Hi, last month i ranked 5th in my targeted keyword and last week, I lifted my rank to position 3. But I don't see any difference in traffic (from search engine). Now I want to ask, if I can ranked 1st, will I get mass amount of traffic or not?
Funny thing.. I rarely every click the first search engine result. I read somewhere tht it is uncommon actually, that people actually tend to aim for 3-4 .. it has to do with where our eyes land on the page.
There's a million studies on this very question. This one is quite good http://www.eyetools.com/inpage/research_google_eyetracking_heatmap.htm They used heat-map technology to track where participants eye fell on the page. In their study - 100% of people looked at top 3 positions - so in your case would not necessarily make a massive difference. It certainly falls off after that point. Personally - I've always thought decisions to click are both related to position and a combination of trust factors: 1. Do they know your brand? 2. How often do they see it - for instance if you have number 1 position in organic, number one in ppc and maybe a few references to your site scattered at 9-10 - it starts to build the perception and relevance and would at least encourage me to click. In terms of personal experience with shifts like you suggest- I've seen minor traffic bumps in the realm of 5-10% but nothing all that significant. It could quite possibly differ between niches though. Dylan
This is the Approx statistical data for click throughs in the top 10: So you should see around a 3.5% higher click through rate at #3 instead of #5. However... These are averages, your Title & Description can influence the figures so maybe this is what's letting you down.
Which search engine are you talking about ? Some of the smaller ones will have no obvious difference in traffic. Dylan and Sweetfunny's posts do make sense if you are talking about the big ones
I also think it's important to remember that there is not an algorithmic connection between position and clicks. Sweetfunny said it really well. There may be a greater *average* tendency to click on higher search engine results. However, there is still a conscious process of assessment by the searcher - and they are going to make that decision regardless of where you are placed. Dylan
Hey sweetfunny, can you quote a source for your post? where did you take that data from? Is it an authority case study ? Many thanks,
There is a pretty big difference between 1 and 3 . Here is an example I have for one of the serps in google . With one of the keywords I was at 1, 2, 3 as I grew in the serps and here are the traffic I received at each position approx . : - position 1 got about 200-300 visitors/day - position 2 got about 80-120 visitors/day - position 3 got about 30-60 visitors/day If your niche is loaded with inventory in AdWords and Google will display 3 results from the paid search on top, that can influence it greatly as well . Obviously based on these numbers you see, that first place is the best as far as traffic volume, and it makes a big difference from being no.1 or no.3 .
Personally i would say 1-3 is definately the best position. However when google fails to deliver results completely accurate to my search, which is quite often then i will search deeper down the list or go to yahoo
I definately received more traffic when my site jumped from #6 to #3. Traffic went through the roof when I hit #1. Make sure to have a catchy, relevant title and description as that is what will draw people to visit your site at position #3, rather than the site in the #1 position. See, title and description are very important.
If you are in the top 3, i find its always about your title and description, if you are number 3 with a good title and related description you have more chance to be clicked than number 1 + 2 with bad title and description. Just my thoughts.
Nick, the data is from leaked AOL documents however it would be very similar for Google as its peoples habits which define the clicking patterns. Aden, you are totally spot on with that statement. Its one thing to rank high, but another to have a very appealing Title & Description.
I think that being in number 3-7 is the best. i think that most of the ppl that click number 1, dont stay there for very long, but they will stay longer in the next 2-3 sites they will click on.
Theoretically, no.1 is always the better than no.3. Practically, it varies from person to person. Some click on no.1; some click on no.3. Personnel choice really. Aim should be to achieve the no.1 position, no matter what.