Difference in Traffic Between Position 1 and Position 2

by 14 replies
17
Hi.

I am wondering what would be the % in traffic between position 1 and 2 in google?

Thanks.
#search engine optimization #difference #position #traffic
  • Actually many studies have shown people to click on position #4 - 6 more than #1 - 2.. But I think you should test yourself because nobody can really answer your question because far to many factors involved...

    James
  • No one knows for sure, you can only guess.
  • Researchers at Cornell did a study a few years ago and found the following CTR for the first 10 positions:

    1. 56.36%
    2. 13.45%
    3. 9.82
    4. 4.00
    5. 4.73
    6. 3.27
    7. 0.36%
    8. 2.91
    9. 1.45
    10. 2.55

    The study is a few years old so might not still apply, especially now with video and images in the SERPs. But gives you some idea of the dropoff between 1 and 2.
    • [ 2 ] Thanks
    • [2] replies
    • Can't argue with this!
      • [1] reply
    • I have never seen these stats before. Thanks for sharing. I know personally, I have caught myself many times clicking on the 2nd position result when I am doing an search for anything. I don't know why...it just seems like the result in 2nd position stands out more to me.

      I think it is very interesting that position 7 is a lot lower than position 8. I wonder why this is?
  • hmmmm . . . interesting. I always believed that

    #1 gets 42.1% of click throughs
    #2 gets 11.9% of click throughs
    #3 gets 8.5% of click throughs
    #4 gets 6.1% of click throughs
    #5 gets 4.9% of click throughs
    #6 gets 4.1% of click throughs
    #7 gets 3.4% of click throughs
    #8 gets 3.0% of click throughs
    #9 gets 2.8% of click throughs
    #10 gets 3.0% of click throughs
    • [1] reply
    • It's become too variable to track with the addition of all the junk at the top of Google SERPS, like ads, shopping results, local search results, video and image results and scrolling updates along with automatic personalization. The numbers given above, while still good estimates in general, were done before all these changes started taking place.
  • I've tested it extensively and with all other things being equal, the difference is massive. The hard part is getting the top two positions and then keeping them there so that you can play around with them. It's even harder to get them to switch positions, but that's only a problem if you think the test can only be confirmed on Google.
  • Your message in the title text and the listing is also very important.

    If spot 1 for weight loss only said "Weight Loss" and spot 2 said "25 Effective Weight Loss Secrets" spot 2 would get more than the 12-14% from the examples above.

    I also think that your experience with the domain has a lot to say. If I am searching for blogging tips I am more lightly to click on problogger on spot 4 than on an ezinearticle on spot 1.

    But I might be wrong. Maybe we warriors analyze those results more than most others.
    • [1] reply
    • I agree too that positions 1 and 2 differ by around 40%. I also think positions anywhere worst than #4 is as good as not even be on the first page and that's the benchmark I set for my sites in terms of ranking in Google.
  • I agree with the idea that the "junk" at the top of the page affects click-throughs. I often skip the first couple b/c I assume they're "sponsored" links.
  • Banned
    [DELETED]
    • [1] reply
    • When a user does a search in google, results are presented. The user then has to choose which link to click to get the information he/she needs.

      As many studies have shown, the first link presented to the user is the one clicked most often (~40% on average). This first link is said to be in position 1 because it is at the top of the page.

      The link below that (position 2), usually gets fewer clicks than the one in position 1 (the difference seems to be ~28% on average).

      However, these results are not true for every keyword. I have seen several cases where websites in positions 4 or 5 have gotten more clicks than those in the higher positions. A lot of different factors play a role, one of the most important being the meta-description provided to the user who is searching.
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