.05% |
| 7 | 331,500 | 4.02% |
| 8 | 286,118 | 3.47% |
| 9 | 235,197 | 2.85% |
| 10 | 223,320 | 2.71% |
| 11 | 91,978 | 1.11% |
| 12 | 69,778 | 0.85% |
| 13 | 57,952 | 0.70% |
| 14 | 46,822 | 0.57% |
| 15 | 39,635 | 0.48% |
| 16 | 32,168 | 0.39% |
| 17 | 26,933 | 0.33% |
| 18 | 23,131 | 0.28% |
| 19 | 22,027 | 0.27% |
| 20 | 23,953 | 0.29% |
Numbers are based on a sample of 8,253,240 impressions across the Chitika advertising network in May, 2010.
Contact:
Daniel Ruby
Research Director, Online Insights
Chitika, Inc.
+866.441.7203 x966
press@chitika.com
Become a Fan on Facebook
Subscribe to Chitika Research
Hi, beautiful article.
My question is:
for example for a special keyword, how can I see by the keyword external tool the number of unqiue visitors monthly?
Are they the one searched by extended or exact?
For example,
I search for “chocolate”
Global monthly Extended: 45,000,000
Global monthly Exact: 1,500,000
which is the correct value?
thank you
@Joe, global monthly exact should be people searching for “chocolate”; just the single keyword. Global monthly extended should be people with search queries containing the word “chocolate”. The 1.5 million number is the number of searches for just “chocolate” with no other words in the query (goes to show that chocolate lovers are fairly specific in their search, maybe for types, nutritional value, recipes, stores near them, etc.)
Thank you Daniel
You need to go to wwww.google.com/sktool/ then you enter your keywords you got from the google external keyword tool into the sktool to get the exact number of searches for keywords that people are actually searching for, that’s real people searching:
http://www.google.co.uk/sktool/
That’s the new tool!
Excellent analytics, wow and this is
across all industries I believe. Especially the 11 to 10 spot is nice – sweet Spot !
@Rodney: I don’t believe in Google giving exact numbers to all of us
best thing is having your own sem tools running and keeping track of search volume of all keywords, that are important for you
This is really great research. However as per my personal experience with commercial keywords, I have concluded that first and second results are generally considered informative link and most people do not click over it and third position get the maximum clicks.
Thanks Daniel, Just a follow up on those statistics. I have heard that typically if all information is the same within the first three searches, the searcher will buy at the 3rd result. So, though #1 is best, #3 could be better. Anyway thanks for the statistics.
so if my understanding is correct I am supposed to use the percentage numbers above when doing keyword research in order to determine how many clicks I can expect to receive on my website.
Lets say for example that I am ranking on the first page of position number 5 for a keyword that gets searched for 8,000 times a day. That site could expect to receive 480 clicks or UVs a day being in that spot is that correct?
given the math 8,000 X .06 = 480 is that math correct?
anybody just reply to this with the correct answer
Why did they not include the click through rate? That would have bveen very simple and even more valuable because many click on sponsored results or don’t click at all. Instead they compared the allocation of index clicks.
I read somewhere if you artificially switch the first and second spot that the first slot would get fewer clicks than the average you are demonstrating here. My point here is that Google ranks these spots by keyword, content,links and other variables in their algorithym and they do a good job. Most often the one at the top should be there and people will notice it by the title and description and relationship to other quality sites that have relevant content.
Hi,
Thanks for giving me such type of information regarding click in seo.It’s really approsiable and useful information for me because i don’t know more about this techniques.
So guys thanks once again for having such type of useful information in your post.
Good work keep it on……………………….
Does this apply to paid search results as well? And if so, how about a study of cost to ctr so we can determine if it actually makes any financial sense to pay for number one.
The basic evidence showm is also reflected in my wecbsite statistics with number 1, 2 positions driving a good percentage of traffic. A small percentage of my keywords at position 9 to a 15 still recieve clicks, although this depends on the search term. Depends what people are looking for is my theory.
Hello everyone,
Thanks to the team @ Chitika.com for publishing this, so many NEED THE DATA!!!!
I have been running Organic CTR data analysis for some time now (usually until 6am as it’s bloody addictive!) so I can also, like you have, publish the research confidently with client case studies so we can show the world, or even potential clients, the value of Click Through Rate on Google Organic SERPs for the top 10 positions mainly. I have various client SERPs data from a variety of niche Industries, which is obviously valuable and proves stat data through multiple sectors, NICE!
I am rebranding my existing website, as soon as this is completed (feeling comfortable when people land on it!) I will publish my data and send you guys the URL, I don’t know if you can suggest URLs? A quick Test:
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=35769
Best of luck everyone!
Cheers,
Joe
Joe, you have asked a great question. The rule of thumb I’ve used is that organic gets 70% and paid (Adwords) gets 30%, but when you factor in Maps/Places listing and other elements from Google Universal search, everything changes. I haven’t yet found any published reports that specifically state what % of traffic goes to Maps (and importantly what the differences in % are between spots 1-7). One thing to keep in mind is that the primary call-to-action for maps listing ISN’T web traffic (ie. clicks), but phone calls and store visits. Ever since Google updated their Places listings and made the click actually go to the website vs. the Places page, I’m sure traffic will go up.
The only question I have is “Where do the maps fall into this equation?”
From the info I have seen the maps and other multimedia results in google’s universal search are breaking up the heat map on google’s page. Causing more time on site and ultimately more clicks to other parts of the page, other than the first organic, which should be good for the sponsors and google in turn.
But, I still have not seen anyone else’s numbers on what the map listing is getting, from what little data I have, “I am just a pest control guy”, the 1st position in the maps with the maps in the 1st organic position equates on average to 8% CTR to your site. But this doesn’t calculate what maybe going to the Google Places page and then on to your site.
Are there any other averages on the maps?
BTW, google webmaster tools are a little out of whack, the maps section is counted as organic positions, so your real number of organics on the first page is 10+. 7 box plus, 10 organic listings, plus 1 news/live listing, and if your signed in 2 friend suggestions. So even at bare minimum the google results with a 7 box are 17. Right?
Here is another measure of Google result position, based on click-through number
http://www.cheatad.com/2010/08/05/what-is-google-1-ranking-worth/
If both data are representative, then we can probably conclude that most of people that click on the first result also do click on other results.
This is a great article. When talking to a client I stress how important the front page of Google really is. Some just think that they need a good set of keywords. I try to change their thinking into ranking for a highly searched phrase with less competition. Why try to beat the bully at school when the little kid has just as much appeal.