In your opinion, is it better for your site to be at the bottom of page 1 or the top of page 2 for your keywords? i would argue the top of page 2 personally.
Page 1 IMO... I very rarely even bother to go to page 2. If I don't find it on page 1 I typically modify my search phrase and search again. Plus you are 1 ranking closer to being at the top of page 1.
true, but do you actually LOOK at the sites at the bottom? i tend to skim the top/middle then go to page 2 and do the same... this sort of stuff is interesting, i'd like to see some studies on this actually. the pyscology of search!
It likely doesn't matter much either way. If you're not in the top 5-6 you will probably get almost zero percent of the traffic anyway.
It's makes almost no difference in most of the cases. If you're not in top 5 you're not getting any serious traffic. Especially if the top ranking sites are high quality and provide a good user experience.
On all of my sites there wasnt a huge difference between the top of page two and bottom of page one but page 1 was always better...its just common sense.
I agree with canonical, since bottom of page 1 is pretty much the same as top of page 2 but if you're on the first page you're a few possitions closer to being number one.